THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS - VOLUME 8
Origen’s First Principles, On Prayer and the Philocalia, with Julius Africanus, Minucius Felix and Commodian
c. AD 200 – 250

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INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
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HOW THIS BOOK IS ARRANGED

This is the eighth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church in
order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This
volume holds a group of early third-century writers, and begins the writings of Origen of
Alexandria.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any
passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section
numbers.

THE TRANSLATIONS

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for
SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation.
In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been
altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the
back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the
works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

IN THIS VOLUME

The first part gathers three writers of the early third century. Julius Africanus, a
Christian scholar from Palestine, wrote a chronicle of the world; only fragments of it
remain, with letters and short pieces that go with it. Minucius Felix, a Latin writer,
composed the Octavius, a dialogue between a pagan and a Christian that is among the most
polished defences of the faith in Latin. Commodian wrote a Latin poem of instruction for
Christians. The date and place of Commodian are debated: the older editions followed here
place him in the third century, though some scholars date him later.

The second part begins Origen, who was born in Alexandria about AD 185 and taught there
before settling at Caesarea in Palestine, where he wrote most of his later work. He died
about AD 253 after suffering in the persecution under Decius. His On First Principles,
which survives mainly in the Latin translation of Rufinus, is the first systematic
Christian theology. On Prayer is a treatise on the Lord’s Prayer and on how to pray. The
Philocalia is an anthology of passages from Origen’s writings on Scripture, put together
in the fourth century.

Some of Origen’s speculations, especially on the pre-existence of souls and on the final
restoration of all things, were disputed in his own time and were later condemned in the
sixth century. The reader will meet them in First Principles. The remaining writings of
Origen follow in the next four volumes.

DATES AND AUTHORSHIP

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short
introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is
uncertain.


CHRONOGRAPHY (FRAGMENTS)
========================

CHRONOGRAPHY (FRAGMENTS) Julius Africanus

c. AD 160–240

Chronographer and scholar.

I.

On the Mythical Chronology of the Egyptians and Chaldeans.

1 The Egyptians, indeed, with their boastful notions of their own antiquity, have put
forth a sort of account of it by the hand of their astrologers in cycles and myriads of
years; which some of those who have had the repute of studying such subjects profoundly
have in a summary way called lunar years; and inclining no less than others to the
mythical, they think they fall in with the eight or nine thousands of years which the
Egyptian priests in Plato falsely reckon up to Solon.

(And After Some Other Matter: )

2 For why should I speak of the three myriad years of the Phoenicians, or of the follies
of the Chaldeans, their forty-eight myriads? For the Jews, deriving their origin from them
as descendants of Abraham, having been taught a modest mind, and one such as becomes men,
together with the truth by the spirit of Moses, have handed down to us, by their extant
Hebrew histories, the number of 5500 years as the period up to the advent of the Word of
salvation, that was announced to the world in the time of the sway of the Caesars.

II.

When men multiplied on the earth, the angels of heaven came together with the daughters of
men. In some copies I found "the sons of God." What is meant by the Spirit, in my opinion,
is that the descendants of Seth are called the sons of God on account of the righteous men
and patriarchs who have sprung from him, even down to the Saviour Himself; but that the
descendants of Cain are named the seed of men, as having nothing divine in them, on
account of the wickedness of their race and the inequality of their nature, being a mixed
people, and having stirred the indignation of God. But if it is thought that these refer
to angels, we must take them to be those who deal with magic and jugglery, who taught the
women the motions of the stars and the knowledge of things celestial, by whose power they
conceived the giants as their children, by whom wickedness came to its height on the
earth, until God decreed that the whole race of the living should perish in their impiety
by the deluge.

III.

Adam, when 230 years old, begets Seth; and after living other 700 years he died, that is,
a second death. Seth, when 205 years old, begot Enos; from Adam therefore to the birth of
Enos there are 435 years in all. Enos, when 190 years old, begets Cainan. Cainan again,
when 170 years old, begets Malaleel; And Malaleel, when 165 years old; begets, Jared; And
Jared, when 162 years old, begets Enoch; And Enoch, when 165 years old, begets Mathusala;
and having pleased God, after a life of other 200 years, he was not found. Mathusala, when
187 years old, begot Lamech. Lamech, when 188 years old, begets Noe.

IV.

On the Deluge.

God decreed to destroy the whole race of the living by a flood, having threatened that men
should not survive beyond 120 years. Nor let it be deemed a matter of difficulty, because
some lived afterwards a longer period than that. For the space of time meant was 100 years
up to the flood in the case of the sinners of that time; for they were 20 years old. God
instructed Noe, who pleased him on account of his righteousness, to prepare an ark; and
when it was finished, there entered it Noe himself and his sons, his wife and his
daughters-in-law, and firstlings of every living creature, with a view to the duration of
the race. And Noe was 600 years old when the flood came on. And when the water abated, the
ark settled on the mountains of Ararat, which we know to be in Parthia; but some say that
they are at Celaenae of Phrygia, and I have seen both places. And the flood prevailed for
a year, and then the earth became dry. And they came out of the ark in pairs, as may be
found, and not in the manner in which they had entered, viz., distinguished according to
their species, and were blessed by God. And each of these things indicates something
useful to us.

V.

Noe was 600 years old when the flood came on. From Adam, therefore, to Noe and the flood,
are 2262 years.

VI.

And after the flood, Sem begot Arphaxad. Arphaxad, when 135 years old, begets Sala in the
year 2397. Sala, when 130 years old, begets Heber in the year 2527. Heber, when 134 years
old, begets Phalec in the year 2661, so called because the earth was divided in his days.
Phalec, when 130 years old, begot Ragan, and after living other 209 years died.

VII.

In the year of the world 3277, Abraham entered the promised land of Canaan.

VIII.

Of Abraham.

From this rises the appellation of the Hebrews.For the word Hebrews is interpreted to mean
those who migrate across, viz., who crossed the Euphrates with Abraham; and it is not
derived, as some think, from the fore-mentioned Heber. From the flood and Noe, therefore,
to Abraham's entrance into the promised land, there are in all 1015 years; and from Adam,
in 20 generations 3277 years.

IX.

Of Abraham and Lot.

When a famine pressed the land of Canaan Abraham came down to Egypt; and fearing lest he
should be put out of the way on account of the beauty of his wife, he pretended that he
was her brother. But Pharaoh took her to himself when she was commended to him; for this
is the name the Egyptians give their kings. And he was punished by God; and Abraham, along
with all pertaining to him, was dismissed enriched. In Canaan, Abraham's shepherds and
Lot's contended with each other; and with mutual consent they separated, Lot choosing to
dwell in Sodom on account of the fertility and beauty of the land, which had five cities,
Sodom, Gomorrah, Adama, Seboim, Segor, and as many kings. On these their neighbours the
four Syrian kings made war, whose leader was Chodollogomo king of Aelam. And they met by
the Salt Sea, which is now called the Dead Sea. In it I have seen very many wonderful
things. For that water sustains no living thing, and dead bodies are carried beneath its
depths, while the living do not readily even dip under it. Lighted torches are borne upon
it, but when extinguished they sink. And there are the springs of bitumen; and it yields
alum and salt a little different from the common kinds, for they are pungent and
transparent. And wherever fruit is found about it, it is found full of a thick, foul
smoke. And the water acts as a cure to those who use it, and it is drained in a manner
contrary to any other water. And if it had not the river Jordan feeding it like a shell,
and to a great extent withstanding its tendency, it would have failed more rapidly than
appears. There is also by it a great quantity of the balsam plant; but it is supposed to
have been destroyed by God on account of the impiety of the neighbouring people.

X.

Of the Patriarch Jacob.

1. The shepherd's tent belonging to Jacob, which was preserved at Edessa to the time of
Antonine Emperor of the Romans, was destroyed by a thunderbolt. 2. Jacob, being displeased
at what had been done by Symeon and Levi at Shecem against the people of the country, on
account of the violation of their sister, buried at Shecem the gods which he had with him
near a rock under the wonderful terebinth, which up to this day is reverenced by the
neighbouring people in honour of the patriarchs, and removed thence to Bethel. By the
trunk of this terebinth there was an altar on which the inhabitants of the country offered
ectenoe in their general assemblies; and though it seemed to be burned, it was not
consumed. Near it is the tomb of Abraham and Isaac. And some say that the staff of one of
the angels who were entertained by Abraham was planted there.

XI.

From Adam, therefore, to the death of Joseph, according to this book, are 23 generations,
and 3563 years.

XII.

From this record, therefore, we affirm that Ogygus, from whom the first flood (in Attica)
derived its name, and who was saved when many perished, lived at the time of the exodus of
the people from Egypt along with Moses. (After a break): And after Ogygus, on account of
the vast destruction caused by the flood, the present land of Attica remained without a
king tilt the time of Cecrops, 189 years. Philochorus, however, affirms that Ogygus,
Actaeus, or whatever other fictitious name is adduced, never existed. (After another
break): From Ogygus to Cyrus, as from Moses to his time, are 1235 years.

XIII.

1. Up to the time of the Olympiads there is no certain history among the Greeks, all
things before that date being confused, and in no way consistent with each other. But
these Olympiads were thoroughly investigated by many, as the Greeks made up the records of
their history not according to long spaces, but in periods of four years. For which reason
I shall select the most remarkable of the mythical narratives before the time of the first
Olympiad, and rapidly run over them. But those after that period, at least those that are
notable, I shall take together, Hebrew events in connection with Greek, according to their
dates, examining carefully the affairs of the Hebrews, and touching more cursorily on
those of the Greeks; and my plan will be as follows: Taking up some single event in Hebrew
history synchronous with another in Greek history, and keeping by it as the main subject,
subtracting or adding as may seem needful in the narrative, I shall note what Greek or
Persian of note, or remarkable personage of any other nationality, flourished at the date
of that event in Hebrew history; and thus I may perhaps attain the object which I propose
to myself.

2. The most famous exile that befell the Hebrews, then-to wit, when they were led captive
by Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon-lasted 70 years, as Jeremias had prophesied. Berosus the
Babylonian, moreover, makes mention of Nabuchodonosor. And after the 70 years of
captivity, Cyrus became king of the Persians at the time of the 55th Olympiad, as may be
ascertained from the Bibliothecae of Diodorus and the histories of Thallus and Castor, and
also from Polybius and Phlegon, and others besides these, who have made the Olympiads a
subject of study. For the date is a matter of agreement among them all. And Cyrus then, in
the first year of his reign, which was the first year of the 55th Olympiad, effected the
first partial restoration of the people by the hand of Zorobabel, with whom also was Jesus
the son of Josedec, since the period of 70 years was now fulfilled, as is narrated in
Esdra the Hebrew historian. The narratives of the beginning of the sovereignty of Cyrus
and the end of the captivity accordingly coincide. And thus, according to the reckoning of
the Olympiads, there will be found a like harmony of events even to our time. And by
following this, we shall also make the other narratives fit in with each other in the same
manner.

3. But if the Attic time-reckoning is taken as the standard for affairs prior to these,
then from Ogygus, who was believed by them to be an autochthon, in whose time also the
first great flood took place in Attica, while Phoroneus reigned over the Argives, as
Acusilaus relates, tip to the date of the first Olympiad, from which period the Greeks
thought they could fix dates accurately, there are altogether 1020 years; which number
both coincides with the above-mentioned, and will be established by what follows. For
these things are also recorded by the Athenian historians Hellanicus and Phitochorus, who
record Attic affairs; and by Castor and Thallus, who record Syrian affairs; and by
Diodorus, who writes a universal history in his Bibliothecae; and by Alexander Polyhistor,
and by some of our own time, yet more carefully, and by all the Attic writers. Whatever
narrative of note, therefore, meets us in these 1020 years, shall be given in its proper
place.

4. In accordance with this writing, therefore, we affirm that Ogygus, who gave his name to
the first flood, and was saved when many perished, lived at the time of the exodus of the
people from Egypt along with Moses. And this we make out in the following manner. From
Ogygus up to the first Olympiad already mentioned, it will be shown that there are 1020
years; and from the first Olympiad to the first year of the 55th, that is the first year
of King Cyrus, which was also the end of the captivity, are 217 years. From Ogygus,
therefore, to Cyrus are 1237. And if one carries the calculation backwards from the end of
the captivity, there are 1237 years. Thus, by analysis, the same period is found to the
first year of the exodus of Israel under Moses from Egypt, as from the 55th Olympiad to
Ogygus, who founded Eleusis. And from this point we get a more notable beginning for Attic
chronography.

5. So much, then, for the period prior to Ogygus. And at his time Moses left Egypt. And we
demonstrate in the following manner how reliable is the statement that this happened at
that date. From the exodus of Moses up to Cyrus, who reigned after the captivity, are 1237
years. For the remaining years of Moses are 40. The years of Jesus, who led the people
after him, are 25; those of the elders, who were judges after Jesus, are 30; those of the
judges, whose history is given in the book of Judges, are 490; those of the priests Eli
and Samuel are 90; those of the successive kings of the Hebrews are 490. Then come the 70
years of the captivity, the last year of which was the first year of the reign of Cyrus,
as we have already said. 6. And from Moses, then, to the first Olympiad there are 1020
years, as to the first year of the 55th Olympiad from the same are 1237, in which
enumeration the reckoning of the Greeks coincides with us. And after Ogygus, by reason of
the vast destruction caused by the flood, the present land of Attica remained without a
king up to Cecrops, a period of 189 years. For Philochorus asserts that the Actaeus who is
said to have succeeded Ogygus, or whatever other fictitious names are adduced, never
existed. And again: From Ogygus, therefore, to Cyrus, says he, the same period is reckoned
as from Moses to the same date, viz. 1237 years; and some of the Greeks also record that
Moses lived at that same time. Polemo, for instance, in the first book of his Greek
History, says: In the time of Apis, son of Phoroneus, a division of the army of the
Egyptians left Egypt, and settled in the Palestine called Syrian, not far from Arabia:
these are evidently those who were with Moses. And Apion the son of Poseidonius, the most
laborious of grammarians, in his book Against the Jews, and in the fourth book of his
History, says that in the time of Inachus king of Argos, when Amosis reigned over Egypt,
the Jews revolted under the leadership of Moses. And Herodotus also makes mention of this
revolt, and of Amosis, in his second book, and in a certain way also of the Jews
themselves, reckoning them among the circumcised, and calling them the Assyrians of
Palestine, perhaps through Abraham. And Ptolemy the Mendesian, who narrates the history of
the Egyptians from the earliest times, gives the same account of all these things; so that
among them in general there is no difference worth notice in the chronology.

7. It should be observed, further, that all the legendary accounts which are deemed
specially remarkable by the Greeks by reason of their antiquity, are found to belong to a
period posterior to Moses; such as their floods and conflagrations, Prometheus, Io,
Europa, the Sparti, the abduction of Proserpine, their mysteries, their legislations, the
deeds of Dionysus, Perseus, the Argonauts, the Centaurs, the Minotaur, the affairs of
Troy, the labours of Hercules, the return of the Heraclidae, the Ionian migration and the
Olympiads. And it seemed good to me to give an account especially of the before-noted
period of the Attic sovereignty, as I intend to narrate the history of the Greeks side by
side with that of the Hebrews. For any one will be able, if he only start from my
position, to make out the reckoning equally well with me. Now, in the first year of that
period of 1020 years, stretching from Moses and Ogygus to the first Olympiad, the passover
and the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt took place, and also in Attica the flood of
Ogygus. And that is according to reason. For when the Egyptians were being smitten in the
anger of God with hail and storms, it was only to be expected that certain parts of the
earth should suffer with them; and, in especial, it was but to be expected that the
Athenians should participate in such calamity with the Egyptians, since they were supposed
to be a colony from them, as Theopompus alleges in his Tricarenus, and others besides him.
The intervening period has been passed by, as no remarkable event is recorded during it
among the Greeks. But after 94 years Prometheus arose, according to some, who was
fabulously reported to have formed men; for being a wise man, he transformed them from the
state of extreme rudeness to culture.

XIV.

Aeschylus, the son of Agamestor, ruled the Athenians twenty-three years, in whose time
Joatham reigned in Jerusalem. And our canon brings Joatham king of Juda within the first
Olympiad.

XV.

And Africanus, in the third booze of his History, writes: Now the first Olympiad recorded-
which, however, was really the fourteenth-was the period when Coroebus was victor; at that
time Ahaz was in the first year of his reign in Jerusalem. Then in the fourth book he
says: It is therefore with the first year of the reign of Ahaz that we have shown the
first Olympiad to fall in.

XVI.

On the Seventy Weeks of Daniel.

1. This passage, therefore, as it stands thus, touches on many marvellous things. At
present, however, I shall speak only of those things in it which bear upon chronology, and
matters connected therewith. That the passage speaks then of the advent of Christ, who was
to manifest Himself after seventy weeks, is evident. For in the Saviour's time, or from
Him, are transgressions abrogated, and sins brought to an end. And through remission,
moreover, are iniquities, along with offences, blotted out by expiation; and an
everlasting righteousness is preached, different from that which is by the law, and
visions and prophecies (are) until John, and the Most Holy is anointed. For before the
advent of the Saviour these things were not yet, and were therefore only looked for. And
the beginning of the numbers, that is, of the seventy weeks which make up 490 years, the
angel instructs us to take from the going forth of the commandment to answer and to build
Jerusalem. And this happened in the twentieth year of the reign of Artaxerxes king of
Persia. For Nehemiah his cup-bearer besought him, and received the answer that Jerusalem
should be built. And the word went forth commanding these things; for up to that time the
city was desolate. For when Cyrus, after the seventy years' captivity, gave free
permission to all to return who desired it, some of them under the leadership of Jesus she
high priest and Zorobabel, and others after these under the leadership of Esdra, returned,
but were prevented at first from building the temple, and from surrounding the city with a
wall, on the plea that that had not been commanded.

2. It remained in this position, accordingly, until Nehemiah and the reign of Artaxerxes,
and the 115th year of the sovereignty of the Persians. And from the capture of Jerusalem
that makes 185 years. And at that time King Artaxerxes gave order that the city should be
built; and Nehemiah being despatched, superintended the work, and the street and the
surrounding wall were built, as had been prophesied. And reckoning from that point, we
make up seventy weeks to the time of Christ. For if we begin to reckon from any other
point, and not from this, the periods will not correspond, and very many odd results will
meet us. For if we begin the calculation of the seventy weeks from Cyrus and the first
restoration, there will be upwards of one hundred years too many, and there will be a
larger number if we begin from the day on which the angel gave the prophecy to Daniel, and
a much larger number still if we begin from the commencement of the captivity. For we find
the sovereignty of the Persians comprising a period of 230 years, and that of the
Macedonians extending over 370 years, and from that to the 16th year of Tiberius Caesar is
a period of about 60 years.

3. It is by calculating from Artaxerxes, therefore, up to the time of Christ that the
seventy weeks are made up, according to the numeration of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who
was despatched by Artaxerxes to build Jerusalem in the 115th year of the Persian empire,
and the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, and the 20th year of the reign of Artaxerxes
himself, up to ibis date, which was the second year of the 202d Olympiad, and the 16th
year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there are reckoned 475 years, which make 490
according to the Hebrew numeration, as they measure the years by the course of the moon;
so that, as is easy to show, their year consists of 354 days, while the solar year has
3651/4days. For the latter exceeds the period of twelve months, according to the moon's
course, by 111/4 days. Hence the Greeks and the Jews insert three intercalary months every
8 years. For 8 times 111/4 days makes up 3 months. Therefore 475 years make 59 periods of
8 years each, and 3 months besides. But since thus there are 3 intercalary months every 8
years, we get thus 15 years minus a few days; and these being added to the 475 years, make
up in all the 70 weeks.

XVII.

On the Fortunes of Hyrcanus and Antigonus, and on Herod, Augustus, Antony, and Cleopatra,
in Abstract.

1. Octavius Sebastus, or, as the Romans call him, Augustus, the adopted son of Caius, on
returning to Rome from Apollonias in Epirus, where he was educated, possessed himself of
the first place in the government. And Antony afterwards obtained the rule of Asia and the
districts beyond. In his time the Jews accused Herod; but he put the deputies to death,
and restored Herod to his government. Afterwards, however, along with Hyrcanus and
Phasaelus his brother, he was driven out, and betook himself in flight to Antony. And as
the Jews would not receive him, an obstinate battle took place; and in a short time after,
as he had conquered in battle, he also drove out Antigonus, who had returned. And
Antigonus fled to Herod the Parthian king, and was restored by the help of his son
Pacorus, which help was given on his promising to pay 1000 talents of gold. And Herod then
in his turn had to flee, while Phasaelus was slain in battle, and Hyrcanus was surrendered
alive to Antigonus. And after cutting off his ears, that he might be disqualified for the
priesthood, he gave him to the Parthians to lead into captivity; for he scrupled to put
him to death, as he was a relation of his own. And Herod, on his expulsion, betook himself
first to Malichus king of the Arabians; and when he did not receive him, through fear of
the Parthians, he went away to Alexandria to Cleopatra. That was the 185th Olympiad.

Cleopatra having put to death her brother, who was her consort in the government, and
being then summoned by Antony to Cilicia to make her defence, committed the care of the
sovereignty to Herod; and as he requested that he should not be entrusted with anything
until he was restored to his own government, she took him with her and went to Antony. And
as he was smitten with love for the princess, they despatched Herod to Rome to Octavius
Augustus, who, on behalf of Antipater, Herod's father, and on behalf of Herod himself, and
also because Antigonus was established as king by the help of the Parthians, gave a
commission to the generals in Palestine and Syria to restore him to his government. And in
concert with Sosius he waged war against Antigonus for a long time, and in manifold
engagements. At that time also, Josephus, Herod's brother, died in his command. And Herod
coming to Antony ...

2. For three years they besieged Antigonus, and then brought him alive to Antony. And
Antony himself also proclaimed Herod as king, and gave him, in addition, the cities
Hippus, Gadara, Gaza, Joppa, Anthedon, and a part of Arabia, Trachonitis, and Auranitis,
and Sacia, and Gaulanitis; and besides these, also the procuratorship of Syria. Herod was
declared king of the Jews by the senate and Octavius Augustus, and reigned 34 years.
Antony, when about to go on an expedition against the Parthians, slew Antigonus the king
of the Jews, and gave Arabia to Cleopatra; and passing over into the territory of the
Parthians, sustained a severe defeat, losing the greater part of his army. That was in the
186th Olympiad. Octavius Augustus led the forces of Italy and all the West against Antony,
who refused to return to Rome through fear, on account of his failure in Parthia, and
through his love for Cleopatra. And Antony met him with the forces of Asia. Herod,
however, like a shrewd fellow, and one who waits upon the powerful, sent a double set of
letters, and despatched his army to sea, charging his generals to watch the issue of
events. And when the victory was decided, and when Antony, after sustaining two naval
defeats, had fled to Egypt along with Cleopatra, they who bore the letters delivered to
Augustus those which they had been keeping secretly for Antony. And on Herod falls ...

3. Cleopatra shut herself up in a mausoleum, and made away with herself, employing the
wild asp as the instrument of death. At that time Augustus captured Cleopatra's sons,
Helios and Selene, on their flight to the Thebaid. Nicopolis was founded opposite Actium,
and the games called Actia were instituted. On the capture of Alexandria, Cornelius Gallus
was sent as first governor of Egypt, and he destroyed the cities of the Egyptians that
refused obedience. Up to this time the Lagidae ruled; and the whole duration of the
Macedonian empire after the subversion of the Persian power was 298 years. Thus is made up
the whole period from the foundation of the Macedonian empire to its subversion in the
time of the Ptolemies, and under Cleopatra, the last of these, the date of which event is
the 11th year of the monarchy and empire of the Romans, and the 4th year of the 187th
Olympiad. Altogether, from Adam 5472 years are reckoned.

4. After the taking of Alexandria the 188th Olympiad began. Herod founded anew the city of
the Gabinii, the ancient Samaria, and called it Sebaste; and having erected its seaport,
the tower of Strato, into a city, he named it Caesarea after the same, and raised in each
a temple in honour of Octavius. And afterwards he founded Antipatris in the Lydian plain,
so naming it after his father, and settled in it the people about Sebaste, whom he had
dispossessed of their land. He founded also other cities; and to the Jews he was severe,
but to other nations most urbane. It was now the 189th Olympiad, which (Olympiad) in the
year that had the bissextile day, the 6th day before the Calends of March,-i.e., the 24th
of February,-corresponded with the 24th year of the era of Antioch, whereby the year was
determined in its proper limits.

XVIII.

On the Circumstances Connected with Our Saviour's Passion and His Life-Giving
Resurrection.

1. As to His works severally, and His cures effected upon body and soul, and the mysteries
of His doctrine, and the resurrection from the dead, these have been most authoritatively
set forth by His disciples and apostles before us. On the whole world there pressed a most
fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and
other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History,
calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate
the passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Saviour fails
on the day before the passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon
comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time but in the interval between
the first day of the new moon and the last of the old, that is, at their junction: how
then should an eclipse be supposed to happen when the moon is almost diametrically
opposite the sun? Let that opinion pass however; let it carry the majority with it; and
let this portent of the world be deemed an eclipse of the sun, like others a portent only
to the eye. Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was
a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth-manifestly that one of which we
speak. But what has an eclipse in common with an earthquake, the rending rocks, and the
resurrection of the dead, and so great a perturbation throughout the universe? Surely no
such event as this is recorded for a long period. But it was a darkness induced by God,
because the Lord happened then to suffer. And calculation makes out that the period of 70
weeks, as noted in Daniel, is completed at this time.

2. From Artaxerxes, moreover, 70 weeks are reckoned up to the time of Christ, according to
the numeration of the Jews. For from Nehemiah, who was sent by Artaxerxes to people
Jerusalem, about the 120th year of the Persian empire, and in the 20th year of Artaxerxes
himself, and the 4th year of the 83d Olympiad, up to this time, which was the 2d year of
the 102d Olympiad, and the 16th year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, there are given 475
years, which make 490 Hebrew years, since they measure the years by the lunar month of
291/2 days, as may easily be explained, the annual period according to the sun consisting
of 3651/4 days, while the lunar period of 12 months has 111/4 days less. For which reason
the Greeks and the Jews insert three intercalary months every eight years. For 8 times
111/4 days make 3 months. The 475 years, therefore, contain 59 periods of 8 years and
three months over: thus, the three intercalary months for every 8 years being added, we
get 15 years, and these together with the 475 years make 70 weeks. Let no one now think us
unskilled in the calculations of astronomy, when we fix without further ado the number of
days at 3651/4. For it is not in ignorance of the truth, but rather by reason of exact
study, that we have stated our opinion so shortly. But let what follows also be presented
as in outline to those who endeavour to inquire minutely into all things.

3. Each year in the general consists of 365 days; and the space of a day and night being
divided into nineteen parts, we have also five of these. And in saying that the year
consists of 3651/4 days, and there being the five nineteenth parts ... to the 475 there
are 61/4 days. Furthermore, we find, according to exact computation, that the lunar month
has 291/2 days.... And these come to a little time. Now it happens that from the 20th year
of the reign of Artaxerxes (as it is given in Ezra among the Hebrews), which, according to
the Greeks, was the 4th year of the 80th Olympiad, to the 16th year of Tiberius Caesar,
which was the second year of the 102d Olympiad, there are in all the 475 years already
noted, which in the Hebrew system make 490 years, as has been previously stated, that is,
70 weeks, by which period the time of Christ's advent was measured in the announcement
made to Daniel by Gabriel. And if any one thinks that the 15 Hebrew years added to the
others involve us in an error of 10, nothing at least which cannot be accounted for has
been introduced. And the 11/2 week which we suppose must be added to make the whole
number, meets the question about the 15 years, and removes the difficulty about the time;
and that the prophecies are usually put forth in a somewhat symbolic form, is quite
evident.

4. As far, then, as is in our power, we have taken the Scripture, I think, correctly;
especially seeing that the preceding section about the vision seems to state the whole
matter shortly, its first words being, "In the third year of the reign of Belshazzar,"
where he prophesies of the subversion of the Persian power by the Greeks, which empires
are symbolized in the prophecy under the figures of the rain and the goat respectively.
"The sacrifice," he says, "shall be abolished, and the holy places shall he made desolate,
so as to be trodden under foot; which things shall be determined within 2300 days. For if
we take the day as a month, just as elsewhere in prophecy days are taken as years, and in
different places are used in different ways, reducing the period in the same way as has
been done above to Hebrew months, we shall find the period fully made out to the 20th year
of the reign of Artaxerxes, from the capture of Jerusalem. For there are given thus 185
years, and one year falls to be added to these-the year in which Nehemiah built the wall
of the city. In 186 years, therefore, we find 230 Hebrew months, as 8 years have in
addition 3 intercalary months. From Artaxerxes, again, in whose time the command went
forth that Jerusalem should be built, there are 70 weeks. These matters, however, we have
discussed by themselves, and with greater exactness, in our book On the Weeks and this
Prophecy.

But I am amazed that the Jews deny that the Lord has yet come, and that the followers of
Marcion refuse to admit that His coming was predicted in the prophecies when the
Scriptures display the matter so openly to our view. And after something else: The period,
then, to the advent of the Lord from Adam and the creation is 5531 years, from which epoch
to the 250th Olympiad there are 192 years, as has been shown above.

XIX.

For we who both know the measure of those words, and are not ignorant of the grace of
faith, give thanks to the Father, who has bestowed on us His creatures Jesus Christ the
Saviour of all, and our Lord; to whom be glory and majesty, with the Holy Spirit, for
ever.


THE EPISTLE TO ARISTIDES
========================

THE EPISTLE TO ARISTIDES Julius Africanus

c. AD 160–240

Chronographer and scholar.

I.

1 [Africanus ON The Genealogy IN The Holy Gospels.] -Some indeed incorrectly allege that
this discrepant enumeration and mixing of the names both of priestly men, as they think,
and royal, was made properly, in order that Christ might be shown rightfully to be both
Priest and King; as if any one disbelieved this, or had any other hope than this, that
Christ is the High Priest of His Father, who presents our prayers to Him, and a
supramundane King, who rules by the Spirit those whom He has delivered, a cooperator in
the government of all things. And this is announced to us not by the catalogue of the
tribes, nor by the mixing of the registered generations, but by the patriarchs and
prophets. Let us not therefore descend to such religious trifling as to establish the
kingship and priesthood of Christ by the interchanges of the names. For the priestly tribe
of Levi, too, was allied with the kingly tribe of Juda, through the circumstance that
Aaron married Elizabeth the l sister of Naasson, and that Eleazar again married the
daughter of Phatiel, and begat children. The evangelists, therefore, would thus have
spoken falsely, affirming what was not truth, but a fictitious commendation. And for this
reason the one traced the pedigree of Jacob the father of Joseph from David through
Solomon; the other traced that of Heli also, though in a different way, the father of
Joseph, from Nathan the son of David.

2 And they ought not indeed to have been ignorant that both orders of the ancestors
enumerated are the generation of David, the royal tribe of Juda. For if Nathan was a
prophet, so also was Solomon, and so too the father of both of them; and there were
prophets belonging to many of the tribes, but priests belonging to none of the tribes,
save the Levites only. To no purpose, then, is this fabrication of theirs. Nor shall an
assertion of this kind prevail in the Church of Christ against the exact truth, so as that
a lie should be contrived for the praise and glory of Christ. For who does not know that
most holy word of the apostle also, who, when he was preaching and proclaiming the
resurrection of our Saviour, and confidently affirming the truth, said with great fear,
"If any say that Christ is not risen, and we assert and have believed this, and both hope
for and preach that very thing, we are false witnesses of God, in alleging that He raised
up Christ, whom He raised not up? " And if he who glorifies God the Father is thus afraid
lest he should seem a false witness in narrating a marvellous fact, how should not he be
justly afraid, who tries to establish the truth by a false statement, preparing an untrue
opinion?

3 For if the generations are different, and trace down no genuine seed to Joseph, and if
all has been stated only with the view of establishing the position of Him who was to be
born-to confirm the truth, namely, that He who was to be would be king and priest, there
being at the same tune no proof given, but the dignity of the words being brought down to
a feeble hymn,-it is evident that no praise accrues to God from that, since it is a
falsehood, but rather judgment returns on him who asserts it, because he vaunts an
unreality as though it were reality. Therefore, that we may expose the ignorance also of
him who speaks thus, and prevent any one from stumbling at this folly, I shall set forth
the true history of these matters.]

II.

For whereas in Israel the names of their generations were enumerated either according to
nature or according to law,-according to nature, indeed, by the succession of legitimate
offspring, and according to law whenever another raised up children to the name of a
brother dying childless; for because no clear hope of resurrection was yet given them,
they had a representation of the future promise in a kind of mortal resurrection, with the
view of perpetuating the name of one deceased;-whereas, then, of those entered in this
genealogy, some succeeded by legitimate descent as son to father, while others begotten in
one family were introduced to another in name, mention is therefore made of both-of those
who were progenitors in fact, and of those who were so only in name. Thus neither of the
evangelists is in error, as the one reckons by nature and the other by law. For the
several generations, viz., those descending from Solomon and those from Nathan, were so
intermingled by the raising up of children to the childless, and by second marriages, and
the raising up of seed, that the same persons are quite justly reckoned to belong at one
time to the one, and at another to the other, i.e., to their reputed or to their actual
fathers. And hence it is that both these accounts are true, and come down to Joseph, with
considerable intricacy indeed, but yet quite accurately.

III.

1 But in order that what I have said may be made evident, I shall explain the interchange
of the generations. If we reckon the generations from David through Solomon, Matthan is
found to be the third from the end, who begat Jacob the father of Joseph. But if, with
Luke, we reckon them from Nathan the son of David, in like manner the third from the end
is Melchi, whose son was Heli the father of Joseph. For Joseph was the son of Hell, the
son of Melchi. As Joseph, therefore, is the object proposed to us, we have to show how it
is that each is represented as his father, both Jacob as descending from Solomon, and Heli
as descending from Nathan: first, how these two, Jacob and Heli, were brothers; and then
also how the fathers of these, Matthan and Melchi, being of different families, are shown
to be the grandfathers of Joseph. Well, then, Matthan and Melchi, having taken the same
woman to wife in succession, begat children who were uterine brothers, as the law did not
prevent a widow, whether such by divorce or by the death of her husband, from marrying
another. By Estha, then-for such is her name according to tradition-Matthan first, the
descendant of Solomon, begets Jacob; and on Matthan's death, Melchi, who traces his
descent back to Nathan, being of the same tribe but of another family, having married her,
as has been already said, had a son Hell.

2 Thus, then, we shall find Jacob and Hell uterine brothers, though of different families.
And of these, the one Jacob having taken the wife of his brother Heli, who died childless,
begat by her the third, Joseph-his son by nature and by account. Whence also it is
written, "And Jacob begat Joseph. But according to law he was the son of Heli, for Jacob
his brother raised up seed to him. Wherefore also the genealogy deduced through him will
not be made void, which the Evangelist Matthew in his enumeration gives thus: "And Jacob
begat Joseph. But Luke, on the other hand, says, "Who was the son, as was supposed (for
this, too, he adds), of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Metchi. For it was not
possible more distinctly to state the generation according to law; and thus in this mode
of generation he has entirely omitted the word "begat" to the very end, carrying back the
genealogy by way of conclusion to Adam and to God.

IV.

Nor indeed is this incapable of proof, neither is it a rash conjecture. For the kinsmen of
the Saviour after the flesh, whether to magnify their own origin or simply to state the
fact, but at all events speaking truth, have also handed down the following account: Some
Idumean robbers attacking Ascalon, a city of Palestine, besides other spoils which they
took from a temple of Apollo, which was built near the walls, carried off captive one
Antipater, son of a certain Herod, a servant of the temple. And as the priest was not able
to pay the ransom for his son, Antipater was brought up in the customs of the Idumeans,
and afterwards enjoyed the friendship of Hyrcanus, the high priest of Judea. And being
sent on an embassy to Pompey on behalf of Hyrcanus. and having restored to him the kingdom
which was being wasted by Aristobulus his brother, he was so fortunate as to obtain the
title of procurator of Palestine. And when Antipater was treacherously slain through envy
of his great good fortune, his son Herod succeeded him, who was afterwards appointed king
of Judea under Antony and Augustus by a decree of the senate. His sons were Herod and the
other tetrarchs. These accounts are given also in the histories of the Greeks.

V.

But as up to that time the genealogies of the Hebrews had been registered in the public
archives, and those, too, which were traced back to the proselytes -as, for example, to
Achior the Ammanite, and Ruth the Moabitess, and those who left Egypt along with the
Israelites, and intermarried with them-Herod, knowing that the lineage of the Israelites
contributed nothing to him, and goaded by the consciousness of his ignoble birth, burned
the registers of their families. This he did, thinking that he would appear to be of noble
birth, if no one else could trace back his descent by the public register to the
patriarchs or proselytes, and to that mixed race called georae. A few, however, of the
studious, having private records of their own, either by remembering the names or by
getting at them in some other way from the archives, pride themselves in preserving the
memory of their noble descent; and among these happen to be those already mentioned,
called desposyni, on account of their connection with the family of the Saviour. And these
coming from Nazara and Cochaba, Judean villages, to other parts of the country, set forth
the above-named genealogy as accurately as possible from the Book of Days. Whether, then,
the case stand thus or not, no one could discover a more obvious explanation, according to
my own opinion and that of any sound judge. And let this suffice us for the matter,
although it is not supported by testimony, because we have nothing more satisfactory or
true to allege upon it. The Gospel, however, in any case states the truth.

VI.

Matthan, descended from Solomon, begat Jacob. Matthan dying, Melchi, descended from
Nathan, begat Hell by the same wife. Therefore Hell and Jacob are uterine brothers. Hell
dying childless, Jacob raised up seed to him and begat Joseph, his own son by nature, but
the son of Hell by law. Thus Joseph was the son of both.


NARRATIVE OF EVENTS IN PERSIA ON THE BIRTH OF CHRIST
====================================================

NARRATIVE OF EVENTS IN PERSIA ON THE BIRTH OF CHRIST Julius Africanus

c. AD 160–240

Chronographer and scholar.

NARRATIVE OF EVENTS HAPPENING IN PERSIA ON THE BIRTH OF CHRIST

1 The best introduction to this production will be the following preface, as given in
Migne:-Many men of learning thus far have been of opinion that the narrative by Africanus
of events happening in Persia on Christ's birth, is a fragment of that famous work which
Sextus Julius Africanus, a Christian author of the third century after Christ, composed on
the history of the world in the chronological order of events up to the reign of Macrinus,
and presented in five books to Alexander, son of Mammaea, with the view of obtaining the
restoration of his native town Emmaus. With the same expectation which I see incited
Lambecius and his compendiator Nesselius, I, too, set myself with the greatest eagerness
to go over the codices of our Electoral Library.... But, as the common proverb goes, I
found coals instead of treasure. This narrative, so far from its being to be ascribed to a
writer well reputed by the common voice of antiquity, does not contain anything worthy of
the genius of the chronographer Africanus. Wherefore, since by the unanimous testimony of
the ancients he was a man of consummate learning and sharpest judgment, while the author
of the Cesti, which also puts forward the name of Africanus, has been long marked by
critics with the character either of anile credulity, or of a marvellous propensity to
superstitious fancies, I can readily fall in with the opinion of those who think that he
is a different person from the chronographer, and would ascribe this wretched production
also to him. But, dear reader, on perusing these pages, if your indignation is not stirred
against the man's rashness, you will at least join with me in laughing at his prodigious
follies, and will learn, at the same time, that the testimonies of men most distinguished
for learning are not to be rated so highly as to supersede personal examination when
opportunity permits.

Events in Persia: on the Incarnation of Our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2 Christ first of all became known from Persia. For nothing escapes the learned jurists of
that country, who investigate all things with the utmost care. The facts, therefore, which
are inscribed upon the golden plates, and laid up in the royal temples, I shall record;
for it is from the temples there, and the priests connected with them, that the name of
Christ has been heard of. Now there is a temple there to Juno, surpassing even the royal
palace, which temple Cyrus, that prince instructed in all piety, built, and in which he
dedicated in honour of the gods golden and silver statues, and adorned them with precious
stones,-that I may not waste words in a profuse description of that ornamentation. Now
about that time (as the records on the plates testify), the king having entered the
temple, with the view of getting an interpretation of certain dreams, was addressed by the
priest Prupupius thus: I congratulate thee, master: Juno has conceived. And the king,
smiling, said to him, Has she who is dead conceived? And he said, Yes, she who was dead
has come to life again, and besets life. And the king said, What is this? explain it to
me. And he replied, In truth, master, the time for these things is at hand. For during the
whole night the images, both of gods and goddesses, continued beating the-ground, saying
to each other, Come, let us congratulate Juno. And they say to me, Prophet, come forward;
congratulate Juno, for she has been embraced.

3 And I said, How can she be embraced who no longer exists? To which they reply, She has
come to life again, and is no longer called Juno, but Urania. For the mighty Sol has
embraced her. Then the goddesses say to the gods, making the matter plainer, Pege is she
who is embraced; for did not Juno espouse an artificer? And the gods say, That she is
rightly called Pege, we admit. Her name, moreover, is Myria; for she bears in her womb, as
in the deep, a vessel of a myriad talents' burden. And as to this title Pege, let it be
understood thus: This stream of water sends forth the perennial stream of spirit,-a stream
containing but a single fish, taken with the hook of Divinity, and sustaining the whole
world with its flesh as though it were in the sea. You have well said, She has an
artificer [in espousal]; but by that espousal she does not bear an artificer on an
equality with herself. For this artificer who is born, the son of the chief artificer,
framed by his excellent skill the roof of the third heavens, and established by his word
this lower world, with its threefold sphere of habitation.

4 Thus, then, the statues disputed with each other concerning Juno and Pege, and [at
length] with one voice they said: When the day is finished. we all, gods and goddesses,
shall know the matter clearly. Now, therefore, master, tarry for the rest of the day. For
the matter shall certainly come to pass. For that which emerges is no common affair. And
when the king abode there and watched the statues, the harpers of their own accord began
to strike their harps, and the misses to sing; and whatsoever creatures were within,
whether quadruped or fowl, in silver and gold, uttered their several voices. And as the
king shuddered, and was filled with great fear, he was about to retire. For he could not
endure the spontaneous tumult. The priest therefore said to him, Remain, O king, for the
full revelation is at hand which the God of gods has chosen to declare to us.

5 And when these things were said, the roof was opened, and a bright star descended and
stood above the pillar of Pege, and a voice was heard to this effect: Sovereign Pege, the
mighty Son has sent me to make the announcement to you, and at the same time to do you
service in parturition, designing blameless nuptials with you, O mother of the chief of
all ranks of being, bride of the triune Deity. And the child begotten by extraordinary
generation is called the Beginning and the End,-the beginning of salvation, and the end of
perdition. And when this word was spoken, all the statues fell upon their faces, that of
Pege alone standing, on which also a royal diadem was found placed, having on its upper
side a star set in a carbuncle and an emerald. And on its lower side the star rested. 6
And the king forthwith gave orders to bring in all the interpreters of prodigies, and the
sages who were under his dominion. And when all the heralds sped with their proclamations,
all these assembled in the temple. And when they saw the star above Pege, and the diadem
with the star and the stone, and the statues lying on the floor, they said: O king, a root
(offspring) divine and princely has risen, bearing the image of the King of heaven and
earth. For Pege-Myria is the daughter of the Bethlehemite Pege. And the diadem is the mark
of a king, and the star is a celestial announcement of portents to fall on the earth. Out
of Judah has arisen a kingdom which shall subvert all the memorials of the Jews. And the
prostration of the gods upon the floor prefigured the end of their honour. For he who
comes, being of more ancient dignity, shall displace all the recent. Now therefore, O
king, send to Jerusalem. For you will find the Christ of the Omnipotent God borne in
bodily form in the bodily arms of a woman. And the star remained above the statue of Pege,
called the Celestial, until the wise men came forth, and then it went with them.

7 And then, in the depth of evening, Dionysus appeared in the temple, unaccompanied by the
Satyrs, and said to the images: Pege is not one of us, but stands far above us, in that
she gives birth to a man whose conception is in divine fashion. O priest Prupupius! what
dost thou tarrying here? An action, indicated in writings of old, has come upon us, and we
shall be convicted as false by a person of power and energy. Wherein we have been
deceivers, we have been deceivers; and wherein we have ruled, we have ruled. No longer
give we oracular responses. Gone from us is our honour. Without glory and reward are we
become. There is One, and One only, who receives again at the hands of all His proper
honour. For the rest, be not disturbed. No longer shall the Persians exact tribute of
earth and sky. For He who established these things is at hand, to bring practical tribute
to Him who sent Him, to renew the ancient image, and to put image with image, and bring
the dissimilar to similarity. Heaven rejoices with earth, and earth itself exults at
receiving matter of exultation from heaven. Things which have not happened above, have
happened on earth beneath. He whom the order of the blessed has not seen, is seen by the
order of the miserable. Flame threatens those; dew attends these. To Myria is given the
blessed lot of bearing Pege in Bethlehem, and of conceiving grace of grace. Judaea has
seen its bloom, and this country is fading. To Gentiles and aliens, salvation is come; to
the wretched, relief is ministered abundantly. With right do women dance, and say, Lady
Pege, Spring-bearer, thou mother of the heavenly constellation. Thou cloud that bringest
us dew after heat, remember thy de pendants, O mistress.

8 The king then, without delay, sent some of the Magi under his dominion with gifts, the
star showing them the way. And when they returned, they narrated to the men of that time
those same things which were also written on the plates of gold, and which were to the
following effect:- 9 When we came to Jerusalem, the sign, together with our arrival,
roused all the people. How is this, say they, that wise men of the Persians are here, and
that along with them there is this strange stellar phenomenon? And the chief of the Jews
interrogated us in this way: What is this that attends you, and with what purpose are you
here? And we said: He whom ye call Messias is born. And they were confounded, and dared
not withstand us. But they said to us, By the justice of Heaven, tell us what ye know of
this matter. And we made answer to them: Ye labour under unbelief; and neither without an
oath nor with an oath do ye believe us, but ye follow your own heedless counsel. For the
Christ, the Son of the Most High, is born, and He is the subverter of your law and
synagogues. And therefore is it that, struck with this most excellent response as with a
dart, ye hear in bitterness this name which has come upon you suddenly.And they then,
taking counsel together, urged us to accept their gifts, and tell to none that such an
event had taken place in that land of theirs, lest, as they say, a revolt rise against us.
But we replied: We have brought gifts in His honour, with the view of proclaiming those
mighty things which we know to have happened in our country on occasion of His birth;

10 and do ye bid us take your bribes, and conceal the things which have been communicated
to us by the Divinity who is above the heavens, and neglect the commandments of our proper
King? And after urging many considerations on us, they gave the matter up. And when the
king of Judaea sent for us and had some converse with us, and put to us certain questions
as to the statements we made to him, we acted in the same manner, until he was thoroughly
enraged at our replies. We left him accordingly, without giving any greater heed to him
than to any common person. 11 And we came to that place then to which we were sent, and
saw the mother and the child, the star indicating to us the royal babe. And we said to the
mother: What art thou named, O renowned mother? And she says: Mary, masters. And we said
to her: Whence art thou sprung? And she replies: From this district of the Bethlehemites.
Then said we: Hast thou not had a husband? And she answers: I was only betrothed with a
view to the marriage covenant, my thoughts being far removed from this. For I had no mind
to come to this. And while I was giving very little concern to it, when a certain Sabbath
dawned, and straightway at the rising of the sun, an angel appeared to me bringing me
suddenly the glad tidings of a son. And in trouble I cried out, Be it not so to me, Lord,
for I have not a husband. And he persuaded me to believe, that by the will of God I should
have this son.

12 Then said we to her: Mother, mother, all the gods of the Persians have called thee
blessed. Thy glory is great; for thou art exalted above all women of renown, and thou art
shown to be more queenly than all queens. The child, moreover, was seated on the ground,
being, as she said, in His second year, and having in part the likeness of His mother. And
she had long hands, and a body somewhat delicate; and her colour was like that of ripe
wheat; and she was of a round face, and had her hair bound up. And as we had along with us
a servant skilled in painting from the life, we brought with us to our country a likeness
of them both; and it was placed by our hand in the sacred temple, with this inscription on
it: To Jove the Sun, the mighty God, the King of Jesus, the power of Persia dedicated
this.

13 And taking the child up, each of us in turn, and bearing Him in our arms, we saluted
Him and worshipped Him, and presented to Him gold, and myrrh, and frankincense, addressing
Him thus: We gift Thee with Thine own, O Jesus, Ruler of heaven. Ill would things
unordered be ordered, weft Thou not at hand. In no other way could things heavenly be
brought into conjunction with things earthly, but by Thy descent. Such service cannot be
discharged, if only the servant is sent us, as when the Master Himself is present; neither
can so much be achieved when the king sends only his satraps to war, as when the king is
there himself. It became the wisdom of Thy system, that Thou shouldst deal in this manner
with men. And the child leaped and laughed at our caresses and words. And when we had
bidden the mother farewell, and when she had shown us honour, and we had testified to her
the reverence which became us, we came again to the place in which we lodged. And at
eventide there appeared to us one of a terrible and fearful countenance, saying: Get ye
out quickly, lest ye be taken in a snare. And we in terror said: And who is he, O divine
leader, that plotteth against so august an embassage? And he replied: Herod; but get you
up straightway and depart in safety and peace.

14 And we made speed to depart thence in all earnestness; and we reported in Jerusalem all
that we had seen. Behold, then, the great things that we have told you regarding Christ;
and we saw Christ our Saviour, who was made known as both God and man. To Him be the glory
and the power unto the ages of the ages. Amen.


THE PASSION OF ST. SYMPHOROSA AND HER SEVEN SONS
================================================

THE PASSION OF ST. SYMPHOROSA AND HER SEVEN SONS Julius Africanus

c. AD 160–240

Chronographer and scholar.

THE PASSION OF ST. SYMPHOROSA AND HER SEVEN SONS

The text is given from the edition of Ruinart. His preface, which Migne also cites, is as
follows: "The narrative of the martyrdom of St. Symphorosa and her seven sons, which we
here publish, is ascribed in the mss. to Julius Africanus, a writer of the highest repute.
And it may perhaps have been inserted in his books on Chronography,--a work which Eusebius
(Hist. Eccles. vi. 31) testifies to have been written with the greatest care, since in
these he detailed the chief events in history from the foundation of the world to the
times of the Emperor Heliogabalus. As that work, however, is lost, that this narrative is
really to be ascribed to Africanus, I would not venture positively to assert, although at
the same time there seems no ground for doubting its genuineness. We print it, moreover,
from the editions of Mombritius, Surius, and Cardulus, collated with two Colbert mss. and
one in the library of the Sorbonne. The occasion for the death of these saints was found
in the vicinity of that most famous palace which was built by Adrian at his country seat
at Tiber, according to Spartianus. For when the emperor gave orders that this palace,
which he had built for his pleasure, should be purified by some piacular ceremonies, the
priests seized this opportunity for accusing Symphorosa, alleging that the gods would not
be satisfied until Symphorosa should either sacrifice to them or be herself sacrificed;

which last thing was done by Hadrian, whom, from many others of his deeds, we know to have
been exceedingly superstitious, about the year of Christ 120, that is, about the beginning
of his reign, at which period indeed, as Dio Cassius observes, that emperor put a great
number to death. The memory of these martyrs, moreover, is celebrated in all the most
ancient martyrologies, although they assign different days for it. The Roman, along with
Notker, fixes their festival for the 18th July, Rabanus for the 21st of the same month,
Usuardus and Ado for the 21st June. In the Tiburtine road there still exists the rubbish
of an old church, as Aringhi states (Rom. Subter., iv. 17), which was consecrated to God
under their name, and which still retains the title, To the Seven Brothers. I have no
doubt that it was built in that place to which the pontiffs in the Acta, sec. iv., gave
the name, To the Seven Biothanati, i.e., those cut off by a violent death, as Baronius
remarks, at the year 138. So far Ruinart: see also Tillemont, Mem. Eccles., ii. pp. 241
and 595; and the Bollandists, Act. S.S. Funii, vol. iv. p. 350.

1. When Adrian had built a palace, and wished to dedicate it by that wicked ceremonial,
and began to seek responses by sacrifices to idols, and to the demons that dwell in idols,
they replied, and said: "The widow Symphorosa, with her seven sons, wounds us day by day
in invoking her God. If she therefore, together with her sons, shall offer sacrifice, we
promise to make good all that you ask." Then Adrian ordered her to be seized, along with
her sons, and advised them in courteous terms to consent to consent to offer sacrifice to
the idols. To him, however, the blessed Symphorosa answered: "My husband Getulius,
together with his brother Amantius, when they were tribunes in thy service, suffered
different punishments for the name of Christ, rather than consent to sacrifice to idols.
and, like good athletes, they overcame thy demons in death. For, rather than be prevailed
on, they chose to be beheaded, and suffered death: which death, being endured for the name
of Christ, gained them temporal ignominy indeed among men of this earth, but everlasting
honour and glory among the angels; and moving now among them, and exhibiting trophies of
their sufferings, they enjoy eternal life with the King eternal in the heavens."

2. The Emperor Adrian said to the holy Symphorosa: "Either sacrifice thou along with thy
sons to the omnipotent gods, or else I shall cause thee to be sacrificed thyself, together
with thy sons." The blessed Symphorosa answered: "And whence is this great good to me,
that I should be deemed worthy along with my sons to be offered as an oblation to God? "
The Emperor Adrian said: "I shall cause thee to be sacrificed to my gods." The blessed
Symphorosa replied: "Thy gods cannot take me in sacrifice; but if I am burned for the name
of Christ, my God, I shall rather consume those demons of thine." The Emperor Adrian said:
"Choose thou one of these alternatives: either sacrifice to my gods, or perish by an evil
death." The blessed Symphorosa replied: "Thou thinkest that my mind can be altered by some
kind of terror; whereas I long to rest with my husband Getulius, whom thou didst put to
death for Christ's name." Then the Emperor Adrian ordered her to be led away to the temple
of Hercules, and there first to be beaten with blows on the cheek, and afterwards to be
suspended by the hair. But when by no argument and by no terror could he divert her from
her good resolution, he ordered her to be thrown into the river with a large stone
fastened to her neck. And her brother Eugenius, principal of the district of Tiber, picked
up her body, and buried it in a suburb of the same city.

3. Then, on another day, the Emperor Adrian ordered all her seven sons to be brought
before him in company; and when he had challenged them to sacrifice to idols, and
perceived that they yielded by no means to his threats and terrors, he ordered seven
stakes to be fixed around the temple of Hercules, and commanded them to be stretched on
the blocks there. And he ordered Crescens, the first, to be transfixed in the throat; and
Julian, the second, to be stabbed in the breast; and Nemesius, the third, to be struck
through the heart; and Primitivus, the fourth, to be wounded in the navel; and Justin, the
fifth, to be struck through in the back with a sword; and Stracteus, the sixth, to be
wounded in the side; and Eugenius, the seventh, to be cleft in twain from the head
downwards. 4. The next day again the Emperor Adrian came to the temple of Hercules, and
ordered their bodies to be carried off together, and cast into a deep pit; and the
pontiffs gave to that place the name, To the Seven Biothanati. After these things the
persecution ceased for a year and a half, in which period the holy bodies of all the
martyrs were honoured, and consigned with all care to tumuli erected for that purpose, and
their names are written in the book of life. The natal day, moreover, of the holy martyrs
of Christ, the blessed Symphorosa and her seven sons, Crescens, Julian, Nemesius,
Primitivus, Justin, Stracteus, and Eugenius, is held on the 18th July. Their bodies rest
on the Tiburtine road, at the eighth mile-stone from the city, under the kingship of our
Lord Jesus Christ, to whom is honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.


ALEXANDER OF CAPPADOCIA: FRAGMENTS
==================================

ALEXANDER OF CAPPADOCIA Writings and Fragments

d. AD 251

Bishop of Jerusalem, a friend of Origen.

TRANSLATOR'S BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE

Alexander of Cappadocia. Translator’s Biographical Notice. [a.d. 170–233–251.] Alexander
was at first bishop of a church in Cappadocia, but on his visiting Jerusalem he was
appointed to the bishopric of the church there, while the previous bishop Narcissus was
alive, in consequence of a vision which was believed to be divine. During the Decian
persecution he was thrown into prison at Cæsarea, and died there, a.d. 251. The only
writings of his which we know are those from which the extracts are made.

FROM THE EPISTLES OF ALEXANDER

Contents

1 An Epistle to the People of Antioch From an Epistle to the Antinoites From an Epistle to
Origen From an Epistle to Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria From the Epistles of Alexander.
I. An Epistle to the People of Antioch. Alexander, a servant and prisoner of Jesus Christ,
sends greeting in the Lord to the blessed church of Antioch. Easy and light has the Lord
made my bonds to me during the time of my imprisonment since I have learned that in the
providence of God, Asclepiades—who, in regard to the right faith, is most eminently
qualified for the office—has undertaken the episcopate of your holy church of Antioch. And
this epistle, my brethren and masters, I have sent by the hand of the blessed presbyter
Clement, a man virtuous and well tried, whom ye know already, and will know yet better;
who also, coming here by the providence and supervision of the Master, has strengthened
and increased the Church of the Lord.

2 II. From an Epistle to the Antinoites. Narcissus salutes you, who held the episcopate in
this district before me, who is now also my colleague and competitor in prayer for you,
and who, having now attained to his hundred and tenth year, unites with me in exhorting
you to be of one mind. III. From an Epistle to Origen. For this, as thou knowest, was the
will of God, that the friendship subsisting between us from our forefathers should be
maintained unbroken, yea rather, that it should increase in fervency and strength. For we
are well acquainted with those blessed fathers who have trodden the course before us, and
to whom we too shall soon go: Pantænus, namely, that man verily blessed, my master; and
also the holy Clement, who was once my master and my benefactor; and all the rest who may
be like them, by whose means also I have come to know thee, my lord and brother, who
excellest all.

3 IV. From an Epistle to Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria. And he—i.e., Demetrius—has added
to his letter that this is a matter that was never heard of before, and has never been
done now,—namely, that laymen should take part in public speaking, when there are bishops
present. But in this assertion he has departed evidently far from the truth by some means.
For, indeed, wherever there are found persons capable of profiting the brethren, such
persons are exhorted by the holy bishops to address the people. Such was the case at
Laranda, where Evelpis was thus exhorted by Neon; and at Iconium, Paulinus was thus
exhorted by Celsus; and at Synada, Theodorus also by Atticus, our blessed brethren. And it
is probable that this is done in other places also, although we know not the fact.

NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR

Note by the American Editor. If Alexander died in the Decian persecution, it is noteworthy
how far the sub-apostolic age extended. This contemporary of Cyprian was coadjutor to
Narcissus, who may have seen those who knew St. John. See vol. i. p. 416, note 1, this
series; also vol. i. p. 568, Fragment ii.


THE OCTAVIUS OF MINUCIUS FELIX
==============================

THE OCTAVIUS OF MINUCIUS FELIX 3rd century

Roman lawyer; wrote the dialogue Octavius.

CHAPTER I.-ARGUMENT: MINUCIUS RELATES HOW DELIGHTFUL TO HIM IS THE RECOLLECTION OF THE THINGS THAT HAD HAPPENED TO HIM WITH OCTAVIUS WHILE HE WAS ASSOCIATED WITH HIM AT ROME, AND ESPECIALLY OF THIS DISPUTATION.

1 When I consider and mentally review my remembrance of Octavius, my excellent and most
faithful companion, the sweetness and charm of the man so clings to me, that I appear to
myself in some sort as if I were returning to past times, and not merely recalling in my
recollection things which have long since happened and gone by. Thus, in the degree in
which the actual contemplation of him is withdrawn from my eyes, it is bound up in my
heart and in my most intimate feelings. And it was not without reason that that remarkable
and holy man, when he departed this life, left to me an unbounded regret for him,
especially since he himself also glowed with such a love for me at all times, that,
whether in matters of amusement or of business, he agreed with me in similarity of will,
in either liking or disliking the same things. You would think that one mind had been
shared between us two. Thus he alone was my confidant in my loves, my companion in my
mistakes; and when, after the gloom had been dispersed, I emerged from the abyss of
darkness into the light of wisdom and truth, he did not cast off his associate, but-what
is more glorious still-he outstripped him. And thus, when my thoughts were traversing the
entire period of our intimacy and friendship, the direction of my mind fixed itself
chiefly on that discourse of his, wherein by very weighty arguments he converted
Caecilius, who was still cleaving to superstitious vanities, to the true religion.

2 Chapter II-Argument: the Arrival of Octavius at Rome During the Time of the Public
Holidays Was Very Agreeable to Minucius. Both of Them Were Desirous of Going to the Marine
Baths of Ostia, with Caecilius Associated with Them as a Companion of Minucius. On Their
Way Together to the Sea, Caecillus, Seeing an Image of Serapis, Raises His Hand to His
Mouth, and Worships It. 3 For, for the sake of business and of visiting me, Octavius had
hastened to Rome, having left his home, his wife, his children, and that which is most
attractive in children, while yet their innocent years are attempting only half-uttered
words,-a language all the sweeter for the very imperfection of the faltering tongue. And
at this his arrival I cannot express in words with how great and with how impatient a joy
I exulted, since the unexpected presence of a man so very dear to me greatly enhanced my
gladness. Therefore, after one or two days, when the frequent enjoyment of our continual
association had satisfied the craving of affection, and when we had ascertained by mutual
narrative all that we were ignorant of about one another by reason of our separation, we
agreed to go to that very pleasant city Ostia, that my body might have a soothing and
appropriate remedy for drying its humours from the marine bathing, especially as the
holidays of the courts at the vintage-time had released me from my cares. For at that
time, after the summer days, the autumn season was tending to a milder temperature. And
thus, when in the early morning we were going towards the sea along the shore (of the
Tiber), that both the breathing air might gently refresh our limbs, and that the yielding
sand might sink down under our easy footsteps with excessive pleasure; Caecilius,
observing an image of Serapis, raised his hand to his mouth, as is the custom of the
superstitious common people, and pressed a kiss on it with his lips.

CHAPTER III.-ARGUMENT: OCTAVIUS, DISPLEASED AT THE ACT OF THIS SUPERSTITIOUS MAN, SHARPLY REPROACHES MINUCIUS, ON THE GROUND THAT THE DISGRACE OF THIS WICKED DEED IS REFLECTED NOT LESS ON HIMSELF, AS CAECILIUS' HOST, THAN ON CAECILIUS.

1 Then Octavius said: "It is not the part of a good man, my brother Marcus, so to desert a
man who abides by your side at home and abroad, in this blindness of vulgar ignorance, as
that you should suffer him in such broad daylight as this to give himself up to stones,
however they may be carved into images, anointed and crowned; since you know that the
disgrace of this his error redounds in no less degree to your discredit than to his own.
With this discourse of his we passed over the distance between the city and the sea, and
we were now walking on the broad and open shore· There the gently rippling wave was
smoothing the outside sands as if it would level them for a promenade; and as the sea is
always restless, even when the winds are lulled, it came up on the shore, although not
with waves crested and foaming, yet with waves crisped and cuffing. Just then we were
excessively delighted at its vagaries, as on the very threshold of the water we were
wetting the soles of our feet, and it now by turns approaching broke upon our feet, and
now the wave retiring and retracing its course, sucked itself back into itself. And thus,
slowly and quietly going along, we tracked the coast of the gently bending shore,
beguiling the way with stories. These stories were related by Octavius, who was
discoursing on navigation.

2 But when we had occupied a sufficiently reasonable time of our walk with discourse,
retracing the same way again, we trod the path with reverted footsteps. And when we came
to that place where the little ships, drawn up on an oaken framework, were lying at rest
supported above the (risk of) ground-rot, we saw some boys eagerly gesticulating as they
played at throwing shells into the sea. This play is: To choose a shell from the shore,
rubbed and made smooth by the tossing of the waves; to take hold of the shell in a
horizontal position with the fingers; to whiff it along sloping and as low down as
possible upon the waves, that when thrown it may either skim the back of the wave, or may
swim as it glides along with a smooth impulse, or may spring up as it cleaves the top of
the waves, and rise as if lifted up with repeated springs. That boy claimed to be
conqueror whose shell both went out furthest, and leaped up most frequently.

3 Chapter IV.-Argument: Caecilius, Somewhat Grieved at This Kind of Rebuke Which for His
Sake Minucius Had Had to Bear from Octavius, Begs to Argue with Octavius on the Truth of
His Religion. Octavius with His Companion Consents, and Minucius Sits in the Middle
Between Caecilius and Octavius. 4 And thus, while we were all engaged in the enjoyment of
this spectacle, Caecilius was paying no attention, nor laughing at the contest; but
silent, uneasy, standing apart, confessed by his countenance that he was grieving for I
knew not what. To whom I said: "What is the matter? Wherefore do I not recognise,
Caecilius, your usual liveliness? and why do I seek vainly for that joyousness which is
characteristic of your glances even in serious matters? "Then said he: "For some time our
friend Octavius' speech has bitterly vexed and worried me, in which he, attacking you,
reproached you with negligence, that he might under cover of that charge more seriously
condemn me for ignorance. Therefore I shall proceed further: the matter is now wholly and
entirely between me and Octavius. If he is willing that I, a man of that form of opinion,
should argue with him, he will now at once perceive that it is easier to hold an argument
among his comrades, than to engage in close conflict after the manner of the philosophers.
Let us be seated on those rocky barriers that are cast there for the protection of the
baths, and that run far out into the deep, that we may be able both to rest after our
journey, and to argue with more attention," And at his word we sat down, so that, by
covering me on either side, they sheltered me in the midst of the three. Nor was this a
matter of observance, or of rank, or of honour, because friendship always either receives
or makes equals; but that, as an arbitrator, and being near to both, I might give my
attention, and being in the middle, I might separate the two. Then Caecilius began thus:-

5 Chapter V.-Argument: Caecilius Begins His Argument First of All by Reminding Them that
in Human Affairs All Things are Doubtful and Uncertain, and that Therefore It is to Be
Lamented that Christians, Who for the Most Part are Untrained and Illiterate Persons,
Should Dare to Determine on Anything with Certainty Concerning the Chief of Things and the
Divine Majesty: Hence He Argues that the World is Governed by No Providence, and Concludes
that It is Better to Abide by the Received Forms of Religion. 6 "Although to you, Marcus
my brother, the subject on which especially we are inquiring is not in doubt, inasmuch as,
being carefully informed in both kinds of life, you have rejected the one and assented to
the other, yet in file present case your mind must be so fashioned that you may hold the
balance of a most just judge, nor lean with a disposition to one side (more than another),
lest your decision may seem not to arise so much from our arguments, as to be originated
from your own perceptions. Accordingly, if you sit in judgment on me, as a person who is
new, and as one ignorant of either side, there is no difficulty in making plain that all
things in human affairs are doubtful, uncertain, and unsettled, and that all things are
rather probable than true. Wherefore it is the less wonderful that some, from the
weariness of thoroughly investigating truth, should rashly succumb to any sort of opinion
rather than persevere in exploring it with persistent diligence. And thus all men must be
indignant, all men must feel pain, that certain persons-and these unskilled in learning,
strangers to literature, without knowledge even of sordid arts-should dare to determine on
any certainty concerning the nature at large, and the (divine) majesty, of which so many
of the multitude of sects in all ages (still doubt), and philosophy itself deliberates
still. Nor without reason;

7 since the mediocrity of human intelligence is so far from (the capacity of) divine
investigation, that neither is it given us to know, nor is it permitted to search, nor is
it religious to ravish, the things that are supported in suspense in the heaven above us,
nor the things which are deeply submerged below the earth; and we may rightly seem
sufficiently happy and sufficiently prudent, if, according to that ancient oracle of the
sage, we should know ourselves intimately. But even if we indulge in a senseless and
useless labour, and wander away beyond the limits proper to our humility, and though,
inclined towards the earth, we transcend with daring ambition heaven itself, and the very
stars, let us at least not entangle this error with vain and fearful opinions. Let the
seeds of all things have been in the beginning condensed by a nature combining them in
itself-what God is the author here? Let the members of the whole world be by fortuitous
concurrences united digested, fashioned-what God is the contriver? Although fire may have
lit up the stars; although (the lightness of) its own material may have suspended the
heaven; although its own material may have established the earth by its weight; and
although the sea may have flowed in from moisture, whence is this religion? Whence this
fear? What is this superstition? Man, and every animal which is born, inspired with life,
and nourished, is as a voluntary concretion of the elements, into which again man and
every animal is divided, resolved, and dissipated.

8 So all things flow back again into their source, and are turned again into themselves,
without any artificer, or judge, or creator. Thus the seeds of fires, being gathered
together, cause other suns, and again others, always to shine forth. Thus the vapours of
the earth, being exhaled, cause the mists always to grow, which being condensed and
collected, cause the clouds to rise higher; and when they fall, cause the rains to flow,
the winds to blow, the hail to rattle down; or when the clouds clash together, they cause
the thunder to bellow, the lightnings to grow red, the thunderbolts to gleam forth.
Therefore they fall everywhere, they rush on the mountains, they strike the trees; without
any choice, they blast places sacred and profane; they smite mischievous men, and often,
too, religious men. Why should I speak of tempests, various and uncertain, wherein the
attack upon all things is tossed about without any order or discrimination?-in shipwrecks,
that the fates of good and bad men are jumbled together, their deserts confounded?-in
conflagrations, that the destruction of innocent and guilty is united?-and when with the
plague-taint of the sky a region is stained, that all perish without distinction?-and when
the heat of war is raging, that it is the better men who generally fall?

9 In peace also, not only is wickedness put on the same level with (the lot of) those who
are better, but it is also regarded in such esteem, that, in the case of many people, you
know not whether their depravity is most to be detested, or their felicity to be desired.
But if the world were governed by divine providence and by the authority of any deity,
Phalaris and Dionysius would never have deserved to reign, Rutilius and Camillus would
never have merited banishment, Socrates would never have merited the poison. Behold the
fruit-bearing trees, behold the harvest already white, the vintage, already dropping, is
destroyed by the rain, is beaten down by the hail. Thus either an uncertain truth is
hidden from us, and kept back; or, which is rather to be believed, in these various and
wayward chances, fortune, unrestrained by laws, is ruling over us.

CHAPTER VI.-ARGUMENT: THE OBJECT OF ALL NATIONS, AND ESPECIALLY OF THE ROMANS, IN WORSHIPPING THEIR DIVINITIES, HAS BEEN TO ATTAIN FOR THEIR WORSHIP THE SUPREME DOMINION OVER THE WHOLE EARTH.

1 "Since, then, either fortune is certain or nature is uncertain, how much more
reverential and better it is, as the high priests of truth, to receive the teaching of
your ancestors, to cultivate the religions handed down to you, to adore the gods whom you
were first trained by your parents to fear rather than to know with familiarity; not to
assert an opinion concerning the deities, but to believe your forefathers, who, while the
age was still untrained in the birth-times of the world itself, deserved to have gods
either propitious to them, or as their kings. Thence, therefore, we see through all
empires, and provinces, and cities, that each people has its national rites of worship,
and adores its local gods: as the Eleusinians worship Ceres; the Phrygians, Mater; the
Epidaurians, Aesculapius; the Chaldaeans; Belus; the Syrians, Astarte; the Taurians,
Diana; the Gauls, Mercurius; the Romans, all divinities. Thus their power and authority
has occupied the circuit of the whole world: thus it has propagated its empire beyond the
paths of the sun, and the bounds of the ocean itself; in that in their arms they practise
a religious valour; in that they fortify their city with the religions of sacred rites,
with chaste virgins, with many honours, and the names of priests; in that, when besieged
and taken, all but the Capitol alone, they worship the gods which when angry any other
people would have despised;

2 and through the lines of the Gauls, marvelling at the audacity of their superstition,
they move unarmed with weapons, but armed with the worship of their religion; while in the
city of an enemy, when taken while still in the fury of victory, they venerate the
conquered deities; while in all directions they seek for the gods of the strangers, and
make them their own; while they build altars even to unknown divinities, and to the Manes.
Thus, in that they acknowledge the sacred institutions of all nations, they have also
deserved their dominion. Hence the perpetual course of their veneration has continued,
which is not weakened by the long lapse of time, but increased, because antiquity has been
accustomed to attribute to ceremonies and temples so much of sanctity as it has ascribed
of age.

CHAPTER VII.-ARGUMENT: THAT THE ROMAN AUSPICES AND AUGURIES HAVE BEEN NEGLECTED WITH ILL CONSEQUENCES, BUT HAVE BEEN OBSERVED WITH GOOD FORTUNE.

1 "Nor yet by chance (for I would venture in the meantime even to take for granted the
point in debate, and so to err on the safe side) have our ancestors succeeded in their
undertakings either by the observance of auguries, or by consulting the entrails, or by
the institution of sacred rites, or by the dedication of temples. Consider what is the
record of books. You will at once discover that they have inaugurated the rites of all
kinds of religions, either that the divine indulgence might be rewarded, or that the
threatening anger might be averted, or that the wrath already swelling and raging might be
appeased. Witness the Idaean mother, who at her arrival both approved the chastity of the
matron, and delivered the city from the fear of the enemy. Witness the statues of the
equestrian brothers, consecrated even as they had showed themselves on the lake, who, with
horses breathless, foaming, and smoking, announced the victory over the Persian on the
same day on which they had gained it. Witness the renewal of the games of the offended
Jupiter, on account of the dream of a man of the people. And an acknowledged witness is
the devotion of the Decii. Witness also Curtius, who filled up the opening of the profound
chasm either with the mass, or with the glory of his knighthood. Moreover, more frequently
than we wished have the auguries, when despised, borne witness to the presence of the
gods:, thus Allia is an unlucky name;

2 thus the battle of Claudius and Junius is not a battle against the Carthaginians, but a
fatal shipwreck. Thus, that Thrasymenus might be both swollen and discoloured with the
blood of the Romans, Flaminius despised the auguries; and that we might again demand our
standards from the Parthians, Crassus both deserved and scoffed at the imprecations of the
terrible sisters. I omit the old stories, which are many, and I pass by the songs of the
poets about the births, and the gifts, and the rewards of the gods. Moreover, I hasten
over the fates predicted by the oracles, lest antiquity should appear to you excessively
fabulous. Look at the temples and lanes of the gods by which the Roman city is both
protected and armed: they are more august by the deities which are their inhabitants, who
are present and constantly dwelling in them, than opulent by the ensigns and gifts of
worship. Thence therefore the prophets, filled with the god, and mingled with him, collect
futurity beforehand, give caution for dangers, medicine for diseases, hope for the
afflicted, help to the wretched, solace to calamities, alleviation to labours. Even in our
repose we see, we hear, we acknowledge the gods, whom in the day-time we impiously deny,
refuse, and abjure.

3 Chapter VIII.-Argument: the Impious Temerity of Theodorus, Diagoras, and Protagoras is
Not at All to Be Acquiesced In, Who Wished Either Altogether to Get Rid of the Religion of
the Gods, or at Least to Weaken It. But Infinitely Less to Be Endured is that Skulking and
Light-Shunning People of the Christians, Who Reject the Gods, and Who, Fearing to Die
After Death, Do Not in the Meantime Fear to Die. 4 "Therefore, since the consent of all
nations concerning the existence of the immortal gods remains established, although their
nature or their origin remains uncertain, I suffer nobody swelling with such boldness, and
with I know not what irreligious wisdom, who would strive to undermine or weaken this
religion, so ancient, so useful, so wholesome, even although he may he Theodorus of
Cyrene, or one who is before him Diagoras the Melian, to whom antiquity applied the
surname of Atheist,-both of whom, by asseverating that there were no gods, took away all
the fear by which humanity is ruled, and all veneration absolutely; yet never will they
prevail in this discipline of impiety, under the name and authority of their pretended
philosophy. When the men of Athens both expelled Protagoras of Abdera, and in public
assembly burnt his writings, because he disputed deliberately rather than profanely
concerning the divinity, why is it not a thing to be lamented, that men (for you will bear
with my making use pretty freely of the force of the plea that I have undertaken)-that
men, I say, of a reprobate, unlawful, and desperate faction, should rage against the gods?
who, having gathered together from the lowest dregs the more unskilled, and women,
credulous and, by the facility of their sex, yielding, establish a herd of a profane
conspiracy, which is leagued together by nightly meetings, and solemn fasts and inhuman
meats-not by any sacred rite, but by that which requires expiation-a people skulking and
shunning the light, silent in public, but garrulous in corners.

5 They despise the temples as dead-houses, they reject the gods, they laugh at sacred
things; wretched, they pity, if they are allowed, the priests; half naked themselves, they
despise honours and purple robes. Oh, wondrous folly and incredible audacity! they despise
present torments, although they i fear those which are uncertain and future; and while
they fear to die after death, they do not fear to die for the present: so does a deceitful
hope soothe their fear with the solace of a revival. 6 Chapter IX.-Argument: the Religion
of the Christians is Foolish, Inasmuch as They Worship a Crucified Man, and Even the
Instrument Itself of His Punishment. They are Said to Worship the Head of an Ass, and Even
the Nature of Their Father. They are Initiated by the Slaughter and the Blood of an
Infant, and in Shameless Darkness They are All Mixed Up in an Uncertain Medley.

7 "And now, as wickeder things advance more fruitfully, and abandoned manners creep on day
by day, those abominable shrines of an impious assembly are maturing themselves throughout
the whole world. Assuredly this confederacy ought to be rooted out and execrated. They
know one another by secret marks and insignia, and they love one another almost before
they know one another. Everywhere also there is mingled among them a certain religion of
lust, and they call one another promiscuously brothers and sisters, that even a not
unusual debauchery may by the intervention of that sacred name become incestuous: it is
thus that their vain and senseless superstition glories in crimes. Nor, concerning these
things, would intelligent report speak of things so great and various, and requiring to be
prefaced by an apology, unless truth were at the bottom of it. I hear that they adore the
head of an ass, that basest of creatures, consecrated by I know not what silly
persuasion,-a worthy and appropriate religion for such manners. Some say that they worship
the virilia of their pontiff and priest, and adore the nature, as it were, of their common
parent. I know not whether these things are false; certainly suspicion is applicable to
secret and nocturnal rites; and he who explains their ceremonies by reference to a man
punished by extreme suffering for his wickedness, and to the deadly wood of the cross,
appropriates fitting altars for reprobate and wicked men, that they may worship what they
deserve.

8 Now the story about the initiation of young novices is as much to be detested as it is
well known. An infant covered over with meal, that it may deceive the unwary, is placed
before him who is to be stained with their rites: this infant is slain by the young pupil,
who has been urged on as if to harmless blows on the surface of the meal, with dark and
secret wounds. Thirstily-O horror!-they lick up its blood; eagerly they divide its limbs.
By this victim they are pledged together; with this consciousness of wickedness they are
covenanted to mutual silence. Such sacred rites as these are more foul than any
sacrileges. And of their banqueting it is well known all men speak of it everywhere; even
the speech of our Cirtensian testifies to it. On a solemn day they assemble at the feast,
with all their children, sisters, mothers, people of every sex and of every age. There,
after much feasting, when the fellowship has grown warm, and the fervour of incestuous
lust has grown hot with drunkenness, a dog that has been tied to the chandelier is
provoked, by throwing a small piece of offal beyond the length of a line by which he is
bound, to rush and spring; and thus the conscious light being overturned and extinguished
in the shameless darkness, the connections of abominable lust involve them in the
uncertainty of fate.

9 Although not all in fact, yet in consciousness all are alike incestuous, since by the
desire of all of them everything is sought for which can happen in the act of each
individual. 10 Chapter X.-Argument: Whatever the Christians Worship, They Strive in Every
Way to Conceal: They Have No Altars, No Temples, No Acknowledged Images. Their God, Like
that of the Jews, is Said to Be One, Whom, Although They are Neither Able to See Nor to
Show, They Think Nevertheless to Be Mischievous, Restless, and Unseasonably Inquisitive.
11 "I purposely pass over many things, for those that I have mentioned are already too
many; and that all these, or the greater part of them, are true, the obscurity of their
vile religion declares. For why do they endeavour with such pains to conceal and to cloak
whatever they worship, since honourable things always rejoice in publicity, while crimes
are kept secret? Why have they no altars, no temples, no acknowledged images? Why do they
never speak openly, never congregate freely, unless for the reason that what they adore
and conceal is either worthy of punishment, or something to be ashamed of? Moreover,
whence or who is he, or where is the one God, solitary, desolate, whom no free people, no
kingdoms, and not even Roman superstition, have known? The lonely and miserable
nationality of the Jews worshipped one God, and one peculiar to itself; but they
worshipped him openly, with temples, with altars, with victims, and with ceremonies; and
he has so little force or power, that he is enslaved, with his own special nation, to the
Roman deities. But the Christians, moreover, what wonders, what monstrosities do they
feign!-that he who is their God, whom they can neither show nor behold, inquires
diligently into the character of all, the acts of all, and, in fine, into their words and
secret thoughts; that he runs about everywhere, and is everywhere present:

12 they make him out to be troublesome, restless, even shamelessly inquisitive, since he
is present at everything that is done, wanders in and out in all places, although, being
occupied with the whole, he cannot give attention to particulars, nor can he be sufficient
for the whole while he is busied with particulars. What! because they threaten
conflagration to the whole world, and to the universe itself, with all its stars, are they
meditating its destruction?-as if either the eternal order constituted by the divine laws
of nature would be disturbed, or the league of all the elements would be broken up, and
the heavenly structure dissolved, and that fabric in which it is contained and bound
together would be overthrown.

CHAPTER XI.-ARGUMENT: BESIDES ASSERTING THE FUTURE CONFLAGRATION OF THE WHOLE WORLD, THEY PROMISE AFTERWARDS THE RESURRECTION OF OUR BODIES: AND TO THE RIGHTEOUS AN ETERNITY OF MOST BLESSED LIFE; TO THE UNRIGHTEOUS, OF EXTREME PUNISHMENT.

1 "And, not content with this wild opinion, they add to it and associate with it old
women's fables: they say that they will rise again after death, and ashes, and dust; and
with I know not what confidence, they believe by turns in one another's lies: you would
think that they had already lived again. It is a double evil and a twofold madness to
denounce destruction to the heaven and the stars, which we leave just as we find them, and
to promise eternity to ourselves, who are dead and extinct-who, as we are born, so also
perish! It is for this cause, doubtless, also that they execrate our funeral piles, and
condemn our burials by fire, as if every body, even although it be withdrawn from the
flames, were not, nevertheless, resolved into the earth by lapse of years and ages, and as
if it mattered not whether wild beasts tore the body to pieces, or seas consumed it, or
the ground covered it, or the flames carried it away; since for the carcases every mode of
sepulture is a penalty if they feel it; if they feel it not, in the very quickness of
their destruction there is relief. Deceived by this error, they promise to themselves, as
being good, a blessed and perpetual life after their death; to others, as being
unrighteous, eternal punishment. Many things occur to me to say in addition, if the limits
of my discourse did not hasten me.

2 I have already shown, and take no more pains to prove, that they themselves are
unrighteous; although, even if I should allow them to be righteous, yet your agreement
also concurs with the opinions of many, that guilt and innocence are attributed by fate.
For whatever we do, as some ascribe it to fate, so you refer it to God: thus it is
according to your sect to believe that men will, not of their own accord, but as elected
to will. Therefore you feign an iniquitous judge, who punishes in men, not their will, but
their destiny. Yet I should be glad to be informed whether or no you rise again with
bodies; and if so, with what bodies-whether with the same or with renewed bodies? Without
a body? Then, as far as I know, there will neither be mind, nor soul, nor life. With the
same body? But this has already been previously destroyed. With another body? Then it is a
new man who is born, not the former one restored; and yet so long a time has passed away,
innumerable ages have flowed by, and what single individual has returned from the dead
either by the fate of Protesilaus, with permission to sojourn even for a few hours, or
that we might believe it for an example? All such figments of an unhealthy belief, and
vain sources of comfort, with which deceiving poets have trifled in the sweetness of their
verse, have been disgracefully remoulded by you, believing undoubtingly on your God.

CHAPTER XII.-ARGUMENT: MOREOVER, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE CHRISTIANS THEMSELVES AFTER DEATH, MAY BE ANTICIPATED FROM THE FACT THAT EVEN NOW THEY ARE DESTITUTE OF ALL MEANS, AND ARE AFFLICTED WITH THE HEAVIEST CALAMITIES AND MISERIES.

1 "Neither do you at least take experience from things present, how the fruitless
expectations of vain promise deceive you. Consider, wretched creatures, (from your lot)
while you are yet living, what is threatening you after death. Behold, a portion of you-
and, as you declare, the larger and better portion-are in want, are cold, are labouring in
hard work and hunger; and God suffers it, He feigns; He either is not willing or not able
to assist His people; and thus He is either weak or inequitable. Thou, who dreamest over a
posthumous immortality, when thou art shaken by danger, when thou art consumed with fever,
when thou art torn with pain, dost thou not then feel thy real condition? Dost thou not
then acknowledge thy frailty? Poor wretch, art thou unwillingly convinced of thine
infirmity, and wilt not confess it? But I omit matters that are common to all alike. Lo,
for you there are threats, punishments, tortures, and crosses; and that no longer as
objects of adoration, but as tortures to be undergone; fires also, which you both predict
and fear. Where is that God who is able to help you when you come to life again, since he
cannot help you while you are in this life? Do not the Romans, without any help from your
God, govern, reign, have the enjoyment of the whole world, and have dominion over you? But
you in the meantime, in suspense and anxiety, are abstaining from respectable enjoyments.
You do not visit exhibitions; you have no concern in public displays;

2 you reject the public banquets, and abhor the sacred contests; the meats previously
tasted by, and the drinks made a libation of upon, the altars. Thus you stand in dread of
the gods whom you deny. You do not wreath your heads with flowers; you do not grace your
bodies with odours; you reserve unguents for funeral rites; you even refuse garlands to
your sepulchres-pallid, trembling beings, worthy of the pity even of our gods! Thus,
wretched as you are, you neither rise again, nor do you live in the meanwhile. Therefore,
if you have any wisdom or modesty, cease from prying into the regions of the sky, and the
destinies and secrets of the world: it is sufficient to look before your feet, especially
for untaught, uncultivated, boorish, rustic people: they who have no capacity for
understanding civil matters, are much more denied the ability to discuss divine.

CHAPTER XIII.-ARGUMENT: CAECILIUS AT LENGTH CONCLUDES THAT THE NEW RELIGION IS TO BE REPUDIATED; AND THAT WE MUST NOT RASHLY PRONOUNCE UPON DOUBTFUL MATTERS.

1 "However, if you have a desire to philosophize, let any one of you who is sufficiently
great, imitate, if he can, Socrates the prince of wisdom. The answer of that man, whenever
he was asked about celestial matters, is well known: 'What is above us is nothing to us.'
Well, therefore, did he deserve from the oracle the testimony of singular wisdom, which
oracle he himself had a presentiment of, that he had been preferred to all men for the
reason, not that he had discovered all things, but because he had learnt that he knew
nothing. And thus the confession of ignorance is the height of wisdom. From this source
flowed the safe doubting of Arcesilas, and long after of Carneades, and of very many of
the Academics, in questions of the highest moment, in which species of philosophy the
unlearned can do much with caution, and the learned can do gloriously. What! is not the
hesitation of Simonides the lyric poet to be admired and followed by all? Which Simonides,
when he was asked by Hiero the tyrant what, and what like he thought the gods to be, asked
first of all for a day to deliberate; then postponed his reply for two days; and then,
when pressed, he added only another; and finally, when the tyrant inquired into the causes
of such a long delay, he replied that, the longer his research continued, the obscurer the
truth became to him. In my opinion also, things which are uncertain ought to be left as
they are. Nor, while so many and so great men are deliberating, should we rashly and
boldly give an opinion in another direction, lest either a childish superstition should be
introduced, or all religion should be overthrown."

2 Chapter XIV.-Argument: with Something of the Pride of Self-Satisfaction, Caecilius Urges
Octavius to Reply to His Arguments; And Minucius with Modesty Answers Him, that He Must
Not Exult at His Own by No Means Ordinary Eloquence, and at the Harmonious Variety of His
Address. 3 Thus far Caecilius; and smiling cheerfully (for the vehemence of his prolonged
discourse had relaxed the ardour of his indignation), be added "And what does Octavius
venture to reply to this, a man of the race of Plautus, who, while he was chief among the
millers, was still the lowest of philosophers? ""Restrain," said I, "your self-approval
against him; for it is not worthy of you to exult at the harmony of your discourse, before
the subject shall have been more fully argued on both sides; especially since your
reasoning is striving after truth, not praise. And in however great a degree your
discourse has delighted me by its subtile variety, yet I am very deeply moved, not
concerning the present discussion, but concerning the entire kind of disputation-that for
the most part the condition of truth should be changed according to the powers of
discussion, and even the faculty of perspicuous eloquence. This is very well known to
occur by reason of the facility of the hearers, who, being distracted by the allurement of
words from attention to things, assent without distinction to everything that is said, and
do not separate falsehood from truth; unaware that even in that which is incredible them
is often truth, and in verisimilitude falsehood. Therefore the oftener they believe bold
assertions, the more frequently they are convinced by those who are more clever, and thus
are continually deceived by their temerity. They transfer the blame of the judge to the
complaint of uncertainty;

4 so that, everything being condemned, they would rather that all things should be left in
suspense, than that they should decide about matters of doubt. Therefore we must take care
that we do not in such sort suffer from the hatred at once of all discourses, even as very
many of the more simple kind are led to execration and hatred of men in general. For those
who are carelessly credulous are deceived by those whom they thought worthy; and by and
by, by a kindred error, they begin to suspect every one as wicked, and dread even those
whom they might have regarded as excellent. Now therefore we are anxious-because in
everything there may be argument on both sides; and on the one hand, the truth is for the
most part obscure; and on the other side there is a marvellous subtlety, which sometimes
by its abundance of words imitates the confidence of acknowledged proof-as carefully as
possible to weigh each particular, that we may, while ready to applaud acuteness, yet
elect, approve, and adopt those things which are right."

5 Chapter XV.-Argument: Caecilius Retorts Upon Minucius, with Some Little Appearance of
Being Hurt, that He is Foregoing the Office of a Religious Umpire, When He is Weakening
the Force of His Argument. He Says that It Should Be Left to Octavius to Confute All that
He Had Advanced. "You are withdrawing," says Caecilius, "from the office of a religious
judge; for it is very unfair for you to weaken the force of my pleading by the
interpolation of a very important argument, since Octavius has before him each thing that
I have said, sound and unimpaired, if he can refute it." "What you are reproving," said I,
"unless I am mistaken, I have brought forward for the common advantage, so that by a
scrupulous examination we might weigh our decision, not by the pompous style of the
eloquence, but by the solid character of the matter itself. Nor must our attention, as you
complain, be any longer called away, but with absolute silence let us listen to the reply
of our friend Januarius, who is now beckoning to us."

6 Chapter XVI.-Argument: Octavius Arranges His Reply, and Trusts that He Shall Be Able to
Dilute the Bitterness of Reproach with the River of Truthful Words. He Proceeds to Weaken
the Individual Arguments of Caecilius. Nobody Need Complain that the Christians, Unlearned
Though They May Be, Dispute About Heavenly Things Because It is Not the Authority of Him
Who Argues, But the Truth of the Argument Itself, that Should Be Considered. 7 And thus
Octavius began: "I will indeed speak as I shall be able to the best of my powers, and you
must endeavour with me to dilute the very offensive strain of recriminations in the river
of veracious words. Nor will I disguise in the outset, that the opinion of my friend
Natalis has swayed to and fro in such an erratic, vague, and slippery manner, that we are
compelled to doubt whether your information was confused, or whether it wavered backwards
and forwards by mere mistake. For he varied at one time from believing the gods, at
another time to being in a state of hesitation on the subject; so that the direct purpose
of my reply was established with the greater uncertainty, by reason of the uncertainty of
his proposition. But in my friend Natalis-I will not allow, I do not believe in, any
chicanery-far from his simplicity is crafty trickery. What then? As he who knows not the
right way, when as it happens one road is separated into many, because he knows not the
way, remains in anxiety, and dares neither make choice of particular roads, nor try them
all; so, if a man has no stedfast judgment of truth, even as his unbelieving suspicion is
scattered, so his doubting opinion is unsettled. It is therefore no wonder if Caecilius in
the same way is cast about by the tide, and tossed hither and thither among things
contrary and repugnant to one another;

8 but that this may no longer be the case, I will convict and refute all that has been
said, however diverse, confirming and approving the truth alone; and for the future he
must neither doubt nor waver. And since my brother broke out in such expressions as these,
that he was grieved, that he was vexed, that he was indignant, that he regretted that
illiterate, poor, unskilled people should dispute about heavenly things; let him know that
all men are begotten alike, with a capacity and ability of reasoning and feeling, without
preference of age, sex, or dignity. Nor do they obtain wisdom by fortune, but have it
implanted by nature; moreover, the very philosophers themselves, or any others who have
gone forth unto celebrity as discoverers of arts, before they attained an illustrious name
by their mental skill, were esteemed plebeian, untaught, half-naked. Thus it is, that rich
men, attached to their means, have been accustomed to gaze more upon their gold than upon
heaven, while our sort of people, though poor, have both discovered wisdom, and have
delivered their teaching to others; whence it appears that intelligence is not given to
wealth, nor is gotten by study, but is begotten with the very formation of the mind.
Therefore it is nothing to be angry or to be grieved about, though any one should inquire,
should think, should utter his thoughts about divine things; since what is wanted is not
the authority of the arguer, but the truth of the argument itself:

9 and even the more unskilled the discourse, the more evident the reasoning, since it is
not coloured by the pomp of eloquence and grace; but as it is, it is sustained by the rule
of right. 10 Chapter XVII.-Argument: Man Ought Indeed to Know Himself, But This Knowledge
Cannot Be Attained by Him Unless He First of All Acknowledges the Entire Scope of Things,
and God Himself. And from the Constitution and Furniture of the World Itself, Every One
Endowed with Reason Holds that It Was Established by God, and is Governed and Administered
by Him. 11 "Neither do I refuse to admit what Caecilius earnestly endeavoured to maintain
among the chief matters, that man ought to know himself, and to took around and see what
he is, whence he is, why he is; whether collected together from the elements, or
harmoniously formed of atoms, or rather made, formed, and animated by God. And it is this
very thing which we cannot seek out and investigate without inquiry into the universe;
since things are so coherent, so linked and associated together, that unless you
diligently examine into the nature of divinity, you must be ignorant of that of humanity.
Nor can you well perform your social duty unless you know that community of the world
which is common to all, especially since in this respect we differ from the wild beasts,
that while they are prone and tending to the earth, and are born to look upon nothing but
their food, we, whose countenance is erect, whose look is turned towards heaven, as is our
converse and reason, whereby we recognise, feel, and imitate God, have neither right nor
reason to be ignorant of the celestial glory which forms itself into our eyes and senses.
For it is as bad as the grossest sacrilege even, to seek on the ground for what you ought
to find on high.

12 Wherefore the rather, they who deny that this furniture of the whole world was
perfected by the divine reason, and assert that it was heaped together by certain
fragments casually adhering to each other, seem to me not to have either mind or sense,
or, in fact, even sight itself. For what can possibly be so manifest, so confessed, and so
evident, when you lift your eyes up to heaven, and look into the things which are below
and around, than that there is some Deity of most excellent intelligence, by whom all
nature is inspired, is moved, is nourished, is governed? Behold the heaven itself, how
broadly it is expanded, how rapidly it is whirled around, either as it is distinguished in
the night by its stars, or as it is lightened in the day by the sun, and you will know at
once how the marvellous and divine balance of the Supreme Governor is engaged therein.
Look also on the year, how it is made by the circuit of the sun; and look on the month,
how the moon drives it around in her increase, her decline, and decay. What shall I say of
the recurring changes of darkness and light; how there is thus provided for us an
alternate restoration of labour and rest?

13 Truly a more prolix discourse concerning the stars must be left to astronomers, whether
as to how they govern the course of navigation, or bring on the season of ploughing or of
reaping, each of which things not only needed a Supreme Artist and a perfect intelligence,
nor only to create, to construct, and to arrange; but, moreover, they cannot be felt,
peceived and understood without the highest intelligence and reason. What! when the order
of the seasons and of the harvests is distinguished by stedfast variety, does it not
attest its Author and Parent? As well the spring with its flowers, and the summer with its
harvests, and the grateful maturity of autumn, and the wintry olive-gathering, are
needful; and this order would easily be disturbed unless it were established by the
highest intelligence. Now, how great is the providence needed, lest there should be
nothing but winter to blast with its frost, or nothing but summer to scorch with its heat,
to interpose the moderate temperature of autumn and spring, so that the unseen and
harmless transitions of the year returning on its footsteps may glide by! Look attentively
at the sea; it is bound by the law of its shore. Wherever there are trees, look how they
are animated from the bowels of the earth! Consider the ocean; it ebbs and flows with
alternate tides. Look at the fountains, how they gush in perpetual streams! Gaze on the
rivers; they always roll on in regular courses.

14 Why should I speak of the aptly ordered peaks of the mountains, the slopes of the
hills, the expanses of the plains? Wherefore should I speak of the multiform protection
provided by animated creatures against one another?-some armed with horns, some hedged
with teeth, and shod with claws, and barbed with stings, or with freedom obtained by
swiftness of feet, or by the capacity of soaring furnished by wings? The very beauty of
our own figure especially confesses God to be its artificer: our upright stature, our
uplooking countenance, our eyes placed at the top, as it were, for outlook; and all the
rest of our senses as if arranged in a citadel. 15 Chapter XVIII.-Argument: Moreover, God
Not Only Takes Care of the Universal World, But of Its Individual Parts. That by the
Decree of the One God All Things are Governed, is Proved by the Illustration of Earthly
Empires. But Although He, Being Infinite and Immense-And How Great He Is, is Known to
Himself Alone-Cannot Either Be Seen or Named by Us, Yet His Glory is Beheld Most Clearly
When the Use of All Titles is Laid Aside.

16 "It would be a long matter to go through particular instances. There is no member in
man which is not calculated both for the sake of necessity and of ornament; and what is
more wonderful still, all have the same form, but each has certain lineaments modified,
and thus we are each found to be unlike to one another, while we all appear to be like in
general. What is the reason of our being born? what means the desire of begetting? Is it
not given by God, and that the breasts should become full of milk as the offspring grows
to maturity, and that the tender progeny should grow up by the nourishment afforded by the
abundance of the milky moisture? Neither does God have care alone for the universe as a
whole, but also for its parts. Britain is deficient in sunshine, but it is refreshed by
the warmth of the sea that flows around it. The river Nile tempers the dryness of Egypt;
the Euphrates cultivates Mesopotamia; the river Indus makes up for the want of rains, and
is said both to sow and to water the East. Now if, on entering any house, you should
behold everything refined, well arranged, and adorned, assuredly you would believe that a
master presided over it, and that he himself was much better than all those excellent
things.

17 So in this house of the world, when you look upon the heaven and the earth, its
providence, its ordering, its law, believe that there is a Lord and Parent of the universe
far more glorious than the stars themselves, and the parts of the whole world. Unless,
perchance-since there is no doubt as to the existence of providence-you think that it is a
subject of inquiry, whether the celestial kingdom is governed by the power of one or by
the rule of many; and this matter itself does not involve much trouble in opening out, to
one who considers earthly empires, for which the examples certainly are taken from heaven.
When at any time was there an alliance in royal authority which either began with good
faith or ceased without bloodshed? I pass over the Persians who gathered the augury for
their chieftainship from the neighing of horses; and I do not quote that absolutely dead
fable of the Theban brothers. The story about the twins (Romulus and Remus), in respect of
the dominion of shepherds, and of a cottage, is very well known. The wars of the son-in-
law and the father-in-law were scattered over the whole world; and the fortune of so great
an empire could not receive two rulers. Look at other matters. The bees have one king; the
flocks one leader; among the herds there is one ruler.

18 Canst thou believe that in heaven there is a division of the supreme power, and that
the whole authority of that true and divine empire is sundered, when it is manifest that
God, the Parent of all, has neither beginning nor end-that He who gives birth to all gives
perpetuity to Himself-that He who was before the world, was Himself to Himself instead of
the world? He orders everything, whatever it is, by a word; arranges it by His wisdom;
perfects it by His power. He can neither be seen-He is brighter than light; nor can be
grasped-He is purer than touch; nor estimated; He is greater than all perceptions;
infinite, immense, and how great is known to Himself alone. But our heart is too limited
to understand Him, and therefore we are then worthily estimating Him when we say that He
is beyond estimation. I will speak out in what manner I feel. He who thinks that he knows
the magnitude of God, is diminishing it; he who desires not to lessen it, knows it not.
Neither must you ask a name for God. God is His name. We have need of names when a
multitude is to be separated into individuals by the special characteristics of names; to
God, who is alone, the name God is the whole. If I were to call Him Father, you would
judge Him to be earthly; if a King, you would suspect Him to be carnal; if a Lord, you
will certainly understand Him to he mortal.

19 Take away the additions of names, and you will behold His glory. What! is it not true
that I have in this matter the consent of all men? I hear the common people, when they
lift their hands to heaven, say nothing else but Oh God, and God is great, and God is
true, and if God shall permit. Is this the natural discourse of the common people, or is
it the prayer of a confessing Christian? And they who speak of Jupiter as the chief, are
mistaken in the name indeed, but they are in agreement about the unity of the power. 20
Chapter XIX.-Argument: Moreover, the Poets Have Called Him the Parent of Gods and Men, the
Creator of All Things, and Their Mind and Spirit. And, Besides, Even the More Excellent
Philosophers Have Come Almost to the Same Conclusion as the Christians About the Unity of
God. 21 "I hear the poets also announcing `the One Father of gods and men; 'and that such
is the mind of mortal men as the Parent of all has appointed His day. What says the
Mantuan Maro? Is it not even more plain, more apposite, more true? `In the beginning,
'says he, `the spirit within nourishes, and the mind infused stirs the heaven and the
earth, 'and the other members `of the world. Thence arises the race of men and of cattle,
' and every other kind of animal. The same poet in another place calls that mind and
spirit God. For these are his words: `For that God pervades all the lands, and the tracts
of the sea, and the profound heaven, from whom are men and cattle; from whom are rain and
fire.' What else also is God announced to be by us, but mind, and reason, and spirit? Let
us review, if it is agreeable, the teaching of philosophers. Although in varied kinds of
discourse, yet in these matters you will find them concur and agree in this one opinion. I
pass over those untrained and ancient ones who deserved to be called wise men for their
sayings. Let Thales the Milesian be the first of all, for he first of all disputed about
heavenly things. That same Thales the Milesian said that water was the beginning of
things, but that God was that mind which from water formed all things. Ah!

22 a higher and nobler account of water and spirit than to have ever been discovered by
man. It was delivered to him by God. You see that the opinion of this original philosopher
absolutely agrees with ours. Afterwards Anaximenes, and then Diogenes of Apollonia, decide
that the air, infinite and unmeasured, is God. The agreement of these also as to the
Divinity is like ours. But the description of Anaxagoras also is, that God is said to be
the motion of an infinite mind; and the God of Pythagoras is the soul passing to and fro
and intent, throughout the universal nature of things, from whom also the life of all
animals is received. It is a known fact, that Xenophanes delivered that God was all
infinity with a mind; and Antisthenes, that there are many gods of the people, but that
one God of Nature was the chief of all; that Xeuxippus acknowledged as God a natural
animal force whereby all things are governed. What says Democritus? Although the first
discoverer of atoms, does not he especially speak of nature, which is the basis of forms,
and intelligence, as God? Strato also himself says that God is nature. Moreover, Epicurus,
the man who feigns either otiose gods or none at all, still places above all, Nature.
Aristotle varies, but nevertheless assigns a unity of power: for at one time he says that
Mind, at another the World, is God; at another time he sets God above the world.

23 Heraclides of Pontus also ascribes, although in various ways, a divine mind to God.
Theophrastus, and Zeno, and Chrysippus, and Cleanthes are indeed themselves of many forms
of opinion but they are all brought back to the one fact of the unity of providence. For
Cleanthes discoursed of God as of a mind, now of a soul, now of air, but for the most part
of reason. Zeno, his master, will have the law of nature and of God, and sometimes the
air, and sometimes reason, to be the beginning of all things. Moreover, by interpreting
Juno to be the air, Jupiter the heaven, Neptune the sea, Vulcan to be fire, and in like
manner by showing the other gods of the common people to be elements, he forcibly
denounces and overcomes the public error. Chrysippus says almost the same. He believes
that a divine force, a rational nature, and sometimes the world, and a fatal necessity, is
God; and he follows the example of Zeno in his physiological interpretation of the poems
of Hesiod, of Homer, and of Orpheus. Moreover, the teaching of Diogenes of Babylon is that
of expounding and arguing that the birth of Jupiter, and the origin of Minerva, and this
kind, are names for other things, not for gods. For Xenophon the Socratic says that the
form of the true God cannot be seen, and therefore ought not to be inquired after. Aristo
the Stoic says that He cannot at all be comprehended.

24 And both of them were sensible of the majesty of God, while they despaired of
understanding Him. Plato has a clearer discourse about God, both in the matters themselves
and in the names by which he expresses them; and his discourse would be altogether
heavenly, if it were not occasionally fouled by a mixture of merely civil belief.
Therefore in his Timaeus Plato's God is by His very name the parent of the world, the
artificer of the soul, the fabricator of heavenly and earthly things, whom both to
discover he declares is difficult, on account of His excessive and incredible power; and
when you have discovered Him, impossible to speak of in public. The same almost are the
opinions also which are ours. For we both know and speak of a God who is parent of all,
and never speak of Him in public unless we are interrogated. 25 Chapter XX.-Argument: But
If the World is Ruled by Providence and Governed by the Will of One God, an Ignorant
Antipathy Ought Not to Carry Us Away into the Error of Agreement with It: Although
Delighted with Its Own Fables, It Has Brought in Ridiculous Traditions. Nor is It Shown
Less Plainly that the Worship of the Gods Has Always Been Silly and Impious, in that the
Most Ancient of Men Have Venerated Their Kings, Their Illustrious Generals, and Inventors
of Arts, on Account of Their Remarkable Deeds, No Otherwise Than as Gods,

26 "I have set forth the opinions almost of all the philosophers whose more illustrious
glory it is to, have pointed out that there is one God, although with many names; so that
any one might think either that Christians are now philosophers, or that philosophers were
then already Christians. But if the world is governed by providence, and directed by the
will of one God, antiquity of unskilled people ought not, however delighted and charmed
with its own fables, to carry us away into the mistake of a mutual agreement, when it is
rebutted by the opinions of its own philosophers, who are supported by the authority both
of reason and of antiquity. For our ancestors had such an easy faith in falsehoods, that
they rashly believed even other monstrosities as marvellous wonders; a manifold Scylla, a
Chimaera of many forms, and a Hydra rising again from its auspicious wounds, and Centaurs,
horses entwined with their riders; and whatever Report was allowed to feign, they were
entirely willing to listen to. Why should I refer to those old wives' fables, that men
were changed from men into birds and beasts, and from men into trees and flowers?-which
things, if they had happened at all, would happen again; and because they cannot happen
now, therefore never happened at all. In like manner with respect to the gods too, our
ancestors believed carelessly, credulously, with untrained simplicity;

27 while worshipping their kings religiously, desiring to look upon them when dead in
outward forms, anxious to preserve their memories in statues, those things became sacred
which had been taken up merely as consolations. Thereupon, and before the world was opened
up by commerce, and before the nations confounded their rites and customs, each particular
nation venerated its Founder, or illustrious Leader, or modest Queen braver than her sex,
or the discoverer of any sort of faculty or art, as a citizen of worthy memory; and thus a
reward Was given to the deceased, and an example to those who were to follow. 28 Chapter
XXI.-Argument: Octavius Attests the Fact that Men Were Adopted as Gods, by the Testimony
of Euhemerus, Prodicus, Persaeus, and Alexander the Great, Who Enumerate the Country, the
Birthdays, and the Burial-Places of the Gods. Moreover He Sets Forth the Mournful Endings,
Misfortunes, and Deaths of the Gods. And, in Addition, He Laughs at the Ridiculous and
Disgusting Absurdities Which the Heathens Continually Allege About the Form and Appearance
of Their Gods.

29 "Read the writings of the Stoics, or the writings of wise men, you will acknowledge
these facts with me. On account of the merits of their virtue or of some gift, Euhemerus
asserts that they were esteemed gods; and he enumerates their birthdays, their countries,
their places of sepulture, and throughout various provinces points out these circumstances
of the Dictaean Jupiter, and of the Delphic Apollo, and of the Pharian Isis, and of the
Eleusinian Ceres. Prodicus speaks of men who were taken up among the gods, because they
were helpful to the uses of men in their wanderings, by the discovery of new kinds of
produce. Persaeus philosophizes also to the same result; and he adds thereto, that the
fruits discovered, and the discoverers of those same fruits, were called by the same
names; as the passage of the comic writer runs, that Venus freezes without Bacchus and
Ceres. Alexander the Great, the celebrated Macedonian, wrote in a remarkable document
addressed to his mother, that under fear of his power there had been betrayed to him by
the priest the secret of the gods having been men: to her he makes Vulcan the original of
all, and then the race of Jupiter. And you behold the swallow and the cymbal of Isis, and
the tomb of your Serapis or Osiris empty, with his limbs scattered about. Then consider
the sacred rites themselves, and their very mysteries: you will find mournful deaths,
misfortunes, and funerals, and the griefs and wailings of the miserable gods.

30 Isis bewails, laments, and seeks after her lost son, with her Cynocephalus and her bald
priests; and the wretched Isiacs beat their breasts, and imitate the grief of the most
unhappy mother. By and by, when the little boy is found, Isis rejoices, and the priests
exult, Cynocephalus the discoverer boasts, and they do not cease year by year either to
lose what they find, or to find what they lose. Is it not ridiculous either to grieve for
what you worship, or to worship that over which you grieve? Yet these were formerly
Egyptian rites, and now are Roman ones. Ceres with her torches lighted, and surrounded
with a serpent, with anxiety and solicitude tracks the footsteps of Proserpine, stolen
away in her wandering, and corrupter. These are the Eleusinian mysteries. And what are the
sacred rites of Jupiter? His nurse is a she-goat, and as an infant he is taken away from
his greedy father, lest he should be devoured; and clanging uproar is dashed out of the
cymbals of the Corybantes, lest the father should hear the infant's wailing. Cybele of
Dindymus-I am ashamed to speak of it-who could not entice her adulterous lover, who
unhappily was pleasing to her, to lewdness, because she herself, as being the mother of
many gods, was ugly and old, mutilated him, doubtless that she might make a god of the
eunuch. On account of this story, the Galli also worship her by the punishment of their
emasculated body. Now certainly these things are not sacred rites, but tortures.

31 What are the very forms and appearances (of the gods)? do they not argue the
contemptible and disgraceful characters of your gods? Vulcan is a lame god, and crippled;
Apollo, smooth-faced after so many ages; Aesculapius well bearded, notwithstanding that he
is the son of the ever youthful Apollo; Neptune with sea-green eyes; Minerva with eyes
bluish grey; Juno with ox-eyes; Mercury with winged feet; Pan with hoofed feet; Saturn
with feet in fetters; Janus, indeed, wears two faces, as if that he might walk with looks
turned back; Diana sometimes is a huntress, with her robe girded up high; and as the
Ephesian she has many and fruitful breasts; and when exaggerated as Trivia, she is
horrible with three heads and with many hands. What is your Jupiter himself? Now he is
represented in a statue as beardless, now he is set up as bearded; and when he is called
Hammon, he has horns; and when Capitolinus, then he wields the thunderbolts; and when
Latiaris, he is sprinkled with gore; and when Feretrius, he is not approached; and not to
mention any further the multitude of Jupiters, the monstrous appearances of Jupiter are as
numerous as his names. Erigone was hanged from a noose, that as a virgin she might be
glowing among the stars. The Castors die by turns, that they may live. Aesculapius, that
he may rise into a god, is struck with a thunderbolt. Hercules, that he may put off
humanity, is burnt up by the fires of Oeta.

32 Chapter XXII.-Argument: Moreover, These Fables, Which at First Were Invented by
Ignorant Men, Were Afterwards Celebrated by Others, and Chiefly by Poets, Who Did No
Little Mischief to the Truth by Their Authority. By Fictions of This Kind, and by
Falsehoods of a Yet More Attractive Nature, the Minds of Young People are Corrupted, and
Thence They Miserably Grow Old in These Beliefs, Although, on the Other Hand, the Truth is
Obvious to Them If They Will Only Seek After It. 33 "These fables and errors we both learn
from ignorant parents, and, what is more serious still, we elaborate them in our very
studies and instructions, especially in the verses of the poets, who as much as possible
have prejudiced the truth by their authority. And for this reason Plato rightly expelled
from the state which he had founded in his discourse, the illustrious Homer whom he had
praised and crowned. For it was he especially who in the Trojan was allowed your gods,
although he made jests of them, still to interfere in the affairs and doings of men: he
brought them together in contest; he wounded Venus; he bound, wounded, and drove away
Mars. He relates that Jupiter was set free by Briareus, so as not to be bound fast by the
rest of the gods; and that he bewailed in showers of blood his son Sarpedon, because he
could not snatch him from death; and that, enticed by the girdle of Venus, he lay more
eagerly with his wife Juno than he was accustomed to do with his adulterous loves.
Elsewhere Hercules threw out dung, and Apollo is feeding cattle for Admetus. Neptune,
however, builds walls for Laomedon, and the unfortunate builder did not receive the wages
for his work. Then Jupiter's thunderbolt is fabricated on the anvil with the arms of
Aeneas, although there were heaven, and thunderbolts, and lightnings long before Jupiter
was born in Crete; and neither could the Cyclops imitate, nor Jupiter himself help
fearing, the flames of the real thunderbolt.

34 Why should I speak of the detected adultery of Mars and Venus, and of the violence of
Jupiter against Ganymede,-a deed consecrated, (as you say,) in heaven? And all these
things have been put forward with this view, that a certain authority might be gained for
the vices of men. By these fictions, and such as these, and by lies of a more attractive
kind, the minds of boys are corrupted; and with the same fables clinging to them, they
grow up even to the strength of mature age; and, poor wretches, they grow old in the same
beliefs, although the truth is plain, if they will only seek after it. For all the writers
of antiquity, both Greek and Roman, have set forth that Saturn, the beginner of this race
and multitude, was a man. Nepos knows this, and Cassius in his history; and Thallus and
Diodorus speak the same thing. This Saturn then, driven from Crete, by the fear of his
raging son, had come to Italy, and, received by the hospitality of Janus, taught those
unskilled and rustic men many things,-as, being something of a Greek, and polished,-to
print letters for instance, to coin money, to make instruments. Therefore he preferred
that his hiding-place, because he had been safely hidden (latent) there, should be called
Latium; and he gave a city, from his own name, the name of Saturnia, and Janus, Janiculum,
so that each of them left their names to the memory of posterity.

35 Therefore it was certainly a man that fled, certainly a man who was concealed, and the
father of a man, and sprung from a man. He was declared, however, to be the son of earth
or of heaven, because among the Italians he was of unknown parents; as even to this day we
call those who appear unexpectedly, sent from heaven, those who are ignoble and unknown,
sons of the earth. His son Jupiter reigned at Crete after his father was driven out. There
he died, there he had sons. To this day the cave of Jupiter is visited, and his sepulchre
is shown, and he is convicted of being human by those very sacred rites of his. 36 Chapter
XXIII.-Argument: Although the Heathens Acknowledge Their Kings to Be Mortal, Yet They
Feign that They are Gods Even Against Their Own Will, Not Because of Their Belief in Their
Divinity, But in Honour of the Power that They Have Exerted. Yet a True God Has Neither
Rising Nor Setting. Thence Octavius Criticises the Images and Shrines of the Gods.

37 "It is needless to go through each individual case, and to develope the entire series
of that race, since in its first parents their mortality is proved, and must have flowed
down into the rest by the very law of their succession, unless perhaps you fancy that they
were gods after death; as by the perjury of Proculus, Romulus became a god; and by the
good-will of the Mauritanians, Juba is a god; and other kings are divine who are
consecrated, not in the faith of their divinity, but in honour of the power that they
exercised. Moreover, this name is ascribed to those who are unwilling to bear it. They
desire to persevere in their human condition. They fear that they may be made gods;
although they are already old men, they do not wish it. Therefore neither are gods made
from dead people, since a god cannot die; nor of people that are born, since everything
which is born dies. But that is divine which has neither rising nor setting. For why, if
they were born, are they not born in the present day also?-unless, perchance, Jupiter has
already grown old, and child-bearing has failed in Juno, and Minerva has grown grey before
she has borne children. Or has that process of generation ceased, for the reason that no
assent is any longer yielded to fables of this kind? Besides, if the gods could create,
they could not perish: we should have more gods than all men together;

38 so that now, neither would the heaven contain them, nor the air receive them, nor the
earth bear them. Whence it is manifest, that those were men whom we both read of as having
been born, and know to have died. Who therefore doubts that the common people pray to and
publicly worship the consecrated images of these men; in that the belief and mind of the
ignorant is deceived by the perfection of art, is blinded by the glitter of gold, is
dimmed with the shining of silver and the whiteness of ivory? But if any one were to
present to his mind with what instruments and with what machinery every image is formed,
he would blush that he had feared matter, treated after his fancy by the artificer to make
a god. For a god of wood, a portion perhaps of a pile, or of an unlucky log, is hung up,
is cut, is hewn, is planed; and a god of brass or of silver, often from an impure vessel,
as was done by the Egyptian king, is fused, is beaten with hammers and forged on anvils;
and the god of stone is cut, is sculptured, and is polished by some abandoned man, nor
feels the injury done to him in his nativity, any more than afterwards it feels the
worship flowing from your veneration; unless perhaps the stone, or the wood, or the silver
is not yet a god. When, therefore, does the god begin his existence?

39 Lo, it is reeked, it is wrought, it is sculptured-it is not yet a god; lo, it is
soldered, it is built together-it is set up, and even yet it is not a god; lo, it is
adorned, it is consecrated, it is prayed to-then at length it is a god, when man has
chosen it to be so, and for the purpose has dedicated it.


THE OCTAVIUS OF MINUCIUS FELIX
==============================

THE OCTAVIUS OF MINUCIUS FELIX continued

CHAPTER XXIV.-ARGUMENT: HE BRIEFLY SHOWS, MOREOVER, WHAT RIDICULOUS, OBSCENE, AND CRUEL RITES WERE OBSERVED IN CELEBRATING THE MYSTERIES OF CERTAIN GODS.

1 "How much more truly do dumb animals naturally judge concerning your gods? Mice,
swallows, kites, know that they have no feeling: they gnaw them, they trample on them,
they sit upon them; and unless you drive them off, they build their nests in the very
mouth of your god. Spiders, indeed, weave their webs over his face, and suspend their
threads from his very head. You wipe, cleanse, scrape, and you protect and fear those whom
you make; while not one of you thinks that he ought to know God before he worships Him;
desiring without consideration to obey their ancestors, choosing rather to become an
addition to the error of others, than to trust themselves; in that they know nothing of
what they fear. Thus avarice has been consecrated in gold and silver; thus the form of
empty statues has been established; thus has arisen Roman superstition. And if you
reconsider the rites of these gods, how many things are laughable, and how many also
pitiable! Naked people run about in the raw winter; some walk bonneted, and carry around
old bucklers, or beat drums, or lead their gods a-begging through the streets. Some fanes
it is permitted to approach once a year, some it is forbidden to visit at all. There is
one place where a man may not go, and there are some that are sacred from women: it is a
crime needing atonement for a slave even to be present at some ceremonies.

2 Some sacred places are crowned by a woman having one husband, some by a woman with many;
and she who can reckon up most adulteries is sought after with most religious zeal. What!
would not a man who makes libations of his own blood, and supplicates (his god) by his own
wounds, be better if he were altogether profane, than religious in such a way is this? And
he whose shameful parts are cut off, how greatly does he wrong God in seeking to
propitiate Him in this manner! since, if God wished for eunuchs, He could bring them as
such into existence, and would not make them so afterwards. Who does not perceive that
people of unsound mind, and of weak and degraded apprehension, are foolish in these
things, and that the very multitude of those who err affords to each of them mutual
patronage? Here the defence of the general madness is the multitude of the mad people.

3 Chapter XXV.-Argument: Then He Shows that Caecilius Had Been Wrong in Asserting that the
Romans Had Gained Their Power Over the Whole World by Means of the Due Observance of
Superstitions of This Kind. Rather the Romans in Their Origin Were Collected by Crime, and
Grew by the Terrors of Their Ferocity. And Therefore the Romans Were Not So Great Because
They Were Religious, But Because They Were Sacrilegious with Impunity. 4 "Nevertheless,
you will say that that very superstition itself gave, increased, and established their
empire for the Romans, since they prevailed not so much by their valour as by their
religion and piety. Doubtless the illustrious and noble justice of the Romans had its
beginning from the very cradle of the growing empire. Did they not in their origin, when
gathered together and fortified by crime, grow by the terror of their own fierceness? For
the first people were assembled together as to an asylum. Abandoned people, profligate,
incestuous, assassins, traitors, had flocked together; and in order that Romulus himself,
their commander and governor, might excel his people in guilt, he committed fratricide.
These are the first auspices of the religious state! By and by they carried off, violated,
and ruined foreign virgins, already betrothed, already destined for husbands, and even
some young women from their marriage vows-a thing unexampled -and then engaged in war with
their parents, that is, with their fathers-in-law, and shed the blood of their kindred.
What more irreligious, what more audacious, what could be safer than the very confidence
of crime? Now, to drive their neighbours from the land, to overthrow the nearest cities,
with their temples and altars, to drive them into captivity, to grow up by the losses of
others and by their own crimes, is the course of training common to the rest of the kings
and the latest leaders with Romulus. Thus, whatever the Romans hold, cultivate, possess,
is the spoil of their audacity.

5 All their temples are built from the spoils of violence, that is, from the ruins of
cities, from the spoils of the gods, from the murders of priests. This is to insult and
scorn, to yield to conquered religions, to adore them when captive, after having
vanquished them. For to adore what you have taken by force, is to consecrate sacrilege,
not divinities. As often, therefore, as the Romans triumphed, so often they were polluted;
and as many trophies as they gained from the nations, so many spoils did they take from
the gods. Therefore the Romans were not so great because they were religious, but because
they were sacrilegious with impunity. For neither were they able in the wars themselves to
have the help of the gods against whom they took up arms; and they began to worship those
when they were triumphed over, whom they had previously challenged. But what avail such
gods as those on behalf of the Romans, who had had no power on behalf of their own
worshippers against the Roman arms? For we know the indigenous gods of the Romans-Romulus,
Picus, Tiberinus, and Consus, and Pilumnus, and Picumnus. Tatius both discovered and
worshipped Cloacina; Hostilius, Fear and Pallor. Subsequently Fever was dedicated by I
know not whom: such was the superstition that nourished that city,-diseases and ill states
of health. Assuredly also Acca Laurentia, and Flora, infamous harlots, must be reckoned
among the diseases and the gods of the Romans.

6 Such as these doubtless enlarged the dominion of the Romans, in opposition to others who
were worshipped by the nations: for against their own people neither did the Thracian
Mars, nor the Cretan Jupiter, nor Juno, now of Argos, now of Samos, now of Carthage, nor
Diana of Tauris, nor the Idaean Mother, nor those Egyptian-not deities, but monstrosities-
assist them; unless perchance among the Romans the chastity of virgins was greater, or the
religion of the priests more holy: though absolutely among very many of the virgins
unchastity was punished, in that they, doubtless without the knowledge of Vesta, had
intercourse too carelessly with men; and for the rest their impunity arose not from the
better protection of their chastity, but from the better fortune of their immodesty. And
where are adulteries better arranged by the priests than among the very altars and
shrines? where are more panderings debated, or more acts of violence concerted? Finally,
burning lust is more frequently gratified in the little chambers of the keepers of the
temple, than in the brothels themselves. And still, long before the Romans, by the
ordering of God, the Assyrians held dominion, the Medes, the Persians, the Greeks also,
and the Egyptians, although they had not any Pontiffs, nor Arvales, nor Salii, nor
Vestals, nor Augurs, nor chickens shut up in a coop, by whose feeding or abstinence the
highest concerns of the state were to be governed.

7 Chapter XXVI.-Argument: the Weapon that Caecilius Had Slightly Brandished Against Him,
Taken from the Auspices and Auguries of Birds, Octavius Retorts by Instancing the Cases of
Regulus, Mancinus, Paulus, and Caesar. And He Shows by Other Examples, that the Argument
from the Oracles is of No Greater Force Than the Others. 8 "And now I come to those Roman
auspices and auguries which you have collected with extreme pains, and have borne
testimony that they were both neglected with ill consequences, and observed with good
fortune. Certainly Clodius, and Flaminius, and Junius lost their armies on this account,
because they did not judge it well to wait for the very solemn omen given by the greedy
pecking of the chickens. But what of Regulus? Did he not observe the auguries, and was
taken captive? Mancinus maintained his religious duty, and was sent under the yoke, and
was given up. Paulus also had greedy chickens at Cannae, yet he was overthrown with the
greater part of the republic. Caius Caesar despised the auguries and auspices that
resisted his making his voyage into Africa before the winter, and thus the more easily he
both sailed and conquered. But what and how much shall I go on to say about oracles? After
his death Amphiaraus answered as to things to come, though he knew not (while living) that
he should be betrayed by his wife on account of a bracelet. The blind Tiresias saw the
future, although he did not see the present. Ennius invented the replies of the Pythian
Apollo concerning Pyrrhus, although Apollo had already ceased to make verses; and that
cautious and ambiguous oracle of his, failed just at the time when men began to be at once
more cultivated and less credulous. And Demosthenes, because he knew that the answers were
feigned, complained that the Pythia philippized.

9 But sometimes, it is true, even auspices or oracles have touched the truth. Although
among many falsehoods chance might appear as if it imitated forethought; yet I will
approach the very source of error and perverseness, whence all that obscurity has flowed,
and both dig into it more deeply, and lay it open more manifestly. There are some
insincere and vagrant spirits degraded from their heavenly vigour by earthly stains and
lusts. Now these spirits, after having lost the simplicity of their nature by being
weighed down and immersed in vices, for a solace of their calamity, cease not, now that
they are ruined themselves, to ruin others; and being depraved themselves, to infuse into
others the error of their depravity and being themselves alienated from God, to separate
others from God by the introduction of degraded superstitions. The poets know that those
spirits are demons; the philosophers discourse of them; Socrates knew it, who, at the nod
and decision of a demon that was at his side, either declined or undertook affairs. The
Magi, also, not only know that there are demons, but, moreover, whatever miracle they
affect to perform, do it by means of demons; by their aspirations and communications they
show their wondrous tricks, making either those things appear which are not, or those
things not to appear which are. Of those magicians, the first both in eloquence and in
deed, Sosthenes, not only describes the true God with fitting majesty, but the angels that
are the ministers and messengers of God, even the true God.

10 And he knew that it enhanced His veneration, that in awe of the very nod and glance of
their Lord they should tremble. The same man also declared that demons were earthly,
wandering, hostile to humanity. What said Plato, who believed that it was a hard thing to
find out God? Does not he also, without hesitation, tell of both angels and demons? And in
his Symposium also, does not he endeavour to explain the nature of demons? For he will
have it to be a substance between mortal and immortal-that is, mediate between body and
spirit, compounded by mingling of earthly weight and heavenly lightness; whence also he
warns us of the desire of love, and he says that it is moulded and glides into the human
breast, and stirs the senses, and moulds the affections, and infuses the ardour of lust.
11 Chapter XXVII.-Argument: Recapitulation. Doubtless Here is a Source of Error: Demons
Lurk Under the Statues and Images, They Haunt the Fanes, They Animate the Fibres of the
Entrails, Direct the Flights of Birds, Govern the Lots, Pour Forth Oracles Involved in
False Responses. These Things Not from God; But They are Constrained to Confess When They
are Adjured in the Name of the True God, and are Driven from the Possessed Bodies. Hence
They Flee Hastily from the Neighbourhood of Christians, and Stir Up a Hatred Against Them
in the Minds of the Gentiles Who Begin to Hate Them Before They Know Them.

12 "These impure spirits, therefore-the demons-as is shown by the Magi, by the
philosophers, and by Plato, consecrated under statues and images, lurk there, and by their
afflatus attain the authority as of a present deity; while in the meantime they are
breathed into the prophets, while they dwell in the shrines, while sometimes they animate
the fibres of the entrails, control the flights of birds, direct the lots, are the cause
of oracles involved in many falsehoods. For they are both deceived, and they deceive;
inasmuch as they are both ignorant of the simple truth, and for their own ruin they
confess not that which they know. Thus they weigh men downwards from heaven, and call them
away from the true God to material things: they disturb the life, render all men unquiet;
creeping also secretly into human bodies, with subtlety, as being spirits, they feign
diseases, alarm the minds, wrench about the limbs; that they may constrain men to worship
them, being gorged with the fumes of altars or the sacrifices of cattle, that, by
remitting what they had bound, they may seem to have cured it. These raging maniacs also,
whom you see rush about in public, are moreover themselves prophets without a temple; thus
they rage, thus they rave, thus they are whirled around. In them also there is a like
instigation of the demon, but there is a dissimilar occasion for their madness.

13 From the same causes also arise those things which were spoken of a little time ago by
you, that Jupiter demanded the restoration of his games in a dream, that the Castors
appeared with horses, and that a Small ship was following the leading of the matron's
girdle. A great many, even some of your own people, know all those things that the demons
themselves confess concerning themselves, as often as they are driven by us from bodies by
the torments of our words and by the fires of our prayers. Saturn himself, and Serapis,
and Jupiter, and whatever demons you worship, overcome by pain, speak out what they are;
and assuredly they do not lie to their own discredit, especially when any of you are
standing by. Since they themselves are the witnesses that they are demons, believe them
when they confess the truth of themselves; for when abjured by the only and true God,
unwillingly the wretched beings shudder in their bodies, and either at once leap forth, or
vanish by degrees, as the faith of the sufferer assists or the grace of the healer
inspires. Thus they fly from Christians when near at hand, whom at a distance they
harassed by your means in their assemblies. And thus, introduced into the minds of the
ignorant, they secretly sow there a hatred of us by means of fear. For it is natural both
to hate one whom you fear, and to injure one whom you have feared, if you can.

14 Thus they take possession of the minds and obstruct the hearts, that men may begin to
hate us before they know us; lest, if known, they should either imitate us, or not be able
to condemn us. 15 Chapter XXVIII.-Argument: Nor is It Only Hatred that They Arouse Against
the Christians, But They Charge Against Them Horrid Crimes, Which Up to This Time Have
Been Proved by Nobody. This is the Work of Demons. For by Them a False Report is Both Set
on Foot and Propagated. The Christians are Falsely Accused of Sacrilege, of Incest, of
Adultery, of Parricide; And, Moreover, It is Certain and True that the Very Same Crimes,
or Crimes Like to or Greater Than These, are in Fact Committed by the Gentiles Themselves.
16 "But how unjust it is, to form a judgment on things unknown and unexamined, as you do!
Believe us ourselves when penitent, for we also were the same as you, and formerly, while
yet blind and obtuse, thought the same things as you; to wit, that the Christians
worshipped monsters, devoured infants, mingled in incestuous banquets. And we did not
perceive that such fables as these were always set afloat by those (newsmongers), and were
never either inquired into nor proved; and that in so long a time no one had appeared to
betray (their doings), to obtain not only pardon for their crime, but also favour for its
discovery: moreover, that it was to this extent not evil, that a Christian, when accused,
neither blushed nor feared, and that he only repented that he had not been one before. We,
however, when we undertook to defend and protect some sacrilegious and incestuous persons,
and even parricides, did not think that these (Christians) were to be heard at all.
Sometimes even, when we affected to pity them, we were more cruelly violent against them,
so as to torture them when they confessed, that they might deny, to wit, that they might
not perish; making use of a perverse inquisition against them, not to elicit the truth,
but to compel a falsehood.

17 And if any one, by reason of greater weakness, overcome with suffering, and conquered,
should deny that he was a Christian, we showed favour to him, as if by forswearing that
name he had at once atoned for all his deeds by that simple denial. Do not you acknowledge
that we felt and did the same as you feel and do? when, if reason and not the instigation
of a demon were to judge, they should rather have been pressed not to disavow themselves
Christians, but to confess themselves guilty of incests, of abominations, of sacred rites
polluted, of infants immolated. For with these and such as these stories, did those same
demons fill up the ears of the ignorant against us, to the horror of their execration. Nor
yet was it wonderful, since the common report of men, which is, always fed by the
scattering of falsehoods, is wasted away when the truth is brought to light. Thus this is
the business of demons, for by them false rumours are both sown and cherished. Thence
arises what you say that you hear, that an ass's head is esteemed among us a divine thing.
Who is such a fool as to worship this? Who is so much more foolish as to believe that it
is an object of worship? unless that you even consecrate whole asses in your stables,
together with your Epona, and religiously devour those same asses with Isis.

18 Also you offer up and worship the heads of oxen and of wethers, and you dedicate gods
mingled also of a goat and a man, and gods with the faces of dogs and lions. Do you not
adore and feed Apis the ox, with the Egyptians? And you do not condemn their sacred rites
instituted in honour of serpents, and crocodiles, and other beasts, and birds, and fishes,
of which if any one were to kill one of these gods, he is even punished with death. These
same Egyptians, together with very many of you, are not more afraid of Isis than they are
of the pungency of onions, nor of Serapis more than they tremble. at the basest noises
produced by the foulness of their bodies. He also who fables against us about our
adoration of the members of the priest, tries to confer upon us what belongs really to
himself. (Ista enim impudicitaeeorum forsitan sacra sint, apud quos sexus omnis membris
omnibus prostat, apud quos iota impudicitia vocatur urbanitas; qui scortorum
licentiaeinvident, qui medios viros lambunt, libidinoso ore inguinibus inhaerescunt,
homines malae linguae etiam si tacerent, quos prius tae descit impudicitiae suae quam
pudescit. Abomination! they suffer on themselves such evil deeds, as no age is so
effeminate as to be able to bear, and no slavery so cruel as to be compelled to endure.

19 Chapter XXIX.-Argument: Nor is It More True that a Man Fastened to a Cross on Account
of His Crimes is Worshipped by Christians, for They Believe Not Only that He Was Innocent,
But with Reason that He Was God. But, on the Other Hand, the Heathens Invoke the Divine
Powers of Kings Raised into Gods by Themselves; They Pray to Images, and Beseech Their
Genii. 20 "These, and such as these infamous things, we are not at liberty even to hear;
it is even disgraceful with any more words to defend ourselves from such charges. For you
pretend that those things are done by chaste and modest persons, which we should not
believe to be done at all, unless you proved that they were true concerning yourselves.
For in that you attribute to our religion the worship of a criminal and his cross, you
wander far from the neighbourhood of the truth, in thinking either that a criminal
deserved, or that an earthly being was able, to be believed God. Miserable indeed is that
man whose whole hope is dependent on mortal man, for all his help is put an end to with
the extinction of the man. The Egyptians certainly choose out a man for themselves whom
they may worship; him alone they propitiate; him they consult about all things; to him
they slaughter victims; and he who to others is a god, to himself is certainly a man
whether he will or no, for he does not deceive his own consciousness, if he deceives that
of others. "Moreover, a false flattery disgracefully caresses princes and kings, not as
great and chosen men, as is just, but as gods; whereas honour is more truly rendered to an
illustrious man, and love is more pleasantly given to a very good man. Thus they invoke
their deity, they supplicate their images, they implore their Genius, that is, their
demon;

21 and it is safer to swear falsely by the genius of Jupiter than by that of a king.
Crosses, moreover, we neither worship nor wish for. You, indeed, who consecrate gods of
wood, adore wooden crosses perhaps as parts of your gods. For your very standards, as well
as your banners; and flags of your camp, what else are they but crosses glided and
adorned? Your victorious trophies not only imitate the appearance of a simple cross, but
also that of a man affixed to it. We assuredly see the sign of a cross, naturally, in the
ship when it is carried along with swelling sails, when it glides forward with expanded
oars; and when the military yoke is lifted up, it is the sign of a cross; and when a man
adores God with a pure mind, with hands outstretched. Thus the sign of the cross either is
sustained by a natural reason, or your own religion is formed with respect to it.

22 Chapter XXX.-Argument: the Story About Christians Drinking the Blood of an Infant that
They Have Murdered, is a Barefaced Calumny. But the Gentiles, Both Cruelly Expose Their
Children Newly Born, and Before They are Born Destroy Them by a Cruel Abortion. Christians
are Neither Allowed to See Nor to Hear of Manslaughter. 23 "And now I should wish to meet
him who says or believes that we are initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant.
Think you that it can be possible for so tender, so little a body to receive those fatal
wounds; for any one to shed, pour forth, and drain that new blood of a youngling, and of a
man scarcely come into existence? No one can believe this, except one who can dare to do
it. And I see that you at one time expose your begotten children to wild beasts and to
birds; at another, that you crush them when strangled with a miserable kind of death.
There are some women who, by drinking medical preparations, extinguish the source of the
future man in their very bowels, and thus commit a parricide before they bring forth. And
these things assuredly come don from the teaching of your gods. For Saturn did not expose
his children, but devoured them. With reason were infants sacrificed to him by parents in
some parts of Africa, caresses and kisses repressing their crying, that a weeping victim
might not be sacrificed. Moreover, among the Tauri of Pontus, and to the Egyptian Busiris,
it was a sacred rite to immolate their guests, and for the Galli to slaughter to Mercury
human, or rather inhuman, sacrifices. The Roman sacrificers buried living a Greek man and
a Greek woman, a Gallic man and a Gallic woman; and to this day, Jupiter Latiaris is
worshipped by them with murder;

24 and, what is worthy of the son of Saturn, he is gorged with the blood of an evil and
criminal man. I believe that he himself taught Catiline to conspire under a compact of
blood, and Bellona to steep her sacred rites with a draught of human gore, and taught men
to heal epilepsy with the blood of a man, that is, with a worse disease. They also are not
unlike to him who devour the wild beasts from the arena, besmeared and stained with blood,
or fattened with the limbs or the entrails of men. To us it is not lawful either to see or
to hear of homicide; and so much do we shrink from human blood, that we do not use the
blood even of eatable animals in our food. 25 Chapter XXXI.-Argument: the Charge of Our
Entertainments Being Polluted with Incest, is Entirely Opposed to All Probability, While
It is Plain that Gentiles are Actually Guilty of Incest. The Banquets of Christians are
Not Only Modest, But Temperate. In Fact, Incestuous Lust is So Unheard Of, that with Many
Even the Modest Association of the Sexes Gives Rise to a Blush.

26 "And of the incestuous banqueting, the plotting of demons has falsely devised an
enormous fable against us, to stain the glory of our modesty, by the loathing excited by
an outrageous infamy, that before inquiring into the truth it might turn men away from us
by the terror of an abominable charge. It was thus your own Fronto acted in this respect:
he did not produce testimony, as one who alleged a charge, but he scattered reproaches as
a rhetorician. For these things have rather originated from your own nations. Among the
Persians, a promiscuous association between sons and mothers is allowed. Marriages with
sisters are legitimate among the Egyptians and in Athens. Your records and your tragedies,
which you both read and hear with pleasure, glory in incests: thus also you worship
incestuous gods, who have intercourse with mothers, with daughters, with sisters. With
reason, therefore, is incest frequently detected among you, and is continually permitted.
Miserable men, you may even, without knowing it, rush into what is unlawful: since you
scatter your lusts promiscuously, since you everywhere beget children, since you
frequently expose even those who are born at home to the mercy of others, it is inevitable
that you must come back to your own children, and stray to your own offspring. Thus you
continue the story of incest, even although you have no consciousness of your crime. But
we maintain our modesty not in appearance, but in our heart we gladly abide by the bond of
a single marriage;

27 in the desire of procreating, we know either one wife, or none at all. We practise
sharing in banquets, which are not only modest, but also sober: for we do not indulge in
entertainments nor prolong our feasts with wine; but we temper our joyousness with
gravity, with chaste discourse, and with body even more chaste (divers of us unviolated)
enjoy rather than make a boast of a perpetual virginity of a body. So far, in fact, are
they from indulging in incestuous desire, that with some even the (idea of a) modest
intercourse of the sexes causes a blush. Neither do we at once stand on the level of the
lowest of the people, if we refuse your honours and purple robes; and we are not
fastidious, if we all have a discernment of one good, but are assembled together with the
same quietness with which we live as individuals; and we are not garrulous in corners,
although you either blush or are afraid to hear us in public. And that day by day the
number of us is increased, is not a ground for a charge of error, but is a testimony which
claims praise; for, in a fair mode of life, our actual number both continues and abides
undiminished, and strangers increase it. Thus, in short, we do not distinguish our people
by some small bodily mark, as you suppose, but easily enough by the sign of innocency and
modesty.

28 Thus we love one another, to your regret, with a mutual love, because we do not know
how to hate. Thus we call one another, to your envy, brethren: as being men born of one
God and Parent, and companions in faith, and as fellow-heirs in hope. You, however, do not
recognise one another, and you are cruel in your mutual hatreds; nor do you acknowledge
one another as brethren, unless indeed for the purpose of fratricide. 29 Chapter
XXXII.-Argument: Nor Can It Be Said that the Christians Conceal What They Worship Because
They Have No Temples and No Altars, Inasmuch as They are Persuaded that God Can Be
Circumscribed by No Temple, and that No Likeness of Him Can Be Made. But He is Everywhere
Present, Sees All Things, Even the Most Secret Thoughts of Our Hearts; And We Live Near to
Him, and in His Protection. 30 "But do you think that we conceal what we worship, if we
have not temples and altars? And yet what image of God shall I make, since, if you think
rightly, man himself is the image of God? What temple shall I build to Him, when this
whole world fashioned by His work cannot receive Him? And when I, a man, dwell far and
wide, shall I shut up the might of so great majesty within one little building? Were it
not better that He should be dedicated in our mind, consecrated in our inmost heart? Shall
I offer victims and sacrifices to the Lord, such as He has produced for my use, that I
should throw back to Him His own gift? It is ungrateful when the victim fit for sacrifice
is a good disposition, and a pure mind, and a sincere judgment. Therefore he who
cultivates innocence supplicates God; he who cultivates justice makes offerings to God; he
who abstains from fraudulent practices propitiates God; he who snatches man from danger
slaughters the most acceptable victim. These are our sacrifices, these are our rites of
God's worship; thus, among us, he who is most just is he who is most religious. But
certainly the God whom we worship we neither show nor see. Verily for this reason we
believe Him to be God, that we can be conscious of Him, but cannot see Him;

31 for in His works, and in all the movements of the world, we behold His power ever
present when He thunders, lightens, darts His bolts, or when He makes all bright again.
Nor should you wonder if you do not see God. By the wind and by the blasts of the storm
all things are driven on and shaken, are agitated, and yet neither wind nor tempest comes
under our eyesight. Thus we cannot look upon the sun, which is the cause of seeing to all
creatures: the pupil of the eye is with drawn from his rays, the gaze of the beholder is
dimmed; and if you look too long, all power of sight is extinguished. What! can you
sustain the Architect of the sun Himself, the very source of light, when you turn yourself
away from His lightnings, and hide yourself from His thunderbolts? Do you wish to see God
with your carnal eyes, when you are neither able to behold nor to grasp your own soul
itself, by which you are enlivened and speak? But, moreover, it is said that God is
ignorant of man's doings; and being established in heaven, He can neither survey all nor
know individuals. Thou errest, O man, and art deceived; for from where is God afar off,
when all things heavenly and earthly, and which are beyond this province of the universe,
are known to God, are full of God? Everywhere He is not only very near to us, but He is
infused into us.

32 Therefore once more look upon the sun: it is fixed fast in the heaven, yet it is
diffused over all lands equally; present everywhere, it is associated and mingled with all
things; its brightness is never violated. How much more God, who has made all things, and
looks upon all things, from whom there can be nothing secret, is present in the darkness,
is present in our thoughts, as if in the deep darkness. Not only do we act in Him, but
also, I had almost said, we live with Him.

CHAPTER XXXIII.-ARGUMENT: THAT EVEN IF GOD BE SAID TO HAVE NOTHING AVAILED THE JEWS, CERTAINLY THE WRITERS OF THE JEWISH ANNALS ARE THE MOST SUFFICIENT WITNESSES THAT THEY FORSOOK GOD BEFORE THEY WERE FORSAKEN BY HIM.

1 "Neither let us flatter ourselves concerning our multitude. We seem many to ourselves,
but to God we are very few. We distinguish peoples and nations; to God this whole world is
one family. Kings only know all the matters of their kingdom by the ministrations of their
servants: God has no need of information. We not only live in His eyes, but also in His
bosom. But it is objected that it availed the Jews nothing that they themselves worshipped
the one God with altars and temples, with the greatest superstition. You are guilty of
ignorance if you are recalling later events while you are forgetful or unconscious of
former ones. For they themselves also, as long as they worshipped our God-and He is the
same God of all-with chastity, innocency, and religion, as long as they obeyed His
wholesome precepts, from a few became innumerable, from poor became rich, from being
servants became kings; a few overwhelmed many; unarmed men overwhelmed armed ones as they
fled from them, following them up by God's command, and with the elements striving on
their behalf. Carefully read over their Scrip- tures, or if you are better pleased with
the Roman writings, inquire concerning the Jews in the books (to say nothing of ancient
documents) of Flavius Josephus or Antoninus Julianus, and you shall know that by their
wickedness they deserved this fortune, and that nothing happened which had not before been
predicted to them, if they should persevere in their obstinacy. Therefore you will
understand that they forsook before they were forsaken, and that they were not, as you
impiously say, taken captive with their God, but they were given up by God as deserters
from His discipline.

2 Chapter XXXIV.-Argument: Moreover, It is Not at All to Be Wondered at If This World is
to Be Consumed by Fire, Since Everything Which Has a Beginning Has Also an End. And the
Ancient Philosophers are Not Averse from the Opinion of the Probable Burning Up of the
World. Yet It is Evident that God, Having Made Man from Nothing, Can Raise Him Up from
Death into Life. And All Nature Suggests a Future Resurrection. 3 "Further, in respect of
the burning up of the world, it is a vulgar error not to believe either that fire will
fall upon it in an unforeseen way, or that the world will be destroyed by it. For who of
wise men doubts, who is ignorant, that all things which have had a beginning perish, all
things which are made come to an end? The heaven also, with all things which are contained
in heaven, will cease even as it began. The nourishment of the seas by the sweet waters of
the springs shall pass away into the power of fire. The Stoics have a constant belief
that, the moisture being dried up, all this world will take fire; and the Epicureans have
the very same opinion concerning the conflagration of the elements and the destruction of
the world. Plato speaks, saying that parts of the world are now inundated, and are now
burnt up by alternate changes; and although he says that the world itself is constructed
perpetual and indissoluble, yet he adds that to God Himself, the only artificer, it is
both dissoluble and mortal. Thus it is no wonder if that mass be destroyed by Him by whom
it was reared. You observe that philosophers dispute of the same things that we are
saying, not that we are following up their tracks, but that they, from the divine
announcements of the prophets, imitated the shadow of the corrupted truth.

4 Thus also the most illustrious of the wise men, Pythagoras first, and Plato chiefly,
have delivered the doctrine of resurrection with a corrupt and divided faith; for they
will have it, that the bodies being dissolved, the souls alone both abide for ever, and
very often pass into other new bodies. To these things they add also this, by way of
misrepresenting the truth, that the souls of men return into cattle, birds, and beasts.
Assuredly such an opinion as that is not worthy of a philosopher's inquiry, but of the
ribaldry of a buffoon. But for our argument it is sufficient, that even in this your wise
men do in some measure harmonize with us. But who is so foolish or so brutish as to dare
to deny that man, as he could first of all be formed by God, so can again be re-formed;
that he is nothing after death, and that he was nothing before he began to exist; and as
from nothing it was possible for him to be born, so from nothing it may be possible for
him to be restored? Moreover, it is more difficult to begin that which is not, than to
repeat that which has been. Do you think that, if anything is withdrawn from our feeble
eyes, it perishes to God? Every body, whether it is dried up into dust, or is dissolved
into moisture, or is compressed into ashes, or is attenuated into smoke, is withdrawn from
us, but it is reserved for God in the custody of the elements.

5 Nor, as you believe, do we fear any loss from sepulture, but we adopt the ancient and
better custom of burying in the earth. See, therefore, how for our consolation all nature
suggests a future resurrection. The sun sinks down and arises, the stars pass away and
return, the flowers die and revive again, after their win-try decay the shrubs resume
their leaves, seeds do not flourish again. unless they are rotted: thus the body in the
sepulchre is like the trees which in winter hide their verdure with a deceptive dryness.
Why are you in haste for it to revive and return, while the winter is still raw? We must
wait also for the spring-time of the body. And I am not ignorant that many, in the
consciousness of what they deserve, rather desire than believe that they shall be nothing
after death; for they would prefer to be altogether extinguished, rather than to be
restored for the purpose of punishment. And their error also is enhanced, both by the
liberty granted them in this life, and by God's very great patience, whose judgment, the
more tardy it is, is so much the more just.

CHAPTER XXXV.-ARGUMENT: RIGHTEOUS AND PIOUS MEN SHALL BE REWARDED WITH NEVER-ENDING FELICITY, BUT UNRIGHTEOUS MEN SHALL BE VISITED WITH ETERNAL PUNISHMENT. THE MORALS OF CHRISTIANS ARE FAR MORE HOLY THAN THOSE OF THE GENTILES.

1 "And yet men are admonished in the books and poems of the most learned poets of that
fiery river, and of the heat flowing in manifold turns from the Stygian marsh,-things
which, prepared for eternal torments, and known to them by the information of demons and
from the oracles of their prophets, they have delivered to us. And therefore among them
also even king Jupiter himself swears religiously by the parching banks and the black
abyss; for, with foreknowledge of the punishment destined to him, with his worshippers, he
shudders. Nor is there either measure termination to these torments. There the intelligent
fire burns the limbs and restores them, feeds on them and nourishes them. As the fires of
the thunderbolts strike upon the bodies, and do not consume them; as the fires of Mount
Aetna and of Mount Vesuvius, and of burning where, glow, but are not wasted; so that penal
fire is not fed by the waste of those who burn, but is nourished by the unexhausted eating
away of their bodies. But that they who know not God are deservedly tormented as impious,
as unrighteous persons, no one except a profane man hesitates to believe, since it is not
less wicked to be ignorant of, than to offend the Parent of all, and the Lord of all.

2 And although ignorance of God is sufficient for punishment, even as knowledge of Him is
of avail for pardon, yet if we Christians be compared with you, although in some things
our discipline is inferior, yet we shall be found much better than you. For you forbid,
and yet commit, adulteries; we are born men only for our own wives: you punish crimes when
committed; with us, even to think of crimes is to sin: you are afraid of those who are
aware of what you do; are even afraid of our own conscience alone, without which we cannot
exist: finally, from your numbers the prison boils over; but there is no Christian there,
unless he is accused on account of his religion, or a deserter. 3 Chapter XXXVI.-Argument:
Fate is Nothing, Except So Far as Fate is God. Man's Mind is Free, and Therefore So is His
Action: His Birth is Not Brought into Judgment. It is Not a Matter of Infamy, But of
Glory, that Christians are Reproached for Their Poverty; And the Fact that They Suffer
Bodily Evils is Not as a Penalty, But as a Discipline.

4 "Neither let any one either take comfort from, or apologize for what happens from fate.
Let what happens be of the disposition of fortune, yet the mind is free; and therefore
man's doing, not his dignity, is judged. For what else is fate than what God has spoken of
each one of us? who, since He can foresee our constitution, determines also the fates for
us, according to the deserts and the qualities of individuals. Thus in our case it is not
the star under which we are born that is punished, but the particular nature of our
disposition is blamed. And about fate enough is said; or if, in consideration of the time,
we have spoken too little, we shall argue the matter at another time more abundantly and
more fully. But that many of us are called poor, this is not our disgrace, but our glory;
for as our mind is relaxed by luxury, so it is strengthened by frugality. And yet who can
be poor if he does not want, if he does not crave for the possessions of others, if he is
rich towards God? He rather is poor, who, although he has much, desires more. Yet I will
speak according as I feel. No one can be so poor as he is born. Birds live without any
patrimony, and day by day the cattle are fed; and yet these creatures are born for us-all
of which things, if we do not lust after, we possess.

5 Therefore, as he who treads a road is the happier the lighter he walks, so happier is he
in this journey of life who lifts himself along in poverty, and does not breathe heavily
under the burden of riches. And yet even if we thought wealth useful to us, we should ask
it of God. Assuredly He might be able to indulge us in some measure, whose is the whole;
but we would rather despise riches than possess them: we desire rather innocency, we
rather entreat for patience, we prefer being good to being prodigal; and that we feel and
suffer the human mischiefs of the body is not punishment-it is warfare. For fortitude is
strengthened by infirmities, and calamity is very often the discipline of virtue; in
addition, strength both of mind and of body grows torpid without the exercise of labour.
Therefore all your mighty men whom you announce as an example have flourished
illustriously by their afflictions. And thus God is neither unable to aid us, nor does He
despise us, since He is both the ruler of all men and the lover of His own people. But in
adversity He looks into and searches out each one; He weighs the disposition of every
individual in dangers, even to death at last; He investigates the will of man, certain
that to Him nothing can perish. Therefore, as gold by the fires, so are we declared by
critical moments.

6 Chapter XXXVII.-Argument: Tortures Most Unjustly Inflicted for the Confession of
Christ's Name are Spectacles Worthy of God. A Comparison Instituted Between Some of the
Bravest of the Heathens and the Holy Martyrs. He Declares that Christians Do Not Present
Themselves at Public Shows and Processions, Because They Know Them, with the Greatest
Certainty, to Be No Less Impious Than Cruel. 7 "How beautiful is the spectacle to God when
a Christian does battle with pain; when he is drawn up against threats, and punishments,
and tortures; when, mocking the noise of death, he treads under foot the horror of the
executioner; when he raises up his liberty against kings and princes, and yields to God
alone, whose he is; when, triumphant and victorious, he tramples upon the very man who has
pronounced sentence against him! For he has conquered who has obtained that for which he
contends. What soldier would not provoke peril with greater boldness under the eyes of his
general? For no one receives a reward before his trial, and yet the general does not give
what he has not: he cannot preserve life, but he can make the warfare glorious. But God's
soldier is neither forsaken in suffering, nor is brought to an end by death. Thus the
Christian may seem to be miserable; he cannot be really found to be so. You yourselves
extol unfortunate men to the skies; Mucius Scaevola, for instance, who, when he had failed
in his attempt against the king, would have perished among the enemies unless he had
sacrificed his right hand. And how many of our people have borne that not their right hand
only, but their whole body, should be burned-burned up without any cries of pain,
especially when they had it in their power to be sent away! Do I compare men with Mucius
or Aquilius, or with Regulus?

8 Yet boys and young women among us treat with contempt crosses and tortures, wild beasts,
and all the bugbears of punishments, with the inspired patience of suffering. And do you
not perceive, O wretched men, that there is nobody who either is willing without reason to
undergo punishment, or is able without God to bear tortures? Unless, perhaps, the fact has
deceived you, that those who know not God abound in riches, flourish in honours, and excel
in power. Miserable men! in this respect they are lifted up the higher, that they may fall
down lower. For these are fattened as victims for punishment, as sacrifices they are
crowned for the slaughter. Thus in this respect some are lifted up to empires and
dominations, that the unrestrained exercise of power might make a market of their spirit
to the unbridled licence that is Characteristic of a ruined soul. For, apart from the
knowledge of God, what solid happiness can there be, since death must come? Like a dream,
happiness slips away before it is grasped. Are you a king? Yet you fear as much as you are
feared; and however you may be surrounded with abundant followers, yet you are alone in
the presence of danger. Are you rich? But fortune is ill trusted; and with a large
travelling equipage the brief journey of life is not furnished, but burdened. Do you boast
of the fasces and the magisterial robes?

9 It is a vain mistake of man, and an empty worship of dignity, to glitter in purple and
to be sordid in hind. Are you elevated by nobility of birth? do you praise your parents?
Yet we are all born with one lot; it is only by virtue that we are distinguished. We
therefore, who are estimated by our character and our modesty, reasonably abstain from
evil pleasures, and from your pomps and exhibitions, the origin of which in connection
with sacred things we know, and condemn their mischievous enticements. For in the chariot
games who does not shudder at the madness of the people brawling among themselves? or at
the teaching of murder in the gladiatorial games? In the scenic games also the madness is
not less, but the debauchery is more prolonged: for now a mimic either expounds or shows
forth adulteries; now nerveless player, while he feigns lust, suggests it; the same actor
disgraces your gods by attributing to them adulteries, sighs, hatreds; the same provokes
your tears with pretended sufferings, with vain gestures and expressions. Thus you demand
murder, in fact, while you weep at it in fiction.

10 Chapter XXXVIII.-Argument: Christians Abstain from Things Connected with Idol
Sacrifices, Lest Any One Should Think Either that They Yield to Demons, or that They are
Ashamed of Their Religion. They Do Not Indeed the Colour and Scent of Flowers, for They
are Accustomed to Use Them Scattered About Loosely and Negligently, as Well as to Entwine
Their Necks with Garlands; But to Crown the Head of a Corpse They Think Superfluous and
Useless. Moreover, with the Same Tranquillity with Which They Live They Bury Their Dead,
Waiting with a Very Certain Hope the Crown of Eternal Felicity. Therefore Their Religion,
Rejecting All the Superstitions of the Gentiles, Should Be Adopted as True by All Men. 11
"But that we despise the leavings of sacrifices, and the cups out of which libations have
been poured, is not a confession of fear, but an assertion of our true liberty. For
although nothing which comes into existence as an inviolable gift of God is corrupted by
any agency, yet we abstain, lest any should think either that we are submitting to demons,
to whom libation has been made, or that we are ashamed of our religion. But who is he who
doubts of our indulging ourselves in spring flowers, when we gather both the rose of
spring and the lily, and whatever else is of agreeable colour and odour among the flowers?
For these we both use scattered loose and free, and we twine our necks with them in
garlands. Pardon us, forsooth, that we do not crown our heads; we are accustomed to
receive the scent of a sweet flower in our nostrils, not to inhale it with the back of our
head or with our hair. Nor do we crown the dead. And in this respect I the more wonder at
you, in the way in which you apply to a lifeless person, or to one who does not feel, a
torch; or a garland to one who does not smell it, when either as blessed he does not want,
or, being miserable, he has no pleasure in, flowers. Still we adorn our obsequies with the
same tranquillity with which we live;

12 and we do not bind to us a withering garland, but we wear one living with eternal
flowers from God, since we, being both ate and secure in the liberality of our God, are
animated to the hope of future felicity by the confidence of His present majesty. Thus we
both rise again in blessedness, and are already living in contemplation of the future.
Then let Socrates the Athenian buffoon see to it, confessing that he knew nothing,
although boastful in the testimony of a most deceitful demon; let Arcesilaus also, and
Carneades, and Pyrrho, and all the multitude of the Academic philosophers, deliberate; let
Simonides also for ever put off the decision of his opinion. We despise the bent brows of
the philosophers, whom we know to be corrupters, and adulterers, and tyrants, and ever
eloquent against their own vices. We who bear wisdom not in our dress, but in our mind, we
do not speak meat things, but we live them we boast that we have attained what they have
sought for with the utmost eagerness, and have not been able to find. Why are we
ungrateful? why do we grudge if the truth of divinity has ripened in the age of our time?
Let us enjoy our benefits, and let us in rectitude moderate our judgments; let
superstition be restrained; let impiety be expiated; let true religion be preserved.

CHAPTER XXXIX.-ARGUMENT: WHEN OCTAVIUS HAD FINISHED THIS ADDRESS, MINUCIUS AND CAECILIUS SATE FOR SOME TIME IN ATTENTIVE AND SILENT WONDER. AND MINUCIUS INDEED KEPT SILENCE IN ADMIRATION OF OCTAVIUS, SILENTLY REVOLVING WHAT HE HAD HEARD.

When Octavius had brought his speech to a close, for some time we were struck into
silence, and held our countenances fixed in attention and as for me, I was lost in the
greatness of my admiration, that he had so adorned those things which it is easier to feel
than to say, both by arguments and by examples, and by authorities derived from reading;
and that he had repelled the malevolent objectors with the very weapons of the
philosophers with which they are armed, and had moreover shown the truth not only as easy,
but also as agreeable.

CHAPTER XL.-ARGUMENT: THEN CAECILIUS EXCLAIMS THAT HE IS VANQUISHED BY OCTAVIUS; AND THAT, BEING NOW CONQUEROR OVER ERROR, HE PROFESSES THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. HE POSTPONES, HOWEVER, TILL THE MORROW HIS TRAINING IN THE FULLER BELIEF OF ITS MYSTERIES.

While, therefore, I was silently turning over these things in my own mind, Caecilius broke
forth: "I congratulate as well my Octavius as myself, as much as possible on that
tranquillity in which we live, and I do not wait for the decision. Even thus we have
conquered: not unjustly do I assume to myself the victory. For even as he is my conqueror,
so I am triumphant over error. Therefore, in what belongs to the substance of the
question, I both confess concerning providence, and I yield to God; and I agree concerning
the sincerity of the way of life which is now mine. Yet even still some things remain in
my mind, not as resisting the truth, but as necessary to a perfect training of which on
the morrow, as the sun is already sloping to his setting, we shall inquire at length in a
more fitting and ready manner."

CHAPTER XLI.-ARGUMENT: FINALLY, ALL ARE PLEASED, AND JOYFULLY DEPART: CAECILIUS, THAT HE HAD BELIEVED; OCTAVIUS, THAT HE HAD CONQUERED; AND MINUCIUS, THAT THE FORMER HAD BELIEVED, AND THE LATTER HAD CONQUERED.

"But for myself," said I, "I rejoice more fully on behalf of all of us; because also
Octavius has conquered for me, in that the very great invidiousness of judging is taken
away from me. Nor can I acknowledge by my praises the merit of his words: the testimony
both of man, and of one man only, is weak. He has an illustrious reward from God, inspired
by whom he has pleaded, and aided by whom he has gained the victory." After these things
we departed, glad and cheerful: Caecilius, to rejoice that he had believed; Octavius, that
he had succeeded; and I, that the one had believed, and the other had conquered.


INSTRUCTIONS IN FAVOUR OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE
==============================================

INSTRUCTIONS IN FAVOUR OF CHRISTIAN DISCIPLINE Commodian

3rd century

Latin Christian poet.

I. -PREFACE.

My preface sets forth the way to the wanderer and a good visitation when the goal of life
shall have come, that he may become eternal-a thing which ignorant hearts disbelieve. I in
like manner have wandered for a long time, by giving attendance upon "heathen" fanes, my
parents themselves being ignorant. Thence at length I withdrew myself by reading
concerning the law. I bear witness to the Lord; I grieve alas, the crowd of citizens!
ignorant of what it loses in going to seek vain gods. Thoroughly taught by these things, I
instruct the ignorant in the truth.

II. -GOD'S INDIGNATION.

In the law, the Lord of heaven, and earth, and sea has commanded, saying, Worship not vain
gods made by your own hands out of wood or gold, lest my wrath destroy you for such
things. The people before Moses, unskilled, abiding without law, and ignorant of God,
prayed to gods that perished, after the likenesses of which they fashioned vain idols. The
Lord having brought the Jews out of the land of Egypt, subsequently imposed on them a law;
and the Omnipotent enjoined these things, that they should serve Him alone, and not those
idols. Moreover, in that law is taught concerning the resurrection, and the hope of living
in happiness again in the world, if vain idols be forsaken and not worshipped.

III. -THE WORSHIP OF DEMONS.

When Almighty God, to beautify the nature of the world, willed that that earth should be
visited by angels, when they were sent down they despised His laws. Such was the beauty of
women, that it turned them aside; so that, being contaminated, they could not return to
heaven. Rebels from God, they uttered words against Him. Then the Highest uttered His
judgment against them; and from their seed giants are said to have been born. By them arts
were made known in the earth, and they taught the dyeing of wool, and everything which is
done; and to them, when they died, men erected images. But the Almighty, because they were
of an evil seed, did not approve that, when dead, they should be brought back from death.
Whence wandering they now subvert many bodies, and it is such as these especially that ye
this day worship and pray to as gods.

IV. -SATURN.

And Saturn the old, if he is a god, how does he grow old? Or if he was a god, why was he
driven by his terrors to devour his children? But because he was not a god, he consumed
the bowels of his sons in a monstrous madness. He was a king upon earth, born in the mount
Olympus; and he was not divine, but called himself a god. He fell into weakness of mind,
and swallowed a stone for his son. Thus he became a god; of late he is called Jupiter.

V. -JUPITER.

This Jupiter was born to Saturn in the island of Breta; and when he was grown up, he
deprived his father of the kingdom. He then deluded the wives and sisters of the nobles.
Moreover, Pyracmon, a smith, had made for him a sceptre. In the beginning God made the
heaven, the earth, and the sea. But that frightful creature, born in the midst of time,
went forth as a youth from a cave, and was nourished by stealth. Behold, that God is the
author of all things, not that Jupiter.

VI. -OF THE SAME JUPITER'S THUNDERBOLT.

Ye say, O fools, Jupiter thunders. It is he that hurls thunderbolts; and if it was
childishness that thought thus, why for two hundred years have ye been babies? And will ye
still be so always? Infancy is passed into maturity, old age does not enjoy trifles, the
age of boyhood has departed; let the mind of youth in like manner depart. Your thoughts
ought to belong to the character of men. Thou art then a fool, to believe that it is
Jupiter that thunders. He, born on the earth, is nourished with goats' milk. Therefore if
Saturn had devoured him, who was it in those times that sent rain when he was dead?
Especially, if a god may be thought to be born of a mortal father, Saturn grew old on the
earth, and on the earth he died. There was none that predicted his previous birth. Or if
he thunders, the law would have been given by him. The stories that the poets feign seduce
you. He, however, reigned in Crete, and there died. He who to you is the Almighty became
Alcmena's lover; he himself would in like manner be in love with living men now if he were
alive. Ye pray to unclean gods, and ye call them heavenly who are born of mortal seed from
those giants. Ye hear and ye read that he was born in the earth: whence was it that that
corrupter so well deserved to ascend into heaven? And the Cyclopes are said to have forged
him a thunderbolt; for though he was immortal, he received arms from mortals. Ye have
conveyed to heaven by your authority one guilty of so many crimes, and, moreover, a
parricide of his own relations.

VII. -OF THE SEPTIZONIUM AND THE STARS.

Your want of intelligence deceives you concerning the circle of the zone, and perchance
from that you find out that you must pray to Jupiter. Saturn is told of there, but it is
as a star, for he was driven forth by Jupiter, or let Jupiter be believed to be in the
star. He who controlled the constellations of the pole, and the sower of the soil; he who
made war with the Trojans, he loved the beautiful Venus. Or among the stars themselves
Mars was caught with her by married jealousy: he is called the youthful god. Oh
excessively foolish, to think that those who are born of Maia rule from the stars, or that
they rule the entire nature of the world! Subjected to wounds, and themselves living under
the dominion of the fates, obscene, inquisitive, warriors of an impious life; and they
made sons, equally mortal with themselves, and were all terrible, foolish, strong, in the
sevenfold girdle. If ye worship the stars, worship also the twelve signs "of the zodiac",
as well the ram, the bull, the twins, as the fierce lion; and finally, they go on into
fishes,-cook them and you will prove them. A law without law is your refuge: what wishes
to be, will prevail. A woman desires to be wanton; she seeks to live without restraint. Ye
yourselves will be what ye wish for, and pray to as gods and goddesses. Thus I worshipped
while I went astray, and now I condemn it.

VIII. -OF THE SUN AND MOON.

Concerning the Sun and Moon ye are in error, although they are in our immediate presence;
in that ye, as I formerly did, think that you must pray to them. They, indeed, are among
the stars; but they do not run of their own accord. The Omnipotent, when He established
all things at first, placed them there with the stars, on the fourth day. And, indeed, He
commanded in the law that none should worship them. Ye worship so many gods who promise
nothing concerning life, whose law is not on the earth, nor are they themselves foretold.
But a few priests seduce you, who say that any deity destined to die can be of service.
Draw near now, read, and learn the truth.

IX. -MERCURY.

Let your Mercury be depicted with a Saraballum, and with wings on his helmet or his cap,
and in other respects naked. I see a marvellous thing, a god flying with a little satchel.
Run, poor creatures, with your lap spread open when he flies, that he may empty his
satchel: do ye from thence be prepared. Look on the painted one, since he will thus cast
you money from on high: then dance ye securely. Vain man, art thou not mad, to worship
painted gods in heaven? If thou knowest not how to live, continue to dwell with the
beasts.

X. -NEPTUNE.

1 Ye make Neptune a god descended from Saturn; and he wields a trident that he may spear
the fishes. It is plain by his being thus provided that he is a sea-god. Did not he
himself with Apollo raise up walls for the Trojans? How did that poor stone-mason become a
god? Did not he beget the cyclops-monster? And was he himself when dead unable to live
again, though his structure admitted of this? Thus begotten, he begot who was already once
dead. 2 Ye make Apollo a player on the cithara, and divine. Born at first of Main, in the
isle of Delos, subsequently, for offered wages, a builder, obeying the king Laomedon, he
reared the walls of the Trojans. And he established himself, and ye are seduced into
thinking him a god, in whose bones the love of Cassandra burned, whom the virgin craftily
sported with, and, though a divine being, he is deceived. By his office of augur he was
able to know the double-hearted one. Moreover rejected, he, though divine, departed
thence. Him the virgin burnt up with her beauty, whom he ought to have burnt up; while she
ought first of all to have loved the god who thus lustfully began to love Daphne, and
still follows her up, wishing to violate the maid. The fool loves in vain. Nor can he
obtain her by running. Surely, if he were a god, he would come up with her through the
air. She first came under the roof, and the divine being remained outside. The race of men
deceive you, for they were of a sad way of life. Moreover, he is said to have fed the
cattle of Admetus. While in imposed sports. he threw the quoit into the air, he could not
restrain it as it fell, and it killed his friend. That was the last day of his companion
Hyacinthus. Had he been divine, he would have fore-known the death of his friend.

XII. -FATHER LIBER-BACCHUS.

Ye yourselves say that Father Liber was assuredly twice begotten. First of all he was born
in India of Proserpine and Jupiter, and waging war against the Titans, when his blood was
shed, he expired even as one of mortal men. Again, restored from his death, in another
womb Semele conceived him again of Jupiter, a second Main, whose womb being divided, he is
taken away near to birth from his dead mother, and as a nursling is given to be nourished
to Nisus. From this being twice born he is called Dionysus; and his religion is falsely
observed in vanity; and they celebrate his orgies such that now they themselves seem to be
either foolhardy or burlesquers of Mimnermomerus. They conspire in evil; they practise
beforehand with pretended heat, that they may deceive others into saying that a deity is
present. Hence you manifestly see men living a life like his, violently excited with the
wine which he himself had pressed out; they have given him divine honour in the midst of
their drunken excess.

XIII. -THE UNCONQUERED ONE.

The unconquered one was born from a rock, if he is regarded as a god. Now tell us, then,
on the other hand, which is the first of these two. The rock has overcome the god: then
the creator of the rock has to be sought after. Moreover, you still depict him also as a
thief; although, if he were a god, he certainly did not live by theft. Assuredly he was of
earth, and of a monstrous nature. And he turned other people's oxen into his caves; just
as did Cacus, that son of Vulcan.

XIV. -SYLVANUS.

Whence, again, has Sylvanus appeared to be a god? Perhaps it is agreeable "so to call him"
from this, that the pipe sings sweetly because he bestows the wood; for, perhaps, it might
not be so. Thou hast bought a venal master, when thou shalt have bought from him. Behold
the wood fails! What is due to him? Art thou not ashamed, O fool, w adore such pictures?
Seek one God who will allow you to live after death. Depart from such as have become dead
in life.

XV. -HERCULES.

Hercules, because he destroyed the monster of the Aventine Mount, who had been wont to
steal the herds of Evander, "is a god": the rustic mind of men, untaught also, when they
wished to return thanks instead of praise to the absent thunderer, senselessly vowed
victims as to a god to be besought, they made milky altars as a memorial to themselves.
Thence it arises that he is worshipped in the ancient manner. But he is no god, although
he was strong in arms.

XVI. -OF THE GODS AND GODDESSES.

Ye say that they are gods who are plainly cruel, and ye say that genesis assigns the fates
to you. Now, then, say to whom first of all sacred rites are paid. Between the ways on
either side immature death is straying. If the fates give the generations, why do you pray
to the god? Thou art vainly deceived who art seeking to beseech the manes, and thou namest
them to be lords over thee who are fabricated. Or, moreover, I know not what women you
pray to as goddesses-Bellona and Nemesis the goddesses, together with the celestial Fury,
the Virgins and Venus, for whom your wives are weak in the loins. Besides, there are in
the lanes other demons which are not as yet numbered, and are worn on the neck, so that
they themselves cannot give to themselves an account. Plagues ought rather to be exported
to the ends of the earth.

XVII. -OF THEIR IMAGES.

A few wicked and empty poets delude you; while they seek with difficulty to procure their
living, they adorn falsehood to be for others under the guise of mystery. Thence reigning
to be smitten by some deity, they sing of his majesty, and weary themselves under his
form. Ye have often seen the Dindymarii, with what a din they enter upon luxuries while
they seek to feign the furies, or when they strike their backs with the filthy axe,
although with their teaching they keep what they heal by their blood. Behold in what name
they do not compel those who first of all unite themselves to them with a sound mind. But
that they may take away a gift, they seek such minds. Thence see how all things are
feigned. They cast a shadow over a simple people, lest they should believe, while they
perish, the thing once for all proceeded in vanity from antiquity, that a prophet who
uttered false things might be believed; but their majesty has spoken nought.

XVIII. -OF AMMYDATES AND THE GREAT GOD.

We have already said many things of an abominable superstition, and yet we follow up the
subject, lest we should be said to have passed anything over. And the worshippers
worshipped their Ammydates after their manner. He was great to them when there was gold in
the temple. They placed their heads under his power, as if he were present. It came to the
highest point that Caesar took away the gold. The deity failed, or fled, or passed away
into fire. The author of this wickedness is manifest who formed this same god, and falsely
prophesying seduces so many and so great men, and only was silent about Him who was
accustomed to be divine. For voices broke forth, as if with a changed mind, as if the
wooden god were speaking into his ear. Say now yourselves if they are not false deities?
From that prodigy how many has that prophet destroyed? He forgot to prophesy who before
was accustomed to prophesy; so those prodigies are reigned among those who are greedy of
wine, whose damnable audacity feigns deities, for they were carried about, and such an
image was dried up. For both he himself is silent, and no one prophesies concerning him at
all. But ye wish to ruin yourselves.

XIX. -OF THE VAIN NEMESIACI.

Is it not ignominy, that a prudent man should be seduced and worship such a one, or say
that a log is Diana? You trust a man who in the morning is drunk, costive, and ready to
perish, who by art speaks falsely what is seen by him. While he lives strictly, he feeds
on his own bowels. A detestable one defiles all the citizens; and he has attached to
himself-a similar gathering being made-those with whom he feigns the history, that he may
adorn a god. He is ignorant how to prophesy for himself; for others he dares it. He places
it on his shoulder when he pleases, and again he places it down. Whirling round, he is
turned by himself with the tree of the two-forked one, as if you would think that he was
inspired with the deity of the wood. Ye do not worship the gods whom they themselves
falsely announce; ye worship the priests themselves, fearing them vainly. But if thou art
strong in heart, flee at once from the shrines of death.

XX. -THE TITANS.

Ye say that the Titans are to you "Tutans". Ye ask that these fierce ones should be silent
under your roof, as so many Lares, shrines, images made like to a Titan. For ye foolishly
adore those who have died by an evil death, not reading their own law. They themselves
speak not, and ye dare to call them gods who are melted out of a brazen vessel; ye should
rather melt them into little vessels for yourselves.

XXI. -THE MONTESIANI.

Ye call the mountains also gods. Let them rule in gold, darkened by evil, and aiding with
an averted mind. For if a pure spirit and a serene mind remained to you, thou thyself
ought to examine for thyself concerning them. Thou art become senseless as a man, if thou
thinkest that these can save thee, whether they rule or whether they cease. If thou
seekest anything healthy, seek rather the righteousness of the law, that brings the help
of salvation, and says that you are becoming eternal. For what you shall follow in vanity
rejoices you for a time. Thou art glad for a brief space, and afterwards bewailest in the
depths. Withdraw thyself from these, if thou wilt rise again with Christ.

XXII. -THE DULNESS OF THE AGE.

Alas, I grieve, citizens, that ye are thus blinded by the world. One runs to the lot;
another gazes on the birds; another, having shed the blood of bleating animals, calls
forth the manes, and credulously desires to hear vain responses. When so many leaders and
kings have taken counsel concerning life, what benefit has it been to them to have known
even its portents? Learn, I beg you, citizens, what is good; beware of idol-fanes. Seek,
indeed, all of you, in the law of the Omnipotent. Thus it has pleased the Lord of lords
Himself in the heavens, that demons should wander in the world for our discipline. And
yet, on the other hand, He has sent out His mandates, that they who forsake their altars
shall become inhabitants of heaven. Whence I am not careful to argue this in a small
treatise. The law teaches; it calls on you in your midst. Consider for yourselves. Ye have
entered upon two roads; decide upon the right one.

XXIII.-OF THOSE WHO ARE EVERYWHERE READY.

While thou obeyest the belly, thou sayest that thou art innocent; and, as if courteously,
makest thyself everywhere ready. Woe to thee, foolish man! thou thyself lookest around
upon death. Thou seekest in a barbarous fashion to live without law. Thou thyself hymnest
thyself also to play upon a word, who feignest thyself simple. I live in simplicity with
such a one. Thou believest that thou livest, whilst thou desirest to fill thy belly. To
sit down disgracefully of no account in thy house, ready for feasting, and to run away
from precepts. Or because thou believest not that God will judge the dead, thou foolishly
makest thyself ruler of heaven instead of Him. Thou regardest thy belly as if thou canst
provide for it. Thou seemest at one time to be profane, at another to be holy. Thou
appearest as a suppliant of God, under the aspect of a tyrant. Thou shalt feel in thy
fates by whose law thou art aided.

XXIV. -OF THOSE WHO LIVE BETWEEN THE TWO.

Thou who thinkest that, by living doubtfully between the two, thou art on thy guard, goest
on thy way stript of law, broken down by luxury. Thou art looking forward vainly to so
many things, why seekest thou unjust things? And whatever thou hast done shall there
remain to thee when dead. Consider, thou foolish one, thou wast not, and lo, thou art
seen. Thou knowest not whence thou hast proceeded, nor whence thou art nourished. Thou
avoidest the excellent and benignant God of thy life, and thy Governor, who would rather
wish thee to live. Thou turnest thyself to thyself, and givest thy back to God. Thou
drownest thyself in darkness, whilst thou thinkest thou art abiding in light. Why runnest
thou in the synagogue to the Pharisees, that He may become merciful to thee, whom thou of
thy own accord deniest? Thence thou goest abroad again; thou seekest healthful things.
Thou wishest to live between both ways, but thence thou shalt perish. And, moreover, thou
sayest, Who is He who has redeemed from death, that we may believe in Him, since there
punishments are awarded P Ah! not thus, O malignant man, shall it be as thou thinkest. For
to him who has lived well there is advantage after death. Thou, however, when one day thou
diest, shalt be taken away in an evil place. But they who believe in Christ shah be led
into a good place, and those to whom that delight is given are caressed; but to you who
are of a double mind, against you is punishment without the body. The course of the
tormentor stirs you up to cry out against your brother.

XXV. -THEY WHO FEAR AND WILL NOT BELIEVE.

How long, O foolish man, wilt thou not acknowledge Christ? Thou avoidest the fertile
field, and castest thy seeds on the sterile one. Thou seekest to abide in the wood where
the thief is delaying. Thou sayest, I also am of God; and thou wanderest out of doors. Now
at length, after so many invitations, enter within the palace. Now is the harvest ripe,
and the time so many times prepared. Lo, now reap! What! dost thou not repent? Thence now,
if thou hast not, gather the seasonable wines. The time of believing to life is present in
the time of death. The first law of God is the foundation of the subsequent law. Thee,
indeed, it assigned to believe in the second law. Nor are threats from Himself, but from
it, powerful over thee. Now astounded, swear that thou wilt believe in Christ; for the Old
Testament proclaims concerning Him. For it is needful only to believe in Him who was dead,
to be able to rise again to live for all time. Therefore, if thou art one who disbelievest
that these things shall be, at length he shall be overcome in his guilt in the second
death. I will declare things to come in few words in this little treatise. In it can be
known when hope must be preferred. Still I exhort you as quickly as possible to believe in
Christ.

XXVI. -TO THOSE WHO RESIST THE LAW OF CHRIST THE LIVING GOD.

1 Thou rejectest, unhappy one, the advantage of heavenly discipline, and rushest into
death while wishing to stray without a bridle. Luxury and the shortlived joys of the world
are raining thee, whence thou shalt be tormented in hell for all time. They are vain joys
with which thou art foolishly delighted. Do not these make thee to be a man dead? Cannot
thirty years at length make thee a wise man? Ignorant how thou hast first strayed, look
upon ancient time, thou thinkest now to enjoy here a joyous life in the midst of wrongs.
These are the rains of thy friends, wars, or wicked frauds, thefts with bloodshed: the
body is vexed with sores, and groaning and wailing is indulged; whether a slight disease
invade thee, or thou art held down by long sickness, or thou art bereaved of thy children,
or thou mournest over a lost wife. All is a wilderness: alas, dignities are hurried down
from their height by vices and poverty; doubly so, assuredly, if thou languishest long.
And callest thou it life when this life of glass is mortal? Consider now at length that
this time is of no avail, but in the future you have hope without the craft of living.
Certainly the little children which have been snatched away desired to live. Moreover, the
young men who have been deprived of life, perchance were preparing to grow old, and they
themselves were making ready to enjoy joyful days; and yet we unwillingly lay aside all
things in the world.

2 I have delayed with a perverse mind, and I have thought that the life of this world was
a true one; and I judged that death would come in like manner as ye did-that when once
life had departed, the soul also was dead and perished. These things, however, are not so;
but the Founder and Author of the world has certainly required the brother slain by a
brother. Impious man, say, said He, where is thy brother? and he denied. For the blood of
thy brother has cried aloud to Me to heaven. Thou art tormented, I see, when thou
thoughtest to feel nothing; but he lives and occupies the place on the right hand. He
enjoys delights which thou, O wicked one, hast lost; and when thou hast called back the
world, he also has gone before, and will be immortal: for thou shalt wail in hell.
Certainly God lives, who makes the dead to live, that He may give worthy rewards to the
innocent and to the good; but to the fierce and impious, cruel hell. Commence, O thou who
art led away, to perceive the judgments of God.

XXVII. -O FOOL, THOU DOST NOT DIE TO GOD.

O fool, thou dost not absolutely die; nor, when dead, dost thou escape the lofty One.
Although thou shouldst arrange that when dead thou perceivest nothing, thou shalt
foolishly be overcome. God the Creator of the world liveth, whose laws cry out that the
dead are in existence. But thou, whilst recklessly thou seekest to live without God,
judgest that in death is extinction, and thinkest that it is absolute. God has not ordered
it as thou thinkest, that the dead are forgetful of what they have previously done. Now
has the governor made for us receptacles of death, and after our ashes we shall behold
them. Thou art stripped, O foolish one, who thinkest that by death thou art not, and hast
made thy Ruler and Lord to be able to do nothing. But death is not a mere vacuity, if thou
reconsiderest in thine heart. Thou mayest know that He is to be desired, for late thou
shalt perceive Him. Thou wast the ruler of the flesh; certainly flesh ruled not thee.
Freed from it, the former is buried; thou art here. Rightly is mortal man separated from
the flesh. Therefore mortal eyes will not be able to be equalled (to divine things). Thus
our depth keeps us from the secret of God. Give thou now, whilst in weakness thou art
dying, the honour to God, and believe that Christ will bring thee back living from the
dead. Thou oughtest to give praises in the church to the omnipotent One.

XXVIII. -THE RIGHTEOUS RISE AGAIN.

Righteousness and goodness, peace and true patience, and care concerning one's deeds, make
to live after death. But a crafty mind, mischievous, perfidious, evil, destroys itself by
degrees, and delays in a cruel death. O wicked man, hear now what thou gainest by thy evil
deeds. Look on the judges of earth, who now in the body torture with terrible punishments;
either chastisements are prepared for the deserving by the sword, or to weep in a long
imprisonment. Dost thou, last of all, hope to laugh at the God of heaven and the Ruler of
the sky, by whom all things were made? Thou ragest, thou art mad, and now thou takest away
the name of God, from whom, moreover, thou shalt not escape; and He will award punishments
according to your deeds. Now I would have you be cautious that thou come not to the
burning of fire. Give thyself up at once to Christ, that goodness may attend thee.

XXIX. -TO THE WICKED AND UNBELIEVING RICH MAN.

Thou wilt, O rich man, by insatiably looking too much to all thy wealth, squander those
things to which thou art still seeking to cling. Thou sayest, I do not hope when dead to
live after such things as these. O ungrateful to the great God, who thus judgest thyself
to be a god; to Him who, when thou knewest nothing of it, brought thee forth, and then
nourished thee. He governs thy meadows; He, thy vineyards; He, thy herd of cattle; and He,
whatever thou possessest. Nor dost thou give heed to these things; or thou, perchance,
rulest all things. He who made the sky, and the earth, and the salt seas, decreed to give
us back again ourselves in a golden age. And only if thou believest, thou livest in the
secret of God. Learn God, O foolish man, who wishes thee to be immortal, that thou mayest
give Him eternal thanks in thy struggle. His own law teaches thee; but since thou seekest
to wander, thou disbelievest all things, and thence thou shalt go into hell. By and by
thou givest up thy life; thou shalt be taken where it grieveth thee to be: there the
spiritual punishment, which is eternal, is undergone; there are always wailings: nor dost
thou absolutely die therein-there at length too late proclaiming the omnipotent God.

XXX. -RICH MEN, BE HUMBLE.

Learn, O thou who art about to die, to show thyself good to all. Why, in the midst of the
people, makest thou thyself to be another "than thou art"? Thou goest where thou knowest
not, and ignorantly thence thou departest. Thou managest wickedly with thy very body; thou
thirstest always after riches. Thou exaltest thyself too much on high; and thou bearest
pride, and dost not willingly look on the poor. Now ye do not even feed your parents
themselves when placed under you. Ah, wretched men, let ordinary men flee far from you. He
lived, and I have destroyed him; the poor man cries out εὕρηκα. By and by thou shalt be
driven with the furies of Charybdis, when thou thyself dost perish. Thus ye rich men are
undisciplined, ye give a law to those, ye yourselves not being prepared. Strip thyself, O
rich man turned away from God, of such evils, if assuredly, perchance, what thou hast seen
done may aid thee. Be ye the attendant of God while ye have time. Even as the elm loves
the vine, so love ye people of no account. Observe now, O barren one, the law which is
terrible to the evil, and equally benignant to the good; be humble in prosperity. Take
away, O rich men, hearts of fraud, and take up hearts of peace. And look upon your evil-
doing. Do ye do good? I am here.

XXXI. -TO JUDGES.

Consider the sayings of Solomon, all ye judges; in what way, with one word of his, he
disparages you. How gifts and presents corrupt the judges, thence, thence follows the law.
Ye always love givers; and when there shall be a cause, the unjust cause carries off the
victory. Thus I am innocent; nor do I, a man of no account, accuse you, because Solomon
openly raises the blasphemy. But your god is your belly, and rewards are your laws. Paul
the apostle suggests this, I am not deceitful.

XXXII. -TO SELF-PLEASERS.

If place or time is favourable, or the person has advanced, let there be a new judge. Why
now art thou lifted up thence? Untaught, thou blasphemest Him of whose liberality thou
livest. In such weakness thou dost not ever regard Him. Throughout advances and profits
thou greedily presumest oil fortune. There is no law to thee, nor dost thou discern
thyself in prosperity. Although they may be counted of gold, let the strains of the pipe
always be raving. If thou hast not adored the crucifixion of the Lord, thou hast perished.
Both place and occasion and person are now given to thee, if, however, thou believest; but
if not, thou shalt fear before Him. Bring thyself into obedience to Christ, and place thy
neck under Him. To Him remains the honour and all the confidence of things. When the time
flatters thee, be more cautious. Not foreseeing, as it behoves thee, the final awards of
fate, thou art not able ever to live again without Christ.

XXXIII. -TO THE GENTILES.

O people, ferocious, without a shepherd, now at length wander not. For I also who admonish
you was the same, ignorant, wandering. Now, therefore, take the likeness of your Lord.
Raise upward your wild and roughened hearts. Enter stedfastly into the fold of your sylvan
Shepherd, remaining Safe from robbers under the royal roof. In the wood are wolves;
therefore take refuge in the cave. Thou warrest, thou art mad; nor dost thou behold where
thou abidest. Believe in the one God, that when dead thou mayest live, and mayest rise in
His kingdom, when there shall be the resurrection to the just.

XXXIV. -MOREOVER, TO IGNORANT GENTILES.

The unsubdued neck refuses to bear the yoke of labour. Then it delights to be satisfied
with herbs in the rich plains. And still unwillingly is subdued the useful mare, and it is
made to be less fierce when it is first brought into subjection. O people, O man, thou
brother, do not be a brutal flock. Pluck thyself forth at length, and · thyself withdraw
thyself. Assuredly thou art not cattle, thou art not a beast, but thou art born a man. Do
thou thyself wisely subdue thyself, and enter under arms. Thou who followest idols art
nothing but the vanity of the age. Your trifling hearts destroy you when almost set free.
There gold, garments, silver is brought to the elbows; there war is made; there love is
sung of instead of psalms. Dost thou think it to be life, when thou playest or lookest
forward to such things as these? Thou choosest, O ignorant one, things that are extinct;
thou seekest golden things. Thence thou shall not escape the plague, although thyself art
divine. Thou seekest not that grace which God sent to be read of in the earth, but thus as
a beast thou wanderest. The golden age before spoken of shall come to thee if thou
believest, and again thou shall begin to live always an immortal life. That also is
permitted to know what thou wast before. Give thyself as a subject to God, who governs all
things.

XXXV. -OF THE TREE OF LIFE AND DEATH.

Adam was the first who fell, and that he might shun the precepts of God, Belial was his
tempter by the lust of the palm tree. And he conferred on us also what he did, whether of
good or of evil, as being the chief of all that was born from him; and thence we die by
his means, as he himself, receding from the divine, became an outcast from the Word. We
shall be immortal when six thousand years are accomplished. The tree of the apple being
tasted, death has entered into the world. By this tree of death we are born to the life to
come. On the tree depends the life that bean fruits-precepts. Now, therefore, pluck
believingly the fruits of life. A law was given from the tree to be feared by the
primitive man, whence comes death by the neglect of the law of the beginning. Now stretch
forth your hand, and take of the tree of life. The excellent law of the Lord which follows
has issued from the tree. The first law is lost; man eats whence he can, who adores the
forbidden gods, the evil joys of life. Reject this partaking; it sill suffice you to know
what it should be. If you wish to live, surrender yourselves to the second law. Avoid the
worship of temples, the oracles of demons; turn yourselves to Christ, and ye shall be
associates with God. Holy is God's law, which teaches the dead to live. God alone has
commanded us to offer to Him the hymn of praise. All of you shun absolutely the law of the
devil.

XXXVI. -OF THE FOOLISHNESS OF THE CROSS.

I have spoken of the twofold sign whence death proceeded, and again I have said that
thence life frequently proceeds; but the cross has become foolishness to an adulterous
people. The awful King of eternity shadows forth these things by the cross, that they may
now believe on Him. O fools, that live in death! Cain slew his younger brother by the
invention of wickedness. Thence the sons of Enoch [Gen. 4:17-18] are said to be the race
of Cain. Then the evil people increased in the world, which never transfers souls to God.
To believe the cross came to be a dread, and they say that they live righteously. The
first law was in the tree; and thence, too, the second. And thence the second law first of
all overcame the terrible law with peace. Lifted up, they have rushed into vain
prevarications. They are unwilling to acknowledge the Lord pierced with nails; but when
His judgment shall come, they will then discern Him. But the race of Abel already believes
on a merciful Christ.

XXXVII. -THE FANATICS WHO JUDAIZE.

What! art thou half a Jew? wilt thou be half profane? Whence thou shalt not when dead
escape the judgment of Christ. Thou thyself blindly wanderest, and foolishly goest in
among the blind. And thus the blind leadeth the blind into the ditch. Thou goest whither
thou knowest not, and thence ignorantly withdrawest. Let them who are learning go to the
learned, and let the learned depart. But thou goest to those from whom thou canst learn
nothing. Thou goest forth before the doors, and thence also thou goest to the idols. Ask
first of all what is commanded in the law. Let them tell thee if it be commanded to adore
the gods; for they are ignored in respect of that which they are especially able to do.
But because they are guilty of that very crime, they relate nothing concerning the
commandments of God save what is marvellous. Then, however, they blindly lead you with
them into the ditch. There are deaths too well known by them to relate, or because the
heaping up of the plough closes up the field. The Almighty would not have them understand
their King. Why such a wickedness? He Himself took refuge from those bloody men. He gave
Himself to us by a superadded law. Thence now they lie concealed with us, deserted by
their King. But if you think that in them there is hope, you are altogether in error if
you worship God and heathen temples.

XXXVIII. -TO THE JEWS.

Evil always, and recalcitrant, with a stiff neck ye wish not that ye should be overcome;
thus ye will be heirs. Isaiah said that ye were of hardened heart. Ye look upon the law
which Moses in wrath dashed to pieces; and the same Lord gave to him a second law. In that
he placed his hope; but ye, half healed, reject it, and therefore ye shall not be worthy
of the kingdom of heaven.

XXXIX. -ALSO TO THE JEWS.

Look upon Leah, that was a type of the synagogue, which Jacob received as a sign, with
eyes so weak; and yet he served again for the younger one beloved: a true mystery, and a
type of our Church. Consider what was abundantly said of Rebecca from heaven; whence,
imitating the alien, ye may believe in Christ. Thence come to Tamar and the offspring of
twins. Look to Cain, the first tiller of the earth, and Abel the shepherd, who was an
unspotted offerer in the ruin of his brother, and was slain by his brother. Thus therefore
perceive, that the younger are approved by Christ.

XL. -AGAIN TO THE SAME.

There is not an unbelieving people such as yours. O evil men! in so many places, and so
often rebuked by the law of those who cry aloud. And the lofty One despises your Sabbaths,
and altogether rejects your universal monthly feasts according to law, that ye should not
make to Him the commanded sacrifices; who told you to throw a stone for your offence. If
any should not believe that He had perished by an unjust death, and that those who were
beloved were saved by other laws, thence that life was suspended on the tree, and believe
not on Him. God Himself is the fife; He Himself was suspended for us. But ye with
indurated heart insult Him.

XLI.--OF THE TIME OF ANTICHRIST.

Isaiah said: This is the man who moveth the world anti so many kings, and under whom the
land shall become desert. Hear ye how the prophet foretold concerning him. I have said
nothing elaborately, but negligently. Then, doubtless, the world shall be finished when he
shall appear. He himself shall divide the globe into three ruling powers, when, moreover,
Nero shall be raised up from hell, Elias shall first come to seal the beloved ones; at
which things the region of Africa and the northern nation, the whole earth on all sides,
for seven years shall tremble. But Elias shall occupy the half of the time, Nero shall
occupy half. Then the whore Babylon, being reduced to ashes, its embers shall thence
advance to Jerusalem; and the Latin conqueror shall then say, I am Christ, whom ye always
pray to; and, indeed, the original ones who were deceived combine to praise him. He does
many wonders, since his is the false prophet. Especially that they may believe him, his
image shall speak. The Almighty has given it power to appear such. The Jews,
recapitulating Scriptures from him, exclaim at the same time to the Highest that they have
been deceived.

XLII.--OF THE HIDDEN AND HOLY PEOPLE OF THE ALMIGHTY CHRIST, THE LIVING GOD.

1 Let the hidden, the final, the holy people be longed for; and, indeed, let it be unknown
by us where it abides, acting by nine of the tribes and a half ...; and he has bidden to
live by the former law. Now let us all live: the tradition of the law is new, as the law
itself teaches, I point out to you more plainly. Two of the tribes and a half are left:
wherefore is the half of the tribes "separated" from them? That they might be martyrs,
when He should bring war on His elected ones into the world; or certainly the choir of the
holy prophets would rise together upon the people who should impose a check upon them whom
the obscene horses have slaughtered with kicking heel; nor would the band hurry rashly at
any time to "the gift of" peace. Those of the tribes are withdrawn, and all the mysteries
of Christ are fulfilled by them throughout the whole age. Moreover, they have arisen from
the crime of two brothers, by whose auspices they have followed crime. Not undeservedly
are these bloody ones thus scattered: they shall again assemble on behalf of the mysteries
of Christ. But then the things told of in the law are hastening to their completion. The
Almighty Christ descends to His elect, who have been darkened from our view for so long a
time-they have become so many thousands-that is the true heavenly people. The son does not
die before his father, then;

2 nor do they feel pains in their bodies, nor polypus in their nostrils. They who cease
depart in ripe years in their bed, fulfilling all the things of the law, and therefore
they are protected. They are bidden to pass on the right side of their Lord; and when they
have passed over as before, He dries up the river. Nor less does the Lord Himself also
proceed with them. He has passed over to our side, they come with the King of heaven; and
in their journey, what shall I speak of which God will bring to pass? Mountains subside
before them, and fountains break forth. The creation rejoices to see the heavenly people.
Here, however, they hasten to defend the captive matron. But the wicked king who possesses
her, when he hears, flies into the parts of the north, and collects all "his followers".
Moreover, when the tyrant shall dash himself against the army of God, his soldiery are
overthrown by the celestial terror; the false prophet himself is seized with the wicked
one, by the decree of the Lord; they are handed over alive to Gehenna. From him chiefs and
leaders are bidden to obey; then will the holy ones enter into the breasts of their
ancient mother, that, moreover, they also may be refreshed whom he has evil persuaded.
With various punishments he will torment those who trust in him; they come to the end,
whereby offences are taken away from the world.The Lord will begin to give judgment by
fire.

XLIII.--OF THE END OF THIS AGE.

The trumpet gives the sign in heaven, the lion being taken away, and suddenly there is
darkness with the din of heaven. The Lord casts down His eyes, so that the earth trembles.
He cries out, so that all may hear throughout the world: Behold, long have I been silent
while I bore your doings in such a time. They cry out together, complaining and groaning
too late. They howl, they bewail; nor is there room found for the wicked. What shall the
mother do for i the sucking child, when she herself is burnt up? In the flame of fire the
Lord will judge the wicked. But the fire shall not touch the just, but shall by all means
lick them up. In one place they delay, but a part has wept at the judgment. Such will be
the heat, that the stones themselves shall melt. The winds assemble into lightnings, the
heavenly wrath rages; and wherever the wicked man fleeth, he is seized upon by this fire.
There will be no succour nor ship of he sea. Amen [Rev. 3:14] flames on the nations, and
the Medes and Parthians burn for a thousand years, as the hidden words of John declare.
For then after a thousand years they are delivered over to Gehenna; and he whose work they
were, with them are burnt up.

XLIV. -OF THE FIRST RESURRECTION.

From heaven will descend the city in the first resurrection; this is what we may tell of
such a celestial fabric. We shall arise again to Him, who have been devoted to Him. And
they shall be incorruptible, even already living without death. And neither will there be
any grief nor any groaning in that city. They shall come also who overcame cruel martydom
under Antichrist, and they themselves live for the whole time, and receive blessings
because they have suffered evil things; and they themselves marrying, beget for a thousand
years. There are prepared all the revenues of the earth, because the earth renewed without
end pours forth abundantly. Therein are no rains; no cold comes into the golden camp. No
sieges as now, nor rapines, nor does that city crave the light of a lamp. It shines from
its Founder. Moreover, Him it obeys; in breadth 12,000 furlongs and length and depth. It
levels its foundation in the earth, but it raises its head to heaven. In the city before
the doors, moreover, sun and moon shall shine; he who is evil is hedged up in torment, for
the sake of the nourishment of the righteous. But from the thousand years God will destroy
all those evils.

XLV. -OF THE DAY OF JUDGMENT.

I add something, on account of unbelievers, of the day of judgment. Again, the fire of the
Lord sent forth shall be appointed. The earth gives a true groan; then those who are
making their journey in the last end, and then all unbelievers, "groan". The whole of
nature is converted in flame, which yet avoids the camp of His saints. The earth is burned
up from its foundations, and the mountains melt. Of the sea nothing remains: it is
overcome by the powerful fire. This sky perishes, and the stars and these things are
changed. Another newness of sky and of everlasting earth is arranged. Thence they who
deserve it are sent away in a second death, but the righteous are placed in inner
dwelling-places.

XLVI. -TO CATECHUMENS.

In few words, I admonish all believers in Christ, who have forsaken idols, for your
salvation. In the first times, if in any way thou fallest into error, still, when
entreated, do thou leave all things for Christ; and since thou hast known God, be a
recruit good and approved, and let virgin modesty dwell with thee in purity. Let the mind
be watchful for good things. Beware that thou fall not into former sins. In baptism the
coarse dress of thy birth is washed. For if any sinful catechumen is marked with
punishment, let him live in the signs "of Christianity", although not without loss. The
whole of the matter for thee is this, Do thou ever shun great sins.

XLVII. -TO THE FAITHFUL.

I admonish the faithful not to hold their brethren in hatred. Hatreds are accounted
impious by martyrs for the flame. The martyr is destroyed whose confession is of such
kind; nor is it taught that the evil is expiated by the shedding of blood. A law is given
to the unjust man that he may restrain himself. Thence he ought to be free from craft; so
also oughtest thou. Twice dost thou sin against God, if thou extendest strifes to thy
brother; whence thou shalt not avoid sin following thy former courses. Thou hast once been
washed: shalt thou be able to be immersed again?

XLVIII. -O FAITHFUL, BEWARE OF EVIL.

The birds are deceived, and the beasts of the woods in the woods, by those very charms by
which their ruin is ever accomplished, and caves as well as food deceive them as they
follow; and they know not how to shun evil, nor are they restrained by law. Law is given
to man, and a doctrine of life to be chosen, from which he remembers that he may be able
to live carefully, and recalls his own place, and takes away those things which belong to
death. He severely condemns himself who forsakes rule; either bound with iron, or cast
down from his degree; or deprived of life, he loses what he ought to enjoy. Warned by
example, do not sin gravely; translated by the layer, rather have charity; flee far from
the bait of the mouse-trap, where there is death. Many are the martyrdoms which are made
without shedding of blood. Not to desire other men's goods; to wish to have the benefit of
martyrdom; to bridle the tongue, thou oughtest to make thyself humble; not willingly to
use force, nor to return force used against thee, thou wilt be a patient mind, understand
that thou art a martyr.

XLIX. -TO PENITENTS.

Thou art become a penitent; pray night and day; yet from thy Mother "the Church" do not
far depart, and the Highest will be able to be merciful to thee. The confession of thy
fault shall not be in vain. Equally in thy state of accusation learn to weep manifestly.
Then, if thou hast a wound, seek herbs and a physician; and yet in thy punishments thou
shalt be able to mitigate thy sufferings. For I will even confess that I alone of you am
here, and that terror must be foregone. I have myself felt the destruction; and therefore
I warn those who are wounded to walk more cautiously, to put thy hair and thy beard in the
dust of the earth, and to be clothed in sackcloth, and to current from the highest King
will aid thee, that thou perish not perchance from among the people.

L.-WHO HAVE APOSTATIZED FROM GOD.

Moreover, when war is waged, or an enemy attacks, if one be able either to conquer or to
be hidden, they are great trophies; but unhappy will he be who shall be taken by them. He
Noses country and king who has been unwilling to fight worthily for the truth, for his
country, or for life. He ought to die rather than go under a barbarian king; and let him
seek slavery who is willing to transfer himself to enemies without law. Then, if in
warring thou shouldst die for thy king, thou hast conquered, or if thou hast given thy
hands, thou hast perished uninjured by law. The enemy crosses the river; do thou hide
under thy lurking-place; or, if he can enter or not, do not linger. Everywhere make
thyself safe, and thy friends also; thou hast conquered. And take watchful care lest any
one enter in that lurking-place. It will be an infamous thing if any one declares himself
to the enemy. He who knows not how to conquer, and runs to deliver himself up, has weakly
foregone praise for neither his own nor his country's good. Then he was unwilling to live,
since life itself will perish. If any one is without God, or profane from the enemy, they
are become as sounding brass, or deaf as adders: such men ought abundantly to pray or to
hide themselves.

LI. -OF INFANTS.

The enemy has suddenly come flooding us over with war; and before they could flee, he has
seized upon the helpless children. They cannot be reproached, although they are seen to be
taken captive; nor, indeed, do I excuse them. Perhaps they have deserved it on account of
the faults of their parents; therefore God has given them up. However, I exhort the adults
that they run to arms, and that they should be born again, as it were, to their Mother
from the womb. Let them avoid a law that is terrible, and always bloody, impious,
intractable, living with the life of the beasts; for when another war by chance should be
to be waged, he who should be able to conquer or even rightly to know how to beware.

LII. -DESERTERS.

For deserters are not called so as all of one kind. One is wicked, another partially
withdraws; but yet true judgments are decreed for both. So Christ is fought against, even
as Caesar is obeyed. Seek the refuge of the king, if thou hast been a delinquent. Do thou
implore of Him; do thou prostrate confess to Him: He will grant all things whose also are
all our things. The camp being replaced, beware of sinning further; do not wander long as
a soldier through caves of the wild beasts. Let it be sin to thee to cease from unmeasured
doing.

LIII. -TO THE SOLDIERS OF CHRIST.

When thou hast given thy name to the warfare, thou art held by a bridle. Therefore begin
thou to put away thy former doings. Shun luxuries, since labour is threatening arms. With
all thy virtue thou must obey the king's command, if thou wishest to attain the last times
in-gladness. He is a good soldier, always wait for things to be enjoyed. Be unwilling to
flatter thyself; absolutely put away sloth, that thou mayest daily be ready for what is
set before thee, Be careful beforehand; in the morning revisit the standards, When thou
seest the war, take the nearest contest. This is the king's glory, to see the soldiery
prepared. The king is present; desire that ye may fight beyond his hope. He makes ready
gifts. He gladly looks for the victory, and assigns you to be a fit follower. Do thou be
unwilling to spare thyself besides for Belial; be thou rather diligent, that he may give
fame for your death.

LIV. -OF FUGITIVES.

The souls of those that are lost deservedly of themselves separate themselves. Begotten of
him, they again recur to those things which are his. The root of Cain, the accursed seed,
breaks forth and takes refuge in the servile nation under a barbarian king; and there the
eternal flame will torment on the day decreed. The fugitive will wander vaguely without
discipline, loosed from law to go about through the defiles of the ways. These, therefore,
are such whom no penalty has restrained. If they will not live, they ought to be seen by
the idols.

LV. -OF THE SEED OF THE TARES.

Of the seed of the tares, who stand mingled in the Church. When the times of the harvest
are filled up, the tares that have sprung up are separated from the fruit, because God had
not sent them. The husbandman separates all those collected tares. The law is our field;
whoever does good in it, assuredly the Ruler Himself will afford a true repose, for the
tares are burned with fire. If, therefore, you think that under one they are delaying, you
are wrong. I designate you as barren Christians; cursed was the fig-tree without hit in
the word of the Lord, and immediately it withered away. Ye do not works; ye prepare no
gift for the treasury, and yet re thus vainly think to deserve well of the Lord.

LVI. -TO THE DISSEMBLER.

Dost thou dissemble with the law that was given with such public announcement, crying out
in the heavenly word of so many prophets? If a prophet had only cried out to the clouds,
the word of the Lord uttered by him would surely suffice. The law of the Lord proclaims
itself into so many volumes of prophets; none of them excuses wickedness; thus even thou
wishest from the heart to see good things; thou art also seeking to live by deceits. Why,
then, has the law itself gone forth with so much pains? Thou abusest the commands of the
Lord, and yet thou callest thyself His son. Thou art seen, if thou wilt be such without
reason. I say, the Almighty seeks the meek to be His sons, those who are upright with a
good heart, those who are devoted to the divine law; but ye know already where He has
plunged the wicked.

LVII. -THAT WORLDLY THINGS ARE ABSOLUTELY TO BE AVOIDED.

If certain teachers, while looking for your gifts or fearing your persons, relax
individual things to you, not only do I not grieve, but I am compelled to speak the truth.
Thou art going to vain shows with the crowd of the evil one, where Satan is at work in the
circus with din. Thou persuadest thyself that everything that shall please thee is lawful.
Thou art the offspring of the Highest, mingled with the sons of the devil. Dost thou wish
to see the former things which thou hast renounced? Art thou again conversant with them?
What shall the Anointed One profit thee? Or if it is permitted, on account of weakness,
that thou foolishly profane ... Love not the world, nor its contents. Such is God's word,
and it seems good to thee. Thou observest man's command, and shunnest God's. Thou
trustedst to the gift whereby the teachers shut up their mouths, that they may be silent,
and not tell thee the divine commands; while I speak the truth, as thou art bound look to
the Highest. Assign thyself as a follower to Him whose son thou wast. If thou seekest to
live, being a believing man, as do the Gentiles, the joys of the world remove thee from
the grace of Christ. With an undisciplined mind thou seekest what thou presumest to be
easily lawful, both thy dear actors and their musical strains; nor carest thou that the
offspring of such an one should babble follies. While thou thinkest that thou art enjoying
life, thou art improvidently erring. The Highest commands, and thou shunnest His righteous
precepts.

LVIII. -THAT THE CHRISTIAN SHOULD BE SUCH.

When the Lord says that man should eat bread with groaning, here what art thou now doing,
who desirest to live with joy? Thou seekest to rescind the judgment uttered by the highest
God when He first formed man; thou wishest to abandon the curb of the law. If the Almighty
God have bidden thee live with sweat, thou who art living in pleasure wilt already be a
stranger to Him. The Scripture saith that the Lord was angry with the Jews. Their sons,
refreshed with food, rose up to play. Now, therefore, why do we follow these circumcised
men? In what respect they perished, we ought to beware; the greatest part of you,
surrendered to luxuries, obey them. Thou transgressest the law in staining thyself with
dyes: against thee the apostle cries out; yea, God cries out by him. Your dissoluteness,
says he, in itself ruins you. Be, then, such as Christ wishes you to be, gentle, and in
Him joyful, for in the world you are sad. Run, labour, sweat, fight with sadness. Hope
comes with labour, and the palm is given to victory. If thou wishest to be refreshed, give
help and encouragement to the martyr. Wait for the repose to come in the passage of death.

LIX. -TO THE MATRONS OF THE CHURCH OF THE LIVING GOD.

Thou wishest, O Christian woman, that the matrons should be as the ladies of the world.
Thou surroundest thyself with gold, or with the modest silken garment. Thou givest the
terror of the law from thy ears to the wind. Thou affectest vanity with all the pomp of
the devil. Thou art adorned at the looking-glass with thy curled hair turned back from thy
brow. And moreover, with evil purposes, thou puttest on false medicaments, on thy pure
eyes the stibium, with painted beauty, or thou dyest thy hair that it may be always black.
God is the overlooker, who dives into each heart. But these things are not necessary for
modest women. Pierce thy breast with chaste and modest feeling. The law of God bears
witness that such laws fail from the heart which believes; to a wife approved of her
husband, let it suffice that she is so, not by her dress, but by her good disposition. To
put on clothes which the cold and the heat or too much sun demands, only that thou mayest
be approved modest, and show forth the gifts of thy capacity among the people of God. Thou
who wast formerly most illustrious, givest to thyself the guise of one who is
contemptible. She who lay without life, was raised by the prayers of the widows. She
deserved this, that she should be raised from death, not by her costly dress, but by her
gifts. Do ye, O good matrons, flee from the adornment of vanity; such attire is fitting
for women who haunt the brothels. Overcome the evil one, O modest women of Christ. Show
forth all your wealth in giving.

LX. -TO THE SAME AGAIN.

Hear my voice, thou who wishest to remain a Christian woman, in what way the blessed Paul
commands you to be adorned. Isaiah, moreover, the teacher and author that spoke from
heaven, for he detests those who follow the wickedness of the world, says: The daughters
of Zion that are lifted up shall be brought low. It is not right in God that a faithful
Christian woman should be adorned. Dost thou seek to go forth after the fashion of the
Gentiles, O thou who art consecrated to God? God's heralds, crying aloud in the law,
condemn such to be unrighteous women, who in such wise adorn themselves. Ye stain your
hair; ye paint the opening of your eyes with black; ye lift up your pretty hair one by one
on your painted brow; ye anoint your cheeks with some sort of ruddy colour laid on; and,
moreover, earrings hang down with very heavy weight. Ye bury your neck with necklaces;
with gems and gold ye bind hands worthy of God with an evil presage. Why should I tell of
your dresses, or of the whole pomp of the devil? Ye are rejecting the law when ye wish to
please the world. Ye dance in your houses; instead of psalms, ye sing love songs. Thou,
although thou mayest be chaste, dost not prove thyself so by following evil things. Christ
therefore makes you, such as you are, equal with the Gentiles. Be pleasing to the hymned
chorus, and to an appeased Christ with ardent love fervently offer your savour to Christ.

LXI. -IN THE CHURCH TO ALL THE PEOPLE OF GOD.

I, brethren, am not righteous who am lifted up out of the filth, nor do I exalt myself;
but I grieve for you, as seeing that out of so great a people, none is crowned in the
contest; certainly, even if he does not himself fight, yet let him suggest encouragement
to others. Ye rebuke calamity; O belly, stuff yourself out with luxury. The brother
labours in arms with a world opposed to him; and dost thou, stuffed with wealth, neither
fight, nor place thyself by his side when he is fighting? O fool, dost not thou perceive
that one is warring on behalf of many? The whole Church is suspended on such a one if he
conquers. Thou seest that thy brother is withheld, and that he fights with the enemy. Thou
desirest peace in the camp, he outside rejects it. Be pitiful, that thou mayest be before
all things saved. Neither dost thou fear the Lord, who cries aloud with such an utterance;
even He who commands us to give food even to our enemies. Look forward to thy meals from
that Tobias who always on every day shared them entirely with the poor man. Thou seekest
to feed him, O fool, who feedeth thee again. Dost thou wish that he should prepare for me,
who is setting before him his burial? The brother oppressed with want, nearly languishing
away, cries out at the splendidly fed, and with distended belly. What sayest thou of the
Lord's day? If he have not placed himself before, call forth a poor man from the crowd
whom thou mayest take to thy dinner. In the tablets is your hope from a Christ refreshed.

LXII. -TO HIM WHO WISHES FOR

Since, O son, thou desirest martyrdom, hear. Be thou such as Abel was, or such as Isaac
himself, or Stephen, who chose for himself on the way the righteous life. Thou indeed
desirest that which is a matter suited for the blessed. First of all, overcome the evil
one with thy good acts by living well; and when He thy King shall see thee, be thou
secure. It is His own time, and we are living for both; so that if war fails, the martyrs
shall go in peace. Many indeed err who say, With our blood we have overcome the wicked
one; and if he remains, they are unwilling to overcome. He perishes by lying in wait, and
the wicked thus feels it; but he that is lawful does not feel the punishments applied.
With exclamation and with eagerness beat thy breast with thy fists. Even now, if thou hast
conquered by good deeds, thou art a martyr in Him. Thou, therefore, who seekest to extol
martyrdom with thy word, in peace clothe thyself with good deeds, and be secure.

LXIII.- THE DAILY WAR.

Thou seekest to wage war, O fool, as if wars were at peace. From the first formed day in
the end you fight. Lust precipitates you, there is war; fight with it. Luxury persuades,
neglect it; thou hast overcome the war. Be sparing of abundance of wine, lest by means of
it thou shouldest go wrong. Restrain thy tongue from cursing, because with it thou adorest
the Lord. Repress rage. Make thyself peaceable to all. Beware of trampling on thy
inferiors when weighed down with miseries. Lend thyself as a protector only, and do no
hurt. Lead yourselves in a righteous path, unstained by jealousy. In thy riches make
thyself gentle to those that are of little account. Give of thy labour, clothe the naked.
Thus shalt thou conquer. Lay snares for no man, since thou servest God. Look to the
beginning, whence the envious enemy has perished. I am not a teacher, but the law itself
teaches by its proclamation. Thou wearest such great words vainly, who in one moment
seekest without labour to raise a martyrdom to Christ.

LXIV. -OF THE ZEAL OF CONCUPISCENCE.

In desiring, thence thou perishest, whilst thou art burning with envy of thy neighbour.
Thou extinguishest thyself, when thou inflamest thyself within. Thou art jealous, O
envious man, of another who is struggling with evil, and desirest that thou mayest become
equally the possessor of so much wealth. The law does not thus behold him when thou
seekest to fall upon him. Depending on all things, thou livest in the lust of gain; and
although thou art guilty to thyself, thou condemnest thyself by thy own judgment. The
greedy survey of the eyes is never satisfied. Now, therefore, if thou mayest return and
consider, lust is vain ... whence God cries out, Thou fool, this night thou art summoned.
Death rushes after thee. Whose, then, shall be those talents? By hiding the unrighteous
gains in the concealed treasury, when the Lord shall supply to every one his daily life.
Let another accumulate; do thou seek to live well. And when thy heart is conscious of God,
thou shalt be victor over all things; yet I do not say that thou shouldest boast thyself
in public, when thou art watching for thy day by living without fraud. The bird perishes
in the midst of food, or carelessly sticks fast in the bird-lime. Think that in thy
simplicity thou hast much to beware of. Let others trangress these bounds. Do thou always
look forward.

LXV. -THEY WHO GIVE FROM EVIL.

Why dost thou senselessly feign thyself good by the wound of another? Whence thou
bestowest, another is daily weeping. Dost not thou believe that the Lord sees those things
from heaven? The Highest says, He. does not prove of the gifts of the wicked. Thou shalt
break forth upon the wretched when thou shalt have gained a place. One gives gifts that he
may make another of no account; or if thou hast lent on usury, taking twenty-four per
cent, thou wishest to bestow charity that thou mayest purge thyself, as being evil, with
that which is evil. The Almighty absolutely rejects such works as these. Thou hast given
"that which has been" wrung from tears; that candidate, oppressed with ungrateful usuries,
and become needy, deplores it. Besides having obtained an opportunity for the exactors,
thy enemy for the present is the people; thou consecrated, hast become, wicked for reward.
Also thou wishest to atone for thyself by the gain of wages. O wicked one, thou deceivest
thyself, but none else.

LXVI. -OF A DECEITFUL PEACE.

The arranged time comes to our people; there is peace in the world; and, at the same time,
ruin is weighing us down from the enticement of the world, (the destruction) of the
reckless people whom ye have rent into schism. Either obey the law of the city, or depart
from it. Ye behold the mote sticking in our eyes, and will not see the beam in your own. A
treacherous peace is coming to you; persecution is rife; the wounds do not appear; and
thus, without slaughter, ye are destroyed. War is waged in secret, because, in the midst
of peace itself, scarcely one of you has behaved himself with caution. O badly fortified,
and foretold for slaughter, ye praise a treacherous peace, a peace that is mischievous to
you. Having become the soldiers of another than Christ, ye have perished. I warn certain
readers only to consider, and to give material to others by an example of life, to avoid
strife, and to shun so many quarrels; to repress terror, and never to be proud; moreover,
denounce the righteous obedience of wicked men. Make yourselves like to Christ your
Master, O little ones. Be among the lilies of the field by your benefits; ye have become
blessed when ye bear the edicts; ye are flowers in the congregation; ye are Christ's
lanterns. Keep what ye are, and ye shall be able to tell it.

LXVIII. -TO MINISTERS.

Exercise the mystery of Christ, O deacons, with purity; therefore, O ministers, do the
commands of your Master; do not play the person of a righteous judge; strengthen your
office by all things, as learned men, looking upwards, always devoted to the Supreme God.
Render the faithful sacred ministries of the altar to God, prepared in divine matters to
set an example; yourselves incline your head to the pastors, so shall it come to pass that
ye may be approved of Christ.

LXIX. -TO GOD'S SHEPHERDS.

A shepherd, if he shall have confessed, has doubled his conflict. Moreover, the apostle
bids that such should be teachers. Let him be a patient ruler; let him know when he may
relax the reins; let him terrify at first, and then anoint with honey; and let him first
observe to do himself what he says. The shepherd who minds worldly things is esteemed in
fault, against whose countenance thou mightest dare to say anything. Gehenna itself
bubbles up in hell with rumours. Woe to the wretched people which wavers with doubtful
brow! if such a shepherd shall be present to it, it is almost mined. But a devout man
restrains it, governing rightly. The swarms are rejoiced under suitable kings; in such
there is hope, and the entire Church lives.

LXX. -I SPEAK TO THE ELDER-BORN.

The time demands that I alone should speak to you truth. He is often admonished by one
word which many refuse. I wish you to turn your hatred against me alone, that the hearts
of all may tremble at the tempter. Look to the saying that truly begets hatred, (and
consider) how many things I have lately indeed foretold concerning a delusive peace,
while, alas, the enticing seducer has come upon you unawares, and because ye have not
known how that his wiles were imminent, ye have perished; ye work absolutely bitter
things, but that is itself the characteristic of the world; not any one for whom ye
intercede acts for nothing. He who takes refuge from your fire, plunges in the whirlpool.
Then the wretch, stripped naked, seeks assistance from you. The judges themselves shudder
at your frauds ... of a shorter title, I should not labour at so many lines. Ye who teach,
look upon those to whom ye willingly tend, when for yourselves ye both receive banquets
and feed upon them. For those things are ye already almost entering the foundations of the
earth.

LXXI. -TO VISIT THE SICK.

If thy brother should be weak-I speak of the poor man-do not empty-handed visit such an
one as he lies ill. Do good under God; pay your obedience by your money. Thence he shall
be restored; or if he should perish, let a poor man be refreshed, who has nothing
wherewith to pay you, but the Founder and Author of the world on his behalf. Or if it
should displease thee to go to the poor man, always hateful, send money, and something
whence he may recover himself. And, similarly, if thy poor sister lies upon a sick-bed,
let your matrons begin to bear her victuals. God Himself cries out, Break thy bread to the
needy. There is no need to visit with words, but with benefits. It is wicked that thy
brother should be sick through want of food. Satisfy him not with words. He needs meat and
drink. Look upon such assuredly weakened, who are not able to act for themselves. Give to
them at once. I pledge my word that fourfold shall be given you by God.

LXXII. -TO THE POOR IN HEALTH.

What can healthful poverty do, unless wealth be present? Assuredly, if thou hast the
means, at once communicate also to thy brother. Be responsible to thyself for one, lest
thou shouldst be said to be proud. I promise that thou shalt live more secure than the
rich man. Receive into thy ears the teaching of the great Solomon: God hates the poor man
to be a pleader on high. [Prov. 23:11] Therefore submit thyself, and give honour to Him
that is powerful; for the soft speech-thou knowest the proverb-melts. [Prov. 15:1] One is
conquered by service, even although there be an ancient anger. If the tongue be silent,
thou hast found nothing better. If there should not wholesomely be an art whereby life may
be governed, either give aid or direction by the command of Him that is mighty. Let it not
shame or grieve you that a healthy man should have faith. In the treasury, besides, thou
oughtest to give of thy labour, even as that widow whom the Anointed One preferred. [Mark
12:42; Luke 21:2]

LXXIII.- THAT SONS ARE NOT TO BE BEWAILED.

Although the death of sons leaves grief for the heart, yet it is not right either to go
forth in black garments, or to bewail them. The Lord prudently says that ye must grieve
with the mind, not with outward show, which is finished in the week. In the book of
Solomon the promises of the Lord concerning the resurrection are forgotten if thou
wouldest make thy sons martyrs, and thus with thy voice will bewail them. Art thou not
ashamed without restraint to lament thy sons, like the Gentiles? Thou tearest thy face,
thou beatest thy breast, thou takest off thy garments; and dost thou not fear the Lord,
whose kingdom thou desirest to behold? Mourn as it is right, but do not do wrong on their
behalf. Ye therefore are such. What less than Gentiles are ye? Ye do as the crowds that
are descended from the diabolical stock. Ye cry that they are extinct. With what
advantage, O false one, thou hast perished! The father has not led his son with grief to
be slain at the altar, nor has the prophet mourned over a deceased son with grief, nor
even has a weeping parent. But one devoted to God was hastily dying.

LXXIV. -OF FUNERAL POMP.

Thou who seekest to be careful of the pomp of death art in error. As a servant of God,
thou oughtest even in death to please Him. Alas that the lifeless body should be adorned
in death! O true vanity, to desire honour for the dead! A mind enchained to the world; not
even in death devoted to Christ. Thou knowest the proverbs. He wished to be carried
through the forum. Thus ye, who are like to him, and living with untrained mind, wish to
have a happy and blessed day at your death, that the people may come together, and that
you may see praise with mourning. Thou dost not foresee whither thou mayest deserve to go
when dead. Lo, they are following thee; and thou, perchance, art already burning, being
driven to punishment. What will the pomp benefit the dead man? Thou shalt be accused, who
seekest them on account of those gatherings. Thou desirest to live under idols. Thou
deceivest thyself.

LXXV. -TO THE CLERKS.

They will assemble together at Easter, that day of ours most blessed; and let them
rejoice, who ask for divine entertainments. Let what is sufficient be expended upon them,
wine and food. Look back at the source whence these things may be told on your behalf. Ye
are wanting in a gift to Christ, in moderate expenditure. Since ye yourselves do it not,
in what manner can ye persuade the righteousness of the law to such people, even once in
the year? Thus often blasphemy suggests to many concerning you.

LXXVI. -OF THOSE WHO GOSSIP, AND OF SILENCE.

When a thing appears to anybody of no consequence, and is not shunned, and it rushes
forth, as if easy, whilst thou abusest it. Fables assist it when thou comest to pour out
prayers, or to beat thy breast for thy daily sin. The trumpet of the heralds sounds forth,
while the reader is reading, that the ears may be open, and thou rather impedest them.
Thou art luxurious with thy lips, with which thou oughtest to groan. Shut up thy breast to
evils, or loose them in thy breast. But since the possession of money gives barefacedness
to the wealthy, thence every one perishes when they are most trusting to themselves. Thus,
moreover, the women assemble, as if they would enter the bath. They press closely, and
make of God's house as if it were a fair. Certainly the Lord frightened the house of
prayer. The Lord's priest commanded with "sursum corda," when prayer was to be made, that
your silence should be made. Thou answerest fluently, and moreover abstainest not from
promises. He entreats the Highest on behalf of a devoted people, lest any one should
perish, and thou turnest thyself to fables. Thou mockest at him, or detractest from thy
neighbour's reputation. Thou speakest in an undisciplined manner, as if God were absent-as
if He who made all things neither hears nor sees.

LXXVII. -TO THE DRUNKARDS.

I place no limit to a drunkard; but I prefer a beast. From those who are proud in drinking
thou withdrawest in thine inner mind, holding the power of the ruler, O fool, among
Cyclopes, Thence in the histories thou criest, While I am dead I drink not. Be it mine to
drink the best things, and to be wise in heart. Rather give assistance (what more seekest
thou to abuse?) to the lowest pauper, and ye shall both be refreshed. If thou doest such
things, thou extinguishest Gehenna for thyself.

LXXVIII. -TO THE PASTORS.

Thou who seekest to feed others, and hast prepared what thou couldest by assiduously
feeding, hast done rightly. But still look after the poor man, who cannot feed thee again:
then will thy table be approved by the one God. The Almighty has bidden such even
especially to be fed. Consider, when thou feedest the sick, thou art also lending to the
High One. In that thing the Lord has wished that you should stand before Him approved.

LXXIX. -TO THE PETITIONERS.

If thou desirest, when praying, to be heard from heaven, break the chains from the
lurking-places of wickedness; or if, pitying the poor, thou prayest by thy benefits, doubt
not but what thou shalt have asked may be given to the petitioner. Then truly, if void of
benefits, thou adorest God, do not thus at all make thy prayers vainly.

LXXX. -THE NAME OF THE MAN OF GAZA.

Ye who are to be inhabitants of the heavens with God-Christ, hold fast the beginning, look
at all things from heaven. Let simplicity, let meekness dwell in your body. Be not angry
with thy devout brother without a cause, for ye shall receive whatever ye may have done
from him. This has pleased Christ, that the dead should rise again, yea, with their
bodies; and those, too, whom in this world the fire has burned, when six thousand years
are completed, and the world has come to an end. The heaven in the meantime is changed
with an altered course, for then the wicked are burnt up with divine fire. The creature
with groaning burns with the anger of the highest God. Those who are more worthy, and who
are begotten of an illustrious stem, and the men of nobility under the conquered
Antichrist, according to God's command living again in the world for a thousand years,
indeed, that they may serve the saints, and the High One, under a servile yoke, that they
may bear victuals on their neck. Moreover, that they may be judged again when the reign is
finished. They who make God of no account when the thousandth year is finished shall
perish by fire, when they themselves shall speak to the mountains. All flesh in the
monuments and tombs is restored according to its deed: they are plunged in hell; they bear
their punishments in the world; they are shown to them, and they read the things
transacted from heaven; the reward according to one's deeds in a perpetual tyranny. I
cannot comprehend all things in a little treatise; the curiosity of the learned men shall
find my name in this.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 185–253

Teacher and biblical scholar of Alexandria and Caesarea.

CHAPTER I.-ON GOD.

1. I Know that some will attempt to say that, even according to the declarations of our
own Scriptures, God is a body, because in the writings of Moses they find it said, that
"our God is a consuming fire; " and in the Gospel according to John, that "God is a
Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth." Fire and
spirit, according to them, are to be regarded as nothing else than a body. Now, I should
like to ask these persons what they have to say respecting that passage where it is
declared that God is light; as John writes in his Epistle, "God is light, and in Him there
is no darkness at all." Truly He is that light which illuminates the whole understanding
of those who are capable of receiving truth, as is said in the Psalms 36, "In Thy light we
shall see light." For what other light of God can be named, "in which any one sees light,"
save an influence of God, by which a man, being enlightened, either thoroughly sees the
truth of all things, or comes to know God Himself, who is called the truth? Such is the
meaning of the expression, "In Thy light we shall see light; "i.e., in Thy word and wisdom
which is Thy Son, in Himself we shall see Thee the Father. Because He is called light,
shall He be supposed to have any resemblance to the light of the sun? Or how should there
be the slightest ground for imagining, that from that corporeal light any one could derive
the cause of knowledge, and come to the understanding of the truth?

2. If, then, they acquiesce in our assertion, which reason itself has demonstrated,
regarding the nature of light, and acknowledge that God cannot be understood to be a body
in the sense that light is, similar reasoning will hold true of the expression "a
consuming fire. For what will God consume in respect of His being fire? Shall He be
thought to consume material substance, as wood, or hay, or stubble? And what in this view
can be called worthy of the glory of God, if He be a fire, consuming materials of that
kind? But let us reflect that God does indeed consume and utterly destroy; that He
consumes evil thoughts, wicked actions, and sinful desires, when they find their way into
the minds of believers; and that, inhabiting along with His Son those souls which are
rendered capable of receiving His word and wisdom, according to His own declaration," I
and the Father shall come, and We shall make our abode with him? " He makes them, after
all their vices and passions have been consumed, a holy temple, worthy of Himself. Those,
moreover, who, on account of the expression "God is a Spirit," think that He is a body,
are to be answered, I think, in the following manner.

It is the custom of sacred Scripture, when it wishes to designate anything opposed to this
gross and solid body, to call it spirit, as in the expression, "The letter killeth, but
the spirit giveth life," where there can be no doubt that by "letter" are meant bodily
things, and by "spirit" intellectual things, which we also term "spiritual. The apostle,
moreover, says, "Even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart:
nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away: and where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. For so long as any one is not converted to a
spiritual understanding, a veil is placed over his heart, with which veil, i.e., a gross
understanding, Scripture itself is said or thought to be covered: and this is the meaning
of the statement that a veil was placed over the countenance of Moses when he spoke to the
people, i.e., when the law was publicly read aloud. But if we turn to the Lord, where also
is the word of God, and where the Holy Spirit reveals spiritual knowledge, then the veil
is taken away, and with unveiled face we shall behold the glory of the Lord in the holy
Scriptures.

3. And since many saints participate in the Holy Spirit, He cannot therefore be understood
to be a body, which being divided into corporeal parts, is partaken of by each one of the
saints; but He is manifestly a sanctifying power, in which all are said to have a share
who have deserved to be sanctified by His grace. And in order that what we say may be more
easily understood, let us take an illustration from things very dissimilar. There are many
persons who take a part in the science or art of medicine: are we therefore to suppose
that those who do so take to themselves the particles of some body called medicine, which
is placed before them, and in this way participate in the same? Or must we not rather
understand that all who with quick and trained minds come to understand the art and
discipline itself, may be said to be partaken of the art of healing? But these are not to
be deemed altogether parallel instances in a comparison of medicine to the Holy Spirit, as
they have been adduced only to establish that that is not necessarily to be considered a
body, a share in which is possessed by many individuals. For the Holy Spirit differs
widely from the method or science of medicine, in respect that the Holy Spirit is an
intellectual existence and subsists and exists in a peculiar manner, whereas medicine is
not at all of that nature.

4. But we must pass on to the language of the Gospel itself, in which it is declared that
"God is a Spirit," and where we have to show how that is to be understood agreeably to
what we have stated. For let us inquire on what occasion these words were spoken by the
Saviour, before whom He uttered them, and what was the subject of investigation. We find,
without any doubt, that He spoke these words to the Samaritan woman, saying to her, who
thought, agreeably to the Samaritan view, that God ought to be worshipped on Mount
Gerizim, that "God is a Spirit. For the Samaritan woman, believing Him to be a Jew, was
inquiring of Him whether God ought to be worshipped in Jerusalem or on this mountain; and
her words were, "All our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem
is the place where we ought to worship. To this opinion of the Samaritan woman, therefore,
who imagined that God was less rightly or duly worshipped, according to the privileges of
the different localities, either by the Jews in Jerusalem or by the Samaritans on Mount
Gerizim, the Saviour answered that he who would follow the Lord must lay aside all
preference for particular places, and thus expressed Himself: "The hour is coming when
neither in Jerusalem nor on this mountain shall the true worshippers worship the Father.
God is a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.

And observe how logically He has joined together the spirit and the truth: He called God a
Spirit, that He might distinguish Him from bodies; and He named Him the truth, to
distinguish Him from a shadow or an image. For they who worshipped in Jerusalem worshipped
God neither in truth nor in spirit, being in subjection to the shadow or image of heavenly
things; and such also was the case with those who worshipped on Mount Gerizim. 5. Having
refuted, then, as well as we could, every notion which might suggest that we were to think
of God as in any degree corporeal, we go on to say that, according to strict truth, God is
incomprehensible, and incapable of being measured. For whatever be the knowledge which we
are able to obtain of God, either by perception or reflection, we must of necessity
believe that He is by many degrees far better than what we perceive Him to be. For, as if
we were to see any one unable to bear a spark of light, or the flame of a very small lamp,
and were desirous to acquaint such a one, whose vision could not admit a greater degree of
light than what we have stated, with the brightness and splendour of the sun, would it not
be necessary to tell him that the splendour of the sun was unspeakably and incalculably
better and more glorious than all this light which he saw? So our understanding, when shut
in by the fetters of flesh and blood, and rendered, on account of its participation in
such material substances, duller and more obtuse, although, in comparison with our bodily
nature, it is esteemed to be far superior, yet, in its efforts to examine and behold
incorporeal things, scarcely holds the place of a spark or lamp. But among all
intelligent, that is, incorporeal beings, what is so superior to all others-so unspeakably
and incalculably superior-as God, whose nature cannot be grasped or seen by the power of
any human understanding, even the purest and brightest?

6. But it will not appear absurd if we employ another similitude to make the matter
clearer. Our eyes frequently cannot look upon the nature of the light itself-that is, upon
the substance of the sun; but when we behold his splendour or his rays pouring in,
perhaps, through windows or some small openings to admit the light, we can reflect how
great is the supply and source of the light of the body. So, in like manner. the works of
Divine Providence and the plan of this whole world are a sort of rays, as it were, of the
nature of God, in comparison with His real substance and being. As, therefore, our
understanding is unable of itself to behold God Himself as He is, it knows the Father of
the world from the beauty of His works and the comeliness of His creatures. God,
therefore, is not to be thought of as being either a body or as existing in a body, but as
an uncompounded intellectual nature, admitting within Himself no addition of any kind; so
that He cannot be believed to have within him a greater and a less, but is such that He is
in all parts Mona/j, and, so to speak, 9Ena/j, and is the mind and source from which all
intellectual nature or mind takes its beginning. But mind, for its movements or
operations, needs no physical space, nor sensible magnitude, nor bodily shape, nor colour,
nor any other of those adjuncts which are the properties of body or matter.

Wherefore that simple and wholly intellectual nature can admit of no delay or hesitation
in its movements or operations, lest the simplicity of the divine nature should appear to
be circumscribed or in some degree hampered by such adjuncts, and lest that which is the
beginning of all things should be found composite and differing, and that which ought to
be free from all bodily intermixture, in virtue of being the one sole species of Deity, so
to speak, should prove, instead of being one, to consist of many things. That mind,
moreover, does not require space in order to carry on its movements agreeably to its
nature, is certain from observation of our own mind. For if the mind abide within its own
limits, and sustain no injury from any cause, it will never, from diversity of situation,
be retarded in the discharge of its functions; nor, on the other hand, does it gain any
addition or increase of mobility from the nature of particular places. And here, if any
one were to object, for example, that among those who are at sea, and tossed by its waves
the mind is considerably less vigorous than it is wont to be on land, we are to believe
that it is in this state, not from diversity of situation, but from the commotion or
disturbance of the body to which the mind is joined or attached. For it seems to be
contrary to nature, as it were, for a human body to live at sea;

and for that reason it appears, by a sort of inequality of its own, to enter upon its
mental operations in a slovenly and irregular manner, and to perform the acts of the
intellect with a duller sense, in as great degree as those who on land are prostrated with
fever; with respect to whom it is certain, that if the. mind do not discharge its
functions as well as before, in consequence of the attack of disease, the blame is to be
laid not upon the place, but upon the bodily malady, by which the body, being disturbed
and disordered, renders to the mind its customary services under by no means the well-
known and natural conditions: for we human beings are animals composed of a union of body
and soul, and in this way (only) was it possible for us to live upon the earth. But God,
who is the beginning of all things, is not to be regarded as a composite being, lest
perchance there should be found to exist elements prior to the beginning itself, out of
which everything is composed, whatever that be which is called composite. Neither does the
mind require bodily magnitude in order to perform any act or movement; as when the eye by
gazing upon bodies of larger size is dilated, but is compressed and contracted in order to
see smaller objects. The mind, indeed, requires magnitude of an intellectual kind, because
it grows, not after the fashion of a body, but after that of intelligence.

For the mind is not enlarged, together with the body, by means of corporal additions, up
to the twentieth or thirtieth year of life; but the intellect is sharpened by exercises of
learning, and the powers implanted within it for intelligent purposes are called forth;
and it is rendered capable of greater intellectual efforts, not being increased by bodily
additions, but carefully polished by learned exercises. But these it cannot receive
immediately from boyhood, or from birth, because the framework of limbs which the mind
employs as organs for exercising itself is weak and feeble; and it is unable to bear the
weight of its own operations, or to exhibit a capacity for receiving training. 7. If there
are any now who think that the mind itself and the soul is a body, I wish they Would tell
me by way of answer how it receives reasons and assertions on subjects of such importance-
of such difficulty and such subtlety? Whence does it derive the power of memory? and
whence comes the contemplation of invisible things? How does the body possess the faculty
of understanding incorporeal existences? How does a bodily nature investigate the
processes of the various arts, and contemplate the reasons of things? How, also, is it
able to perceive and understand divine truths, which are manifestly incorporeal? Unless,
indeed, some should happen to be of opinion, that as the very bodily shape and form of the
ears or eyes contributes something to hearing and to sight, and as the individual members,
formed by God, have some adaptation, even from the very quality of their form, to the end
for which they were naturally appointed; so also he may think that the shape of the soul
or mind is to be understood as if created purposely and designedly for perceiving and
understanding individual things, and for being set in motion by vital movements. I do not
perceive, however, who shall be able to describe or state what is the colour of the mind,
in respect of its being mind, and acting as an intelligent existence.

Moreover, in confirmation and explanation of what we have already advanced regarding the
mind or soul-to the effect that it is better than the whole bodily nature-the following
remarks may be added. There underlies every bodily sense a certain peculiar sensible
substance, on which the bodily sense exerts itself. For example, colours, form, size,
underlie vision; voices and sound, the sense of hearing; odours, good or bad, that of
smell; savours, that of taste; heat or cold, hardness or softness, roughness or
smoothness, that of touch. Now, of those senses enumerated above, it is manifest to all
that the sense of mind is much the best. How, then, should it not appear absurd, that
under those senses which are inferior, substances should have been placed on which to
exert their powers, but that under this power, which is far better than any other, i.e.,
the sense of mind, nothing at all of the nature of a substance should be placed, but that
a power of an intellectual nature should be an accident, or consequent upon bodies? Those
who assert this, doubtless do so to the disparagement of that better substance which is
within them; nay, by so doing, they even do wrong to God Himself, when they imagine He may
be understood by means of a bodily nature, so that according to their view He is a body,
and that which may be understood or perceived by means of a body;

and they are unwilling to have it understood that the mind bears a certain relationship to
God, of whom the mind itself is an intellectual image, and that by means of this it may
come to some knowledge of the nature of divinity, especially if it be purified and
separated from bodily matter. 8. But perhaps these declarations may seem to have less
weight with those who wish to be instructed in divine things out of the holy Scriptures,
and who seek to have it proved to them from that source how the nature of God surpasses
the nature of bodies. See, therefore, if the apostle does not say the same thing, when,
speaking of Christ, he declares, that" He is the image of the invisible God, the first-
born of every creature. Not, as some suppose, that the nature of God is visible to some
and invisible to others: for the apostle does not say "the image of God invisible" to men
or "invisible" to sinners, but with unvarying constancy pronounces on the nature of God in
these words: "the image of the invisible God. Moreover, John, in his Gospel, when
asserting that "no one hath seen God at any time," manifestly declares to all who are
capable of understanding, that there is no nature to which God is visible: not as if, He
were a being who was visible by nature, and merely escaped or baffled the view of a
frailer creature, but because by the nature of His being it is impossible for Him to be
seen. And if you should ask of me what is my opinion regarding the Only-begotten Himself,
whether the nature of God, which is naturally invisible, be not visible even to Him, let
not such a question appear to you at once to be either absurd or impious, because we shall
give you a logical reason.

It is one thing to see, and another to know: to see and to be seen is a property of
bodies; to know and to be known, an attribute of intellectual being. Whatever, therefore,
is a property of bodies, cannot be predicated either of the Father or of the Son; but what
belongs to the nature of deity is common to the Father and the Son. Finally, even He
Himself, in the Gospel, did not say that no one has seen the Father, save the Son, nor any
one the Son, save the Father; but His words are: "No one knoweth the Son, save the Father;
nor any one the Father, save the Son. By which it is clearly shown, that whatever among
bodily natures is called seeing and being seen, is termed, between the Father and the Son,
a knowing and being known, by means of the power of knowledge, not by the frailness of the
sense of sight. Because, then, neither seeing nor being seen can be properly applied to an
incorporeal and invisible nature, neither is the Father, in the Gospel, said to be seen by
the Son, nor the Son by the Father, but the one is said to be known by the other.

9. Here, if any one lay before us the passage where it is said, "Blessed are the pure in
heart, for they shall see God," from that very passage, in my opinion, will our position
derive additional strength; for what else is seeing God in heart, but, according to our
exposition as above, understanding and knowing Him with the mind? For the names of the
organs of sense are frequently applied to the soul, so that it may be said to see with the
eyes of the heart, i.e., to perform an intellectual act by means of the power of
intelligence. So also it is said to hear with the ears when it perceives the deeper
meaning of a statement. So also we say that it makes use of teeth, when it chews and eats
the bread of life which cometh down from heaven. In like manner, also, it is said to
employ the services of other members, which are transferred from their bodily
appellations, and applied to the powers of the soul, according to the words of Solomon,
"You will find a divine sense." For he knew that there were within us two kinds of senses:
the one mortal, corruptible, human; the other immortal and intellectual, which he now
termed divine. By this divine sense, therefore, not of the eyes, but of a pure heart,
which is the mind, God may be seen by those who are worthy. For you will certainly find in
all the Scriptures, both old and new, the term "heart" repeatedly used instead of "mind,"
i.e., intellectual power. In this manner, therefore, although far below the dignity of the
subject, have we spoken of the nature of God, as those who understand it under the
limitation of the human understanding. In the next place, let us see what is meant by the
name of Christ.

CHAPTER II.-ON CHRIST.

1. In the first place, we must note that the nature of that deity which is in Christ in
respect of His being the only-begotten Son of God is one thing, and that human nature
which He assumed in these last times for the purposes of the dispensation (of grace) is
another. And therefore we have first to ascertain what the only-begotten Son of God is,
seeing He is called by many different names, according to the circumstances and views of
individuals. For He is termed Wisdom, according to the expression of Solomon: "The Lord
created me-the beginning of His ways, and among His works, before He made any other thing;
He rounded me before the ages. In the beginning, before He formed the earth, before He
brought forth the fountains of waters, before the mountains were made strong, before all
the hills, He brought me forth." He is also styled First-born, as the apostle has
declared: "who is the first-born of every creature." The first-born, however, is not by
nature a different person from the Wisdom, but one and the same. Finally, the Apostle Paul
says that "Christ (is) the power of God and the wisdom of God."

2. Let no one, however, imagine that we mean anything impersonal when we call Him the
wisdom of God; or suppose, for example, that we understand Him to be, not a living being
endowed with wisdom, but something which makes men wise, giving itself to, and implanting
itself in, the minds of those who are made capable of receiving His virtues and
intelligence. If, then, it is once rightly understood that the only-begotten Son of God is
His wisdom hypostatically existing, I know not whether our curiosity ought to advance
beyond this, or entertain any suspicion that that u9po/stasij or substantia contains
anything of a bodily nature, since everything that is corporeal is distinguished either by
form, or colour, or magnitude. And who in his sound senses ever sought for form, or
colour, or size, in wisdom, in respect of its being wisdom? And who that is capable of
entertaining reverential thoughts or feelings regarding God, can suppose or believe that
God the Father ever existed, even for a moment of time, without having generated this
Wisdom? For in that case he must say either that God was unable to generate Wisdom before
He produced her, so that He afterwards called into being her who formerly did not exist,
or that He possessed the power indeed, but-what cannot be said of God without impiety-was
unwilling to use it; both of which suppositions, it is patent to all, are alike absurd and
impious:

for they amount to this, either that God advanced from a condition of inability to one of
ability, or that, although possessed of the power, He concealed it, and delayed the
generation of Wisdom. Wherefore we have always held that God is the Father of His only-
begotten Son, who was born indeed of Him, and derives from Him what He is, but without any
beginning, not only such as may be measured by any divisions of time, but even that which
the mind alone can contemplate within itself, or behold, so to speak, with the naked
powers of the understanding. And therefore we must believe that Wisdom was generated
before any beginning that can be either comprehended or expressed. And since all the
creative power of the coming creation was included in this very existence of Wisdom
(whether of those things which have an original or of those which have a derived
existence), having been formed beforehand and arranged by the power of foreknowledge; on
account of these very creatures which had been described, as it were, and prefigured in
Wisdom herself, does Wisdom say, in the words of Solomon, that she was created the
beginning of the ways of God, inasmuch as she contained within herself either the
beginnings, or forms, or species of all creation.

3. Now, in the same way in which we have understood that Wisdom was the beginning of the
ways of God, and is said to be created, forming beforehand and containing within herself
the species and beginnings of all creatures, must we understand her to be the Word of God,
because of her disclosing to all other beings, i.e., to universal creation, the nature of
the mysteries and secrets which are contained within the divine wisdom; and on this
account she is called the Word, because she is, as it were, the interpreter of the secrets
of the mind. And therefore that language which is found in the Acts of Paul, where it is
said that "here is the Word a living being," appears to me to be rightly used. John,
however, with more sublimity and propriety, says in the beginning of his Gospel, when
defining God by a special definition to be the Word, "And God was the Word, and this was
in the beginning with God." Let him, then, who assigns a beginning to the Word or Wisdom
of God, take care that he be not guilty of impiety against the unbegotten Father Himself,
seeing he denies that He had always been a Father, and had generated the Word, and had
possessed wisdom in all preceding periods, whether they be called times or ages, or
anything else that can be so entitled.

4. This Son, accordingly, is also the truth and life of all things which exist. And with
reason. For how could those things which were created live, unless they derived their
being from life? or how could those things which are, truly exist, unless they came down
from the truth? or how could rational beings exist, unless the Word or reason had
previously existed? or how could they be wise, unless there were wisdom? But since it was
to come to pass that some also should fall away from life, and bring death upon themselves
by their declension-for death is nothing else than a departure from life-and as it was not
to follow that those beings which had once been created by God for the enjoyment of life
should utterly perish, it was necessary that, before death, there should be in existence
such a power as would destroy the coming death, and that there should be a resurrection,
the type of which was in our Lord and Saviour, and that this resurrection should have its
ground in the wisdom and word and life of God. And then, in the next place, since some of
those who were created were not to be always willing to remain unchangeable and
unalterable in the calm and moderate enjoyment of the blessings which they possessed, but,
in consequence of the good which was in them being theirs not by nature or essence, but by
accident, were to be perverted and changed, and to fall away from their position,
therefore was the Word and Wisdom of God made the Way. And it was so termed because it
leads to the Father those who walk along it.

Whatever, therefore, we have predicated of the wisdom of God, will be appropriately
applied and understood of the Son of God, in virtue of His being the Life, and the Word,
and the Truth and the Resurrection: for all these titles are derived from His power and
operations, and in none of them is there the slightest ground for understanding anything
of a corporeal nature which might seem to denote either size, or form, or colour; for
those children of men which appear among us, or those descendants of other living beings,
correspond to the seed of those by whom they were begotten, or derive from those mothers,
in whose wombs they are formed and nourished, whatever that is, which they bring into this
life, and carry with them when they are born. But it is monstrous and unlawful to compare
God the Father, in the generation of His only-begotten Son, and in the substance of the
same, to any man or other living thing engaged in such an act; for we must of necessity
hold that there is something exceptional and worthy of God which does not admit of any
comparison at all, not merely in things, but which cannot even be conceived by thought or
discovered by perception, so that a human mind should be able to apprehend how the
unbegotten God is made the Father of the only-begotten Son. Because His generation is as
eternal and everlasting as the brilliancy which is produced from the sun. For it is not by
receiving the breath of life that He is made a Son, by any outward act, but by His own
nature.

5. Let us now ascertain how those statements which we have advanced are supported by the
authority of holy Scripture. The Apostle Paul says, that the only-begotten Son is the
"image of the invisible God," and "the first-born of every creature." And when writing to
the Hebrews, he says of Him that He is "the brightness of His glory, and the express image
of His person." Now, we find in the treatise called the Wisdom of Solomon the following
description of the wisdom of God: "For she is the breath of the power of God, and the
purest efflux of the glory of the Almighty." Nothing that is polluted can therefore come
upon her. For she is the splendour of the eternal light, and the stainless mirror of God's
working, and the image of His goodness. Now we say, as before, that Wisdom has her
existence nowhere else save in Him who is the beginning of all things: from whom also is
derived everything that is wise, because He Himself is the only one who is by nature a
Son, and is therefore termed the Only-begotten.

6. Let us now see how we are to understand the expression "invisible image," that we may
in this way perceive how God is rightly called the Father of His Son; and let us, in the
first place, draw our conclusions from what are customarily called images among men. That
is sometimes called an image which is painted or sculptured on some material substance,
such as wood or stone; and sometimes a child is called the image of his parent, when the
features of the child in no respect belie their resemblance to the father. I think,
therefore, that that man who was formed after the image and likeness of God may be
fittingly compared to the first illustration. Respecting him, however, we shall see more
precisely, God willing, when we come to expound the passage in Genesis. But the image of
the Son of God, of whom we are now speaking, may be compared to the second of the above
examples, even in respect of this, that He is the invisible image of the invisible God, in
the same manner as we say, according to the sacred history, that the image of Adam is his
son Seth. The words are, "And Adam begat Seth in his own likeness, and after his own
image. Now this image contains the unity of nature and substance belonging to Father and
Son.

For if the Son do, in like manner, all those things which the Father doth, then, in virtue
of the Son doing all things like the Father, is the image of the Father formed in the Son,
who is born of Him, like an act of His will proceeding from the mind. And I am therefore
of opinion that the will of the Father ought alone to be sufficient for the existence of
that which He wishes to exist. For in the exercise of His wilt He employs no other way
than that which is made known by the counsel of His will. And thus also the existence of
the Son is generated by Him. For this point must above all others be maintained by those
who allow nothing to be unbegotten, i.e., unborn, save God the Father only. And we must be
careful not to fall into the absurdities of those who picture to themselves certain
emanations, so as to divide the divine nature into parts, and who divide God the Father as
far as they can, since even to entertain the remotest suspicion of such a thing regarding
an incorporeal being is not only the height of impiety, but a mark of the greatest folly,
it being most remote from any intelligent conception that there should be any physical
division of any incorporeal nature.

Rather, therefore, as an act of the will proceeds from the understanding, and neither cuts
off any part nor is separated or divided from it, so after some such fashion is the Father
to be supposed as having begotten the Son, His own image; namely, so that, as He is
Himself invisible by nature, He also begat an image that was invisible. For the Son is the
Word, and therefore we are not to understand that anything in Him is cognisable by the
senses. He is wisdom, and in wisdom there can be no suspicion of anything corporeal. He is
the true light, which enlightens every man that cometh into this world; but He has nothing
in common with the light of this sun. Our Saviour, therefore, is the image of the
invisible God, inasmuch as compared with the Father Himself He is the truth: and as
compared with us, to whom He reveals the Father, He is the image by which we come to the
knowledge of the Father, whom no one knows save the Son, and he to whom the Son is pleased
to reveal Him. And the method of revealing Him is through the understanding. For He by
whom the Son Himself is understood, understands, as a consequence, the Father also,
according to His own words: "He that hath seen Me, hath seen the Father also."

7. But since we quoted the language of Paul regarding Christ, where He says of Him that He
is "the brightness of the glory of God, and the express figure of His person," let us see
what idea we are to form of this. According to John, "God is light." The only-begotten
Son, therefore, is the glory of this light, proceeding inseparably from (God) Himself, as
brightness does from light, and illuminating the whole of creation. For, agreeably to what
we have already explained as to the manner in which He is the Way, and conducts to the
Father; and in which He is the Word, interpreting the secrets of wisdom, and the mysteries
of knowledge, making them known to the rational creation; and is also the Truth, and the
Life, and the Resurrection,-in the same way ought we to understand also the meaning of His
being the brightness: for it is by its splendour that we understand and feel what light
itself is. And this splendour, presenting itself gently and softly to the frail and weak
eyes of mortals, and gradually training, as it were, and accustoming them to bear the
brightness of the light, when it has put away from them every hindrance and obstruction to
vision, according to the Lord's own precept," Cast forth the beam out of thine eye,"
renders them capable of enduring the splendour of the light, being made in this respect
also a sort of mediator between men and the light.

8. But since He is called by the apostle not only the brightness of His glory, but also
the express figure of His person or subsistence, it does not seem idle to inquire how
there can be said to be another figure of that person besides the person of God Himself,
whatever be the meaning of person and subsistence. Consider, then, whether the Son of God,
seeing He is His Word and Wisdom, and alone knows the Father, and reveals Him to whom He
will (i.e., to those who are capable of receiving His word and wisdom), may not, in regard
of this very point of making God to be understood and acknowledged, be called the figure
of His person and subsistence; that is, when that Wisdom, which desires to make known to
others the means by which God is acknowledged and understood by them, describes Himself
first of all, it may by so doing be called the express figure of the person of God.

In order, however, to arrive at a fuller understanding of the manner in which the Saviour
is the figure of the person or subsistence of God, let us take an instance, which,
although it does not describe the subject of which we are treating either fully or
appropriately, may nevertheless be seen to be employed for this purpose only, to show that
the Son of God, who was in the form of God, divesting Himself (of His glory), makes it His
object, by this very divesting of Himself, to demonstrate to us the fulness of His deity.
For instance, suppose that there were a statue of so enormous a size as to fill the whole
world, and which on that account could be seen by no one; and that another statue were
formed altogether resembling it in the shape of the limbs, and in the features of the
countenance, and in form and material, but without the same immensity of size, so that
those who were unable to behold the one of enormous proportions, should, on seeing the
latter, acknowledge that they had seen the former, because it preserved all the features
of its limbs and countenance, and even the very form and material, so closely, as to be
altogether undistinguishable from it; by some such similitude, the Son of God, divesting
Himself of His equality with the Father, and showing to us the way to the knowledge of
Him, is made the express image of His person:

so that we, who were unable to look upon the glory of that marvellous light when placed in
the greatness of His Godhead, may, by His being made to us brightness, obtain the means of
beholding the divine light by looking upon the brightness. This comparison, of course, of
statues, as belonging to material things, is employed for no other purpose than to show
that the Son of God, though placed in the very insignificant form of a human body, in
consequence of the resemblance of His works and power to the Father, showed that there was
in Him an immense and invisible greatness, inasmuch as He said to His disciples, "He who
sees Me, sees the Father also; "and, "I and the Father are one. And to these belong also
the similar expression, "The Father is in Me, and I in the Father." 9. Let us see now what
is the meaning of the expression which is found in the Wisdom of Solomon, where it is said
of Wisdom that "it is a kind of breath of the power of God, and the purest efflux of the
glory of the Omnipotent, and the splendour of eternal light, and the spotless mirror of
the working or power of God, and the image of His goodness." These, then, are the
definitions which he gives of God, pointing out by each one of them certain attributes
which belong to the Wisdom of God, calling wisdom the power, and the glory, and the
everlasting light, and the working, and the goodness of God. He does not say, however,
that wisdom is the breath of the glory of the Almighty, nor of the everlasting light, nor
of the working Of the Father, nor of His goodness, for it was not appropriate that breath
should be ascribed to any one of these; but, with all propriety, he says that wisdom is
the breath of the power of God. Now, by the power of God is to be understood that by which
He is strong; by which He appoints, restrains, and governs all things visible and
invisible; which is sufficient for all those things which He rules over in His providence;
among all which He is present, as if one individual. And although the breath of all this
mighty and immeasurable power, and the vigour itself produced, so to speak, by its own
existence, proceed from the power itself, as the will does from the mind, yet even this
will of God is nevertheless made to become the power of God.

Another power accordingly is produced, which exists with properties of its own,-a kind of
breath, as Scripture says, of the primal and unbegotten power of God, deriving from Him
its being, and never at any time non-existent. For if any one were to assert that it did
not formerly exist, but came afterwards into existence, let him explain the reason why the
Father, who gave it being, did not do so before. And if he shall grant that there was once
a beginning, when that breath proceeded from the power of God, we shall ask him again, why
not even before the beginning, which he has allowed; and in this way, ever demanding an
earlier date, and going upwards with our interrogations, we shall arrive at this
conclusion, that as God was always possessed of power and will, there never was any reason
of propriety or otherwise, why He may not have always possessed that blessing which He
desired. By which it is shown that that breath of God's power always existed, having no
beginning save God Himself. Nor was it fitting that there should be any other beginning
save God Himself, from whom it derives its birth. And according to the expression of the
apostle, that Christ "is the power of God," it ought to be termed not only the breath of
the power of God, but power out of power.

10. Let us now examine the expression, "Wisdom is the purest efflux of the glory of the
Almighty; "and let us first consider what the glory of the omnipotent God is, and then we
shall also understand what is its efflux. As no one can be a father without having a son,
nor a master without possessing a servant, so even God cannot be called omnipotent unless
there exist those over whom He may exercise His power; and therefore, that God may be
shown to be almighty, it is necessary that all things should exist. For if any one would
have some ages or portions of time, or whatever else he likes to call them, to have passed
away, while those things which were afterwards made did not yet exist, he would
undoubtedly show that during those ages or periods God was not omnipotent, but became so
afterwards, viz., from the time that He began to have persons over whom to exercise power;
and in this way He will appear to have received a certain increase, and to have risen from
a lower to a higher condition; since there can be no doubt that it is better for Him to be
omnipotent than not to be so. And now how can it appear otherwise than absurd, that when
God possessed none of those things which it was befitting for Him to possess, He should
afterwards, by a kind of progress, come into the possession of them?

But if there never was a time when He was not omnipotent, of necessity those things by
which He receives that title must also exist; and He must always have had those over whom
He exercised power, and which were governed by Him either as king or prince, of which we
shall speak more fully in the proper place, when we come to discuss the subject of the
creatures. But even now I think it necessary to drop a word, although cursorily, of
warning, since the question before us is, how wisdom is the purest efflux of the glory of
the Almighty, lest any one should think that the title of Omnipotent was anterior in God
to the birth of Wisdom, through whom He is called Father, seeing that Wisdom, which is the
Son of God, is the purest efflux of the glory of the Almighty. Let him who is inclined to
entertain this suspicion hear the undoubted declaration of Scripture pronouncing, "In
wisdom hast Thou made them all," and the teaching of the Gospel, that "by Him were all
things made, and without Him nothing was made; " and let him understand from this that the
title of Omnipotent in God cannot be older than that of Father; for it is through the Son
that the Father is almighty. But from the expression "glory of the Almighty," of which
glory Wisdom is the efflux, this is to be understood, that Wisdom, through which God is
called omnipotent, has a share in the glory of the Almighty.

For through Wisdom, which is Christ, God has power over all things, not only by the
authority of a ruler, but also by the voluntary obedience of subjects. And that you may
understand that the omnipotence of Father and Son is one and the same, as God and the Lord
are one and the same with the Father, listen to the manner in which John speaks in the
Apocalypse: "Thus saith the Lord God, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the
Almighty. For who else was "He which is to come" than Christ? And as no one ought to be
offended, seeing God is the Father, that the Saviour is also God; so also, since the
Father is called omnipotent, no one ought to be offended that the Son of God is also cared
omnipotent. For in this way will that saying be true which He utters to the Father, "All
Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine, and I am glorified in them. Now, if all things which
are the Father's are also Christ's, certainly among those things which exist is the
omnipotence of the Father; and doubtless the only-begotten Son ought to be omnipotent,
that the Son also may have all things which the Father possesses. "And I am glorified in
them," He declares. For "at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven,
and things in earth, and things under the earth; and every tongue shall confess that the
Lord Jesus is in the glory of God the Father.

Therefore He is the efflux of the glory of God in this respect, that He is omnipotent-the
pure and limpid Wisdom herself-glorified as the efflux of omnipotence or of glory. And
that it may be more clearly understood what the glory of omnipotence is, we shall add the
following. God the Father is omnipotent, because He has power over all things, i.e., over
heaven and earth, sun, moon, and stars, and all things in them. And He exercises His power
over them by means of His Word, because at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, both of
things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth. And if every knee is
bent to Jesus, then, without doubt, it is Jesus to whom all things are subject, and He it
is who exercises power over all things, and through whom all things are subject to the
Father; for through wisdom, i.e., by word and reason, not by force and necessity, are all
things subject. And therefore His glory consists in this very thing, that He possesses all
things, and this is the purest and most limpid glory of omnipotence, that by reason and
wisdom, not by force and necessity, all things are subject. Now the purest and most limpid
glory of wisdom is a convenient expression to distinguish it from that glory which cannot
be called pure and sincere.

But every nature which is convertible and changeable, although glorified in the works of
righteousness or wisdom, yet by the fact that righteousness or wisdom are accidental
qualifies, and because that which is accidental may also fall away, its glory cannot be
called sincere and pure. But the Wisdom of God, which is His only-begotten Son, being in
all respects incapable of change or alteration, and every good quality in Him being
essential, and such as cannot be changed and converted, His glory is therefore declared to
be pure and sincere. 11. In the third place, wisdom is called the splendour of eternal
light. The force of this expression we have explained in the preceding pages, when we
introduced the similitude of the sun and the splendour of its rays, and showed to the best
of our power how this should be understood. To what we then said we shall add only the
following remark. That is properly termed everlasting or eternal which neither had a
beginning of existence, nor can ever cease to be what it is. And this is the idea conveyed
by John when he says that "God is light." Now His wisdom is the splendour of that light,
not only in respect of its being light, but also of being everlasting light, so that His
wisdom is eternal and everlasting splendour. If this be fully understood, it clearly shows
that the existence of the Son is derived from the Father but not in time, nor from any
other beginning, except, as we have said, from God Himself.

12. But wisdom is also called the stainless mirror of the e0ne/rgeia or working of God. We
must first understand, then, what the working of the power of God is. It is a sort of
vigour, so to speak, by which God operates either in creation, or in providence, or in
judgment, or in the disposal and arrangement of individual things, each in its season. For
as the image formed in a mirror unerringly reflects all the acts and movements of him who
gazes on it, so would Wisdom have herself to be understood when she is called the
stainless mirror of the power and working of the Father: as the Lord Jesus Christ also,
who is the Wisdom of God, declares of Himself when He says, "The works which the Father
doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." And again He says, that the Son cannot do
anything of Himself, save what He sees the Father do. As therefore the Son in no respect
differs from the Father in the power of His works, and the work of the Son is not a
different thing from that of the Father, but one and the same movement, so to speak, is in
all things, He therefore named Him a stainless mirror, that by such an expression it might
be understood that them is no dissimilarity whatever between the Son and the Father. How,
indeed, can those things which are said by some to be done after the manner in which a
disciple resembles or imitates his master, or according to the view that those things are
made by the Son in bodily material which were first formed by the Father in their
spiritual essence, agree with the declarations of Scripture, seeing in the Gospel the Son
is said to do not similar things, but the same things in a similar manner?

13. It remains that we inquire what is the "image of His goodness; "and here, I think, we
must understand the same thing which we expressed a little ago, in speaking of the image
formed by the mirror. For He is the primal goodness, doubtless, out of which the Son is
born, who, being in all respects the image of the Father, may certainly also be called
with propriety the image of His goodness. For there is no other second goodness existing
in the Son, save that which is in the Father. And therefore also the Saviour Himself
rightly says in the Gospel, "Them is none good save one only, God the Father," that by
such an expression it may be understood that the Son is not of a different goodness, but
of that only which exists in the Father, of whom He is tightly termed the image, because
He proceeds from no other source but from that primal goodness, lest there might appear to
be in the Son a different goodness from that which is in the Father. Nor is there any
dissimilarity or difference of goodness in the Son. And therefore it is not to be imagined
that there is a kind of blasphemy, as it were, in the words, "There is none good save one
only, God the Father," as if thereby it may be supposed to be denied that either Christ or
the Holy Spirit was good.

But, as we have already said, the primal goodness is to be understood as residing in God
the Father, from whom both the Son is born and the Holy Spirit proceeds, retaining within
them, without any doubt, the nature of that goodness which is in the source whence they
are derived. And if there be any other things which in Scripture are called good, whether
angel, or man, or servant, or treasure, or a good heart, or a good tree, all these are so
termed catachrestically, having in them an accidental, not an essential goodness. But it
would require both much time and labour to collect together all the titles of the Son of
God, such, e.g., as the true light, or the door, or the righteousness, or the
sanctification, or the redemption, and countless others; and to show if or what reasons
each one of them is so given. Satisfied, therefore, with what we have already advanced, we
go on with our inquiries into those other matters which follow.

CHAPTER III.-ON THE HOLY SPIRIT.

1. The next point is to investigate as briefly as possible the subject of the Holy Spirit.
All who perceive, in whatever manner, the existence of Providence, confess that God, who
created and disposed all things, is unbegotten, and recognise Him as the parent of the
universe. Now, that to Him belongs a Son, is a statement not made by us only; although it
may seem a sufficiently marvellous and incredible assertion to those who have a reputation
as philosophers among Greeks and Barbarians, by some of whom, however, an idea of His
existence seems to have been entertained, in their acknowledging that all things were
created by the word or reason of God. We, however, in conformity with our belief in that
doctrine, which we assuredly hold to be divinely inspired, believe that it is possible in
no other way to explain and bring within the reach of human knowledge this higher and
diviner reason as the Son of God, than by means of those Scriptures alone which were
inspired by the Holy Spirit, i.e., the Gospels and Epistles, and the law and the prophets,
according to the declaration of Christ Himself. Of the existence of the Holy Spirit no one
indeed could entertain any suspicion, save those who were familiar with the law and the
prophets, or those who profess a belief in Christ.

For although no one is able to speak with certainty of God the Father, it is nevertheless
possible for some knowledge of Him to be gained by means of the visible creation and the
natural feelings of the human mind; and it is possible, moreover, for such knowledge to be
confined from the sacred Scriptures. But with respect to the Son of God, although no one
knoweth the Son save the Father, yet it is from sacred Scripture also that the human mind
is taught how to think of the Son; and that not only from the New, but also from the Old
Testament, by means of those things which, although done by the saints, are figuratively
referred to Christ, and from which both His divine nature, and that human nature which was
assumed by Him, may be discovered. 2. Now, what the Holy Spirit is, we are taught in many
passages of Scripture, as by David in the Psalms 51, when he says, "And take not Thy Holy
Spirit from me; " and by Daniel, where it is Said, "The Holy Spirit which is in thee." And
in the New Testament we have abundant testimonies, as when the Holy Spirit is described as
having descended upon Christ, and when the Lord breathed upon His apostles after His
resurrection, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit; " and the saying of the angel to Mary,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon thee; " the declaration by Paul, that no one can call
Jesus Lord, save by the Holy Spirit. In the Acts of the Apostles, the Holy Spirit was
given by the imposition of the apostles' hands in baptism. From all which we learn that
the person of the Holy Spirit was of such authority and dignity, that saving baptism was
not complete except by the authority of the most excellent Trinity of them all, i.e., by
the naming of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and by joining to the unbegotten God the
Father, and to His only-begotten Son, the name also of the Holy Spirit. Who, then, is not
amazed at the exceeding majesty of the Holy Spirit, when he hears that he who speaks a
word against the Son of man may hope for forgiveness; but that he who is guilty of
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit has not forgiveness, either in the present world or in
that which is to come!

3. That all things were created by God, and that there is no creature which exists but has
derived from Him its being, is established from many declarations of Scripture; those
assertions being refuted and rejected which are falsely alleged by some respecting the
existence either of a matter co-eternal with God, or of unbegotten souls, in which they
would have it that God implanted not so much the power of existence, as equality and
order. For even in that little treatise called The Pastor or Angel of Repentance, composed
by Hennas, we have the following: "First of all, believe that there is one God who created
and arranged all things; who, when nothing formerly existed, caused all things to be; who
Himself contains all things, but Himself is contained by none." And in the book of Enoch
also we have similar descriptions. But up to the present time we have been able to find no
statement in holy Scripture in which the Holy Spirit could be said to be made or created,
not even in the way in which we have shown above that the divine wisdom is spoken of by
Solomon, or in which those expressions which we have discussed are to be understood of the
life, or the word, or the other appellations of the Son of God. The Spirit of God,
therefore, which was borne upon the waters, as is written in the beginning of the creation
of the world, is, I am of opinion, no other than the Holy Spirit, so far as I can
understand; as indeed we have shown in our exposition of the passages themselves, not
according to the historical, but according to the spiritual method of interpretation.

4. Some indeed of our predecessors have observed, that in the New Testament, whenever the
Spirit is named without that adjunct which denotes quality, the Holy Spirit is to be
understood; as e.g., in the expression, "Now the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, and
peace; " and, "Seeing ye began in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect in the flesh? " We
are of opinion that this distinction may be observed in the Old Testament also, as when it
is said, "He that giveth His Spirit to the people who are upon the earth, and Spirit to
them who walk thereon. For, · without doubt, every one who walks upon the earth (i.e.,
earthly and corporeal beings) is a partaker also of the Holy Spirit, receiving it from
God. My Hebrew master also used to say that those two seraphim in Isaiah, which are
described as having each six wings, and calling to one another, and saying, "Holy, holy,
holy, is the Loan God of hosts," were to be understood of the only-begotten Son of God and
of the Holy Spirit. And we think that that expression also which occurs in the hymn of
Habakkuk, "In the midst either of the two living things, or of the two lives, Thou wilt be
known," ought to be understood of Christ and of the Holy Spirit.

For all knowledge of the Father is obtained by revelation of the Son through the Holy
Spirit, so that both of these beings which, according to the prophet, are called either
"living things" or "lives," exist as the ground of the knowledge of God the Father. For as
it is said of the Son, that "no one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son
will reveal Him," the same also is said by the apostle of the Holy Spirit, when He
declares, "God hath revealed them to us by His Holy Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all
things, even the deep things of God; " and again in the Gospel, when the Saviour, speaking
of the divine and profounder parts of His teaching, which His disciples were not yet able
to receive, thus addresses them: "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now; but when the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, is come, He will teach you all
things, and will bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. We
must understand, therefore, that as the Son, who alone knows the Father, reveals Him to
whom He will, so the Holy Spirit, who alone searches the deep things of God, reveals God
to whom He will: "For the Spirit bloweth where He listeth. We are not, however, to suppose
that the Spirit derives His knowledge through revelation from the Son.

For if the Holy Spirit knows the Father through the Son's revelation, He passes from a
state of ignorance into one of knowledge; but it is alike impious and foolish to confess
the Holy Spirit, and yet to ascribe to Him ignorance. For even although something else
existed before the Holy Spirit, it was not by progressive advancement that He came to be
the Holy Spirit; as if any one should venture to say, that at the time when He was not yet
the Holy Spirit He was ignorant of the Father, but that after He had received knowledge He
was made the Holy Spirit. For if this were the case, the Holy Spirit would never be
reckoned in the Unity of the Trinity, i.e., along with the unchangeable Father and His
Son, unless He had always been the Holy Spirit. When we use, indeed, such terms as
"always" or "was," or any other designation of time, they are not to be taken absolutely,
but with due allowance; for while the significations of these words relate to time, and
those subjects of which we speak are spoken of by a stretch of language as existing in
time, they nevertheless surpass in their real nature all conception of the finite
understanding.

5. Nevertheless it seems proper to inquire what is the reason why he who is regenerated by
God unto salvation has to do both with Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and does not obtain
salvation unless with the co-operation of the entire Trinity; and why it is impossible to
become partaker of the Father or the Son without the Holy Spirit. And in discussing these
subjects, it will undoubtedly be necessary to describe the special working of the Holy
Spirit, and of the Father and the Son. I am of opinion, then, that the working of the
Father and of the Son takes place as well in saints as in sinners, in rational beings and
in dumb animals; nay, even in those things which are without life, and in all things
universally which exist; but that the operation of the Holy Spirit does not take place at
all in those things which are without life, or in those which, although living, are yet
dumb; nay, is not found even in those who are endued indeed with reason, but are engaged
in evil courses, and not at all converted to a better life. In those persons alone do I
think that the operation of the Holy Spirit takes place, who are already turning to a
better life, and walking along the way which leads to Jesus Christ, i.e., who are engaged
in the performance of good actions, and who abide in God.

6. That the working of the Father and the Son operates both in saints and in sinners, is
manifest from this, that all who are rational beings are partakers of the word, i.e., of
reason, and by this means bear certain seeds, implanted within them, of wisdom and
justice, which is Christ. Now, in Him who truly exists, and who said by Moses, "I Am Who I
Am," all things, whatever they are, participate; which participation in God the Father is
shared both by just men and sinners, by rational and irrational beings, and by all things
universally which exist. The Apostle Paul also shows truly that all have a share in
Christ, when he says, "Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (i.e., to
bring Christ down from above; or who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up
Christ again from the dead. But what saith the Scripture? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth, and in thy heart. By which he means that Christ is in the heart of all, in
respect of His being the word or reason, by participating in which they are rational
beings. That declaration also in the Gospel, "If I had not come and spoken unto them, they
had not had sin;

but now they have no excuse for their sin," renders it manifest and patent to all who have
a rational knowledge of how long a time man is without sin, and from what period he is
liable to it, how, by participating in the word or reason, men are said to have sinned,
viz., from the time they are made capable of understanding and knowledge, when the reason
implanted within has suggested to them the difference between good and evil; and after
they have already begun to know what evil is, they are made liable to sin, if they commit
it. And this is the meaning of the expression, that "men have no excuse for their sin,"
viz., that, from the time the divine word or reason has begun to show them internally the
difference between good and evil, they ought to avoid and guard against that which is
wicked: "For to him who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Moreover,
that all men are not without communion with God, is taught in the Gospel thus, by the
Saviour's words: "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say,
Lo here! or, lo there! but the kingdom of God is within you. But here we must see whether
this does not bear the same meaning with the expression in Genesis: "And He breathed into
his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul.

For if this be understood as applying generally to all men, then all men have a share in
God. 7. But if this is to be understood as spoken of the Spirit of God, since Adam also is
found to have prophesied of some things, it may be taken not as of general application,
but as confined to those who are saints. Finally, also, at the time of the flood, when all
flesh had corrupter their way before God, it is recorded that God spoke thus, as of
undeserving men and sinners: "My Spirit shall not abide with those men for ever, because
they are flesh. By which, it is clearly shown that the Spirit of God is taken away from
all who are unworthy. In the Psalms also it is written: "Thou wilt take away their spirit,
and they will die, and return to their earth. Thou wilt send forth Thy Spirit, and they
shall be created, and Thou wilt renew the face of the earth; " which is manifestly
intended of the Holy Spirit, who, after sinners and unworthy persons have been taken away
and destroyed, creates for Himself a new people, and renews the face of the earth, when,
laying aside, through the grace of the Spirit, the old map with his deeds, they begin to
walk in newness of life. And therefore the expression is competently applied to the Holy
Spirit, because He will take up His dwelling, not in all men, nor in those who are flesh,
but in those whose land has been renewed.

Lastly, for this reason was the grace and revelation of the Holy Spirit bestowed by the
imposition of the apostles' hands after baptism. Our Saviour also, after the resurrection,
when old things had already passed away, and all things had become new, Himself a new man,
and the first-born from the dead, His apostles also being renewed by faith in His
resurrection, says, "Receive the Holy Spirit; " This is doubtless what the Lord the
Saviour meant to convey in the Gospel, when He said that new wine cannot be put into old
bottles, but commanded that the bottles should be made new, i.e., that men should walk in
newness of life, that they might receive the new wine, i.e., the newness of grace of the
Holy Spirit. In this manner, then, is the working of the power of God the Father and of
the Son extended without distinction to every creature; but a share in the Holy Spirit we
find possessed only by the saints. And therefore it is said, "No man can say that Jesus is
Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. And on one occasion, scarcely even the apostles themselves
are deemed worthy to hear the words, "Ye shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming
upon you. For this reason, also, I think it follows that he who has committed a sin
against the Son of man is deserving of forgiveness;

because if he who is a participator of the word or reason of God cease to live agreeably
to reason, he seems to have fallen into a state of ignorance or folly, and therefore to
deserve forgiveness; whereas he who has been deemed worthy to have a portion of the Holy
Spirit, and who has relapsed, is, by this very act and work, said to be guilty of
blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Let no one indeed suppose that we, from having said
that the Holy Spirit is conferred upon the saints alone, but that the benefits or
operations of the Father and of the Son extend to good and bad, to just and unjust, by so
doing give a preference to the Holy Spirit over the Father and the Son, or assert that His
dignity is greater, which certainly would be a very illogical conclusion. For it is the
peculiarity of His grace and operations that we have been describing. Moreover, nothing in
the Trinity can be called greater or less, since the fountain of divinity alone contains
all things by His word and reason, and by the Spirit of His mouth sanctifies all things
which are worthy of sanctification, as it is written in the Psalm: "By the word of the
Lord were the heavens strengthened, and all their power by the Spirit of His mouth. There
is also a special working of God the Father, besides that by which He bestowed upon all
things the gift of natural life.

There is also a special ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ to those upon whom he confers by
nature the gift of reason, by means of which they are enabled to be rightly what they are.
There is also another grace of the Holy Spirit, which is bestowed upon the deserving,
through the ministry of Christ and the working of the Father, in proportion to the merits
of those who are rendered capable of receiving it. This is most clearly pointed out by the
Apostle Paul, when demonstrating that the power of the Trinity is one and the same, in the
words, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; there are diversities of
administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the
same God who worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man
to profit: withal. From which it most clearly follows that there is no difference in the
Trinity, but that which is called the gift of the Spirit is made known through the Son,
and operated by God the Father. "But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit,
dividing to every one severally as He will."

8. Having made these declarations regarding the Unity of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, let us return to the order in which we began the discussion. God the
Father bestows upon all, existence; and participation in Christ, in respect of His being
the word of reason, renders them rational beings. From which it follows that they are
deserving either of praise or blame, because capable of virtue and vice. On this account,
therefore, is the grace of the Holy Ghost present, that those beings which are not holy in
their essence may be rendered holy by participating in it. Seeing, then, that firstly,
they derive their existence from God the Father; secondly, their rational nature from the
Word; thirdly, their holiness from the Holy Spirit,-those who have been previously
sanctified by the Holy Spirit are again made capable of receiving Christ, in respect that
He is the righteousness of God; and those who have earned advancement to this grade by the
sanctification of the Holy Spirit, will nevertheless obtain the gift of wisdom according
to the power and working of the Spirit of God. And this I consider is Paul's meaning, when
he says that to "some is given the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge,
according to the same Spirit. And while pointing out the individual distinction of gifts,
he refers the whole of them to the source of all things. in the words, "There are
diversities of operations, but one God who worketh all in all.

Whence also the working of the Father, which confers existence upon all things, is found
to be more glorious and magnificent, while each one, by participation in Christ, as being
wisdom, and knowledge, and sanctification, makes progress, and advances to higher degrees
of perfection; and seeing it is by partaking of the Holy Spirit that any one is made purer
and holier, he obtains, when he is made worthy, the grace of wisdom and knowledge, in
order that, after all stains of pollution and ignorance are cleansed and taken away, he
may make so great an advance in holiness and purity, that the nature which he received
from God may become such as is worthy of Him who gave it to be pure and perfect, so that
the being which exists may be as worthy as He who called it into existence. For, in this
way, he who is such as his Creator wished him to be, will receive from God power always to
exist, and to abide for ever. That this may be the case, and that those whom He has
created may be unceasingly and inseparably present with Him, Who is, it is the business of
wisdom to instruct and train them, and to bring them to perfection by confirmation of His
Holy Spirit and unceasing sanctification, by which alone are they capable of receiving
God.

In this way, then, by the renewal of the ceaseless working of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
in us, in its various stages of progress, shall we be able at some future time perhaps,
although with difficulty, to behold the holy and the blessed life, in which (as it is only
after many struggles that we are able to reach it) we ought so to continue, that no
satiety of that blessedness should ever seize us; but the more we perceive its
blessedness, the more should be increased and intensified within us the longing for the
same, while we ever more eagerly and freely receive and hold fast the Father, and the Son,
and the Holy Spirit. But if satiety should ever take hold of any one of those who stand on
the highest and perfect summit of attainment, I do not think that such an one would
suddenly be deposed from his position and fall away, but that he must decline gradually
and little by little, so that it may sometimes happen that if a brief lapsus take place,
and the individual quickly repent and return to himself, he may not utterly fall away, but
may retrace his steps, and return to his former place, and again make good that which had
been lost by his negligence.

CHAPTER IV.-ON DEFECTION, OR FALLING AWAY.

1. To exhibit the nature of defection or falling away, on the part of those who conduct
themselves carelessly, it will not appear out of place to employ a similitude by way of
illustration. Suppose, then, the case of one who had become gradually acquainted with the
art or science, say of geometry or medicine, until he had reached perfection, having
trained himself for a lengthened time in its principles and practice, so as to attain a
complete mastery over the art: to such an one it could never happen, that, when he lay
down to sleep in the possession of his skill, he should awake in a state of ignorance. It
is not our purpose to adduce or to notice here those accidents which are occasioned by any
injury or weakness, for they do not apply to our present illustration. According to our
point of view, then, so long as that geometer or physician continues to exercise himself
in the study of his art and in the practice of its principles, the knowledge of his
profession abides with him; but if he withdraw from its practice, and lay aside his habits
of industry, then, by his neglect, at first a few things will gradually escape him, then
by and by more and more, until in course of time everything will be forgotten, and be
completely effaced from the memory.

It is possible, indeed, that when he has first begun to fall away, and to yield to the
corrupting influence of a negligence which is small as yet, he may, if he be aroused and
return speedily to his senses, repair those losses which up to that time are only recent,
and recover that knowledge which hitherto had been only slightly obliterated from his
mind. Let us apply this now to the case of those who have devoted themselves to the
knowledge and wisdom of God, whose learning and diligence incomparably surpass all other
training; and let us contemplate, according to the form of the similitude employed, what
is the acquisition of knowledge, or what is its disappearance, especially when we hear
from the apostle what is said of those who are perfect, that they shall behold face to
face the glory of the Lord in the revelation of His mysteries.

2. But in our desire to show the divine benefits bestowed upon us by Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, which Trinity is the fountain of all holiness, we have fallen, in what we have
said, into a digression, having considered that the subject of the soul, which
accidentally came before us, should be touched on, although cursorily, seeing we were
discussing a cognate topic relating to our rational nature. We shall, however, with the
permission of God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, more conveniently consider in
the proper place the subject of all rational beings, which are distinguished into three
genera and species.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS continued

CHAPTER V.-ON RATIONAL NATURES.

1. After the dissertation, which we have briefly conducted to the best of our ability,
regarding the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it follows that we offer a few remarks upon
the subject of rational natures, and on their species and orders, or on the offices as
well of holy as of malignant powers, and also on those which occupy an intermediate
position between these good and evil powers, and as yet are placed in a state of struggle
and trial. For we find in holy Scripture numerous names of certain orders and offices, not
only of holy beings, but also of those of an opposite description, which we shall bring
before us, in the first place; and the meaning of which we shall endeavour, in the second
place, to the best of our ability, to ascertain. There are certain holy angels of God whom
Paul terms "ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation." In the writings also of St. Paul himself we find him designating them, from
some unknown source, as thrones, and dominions, and principalities, and powers; and after
this enumeration, as if knowing that there were still other rational offices and orders
besides those which he had named, he says of the Saviour: "Who is above all principality,
and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world,
but also in that which is to come." From which he shows that there were certain beings
besides those which he had mentioned, which may be named indeed in this world, but were
not now enumerated by him, and perhaps were not known by any other individual; and that
there were others which may not be named in this world, but will be named in the world to
come.

2. Then, in the next place, we must know that every being which is endowed with reason,
and transgresses its statutes and limitations, is undoubtedly involved in sin by swerving
from rectitude and justice. Every rational creature, therefore, is capable of earning
praise and censure: of praise, if, in conformity to that reason which he possesses, he
advance to better things; of censure, if he fall away from the plan and course of
rectitude, for which reason he is justly liable to pains and penalties. And this also is
to be held as applying to the devil himself, and those who are with him, and are called
his angels. Now the rifles of these beings have to be explained, that we may know what
they are of whom we have to speak. The name, then, of Devil, and Satan, and Wicked One,
who is also described as Enemy of God, is mentioned in many passages of Scripture.
Moreover, certain angels of the devil are mentioned, and also a prince of this world, who,
whether the devil himself or some one else, is not yet clearly manifest. There are also
certain princes of this world spoken of as possessing a kind of wisdom which will come to
nought; but whether these are those princes who are also the principalities with whom we
have to wrestle, or other beings, seems to me a point on which it is not easy for any one
to pronounce.

After the principalities, certain powers also are named with whom we have to wrestle, and
carry on a struggle even against the princes of this world and the rulers of this
darkness. Certain spiritual powers of wickedness also, in heavenly places, are spoken of
by Paul himself. What, moreover, are we to say of those wicked and unclean spirits
mentioned in the Gospel? Then we have certain heavenly beings called by a similar name,
but which are said to bend the knee, or to be about to bend the knee, at the name of
Jesus; nay, even things on earth and things under the earth, which Paul enumerates in
order. And certainly, in a place where we have been discussing the subject of rational
natures, it is not proper to be silent regarding ourselves, who are human beings, and are
called rational animals; nay, even this point is not to be idly passed over, that even of
us human beings certain different orders are mentioned in the words, "The portion of the
Lord is His people Jacob; Israel is the cord of His inheritance. Other nations, moreover,
are called a part of the angels; since "when the Most High divided the nations, and
dispersed the sons of Adam, He fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number
of the angels of God. And therefore, with other rational natures, we must also thoroughly
examine the reason of the human soul.

3. After the enumeration, then, of so many and so important names of orders and offices,
underlying which it is certain that there are personal existences, let us inquire whether
God, the creator and founder of all things, created certain of them holy and happy, so
that they could admit no element at all of an opposite kind, and certain others so that
they were made capable both of virtue and vice; or whether we are to suppose that He
created some so as to be altogether incapable of virtue, and others again altogether
incapable of wickedness, but with the power of abiding only in a state of happiness, and
others again such as to be capable of either condition. In order, now, that our first
inquiry may begin with the names themselves, let us consider whether the holy angels, from
the period of their first existence, have always been holy, and axe holy still, and will
be holy, and have never either admitted or had the power to admit any occasion of sin.
Then in the next place, let us consider whether those who are called holy principalities
began from the moment of their creation by God to exercise power over some who were made
subject to them, and whether these latter were created of such a nature, and formed for
the very purpose of being subject and subordinate.

In like manner, also, whether those which are called powers were created of such a nature
and for the express purpose of exercising power, or whether their arriving at that power
and dignity is a reward and desert of their virtue. Moreover, also, whether those which
are called thrones or seats gained that stability of happiness at the same time with their
coming forth into being, so as to have that possession from the will of the Creator alone;
or whether those which are called dominions had their dominion conferred on them, not as a
reward for their proficiency, but as the peculiar privilege of their creation, so that it
is something which is in a certain degree inseparable from them, and natural. Now, if we
adopt the view that the holy angels, and the holy powers, and the blessed seats, and the
glorious virtues, and the magnificent dominions, are to be regarded as possessing those
powers and dignities and glories in virtue of their nature, it will doubtless appear to
follow that those beings which have been mentioned as holding offices of an opposite kind
must be regarded in the same manner; so that those principalities with whom we have to
struggle are to be viewed, not as having received that spirit of opposition and resistance
to all good at a later period, or as failing away from good through the freedom of the
will, but as having had it in themselves as the essence of their being from the beginning
of their existence.

In like manner also will it be the case with the powers and virtues, in none of which was
wickedness subsequent or posterior to their first existence. Those also whom the apostle
termed rulers and princes of the darkness of this world, are said, with respect to their
rule and occupation of darkness, to fall not from perversity of intention, but from the
necessity of their creation. Logical reasoning will compel us to take the same view with
regard to wicked and malignant spirits and unclean demons. But if to entertain this view
regarding malignant and opposing powers seem to be absurd, as it is certainly absurd that
the cause of their wickedness should be removed from the purpose Of their own will, and
ascribed of necessity to their Creator, why should we not also be obliged to make a
similar confession regarding the good and holy powers, that, viz., the good which is in
them is not theirs by essential being, which we have manifestly shown to be the case with
Christ and the Holy Spirit alone, as undoubtedly with the Father also? For it was proved
that there was nothing compound in the nature of the Trinity, so that these qualities
might seem to belong to it as accidental consequences.

From which it follows, that in the case of every creature it is a result of his own works
and movements, that those powers which appear either to hold sway over others or to
exercise power or dominion, have been preferred to and placed over those whom they are
said to govern or exercise power over, and not in consequence of a peculiar privilege
inherent in their constitutions, but on account of merit. 4. But that we may not appear to
build our assertions on subjects of such importance and difficulty on the ground of
inference alone, or to require the assent of our hearers to what is only conjectural, let
us see whether we can obtain any declarations from holy Scripture, by the authority of
which these positions may be more credibly maintained. And, firstly, we shall adduce what
holy Scripture contains regarding wicked powers; we shall next continue our investigation
with regard to the others, as the Lord shall be pleased to enlighten us, that in matters
of such difficulty we may ascertain what is nearest to the truth, or what ought to be our
opinions agreeably to the standard of religion. Now we find in the prophet Ezekiel two
prophecies written to the prince of Tyre, the former of which might appear to any one,
before he heard the second also, to be spoken of some man who was prince of the Tyrians.
In the meantime, therefore, we shall take nothing from that first prophecy;

but as the second is manifestly of such a kind as cannot be at all understood of a man,
but of some superior power which had fallen away from a higher position, and had been
reduced to a lower and worse condition, we shall from it take an illustration, by which it
may be demonstrated with the utmost clearness, that those opposing and malignant powers
were not formed or created so by nature, but fell from a better to a worse position, and
were converted into wicked beings; that those blessed powers also were not of such a
nature as to be unable to admit what was opposed to them if they were so inclined and
became negligent, and did not guard most carefully the blessedness of their condition. For
if it is related that he who is called the prince of Tyre was amongst the saints, and was
without stain, and was placed in the paradise of God, and adorned also with a crown of
comeliness and beauty, is it to be supposed that such an one could be in any degree
inferior to any of the saints? For he is described as having been adorned with a crown of
comeliness and beauty, and as having walked stainless in the paradise of God: and how can
any one suppose that such a being was not one of those holy and blessed powers which, as
being placed in a state of happiness, we must believe to be endowed with no other honour
than this?

But let us see what we are taught by the words of the prophecy themselves. "The word of
the Lord. says the prophet, "came to me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation over
the prince of Tyre, and say to him, Thus saith the Lord God, Thou, hast been the seal of a
similitude, and a crown of comeliness among the delights of paradise; thou wert adorned
with every good stone or gem, and wert clothed with sardonyx, and topaz, and emerald, and
carbuncle, and sapphire, and jasper, set in gold and silver, and with agate, amethyst, and
chrysolite, and beryl, and onyx: with gold aim didst thou fill thy treasures, and thy
storehouses within thee. From the day when thou weft created along with the cherubim, I
placed thee in the holy mount of God. Thou weft in the midst of the fiery stones: thou
weft stainless in thy days, from the day when thou weft created, until iniquities were
found in thee: from the greatness of thy trade, thou didst fill thy storehouses with
iniquity, and didst sin, and weft wounded from the mount of God. And a cherub drove thee
forth from the midst of the burning stones; and thy heart was elated because of thy
comeliness, thy discipline was corrupted along with thy beauty: on account of the
multitude of thy sins, I cast thee forth to the earth before kings; I gave thee for a show
and a mockery on account of the multitude of thy sins, and of thine iniquities:

because of thy trade thou hast polluted thy holy places. And I shall bring forth fire from
the midst of thee, and it shall devour thee, and I shall give thee for ashes and cinders
on the earth in the sight of all who see thee: and all who know thee among the nations
shall mourn over thee. Thou hast been made destruction, and thou shalt exist no longer for
ever. Seeing, then, that such are the words of the prophet, who is there that on hearing,
"Thou wert a seal of a similitude, and a crown of comeliness among the delights of
paradise," or that "From the day when thou wert created with the cherubim, I placed thee
in the holy mount of God," can so enfeeble the meaning as to suppose that this language is
used of some man or saint, not to say the prince off Tyre? Or what fiery stones can he
imagine in the midst of which any man could live? Or who could be supposed to be stainless
from the very day of his creation, and wickedness being afterwards discovered in him, it
be said of him then that he was cast forth upon the earth? For the meaning of this is,
that He who was not yet on the earth is said to be cast forth upon it: whose holy places
also are said to be polluted.

We have shown, then, that what we have quoted regarding the prince of Tyre from the
prophet Ezekiel refers to an adverse power, and by it it is most clearly proved that that
power was formerly holy and happy; from which state of happiness it fell from the time
that iniquity was found in it, and was hurled to the earth, and was not such by nature and
creation. We are of opinion, therefore, that these words are spoken of a certain angel who
had received the office of governing the nation of the Tyrians, and to whom also their
souls had been entrusted to be taken care of. But what Tyre, or what souls of Tyrians, we
ought to understand, whether that Tyre which is situated within the boundaries of the
province of Phoenicia, or some other of which, this one which we know on earth is the
model; and the souls of the Tyrians, whether they are those of the former or those which
belong to that Tyre which is spiritually understood, does not seem to be a matter
requiting examination in this place; test perhaps we should appear to investigate subjects
of so much mystery and importance in a cursory manner, whereas they demand a labour and
work of their own.

5. Again, we are taught as follows by the prophet Isaiah regarding another opposing power.
The prophet says, "How is Lucifer, who used to arise in the morning, fallen from heaven!
He who assailed all nations is broken and beaten to the ground. Thou indeed saidst in thy
heart, I shall ascend into heaven; above the stars of heaven shall I place my throne; I
shall sit upon a lofty mountain, above the lofty mountains which are towards the north; I
shall ascend above the clouds; I shall be like the Most High. Now shalt thou be brought
down to the lower world, and to the foundations of the earth. They who see thee shall be
amazed at thee, and shall say, This is the man who harassed the whole earth, who moved
kings, who made the whole world a desert, who destroyed cities, and did not unloose those
who were in chains. All the kings of the nations have slept in honour, every one in his
own house; but thou shalt be cast forth on the mountains, accursed with the many dead who
have been pierced through with swords, and have descended to the lower world. As a garment
cloned with blood, and stained, will not be clean; neither shall thou be clean, because
thou hast destroyed my land and slain my people: thou shall not remain for ever, most
wicked seed. Prepare thy sons for death on account of the sins of thy father, lest they
rise again and inherit the earth, and fill the earth with wars.

And I shall rise against them, saith the Lord of hosts, and I shall cause their name to
perish, and their remains, and their seed. Most evidently by these words is he shown to
have fallen from heaven, who formerly was Lucifer, and who used to arise in the morning.
For if, as some think, he was a nature of darkness, how is Lucifer said to have existed
before? Or how could he arise in the morning, who had in himself nothing of the light?
Nay, even the Saviour Himself teaches us, saying of the devil, "Behold, I see Satan fallen
from heaven like lightning. For at one time he was light. Moreover our Lord, who is the
truth, compared the power of His own glorious advent to lightning, in the words, "For as
the lightning shineth from the height of heaven even to its height again, so will the
coming of the Son of man be. And notwithstanding He compares him to lightning, and says
that he fell from heaven, that He might show by this that he had been at one time in
heaven, and had had a place among the saints, and had enjoyed a share in that light in
which all the saints participate, by which they are made angels. of light, and by which
the apostles are termed by the Lord the light of the world.

In this manner, then, did that being once exist as light before he went astray, and fell
to this place, and had his glory turned into dust, which is peculiarly the mark of the
wicked, as the prophet also says; whence, too, he was called the prince of this world,
i.e., of an earthly habitation: for he exercised power over those who were obedient to his
wickedness, since "the whole of this world"-for I term this place of earth, world-"lieth
in the wicked one," and in this apostate. That he is an apostate, i.e., a fugitive, even
the Lord in the book of Job says, "Thou wilt take with a hook the apostate dragon," i.e.,
a fugitive. Now it is certain that by the dragon is understood the devil himself. If then
they are called opposing powers, and are said to have been once without stain, while
spotless purity exists in the essential being of none save the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit, but is an accidental quality in every created thing; and since that which is
accidental may also fall away, and since those opposite powers once were spotless, and
were once among those which still remain unstained, it is evident from all this that no
one is pure either by essence or nature, and that no one was by nature polluted. And the
consequence of this is, that it lies within ourselves and in our own actions to possess
either happiness or holiness;

or by sloth and negligence to fall from happiness into wickedness and ruin, to such a
degree that, through too great proficiency, so to speak, in wickedness (if a man be guilty
of so great neglect), he may descend even to that state in which he will be changed into
what is called an "opposing power."

CHAPTER VI.-ON THE END OR CONSUMMATION.

1. An end or consummation would seem to be an indication of the perfection and completion
of things. And this reminds us here, that if there be any one imbued with a desire of
reading and understanding subjects of such difficulty and importance, he ought to bring to
the effort a perfect and instructed understanding, lest perhaps, if he has had no
experience in questions of this kind, they may appear to him as vain and superfluous; or
if his mind be full of preconceptions and prejudices on other points, he may judge these
to be heretical and opposed to the faith of the Church, yielding in so doing not so much
to the convictions of reason as to the dogmatism of prejudice. These subjects, indeed, are
treated by us with great solicitude and caution, in the manner rather of an investigation
and discussion, than in that of fixed and certain decision. For we have pointed out in the
preceding pages those questions which must be set forth in clear dogmatic propositions, as
I think has been done to the best of my ability when speaking of the Trinity. But on the
present occasion our exercise is to be conducted, as we best may, in the style of a
disputation rather than of strict definition.

The end of the world, then, and the final consummation, will take place when every one
shall be subjected to punishment for his sins; a time which God alone knows, when He will
bestow on each one what he deserves. We think, indeed, that the goodness of God, through
His Christ, may recall all His creatures to one end, even His enemies being conquered and
subdued. For thus says holy Scripture, "The Lord said to My Lord, Sit Thou at My right
hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." And if the meaning of the prophet's
language here be less clear, we may ascertain it from the Apostle Paul, who speaks more
openly, thus: "For Christ must reign until He has put all enemies under His feet." But if
even that unreserved declaration of the apostle do not sufficiently inform us what is
meant by "enemies being placed under His feet," listen to what he says in the following
words, "For all things must be put under Him." What, then, is this "putting under" by
which all things must be made subject to Christ? I am of opinion that it is this very
subjection by which we also wish to be subject to Him, by which the apostles also were
subject, and all the saints who have been followers of Christ. For the name "subjection,"
by which we are subject to Christ, indicates that the salvation which proceeds from Him
belongs to His subjects, agreeably to the declaration of David, "Shall not my soul be
subject unto God? From Him cometh my salvation."

2. Seeing, then, that such is the end, when all enemies will be subdued to Christ, when
death-the last enemy-shall be destroyed, and when the kingdom shall be delivered up by
Christ (to whom all things are subject) to God the Father; let us, I say, from such an end
as this, contemplate the beginnings of things. For the end is always like the beginning:
and, therefore, as there is one end to all things, so ought we to understand that there
was one beginning; and as there is one end to many things, so there spring from one
beginning many differences and varieties, which again, through the goodness of God, and by
subjection to Christ, and through the unity of the Holy Spirit, are recalled to one end,
which is like unto the beginning: all those, viz., who, bending the knee at the name of
Jesus, make known by so doing their subjection to Him: and these are they who are in
heaven, on earth, and under the earth: by which three classes the whole universe of things
is pointed out, those, viz., who from that one beginning were arranged, each according to
the diversity of his conduct, among the different orders, in accordance with their desert;
for there was no goodness in them by essential being, as in God and His Christ, and in the
Holy Spirit. For in the Trinity alone, which is the author of all things, does goodness
exist in virtue of essential being;

while others possess it as an accidental and perishable quality, and only then enjoy
blessedness, when they participate in holiness and wisdom, and in divinity itself. But if
they neglect and despise such participation, then is each one, by fault of his own
slothfulness, made, one more rapidly, another more slowly, one in a greater, another in a
less degree, the cause of his own downfall. And since, as we have remarked, the lapse by
which an individual falls away from his position is characterized by great diversity,
according to the movements of the mind and will, one man falling with greater ease,
another with more difficulty, into a lower condition; in this is to be seen the just
judgment of the providence of God, that it should happen to every one according to the
diversity of his conduct, in proportion to the desert of his declension and defection.
Certain of those, indeed, who remained in that beginning which we have described as
resembling the end which is to come, obtained, in the ordering and arrangement of the
world, the rank of angels; others that of influences, others of principalities, others of
powers, that they may exercise power over those who need to have power upon their head.
Others, again, received the rank of thrones, having the office of judging or ruling those
who require this; others dominion, doubtless, over slaves;

all of which are conferred by Divine Providence in just and impartial judgment according
to their merits, and to the progress which they had made in the participation and
imitation of God. But those who have been removed from their primal state of blessedness
have not been removed irrecoverably, but have been placed under the rule of those holy and
blessed orders which we have described; and by availing themselves of the aid of these,
and being remoulded by salutary principles and discipline, they may recover themselves,
and be restored to their condition of happiness. From all which I am of opinion, so far as
I can see, that this order of the human race has been appointed in order that in the
future world, or in ages to come, when there shall be the new heavens and new earth,
spoken of by Isaiah, it may be restored to that unity promised by the Lord Jesus in His
prayer to God the Father on behalf of His disciples: "I do not pray for these alone, but
for all who shall believe on Me through their word: that they all. may be one, as Thou,
Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us; " and again, when He
says: "That they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may
be made perfect in one. And this is further confirmed by the language of the Apostle Paul:

"Until we all come in the unity of the faith to a perfect man, to the measure of the
stature of the fulness of Christ. And in keeping with this is the declaration of the same
apostle, when he exhorts us, who even in the present life are placed in the Church, in
which is the form of that kingdom which is to come, to this same similitude of unity:
"That ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye
be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." 3. It is to be
borne in mind, however, that certain beings who fell away from that one beginning of which
we have spoken, have sunk to such a depth of unworthiness and wickedness as to be deemed
altogether undeserving of that training and instruction by which the human race, while in
the flesh, are trained and instructed with the assistance of the heavenly powers; and
continue, on the contrary, in a state of enmity and opposition to those who are receiving
this instruction and teaching. And hence it is that the whole of this mortal life is full
of struggles and trials, caused by the opposition and enmity of those who fell from a
better condition without at all looking back, and who are called the devil and his angels,
and the other orders of evil, which the apostle classed among the opposing powers. But
whether any of these orders who act under the government of the devil, and obey his wicked
commands, will in a future world be converted to righteousness because of their possessing
the faculty of freedom of will, or whether persistent and inveterate wickedness may be
changed by the power of habit into nature, is a result which you yourself, reader, may
approve of, if neither in these present worlds which are seen and temporal, nor in those
which are unseen and are eternal, that portion is to differ wholly from the final unity
and fitness of things.

But in the meantime, both in those temporal worlds which are seen, as well as in those
eternal worlds which are invisible, all those beings are arranged, according to a regular
plan, in the order and degree of their merits; so that some of them in the first, others
in the second, some even in the last times, after having undergone heavier and severer
punishments, endured for a lengthened period, and for many ages, so to speak, improved by
this stern method of training, and restored at first by the instruction of the angels, and
subsequently by the powers of a higher grade, and thus advancing through each stage to a
better condition, reach even to that which is invisible and eternal, having travelled
through, by a kind of training, every single office of the heavenly powers. From which, I
think, this will appear to follow as an inference, that every rational nature may, in
passing from one order to another, go through each to all, and advance from all to each,
while made the subject of various degrees of proficiency and failure according to its own
actions and endeavours, put forth in the enjoyment of its power of freedom of will.

4. But since Paul says that certain things are visible and temporal, and others besides
these invisible and eternal, we proceed to inquire how those things which are seen are
temporal-whether because there will be nothing at all after them in all those periods of
the coming world, in which that dispersion and separation from the one beginning is
undergoing a process of restoration to one and the same end and likeness; or because,
while the form of those things which are seen passes away, their essential nature is
subject to no corruption. And Paul seems to confirm the latter view, when he says, "For
the fashion of this world passeth away. David also appears to assert the same in the
words, "The heavens shall perish, but Thou shalt endure; and they all shall wax old as a
garment, and Thou shalt change them like a vesture, and like a vestment they shall be
changed. For if the heavens are to be changed, assuredly that which is changed does not
perish, and if the fashion of the world passes away, it is by no means an annihilation or
destruction of their material substance that is shown to take place, but a kind of change
of quality and transformation of appearance. Isaiah also, in declaring prophetically that
there will be a new heaven and a new earth, undoubtedly suggests a similar view.

For this renewal of heaven and earth, and this transmutation of the form of the present
world, and this changing of the heavens will undoubtedly be prepared for those who are
walking along that way which we have pointed out above, and are tending to that goal of
happiness to which, it is said, even enemies themselves are to be subjected, and in which
God is said to be "all and in all. And if any one imagine that at the end material, i.e.,
bodily, nature will be entirely destroyed, he cannot in may respect meet my view, how
beings so numerous and powerful are able to live and to exist without bodies, since it is
an attribute of the divine nature alone-i.e., of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-to exist
without any material substance, and without partaking in any degree of a bodily adjunct.
Another, perhaps, may say that in the end every bodily substance will be so pure and
refined as to be like the aether, and of a celestial purity and clearness. How things will
be, however, is known with certainty to God alone, and to those who are His friends
through Christ and the Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER VII.-ON INCORPOREAL AND CORPOREAL BEINGS.

1. The subjects considered in the previous chapter have been spoken of in general
language, the nature of rational beings being discussed more by way of intelligent
inference than strict dogmatic definition, with the exception of the place where we
treated, to the best of our ability, of the persons of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We
have now to ascertain what those matters are which it is proper to treat in the following
pages according to our dogmatic belief, i.e., in agreement with the creed of the Church.
All souls and all rational natures, whether holy or wicked, were formed or created, and
all these, according to their proper nature, are incorporeal; but although incorporeal,
they were nevertheless created, because all things were made by God through Christ, as
John teaches in a general way in his Gospel, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All
things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made." The Apostle Paul, moreover,
describing created things by species and numbers and orders, speaks as follows, when
showing that all things were made through Christ: "And in Him were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones,
or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and in Him:
and He is before all, and He is the head." He therefore manifestly declares that in Christ
and through Christ were all things made and created, whether things visible, which are
corporeal, or things invisible, which I regard as none other than incorporeal and
spiritual powers. But of those things which he had termed generally corporeal or
incorporeal, he seems to me, in the words that follow, to enumerate the various kinds,
viz., thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, influences.

These matters now have been previously mentioned by us, as we are desirous to come in an
orderly manner to the investigation of the sun, and moon, and stab by way of logical
inference, and to ascertain whether they also ought properly to be reckoned among the
principalities on account of their being said to be created in 'Arka/j, i.e., for the
government of day and night; or whether they are to be regarded as having only that
government of day and night which they discharge by performing the office of illuminating
them, and are not in reality chief of that order of principalities. 2. Now, when it is
said that all things were made by Him, and that in Him were all things created, both
things in heaven and things on earth, there can be no doubt that also those things which
are in the firmament, which is called heaven, and in which those luminaries are said to be
placed, are included amongst the number of heavenly things. And secondly, seeing that the
course of the discussion has manifestly discovered that all things were made or created,
and that amongst created things there is nothing which may not admit of good and evil, and
be capable of either, what are we to think of the following opinion which certain of our
friends entertain regarding sun, moon, and stars, viz., that they are unchangeable, and
incapable of becoming the opposite of what they are? Not a few have held that view even
regarding the holy angels, and certain heretics also regarding souls, which they call
spiritual natures.

In the first place, then, let us see what reason itself can discover respecting sun, moon,
and stars,-whether the opinion, entertained by some, of their unchangeableness be
correct,-and let the declarations of holy Scripture, as far as possible, be first adduced.
For Job appears to assert that not only may the stars be subject to sin, but even that
they are actually not clean from the contagion of it. The following are his words: "The
stars also are not clean in Thy sight." Nor is this to be understood of the splendour of
their physical substance, as if one were to say, for example, of a garment, that it is not
clean; for if such were the meaning, then the accusation of a want of cleanness in the
splendour of their bodily substance would imply an injurious reflection upon their
Creator. For if they are unable, through their own diligent efforts, either to acquire for
themselves a body of greater brightness, or through their sloth to make the one they have
less pure, how should they incur censure for being stars that are not clean, if they
receive no praise because they are so?

3. But to arrive at a clearer understanding on these matters, we ought first to inquire
after this point, whether it is allowable to suppose that they are living and rational
beings; then, in the next place, whether their souls came into existence at the same time
with their bodies, or seem to be anterior to them; and also whether, after the end of the
world, we are to understand that they are to be released from their bodies; and whether,
as we cease to live, so they also will cease from illuminating the world. Although this
inquiry may seem to be somewhat bold, yet, as we are incited by the desire of ascertaining
the truth as far as possible, there seems no absurdity in attempting an investigation of
the subject agreeably to the grace of the Holy Spirit. We think, then, that they may be
designated as living beings, for this reason, that they are said to receive commandments
from God, which is ordinarily the case only with rational beings. "I have given a
commandment to all the stars," says the Lord. What, now, are these commandments? Those,
namely, that each star, in its order and course, should bestow upon the world the amount
of splendour which has been entrusted to it. For those which are called "planets" move in
orbits of one kind, and those which are termed a0planei=j are different. Now it manifestly
follows from this, that neither can the movement of that body take place without a soul,
nor can living things be at any time without motion. And seeing that the stars move with
such order and regularity, that their movements never appear to be at any time subject to
derangement, would it not be the height of folly to say that so orderly an observance of
method and plan could be carried out or accomplished by irrational beings? In the writings
of Jeremiah, indeed, the moon is called the queen of heaven. Yet if the stars are living
and rational beings, there will undoubtedly appear among them both an advance and a
falling back. For the language of Job, "the stars are not dean in His sight," seems to me
to convey some such idea.

4. And now we have to ascertain whether those beings which in the course of the discussion
we have discovered to possess life and reason, were endowed with a soul along with their
bodies at the time mentioned in Scripture, when "God made two great lights, the greater
light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night, and the stars also," or
whether their spirit was implanted in them, not at the creation of their bodies, but from
without, after they had been already made. I, for my part, suspect that the spirit was
implanted in them from without; but it will be worth while to prove this from Scripture:
for it will seem an easy matter to make the assertion on conjectural grounds, while it is
more difficult to establish it by the testimony of Scripture. Now it may be established
conjecturally as follows. If the soul of a man, which is certainly inferior while it
remains the soul of a man, was not formed along with his body, but is proved to have been
implanted strictly from without, much more must this be the case with those living beings
which are called heavenly. For, as regards man, how could the soul of him, viz., Jacob,
who supplanted his brother in the womb, appear to be formed along with his body? Or how
could his soul, or its images, be formed along with his body, who, while lying in his
mother's womb, was filled with the Holy Ghost?

I refer to John leaping in his mother's womb, and exulting because the voice of the
salutation of Mary had come to the ears of his mother Elisabeth. How could his soul and
its images be formed along with his body, who, before he was created in the womb, is said
to be known to God, and was sanctified by Him before his birth? Some, perhaps, may think
that God fills individuals with His Holy Spirit, and bestows upon them sanctification, not
on grounds of justice and according to their deserts; but undeservedly. And how shall we
escape that declaration: "Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid! or this : "Is
there respect of persons with God? " For such is the defence of those who maintain that
souls come into existence with bodies. So far, then, as we can form an opinion from a
comparison with the condition of man, I think it follows that we must hold the same to
hold good with heavenly beings, which reason itself and scriptural authority show us to be
the case with men.

5. But let us see whether we can find in holy Scripture any indications properly
applicable to these heavenly existences. The following is the statement of the Apostle
Paul: "The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who
subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the
bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. To what vanity,
pray, was the creature made subject, or what creature is referred to, or how is it said
"not willingly," or "in hope of what? "And in what way is the creature itself to be
delivered from the bondage of corruption? Elsewhere, also, the same apostle says: "For the
expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. And again in
another passage, "And not only we, but the creation itself groaneth together, and is in
pain until now. And hence we have to inquire what are the groanings, and what are the
pains. Let us see then, in the first place, what is the vanity to which the creature is
subject. I apprehend that it is nothing else than the body; for although the body of the
stars is ethereal, it is nevertheless material. Whence also Solomon appears to
characterize the whole of corporeal nature as a kind of burden which enfeebles the vigour
of the soul in the following language: "Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher; all is
vanity.

I have looked, and seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is
vanity. To this vanity, then, is the creature subject, that creature especially which,
being assuredly the greatest in this world, holds also a distinguished principality of
labour, i.e., the sun, and moon, and stars, are said to be subject to vanity, because they
are clothed with bodies, and set apart to the office of giving light to the human race.
"And this creature," he remarks, "was subjected to vanity not willingly. For it did not
undertake a voluntary service to vanity, but because it was the will of Him who made it
subject, and because of the promise of the Subjector to those who were reduced to this
unwilling obedience, that when the ministry of their great work was performed, they were
to be freed from this bondage of corruption and vanity when the time of the glorious
redemption of God's children should have arrived. And the whole of creation, receiving
this hope, and looking for the fulfilment of this promise now, in the meantime, as having
an affection for those whom it serves, groans along with them, and patiently suffers with
them, hoping for the fulfilment of the promises.

See also whether the following words of Paul can apply to those who, although not
willingly, yet in accordance with the will of Him who subjected them, and in hope of the
promises, were made subject to vanity, when he says, "For I could wish to be dissolved,"
or "to return and be with Christ, which is far better. For I think that the sun might say
in like manner, "I would desire to be dissolved," or "to return and be with Christ, which
is far better. Paul indeed adds, "Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for
you; "while the sun may say, "To abide in this bright and heavenly body is more necessary,
on account of the manifestation of the sons of God. The same views are to be believed and
expressed regarding the moon and stars. Let us see now what is the freedom of the
creature, or the termination of its bondage. When Christ shall have delivered up the
kingdom to God even the Father, then also those living things, when they shall have first
been made the kingdom of Christ, shall be delivered, along with the whole of that kingdom,
to the rule of the Father, that when God shall be all in all, they also, since they are a
part of all things, may have God in themselves, as He is in all things.

CHAPTER VIII.-ON THE ANGELS.

1. A similar method must be followed in treating of the angels; nor are we to suppose that
it is the result of accident that a particular office is assigned to a particular angel:
as to Raphael, e.g., the work of curing and healing to Gabriel, the conduct of wars; to
Michael, the duty of attending to the prayers and supplications of mortals. For we are not
to imagine that they obtained these offices otherwise than by their own merits, and by the
zeal and excellent qualities which they severally displayed before this world was formed;
so that afterwards in the order of archangels, this or that office was assigned to each
one, while others deserved to be enrolled in the order of angels, and to act under this or
that archangel, or that leader or head of an order. All of which things were disposed, as
I have said, not indiscriminately and fortuitously, but by a most appropriate and just
decision of God, who arranged them according to deserts, in accordance with His own
approval and judgment: so that to one angel the Church of the Ephesians was to be
entrusted; to another, that of the Smyrnaeans; one angel was to be Peter's, another
Paul's; and so on through every one of the little ones that are in the Church, for such
and such angels as even daily behold the face of God must be assigned to each one of them;
and there must also be some angel that encampeth round about them that fear God. All of
which things, assuredly, it is to be believed, are not performed by accident or chance, or
because they (the angels) were so created, lest on that view the Creator should be accused
of partiality; but it is to be believed that they were conferred by God, the just and
impartial Ruler of all things, agreeably to the merits and good qualities and mental
vigour of each individual spirit.

2. And now let us say something regarding those who maintain the existence of a diversity
of spiritual natures, that we may avoid falling into the silly and impious fables of such
as pretend that there is a diversity of spiritual natures both among heavenly existences
and human souls, and for that reason allege that they were called into being by different
creators; for while it seems, and is really, absurd that to one and the same Creator
should be ascribed the creation of different natures of rational beings, they are
nevertheless ignorant of the cause of that diversity. For they say that it seems
inconsistent for one and the same Creator, without any existing ground of merit, to confer
upon some beings the power of dominion, and to subject others again to authority; to
bestow a principality upon some, and to render others subordinate to rulers. Which
opinions indeed, in my judgment, are completely rejected by following out the reasoning
explained above, and by which it was shown that the cause of the diversity and variety
among these beings is due to their conduct, which has been marked either with greater
earnestness or indifference, according to the goodness or badness of their nature, and not
to any partiality on the part of the Disposer. But that this may more easily be shown to
be the case with heavenly beings, let us borrow an illustration from what either has been
done or is done among men, in order that from visible things we may, by way of
consequence, behold also things invisible.

Paul and Peter are undoubtedly proved to have been men of a spiritual nature. When,
therefore, Paul is found to have acted contrary to religion, in having persecuted the
Church of God, and Peter to have committed so grave a sin as, when questioned by the maid-
servant, to have asserted with an oath that he did not know who Christ was, how is it
possible that these-who, according to those persons of whom we speak, were spiritual
beings-should fall into sins of such a nature, especially as they are frequently in the
habit of saying that a good tree cannot bring forth evil fruits? And if a good tree cannot
produce evil fruit, and as, according to them, Peter and Paul were sprung from the root of
a good tree, how should they be deemed to have brought forth fruits so wicked? And if they
should return the answer which is generally invented, that it was not Paul who persecuted,
but some other person, I know not whom, who was in Paul; and that it was not Peter who
uttered the denial, but some other individual in him; how should Paul say, if he had not
sinned, that "I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of
God? " Or why did Peter weep most bitterly, if it were another than he who sinned? From
which all their silly assertions will be proved to be baseless.

3. According to our view, there is no rational creature which is not capable both of good
and evil. But it does not follow, that because we say there is no nature which may not
admit evil, we therefore maintain that every nature has admitted evil, i.e., has become
wicked. As we may say that the nature of every man admits of his being a sailor, but it
does not follow from that, that every man will become so; or, again, it is possible for
every one to learn grammar or medicine, but it is not therefore proved that every man is
either a physician or a grammarian; so, if we say that there is no nature which may not
admit evil, it is not necessarily indicated that it has done so. For, in our view, not
even the devil himself was incapable of good; but although capable of admitting good, he
did not therefore also desire it, or make any effort after virtue. For, as we are taught
by those quotations which we adduced from the prophets, there was once a time when he was
good, when he walked in the paradise of God between the cherubim. As he, then, possessed
the power either of receiving good or evil, but fell away from a virtuous course, and
turned to evil with all the powers of his mind, so also other creatures, as having a
capacity for either condition, in the exercise of the freedom of their will, flee from
evil, and cleave to good.

There is no nature, then, which may not admit of good or evil, except the nature of God-
the fountain of all good things-and of Christ; for it is wisdom, and wisdom assuredly
cannot admit folly; and it is righteousness, and righteousness will never certainly admit
of unrighteousness; and it is the Word, or Reason, which certainly cannot be made
irrational; nay, it is also the light, and it is certain that the darkness does not
receive the light. In like manner, also, the nature of the Holy Spirit, being holy, does
not admit of pollution; for it is holy by nature, or essential being. If there is any
other nature which is holy, it possesses this property of being made holy by the reception
or inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not having it by nature, but as an accidental quality,
for which reason it may be lost, in consequence of being accidental. So also a man may
possess an accidental righteousness, from which it is possible for him to fall away. Even
the wisdom which a man has is still accidental, although it be within our own power to
become wise, if we devote ourselves to wisdom with the zeal and effort of our life; and if
we always pursue the study of it, we may always be participators of wisdom: and that
result will follow either in a greater or less degree, according to the desert of our life
or the amount of our zeal.

For the goodness of God, as is worthy of Him, incites and attracts all to that blissful
end, where all pain, and sadness, and sorrow fall away and disappear. 4. I am of opinion,
then, so far as appears to me, that the preceding discussion has sufficiently proved that
it is neither from want of discrimination, nor from any accidental cause, either that the
"principalities" hold their dominion, or the other orders of spirits have obtained their
respective offices; but that they have received the steps of their rank on account of
their merits, although it is not our privilege to know or inquire what those acts of
theirs were, by which they earned a place in any particular order. It is sufficient only
to know this much, in order to demonstrate the impartiality and righteousness of God,
that, conformably with the declaration of the Apostle Paul, "there is no acceptance of
persons with Him," who rather disposes everything according to the deserts and moral
progress of each individual, So, then, the angelic office does not exist except as a
consequence of their desert; nor do "powers" exercise power except in virtue of their
moral progress; nor do those which are called "seats" i.e., the powers of judging and
ruling, administer their powers unless by merit; nor do "dominions" rule undeservedly, for
that great and distinguished order of rational creatures among celestial existences is
arranged in a glorious variety of offices.

And the same view is to be entertained of those opposing influences which have given
themselves up to such places and offices, that they derive the property by which they are
made "principalities," or "powers," or rulers of the darkness of the world, or spirits of
wickedness, or malignant spirits, or unclean demons, not from their essential nature, nor
from their being so created, but have obtained these degrees in evil in proportion to
their conduct, and the progress which they made in wickedness. And that is a second order
of rational creatures, who have devoted themselves to wickedness in so headlong a course,
that they are unwilling rather than unable to recall themselves; the thirst for evil being
already a passion, and imparting to them pleasure. But the third order of rational
creatures is that of those who are judged fit by God to replenish the human race, i.e.,
the souls of men, assumed in consequence of their moral progress into the order of angels;
of whom we see some assumed into the number: those, viz., who have been made the sons of
God, or the children of the resurrection, or who have abandoned the darkness, and have
loved the light, and have been made children of the light; or those who, proving
victorious in every struggle, and being made men of peace, have been the sons of peace,
and the sons of God;

or those who, mortifying their members on the earth, and, rising above not only their
corporeal nature, but even the uncertain and fragile movements of the soul itself, have
united themselves to the Lord, being made altogether spiritual, that they may be for ever
one spirit with Him, discerning along with Him each individual thing, until they arrive at
a condition of perfect spirituality, and discern all things by their perfect illumination
in all holiness through the word and wisdom of God, and are themselves altogether
undistinguishable by any one. We think that those views are by no means to be admitted,
which some are wont unnecessarily to advance and maintain, viz., that souls descend to
such a pitch of abasement that they forget their rational nature and dignity, and sink
into the condition of irrational animals, either large or small; and in support of these
assertions they generally quote some pretended statements of Scripture, such as, that a
beast, to which a woman has unnaturally prostituted herself, shall be deemed equally
guilty with the woman, and shall be ordered to be stoned; or that a bull which strikes
with its horn, shall be put to death in the same way; or even the speaking of Balaam's
ass, when God opened its mouth, and the dumb beast of burden, answering with human voice,
reproved the madness of the prophet. All of which assertions we not only do not receive,
but, as being contrary to our belief, we refute and reject. After the refutation and
rejection of such perverse opinions, we shall show, at the proper time and place, how
those passages which they quote from the sacred Scriptures ought to be understood.

FRAGMENT FROM THE FIRST BOOK OF THE DE PRINCIPIIS.

1 Translated by Jerome in His Epistle to Avitus. "It is an evidence of great negligence
and sloth, that each one should fall down to such (a pitch of degradation), and be so
emptied, as that, in coming to evil, he may be fastened to the gross body of irrational
beasts of burden."

Another Fragment from the Same.

2 Translated in the Same Epistle to Avitus. "At the end and consummation of the world,
when souls and rational creatures shall have been sent forth as from bolts and barriers,
some of them walk slowly on account of their slothful habits, others fly with rapid flight
on account of their diligence. And since all are possessed of free-will, and may of their
own accord admit either of good or evil, the former will be in a worse condition than they
are at present, while the latter will advance to a better state of things; because
different conduct and varying wills will admit of a different condition in either
direction, i.e., angels may become men or demons, and again from the latter they may rise
to be men or angels."

CHAPTER I.-ON THE WORLD.

1. Although all the discussions in the preceding book have had reference to the world and
its arrangements, it now seems to follow mat we should specially re-discuss a few points
respecting the world itself, i.e., its beginning and end, or those dispensations of Divine
Providence which have taken place between the beginning and the end, or those events which
are supposed to have occurred before the creation of the world, or are to take place after
the end. In this investigation, the first point which clearly appears is, that the world
in all its diversified and varying conditions is composed not only of rational and diviner
natures, and of a diversity of bodies, but of dumb animals, wild and tame beasts, of
birds, and of all things which live in the waters; then, secondly, of places, i.e., of the
heaven or heavens, and of the earth or water, as well as of the air, which is
intermediate, and which they term aether, and of everything which proceeds from the earth
or is born in it. Seeing, then, there is so great a variety in the world, and so great a
diversity among rational beings themselves, on account of which every other variety and
diversity also is supposed to have come into existence, what other cause than this ought
to be assigned for the existence of the world, especially if we have regard to that end by
means of which it was shown in the preceding book that all things are to be restored to
their original condition? And if this should seem to be logically stated, what other
cause, as we have already said, are we to imagine for so great a diversity in the world,
save the diversity and variety in the movements and declensions of those who fell from
that primeval unity and harmony in which they were at first created by God, and who, being
driven from that state of goodness, and drawn in various directions by the harassing
influence of different motives and desires, have changed, according to their different
tendencies, the single and undivided goodness of their nature into minds of various sorts?

2. But God, by the ineffable skill of His wisdom, transforming and restoring all things,
in whatever manner they are made, to some useful aim, and to the common advantage of all,
recalls those very creatures which differed so much from each other in mental conformation
to one agreement of labour and purpose; so that, although they are under the influence of
different motives, they nevertheless complete the fulness and perfection of one world, and
the very variety of minds tends to one end of perfection. For it is one power which grasps
and holds together all the diversity of the world, and leads the different movements
towards one work, lest so immense an undertaking as that of the world should be dissolved
by the dissensions of souls. And for this reason we think that God, the Father of all
things, in order to ensure the salvation of all His creatures through the ineffable plan
of His word and wisdom, so arranged each of these, that every spirit, whether soul or
rational existence, however called, should not be compelled by force, against the liberty
of his own will, to any other course than that to which the motives of his own mind led
him (lest by so doing the power of exercising free-will should seem to be taken away,
which certainly would produce a change in the nature of the being itself); and that the
varying purposes of these would be suitably and usefully adapted to the harmony of one
world, by some of them requiring help, and others being able to give it, and others again
being the cause of struggle and contest to those who are making progress, amongst whom
their diligence would be deemed more worthy of approval, and the place of rank obtained
after victory be held with greater certainty, which should be established by the
difficulties of the contest.

3. Although the whole world is arranged into offices of different kinds, its condition,
nevertheless, is not to be supposed as one of internal discrepancies and discordances; but
as our one body is provided with many members, and is held together by one soul, so I am
of opinion that the whole world also ought to be regarded as some huge and immense animal,
which is kept together by the power and reason of God as by one soul. This also, I think,
is indicated in sacred Scripture by the declaration of the prophet, "Do not I fill heaven
and earth? saith the Lord; " and again, "The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My
footstool; " and by the Saviour's words, when He says that we are to swear "neither by
heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool: " To the same
effect also are the words of Paul, in his address to the Athenians, when he says, "In Him
we live, and move, and have our being. For how do we live, and move, and have our being in
God, except by His comprehending and holding together the whole world by His power? And
how is heaven the throne of God, and the earth His footstool, as the Saviour Himself
declares, save by His power filling all things both in heaven and earth, according to the
Lord's own words?

And that God, the Father of all things, fills and holds together the world with the
fulness of His power, according to those passages which we have quoted, no one, I think,
will have any difficulty in admitting. And now, since the course of the preceding
discussion has shown that the different movements of rational beings, and their varying
opinions, have brought about the diversity that is in the world, we must see whether it
may not be appropriate that this world should have a termination like its beginning. For
there is no doubt that its end must be sought amid much diversity and variety; which
variety, being found to exist in the termination of the world, will again furnish ground
and occasion for the diversities of the other world which is to succeed the present. 4. If
now, in the course of our discussion, it has been ascertained that these things are so, it
seems to follow that we next consider the nature of corporeal being, seeing the diversity
in the world cannot exist without bodies. It is evident from the nature of things
themselves, that bodily nature admits of diversity and variety of change, so that it is
capable of undergoing all possible transformations, as, e.g., the conversion of wood into
fire, of fire into smoke, of smoke into air, of oil into fire. Does not food itself,
whether of man or of animals, exhibit the same ground of change? For whatever we take as
food, is converted into the substance of our body. But how water is changed into earth or
into air, and air again into fire, or fire into air, or air into water, although not
difficult to explain, yet on the present occasion it is enough merely to mention them, as
our object is to discuss the nature of bodily matter. By matter, therefore, we understand
that which is placed under bodies, viz., that by which, through the bestowing and
implanting of qualities, bodies exist; and we mention four qualities-heat, cold, dryness,
humidity. These four qualities being implanted in the u\ #lh, or matter (for matter is
found to exist in its own nature without those qualities before mentioned), produce the
different kinds of bodies.

Although this matter is, as we have said above, according to its own proper nature without
qualities, it is never found to exist without a quality. And I cannot understand how so
many distinguished men have been of opinion that this matter, which is so great, and
possesses such properties as to enable it to be sufficient for all the bodies in the world
which God willed to exist, and to be the attendant and slave of the Creator for whatever
forms and species He wished in all things, receiving into itself whatever qualities He
desired to bestow upon it, was uncreated, i.e., not formed by God Himself, who is the
Creator of all things, but that its nature and power were the result of chance. And I am
astonished that they should find fault with those who deny either God's creative power or
His providential administration of the world, and accuse them of impiety for thinking that
so great a work as the world could exist without an architect or overseer; while they
themselves incur a similar charge of impiety in saying that matter is uncreated, and co-
eternal with the uncreated God. According to this view, then, if we suppose for the sake
of argument that matter did not exist, as these maintain, saying that God could not create
anything when nothing existed, without doubt He would have been idle, not having matter on
which to operate, which matter they say was furnished Him not by His own arrangement, but
by accident;

and they think that this, which was discovered by chance, was able to suffice Him for an
undertaking of so vast an extent, and for the manifestation of the power of His might, and
by admitting the plan of all His wisdom, might be distinguished and formed into a world.
Now this appears to me to be very absurd, and to be the opinion of those men who are
altogether ignorant of the power and intelligence of un-crested nature. But that we may
see the nature of things a little more clearly, let it be granted that for a little time
matter did not exist, and that God, when nothing formerly existed, caused those things to
come into existence which He desired, why are we to suppose that God would create matter
either better or greater, or of another kind, than that which He did produce from His own
power and wisdom, in order that that might exist which formerly did not? Would He cream a
worse and inferior matter, or one the same as that which they call uncreated? Now I think
it will very easily appear to any one, that neither a better nor inferior matter could
have assumed the forms and species of the world, if it had not been such as that which
actually did assume them. And does it not then seem impious to call that uncreated, which,
if believed to be formed by God, would doubtless be found to be such as that which they
call uncreated?

5. But that we may believe on the authority of holy Scripture that such is the case, hear
how in the book of Maccabees, where the mother of seven martyrs exhorts her son to endure
torture, this truth is confirmed; for she says, "I ask of thee, my son, to look at the
heaven and the earth, and at all things which are in them, and beholding these, to know
that God made all these things when they did not exist." In the book of the Shepherd also,
in the first commandment, he speaks as follows: "First of all believe that there is one
God who created and arranged all things, and made all things to come into existence, and
out of a state of nothingness." Perhaps also the expression in the Psalms has reference to
this: "He spake, and they were made; He commanded, and they were created." For the words,
"He spake, and they were made," appear to show that the substance of those things which
exist is meant; while the others, "He commanded, and they were created," seem spoken of
the qualities by which the substance itself has been moulded.

CHAPTER II.-ON THE PERPETUITY OF BODILY NATURE.

1. On this topic some are wont to inquire whether, as the Father generates an uncreated
Son, and brings forth a Holy Spirit, not as if He had no previous existence, but because
the Father is the origin and source of the Son or Holy Spirit, and no anteriority or
posteriority can be understood as existing in them; so also a similar kind of union or
relationship can be understood as subsisting between rational natures and bodily matter.
And that this point may be more fully and thoroughly examined, the commencement of the
discussion is generally directed to the inquiry whether this very bodily nature, which
bears the lives and contains the movements of spiritual and rational minds, will be
equally eternal with them, or will altogether perish and be destroyed. And that the
question may be determined with greater precision, we have, in the first place, to inquire
if it is possible for rational natures to remain altogether incorporeal after they have
reached the summit of holiness and happiness (which seems to me a most difficult and
almost impossible attainment), or whether they must always of necessity be united to
bodies. If, then, any one could show a reason why it was possible for them to dispense
wholly with bodies, it will appear to follow, : hat as a bodily nature, created out of
nothing after intervals of time, was produced when it did not exist, so also it must cease
to be when the purposes which it served had no longer an existence.

2. If, however, it is impossible for this point to be at all maintained, viz., that any
other nature than the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can live without a body, the necessity
of logical reasoning compels us to understand that rational natures were indeed created at
the beginning, but that material substance was separated from them only in thought and
understanding, and appears to have been formed for them, or after them, and that they
never have lived nor do live without it; for an incorporeal life will rightly be
considered a prerogative of the Trinity alone. As we have remarked above, therefore, that
material substance of this world, possessing a nature admitting of all possible
transformations, is, when dragged down to beings of a lower order, moulded into the
crasser and more solid condition of a body, so as to distinguish those visible and varying
forms of the world; but when it becomes the servant of more perfect and more blessed
beings, it shines in the splendour of celestial bodies, and adorns either the angels of
God or the sons of the resurrection with the clothing of a spiritual body, out of all
which will be filled up the diverse and varying state of the one world. But if any one
should desire to discuss these matters more fully, it will be necessary, with all
reverence and fear of God, to examine the sacred Scriptures with greater attention and
diligence, to ascertain whether the secret and hidden sense within them may perhaps reveal
anything regarding these matters; and something may be discovered in their abstruse and
mysterious language, through the demonstration of the Holy Spirit to those who are worthy,
after many testimonies have been collected on this very point.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS continued

CHAPTER III.-ON THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD, AND ITS CAUSES.

1. The next subject of inquiry is, whether there was any other world before the one which
now exists; and if so, whether it was such as the present, or somewhat different, or
inferior; or whether there was no world at all, but something like that which we
understand will be after the end of all things, when the kingdom shall be delivered up to
God, even the Father; which nevertheless may havebeen the end of another world,-of that,
namely, after which this world took its beginning; and whether the various lapses of
intellectual natures provoked God to produce this diverse and varying condition of the
world. This point also, I think, must be investigated in a similar way, viz., whether
after this world there will be any (system of) preservation and amendment, severe indeed,
and attended with much pain to those who were unwilling to obey the word of God, but a
process through which, by means of instruction and rational training, those may arrive at
a fuller understanding of the truth who have devoted themselves in the present life to
these pursuits, and who, after having had their minds purified, have advanced onwards so
as to become capable of attaining divine wisdom; and after this the end of all things will
immediately follow, and there will be again, for the correction and improvement of those
who stand in need of it, another world, either resembling that which now exists, or better
than it, or greatly inferior; and how long that world, whatever it be that is to come
after this, shall continue; and if there will be a time when no world shall anywhere
exist, or if there has been a time when there was no world at all; or if there have been,
or will be several; or if it shall ever come to pass that there will be one resembling
another, like it in every respect, and indistinguishable from it.

2. That it may appear more clearly, then, whether bodily matter can exist during intervals
of time, and whether, as it did not exist before it was made, so it may again be resolved
into non-existence, let us see, first of all, whether it is possible for any one to live
without a body. For if one person can live without a body, all things also may dispense
with them; seeing our former treatise has shown that all things tend towards one end. Now,
if all things may exist without bodies, there will undoubtedly be no bodily substance,
seeing there will be no use for it. But how shall we understand the words of the apostle
in those passages, in which, discussing the resurrection of the dead, he says, "This
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. When this
corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality,
then shall be brought to pass the saying which is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory! Where, O death, is thy victory? O death, thy sting has been swallowed up: the
sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. Some such meaning, then, as
this, seems to be suggested by the apostle. For can the expression which he employs, "this
corruptible," and "this mortal," with the gesture, as it were, of one who touches or
points out, apply to anything else than to bodily matter?

This matter of the body, then, which is now corruptible shall put on incorruption when a
perfect soul, and one furnished with the marks of incorruption, shall have begun to
inhabit it. And do not be surprised if we speak of a perfect soul as the clothing of the
body (which, on account of the Word of God and His wisdom, is now named incorruption),
when Jesus Christ Himself, who is the Lord and Creator of the soul, is said to be the
clothing of the saints, according to the language of the apostle, "Put ye on the Lord
Jesus Christ. As Christ, then, is the clothing of the soul, so for a kind of reason
sufficiently intelligible is the soul said to be the clothing of the body, seeing it is an
ornament to it, covering and concealing its mortal nature. The expression, then, "This
corruptible must put on incorruption," is as if the apostle had said, "This corruptible
nature of the body must receive the clothing of incorruption-a soul possessing in itself
incorruptibitity," because it has been clothed with Christ, who is the Wisdom and Word of
God. But when this body, which at some future period we shall possess in a more glorious
state, shall have become a partaker of life, it will then, in addition to being immortal,
become also incorruptible. For whatever is mortal is necessarily also corruptible; but
whatever is corruptible cannot also be said to be mortal.

We say of a stone or a piece of wood that it is corruptible, but we do not say that it
follows that it is also mortal. But as the body partakes of life, then because life may
be, and is, separated from it, we consequently name it mortal, and according to another
sense also we speak of it as corruptible. The holy apostle therefore, with remarkable
insight, referring to the general first cause of bodily matter, of which (matter),
whatever be the qualities with which it is endowed (now indeed carnal, but by and by more
refined and pure, which are termed spiritual), the soul makes constant use, says, "This
corruptible must put on incorruption. And in the second place, looking to the special
cause of the body, he says, "This mortal must put on immortality. Now, what else will in-
corruption and immortality be, save the wisdom, and the word, and the righteousness of
God, which mould; and clothe, and adorn the soul? And hence it happens that it is said,
"The corruptible will put on incorruption, and the mortal immortality. For although we may
now make great proficiency, yet as we only know in part, and prophesy in part, and see
through a glass, darkly, those very things which we seem to understand, this corruptible
does not yet put on incorruption, nor is this mortal yet clothed with immorality;

and as this training of ours in the body is protracted doubtless to a longer period, up to
the time, viz., when those very bodies of ours with which we are enveloped may, on account
of the word of God, and His wisdom and perfect righteousness, earn incorruptibility and
immortality, therefore is it said, "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this
mortal must put on immortality." 3. But, nevertheless, those who think that rational
creatures can at any time lead an existence out of the body, may here raise such questions
as the following. If it is true that this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this
mortal put on immortality, and that death is swallowed up at the end; this shows that
nothing else than a material nature is to be destroyed, on which death could operate,
while the mental acumen of those who are in the body seems to be blunted by the nature of
corporeal matter. If, however, they are out of the body, then they will altogether escape
the annoyance arising from a disturbance of that kind. But as they will not be able
immediately to escape all bodily clothing, they are just to be considered as inhabiting
more refined and purer bodies, which possess the property of being no longer overcome by
death, or of being wounded by its sting; so that at last, by the gradual disappearance of
the material nature, death is both swallowed up, and even at the end exterminated, and all
its sting completely blunted by the divine grace which the soul has been rendered capable
of receiving, and has thus deserved to obtain incorruptibility and immortality. And then
it will be deservedly said by all, "O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy
sting? The sting of death is sin. If these conclusions, then, seem to hold good, it
follows that we must believe our condition at some future time to be incorporeal;

and if this is admitted, and all are said to be subjected to Christ, this (incorporeity)
also must necessarily be bestowed on all to whom the subjection to Christ extends; since
all who are subject to Christ will be in the end subject to God the Father, to whom Christ
is said to deliver up the kingdom; and thus it appears that then also the need of bodies
will cease. And if it ceases, bodily matter returns to nothing, as formerly also it did
not exist. Now let us see what can be said in answer to those who make these assertions.
For it will appear to be a necessary consequence that, if bodily nature be annihilated, it
must be again restored and created; since it seems a possible thing that rational natures,
from whom the faculty of free-will is never taken away, may be again subjected to
movements of some kind, through the special act of the Lord Himself, lest perhaps, if they
were always to occupy a condition that was unchangeable, they should be ignorant that it
is by the grace of God and not by their own merit that they have been placed in that final
state of happiness; and these movements will undoubtedly again be attended by variety and
diversity of bodies, by which the world is always adorned; nor will it ever be composed
(of anything) save of variety and diversity,-an effect which cannot be produced without a
bodily matter.

4. And now I do not understand by what proofs they can maintain their position, who assert
that worlds sometimes come into existence which are not dissimilar to each other, but in
all respects equal. For if there is said to be a world similar in all respects (to the
present), then it will come to pass that Adam and Eve will do the same things which they
did before: there will be a second time the same deluge, and the same Moses will again
lead a nation numbering nearly six hundred thousand out of Egypt; Judas will also a second
time betray the Lord; Paul will a second time keep the garments of those who stoned
Stephen; and everything which has been done in this life will be said to be repeated,-a
state of things which I think cannot be established by any reasoning, if souls are
actuated by freedom of will, and maintain either their advance or retrogression according
to the power of their will. For souls are not driven on in a cycle which returns after
many ages to the same round, so as either to do or desire this or that; but at whatever
point the freedom of their own will aims, thither do they direct the course of their
actions.

For what these persons say is much the same as if one were to assert that if a medimnus of
grain were to be poured out on the ground, the fall of the grain would be on the second
occasion identically the same as on the first, so that every individual grain would lie
for the second time close beside that grain where it had been thrown before, and so the
medimnus would be scattered in the same order, and with the same marks as formerly; which
certainly is an impossible result with the countless grains of a medimnus, even if they
were to be poured out without ceasing for many ages. So therefore it seems to me
impossible for a world to be restored for the second time, with the same order and with
the same amount of births, and deaths, and actions; but that a diversity of worlds may
exist with changes of no unimportant kind, so that the state of another world may be for
some unmistakeable reasons better (than this), and for others worse, and for others again
intermediate. But what may be the number or measure of this I confess myself ignorant,
although, if any one can tell it, I would gladly learn.

5. But this world, which is itself called an age, is said to be the conclusion of many
ages. Now the holy apostle teaches that in that age which preceded this, Christ did not
suffer, nor even in the age which preceded that again; and I know not that I am able to
enumerate the number of anterior ages in which He did not suffer. I will show, however,
from what statements of Paul I have arrived at this understanding. He says, "But now once
in the consummation of ages, He was manifested to take away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. For He says that He was once made a victim, and in the consummation of ages was
manifested to take away sin. Now that after this age, which is said to be formed for the
consummation of other ages, there will he other ages again to follow, we have clearly
learned from Paul himself, who says, "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness towards us. He has not said, "in the age to come," nor
"in the two ages to come," whence I infer that by his language many ages are indicated.

Now if there is something greater than ages, so that among created beings certain ages may
be understood, but among other beings which exceed and surpass visible creatures, (ages
still greater) (which perhaps will be the case at the restitution of all things, when the
whole universe will come to a perfect termination), perhaps that period in which the
consummation of all things will take place is to be understood as something more than an
age. But here the authority of holy Scripture moves me, which says, "For an age and more.
Now this word "more" undoubtedly means something greater than an age; and see if that
expression of the Saviour, "I will that where I am, these also may be with Me; and as I
and Thou are one, these also may be one in Us," may not seem to convey something more than
an age and ages, perhaps even more than ages of ages,-that period, viz., when all things
are now no longer in an age, but when God is in all.

6. Having discussed these points regarding the nature of the world to the best of our
ability, it does not seem out of place to inquire what is the meaning of the term world,
which in holy Scripture is shown frequently to have different significations. For what we
call in Latin mundus, is termed in Greek ko/smoj, and ko/smoj signifies not only a world,
but also an ornament. Finally, in Isaiah, where the language of reproof is directed to the
chief daughters of Sion, and where he says, "Instead of an ornament of a golden head, thou
wilt have baldness on account of thy works," he employs the same term to denote ornament
as to denote the world, viz., ko/smoj. For the plan of the world is said to be contained
in the clothing of the high priest, as we find in the Wisdom of Solomon, where he says,
"For in the long garment was the whole world. That earth of ours, with its inhabitants, is
also termed the world, as when Scripture says, "The whole world lieth in wickedness.
Clement indeed, a disciple of the apostles, makes mention of those whom the Greeks called
'Anti/xqonej, and other parts of the earth, to which no one of our people can approach,
nor can any one of those who are there cross over to us, which he also termed worlds,
saying, "The ocean is impassable to men; and those are words which are on the other side
of it, which are governed by these same arrangements of the ruling God.

That universe which is bounded by heaven and earth is also called a world, as Paul
declares: "For the fashion of this world will pass away. Our Lord and Saviour also points
out a certain other world besides this visible one, which it would indeed be difficult to
describe and make known. He says, "I am not of this world. For, as if He were of a certain
other world, He says, "I am not of this world. Now, of this world we have said beforehand,
that the explanation was difficult; and for this reason, that there might not be afforded
to any an occasion of entertaining the supposition that we maintain the existence of
certain images which the Greeks call "ideas: "for it is certainly alien to our (writers)
to speak of an incorporeal world existing in the imagination alone, or in the fleeting.
world of thoughts; and how they can assert either that the Saviour comes from thence, or
that the saints will go thither, I do not see. There is no doubt, however, that something
more illustrious and excellent than this present world is pointed out by the Saviour, at
which He incites and encourages believers to aim. But whether that world to which He
desires to allude be far separated and divided from this either by situation, or nature,
or glory;

or whether it be superior in glory and quality, but confined within the limits of this
world (which seems to me more probable), is nevertheless uncertain, and in my opinion an
unsuitable subject for human thought. But from what Clement seems to indicate when he
says, "The ocean is impassable to men, and those worlds which are behind it," speaking in
the plural number of the worlds which are behind it, which he intimates are administered
and governed by the same providence of the Most High God, he appears to throw out to us
some germs of that view by which the whole universe of existing things, celestial and
super-celestial, earthly and infernal, is generally called one perfect world, within
which, or by which, other worlds, if any there are, must be supposed to be contained. For
which reason he wished the globe of the sun or moon, and of the other bodies called
planets, to be each termed worlds. Nay, even that pre-eminent globe itself which they call
the non-wandering (a0planh=), they nevertheless desire to have properly called world.
Finally, they summon the book of Baruch the prophet to bear witness to this assertion,
because in it the seven worlds or heavens are more clearly pointed out. Nevertheless,
above that sphere which they call non-wandering (a0planh=), they will have another sphere
to exist, which they say, exactly as our heaven contains all things which are under it,
comprehends by its immense size and indescribable extent the spaces of all the spheres
together within its more magnificent circumference;

so that all things are within it, as this earth of oursis under heaven. And this also is
believed to be called in the holy Scriptures the good land, and the land of the living,
having its own heaven, which is higher, and in which the names of the saints are said to
be written, or to have been written, by the Saviour; by which heaven that earth is
confined and shut in, which the Saviour in the Gospel promises to the meek and merciful.
For they would have this earth of ours, which formerly was named "Dry," to have derived
its appellation from the name of that earth, as this heaven also was named firmament from
the title of that heaven. But we have treated at greater length of such opinions in the
place where we had to inquire into the meaning of the declaration, that in the beginning
"God made the heavens and the earth. For another heaven and another earth are shown to
exist besides that "firmanent" which is said to have been made after the second day, or
that "dry land" which was afterwards called "earth.

Certainly, what some say of this world, that it is corruptible because it was made, and
yet is not corrupted, because the will of God, who made it and holds it together lest
corruption should rule over it, is stronger and more powerful than corruption, may more
correctly be supposed of that world which we have called above a "non-wandering "sphere,
since by the will of God it is not at all subject to corruption, for the reason that it
has not admired any causes of corruption, seeing it is the world of the saints and of the
thoroughly purified, and not of the wicked, like that world of ours. We must see,
moreover, lest perhaps it is with reference to this that the apostle says, "While we look
not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are unseen are eternal. For we know that
if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an
house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

And when he says elsewhere, "Because I shall see the heavens, the works of Thy fingers,"
and when God said, regarding all things visible, by the mouth of His prophet, "My hand has
formed all these things," He declares that that eternal house in the heavens which He
promises to His saints was not made with hands, pointing out, doubtless, the difference of
creation in things which are seen and in those which are not seen. For the same thing is
not to be understood by the expressions, "those things which are not seen," and "those
things which are invisible. For those things which are invisible are not only not seen,
but do not even possess the property of visibility, being what the Greeks call a0sw/mata,
i.e., incorporeal; whereas those of which Paul says, "They are not seen," possess indeed
the property of being seen, but, as he explains, are not yet beheld by those to whom they
are promised.

7. Having sketched, then, so far as we could understand, these three opinions regarding
the end of all things, and the supreme blessedness, let each one of our readers determine
for himself, with care and diligence, whether any one of them can be approved and adopted.
For it has been said that we must suppose either that an incorporeal existence is
possible, after all things have become subject to Christ, and through Christ to God the
Father, when God, will be all and in all; or that when, notwithstanding all things have
been made subject to Christ, and through Christ to God (with whom they formed also one
spirit, in respect of spirits being rational natures), then the bodily substance itself
also being united to most pure and excellent spirits, and being changed into an ethereal
condition in proportion to the quality or merits of those who assume it (according to the
apostle's words, "We also shall be changed"), will shine forth in splendour; or at least
that when the fashion of those things which are seen passes away, and all corruption has
been shaken off and cleansed away, and when the whole of the space occupied by this world,
in which the spheres of the planets are said to be, has been left behind and beneath, then
is reached the fixed abode of the pious and the good situated above that sphere, which is
called non-wandering (a0planh/j), as in a good land, in a land of the living, which will
be inherited by the meek and gentle;

to which land belongs that heaven (which, with its more magnificent extent, surrounds and
contains that land itself) which is called truly and chiefly heaven, in which heaven and
earth, the end and perfection of all things, may be safely and most confidently
placed,-where, viz., these, after their apprehension and their chastisement for the
offences which they have undergone by way of purgation, may, after having fulfilled and
discharged every obligation, deserve a habitation in that land; while those who have been
obedient to the word of God, and have henceforth by their obedience shown themselves
capable of wisdom, are said to deserve the kingdom of that heaven or heavens; and thus the
prediction is more worthily fulfilled, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth; " and, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall inherit the kingdom of
heaven; " and the declaration in the Psalm, "He shall exalt thee, and thou shalt inherit
the land. For it is called a descent to this earth, but an exaltation to that which is on
high. In this way, therefore, does a sort of road seem to be opened up by the departure of
the saints from that earth to those heavens; so that they do not so much appear to abide
in that land, as to inhabit it with an intention, viz., to pass on to the inheritance of
the kingdom of heaven, when they have reached that degree of perfection also.

CHAPTER IV.-THE GOD OF THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS, AND THE FATHER OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, IS THE SAME GOD.

1. Having now briefly arranged these points in order as we best could, it follows that,
agreeably to our intention from the first, we refute those who think that the Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ is a different God from Him who gave the answers of the law to
Moses, or commissioned the prophets, who is the God of our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. For in this article of faith, first of all, we must be firmly grounded. We have to
consider, then, the expression of frequent recurrence in the Gospels, and subjoined to all
the acts of our Lord and Saviour, "that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by this or
that prophet," it being manifest that the prophets are the prophets of that God who made
the world. From this therefore we draw the conclusion, that He who sent the prophets,
Himself predicted what was to be foretold of Christ. And there is no doubt that the Father
Himself, and not another different from Him, uttered these predictions. The practice,
moreover, of the Saviour or His apostles, frequently quoting illustrations from the Old
Testament, shows that they attribute authority to the ancients. The injunction also of the
Saviour, when exhorting His disciples to the exercise of kindness, "Be ye perfect, even as
your Father who is in heaven is perfect;

for He commands His sun to rise upon the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just
and on the unjust," most evidently suggests even to a person of feeble understanding, that
He is proposing to the imitation of His disciples no other God than the maker of heaven
and the bestower of the rain. Again, what else does the expression, which ought to be used
by those who pray, "Our Father who art in heaven," appear to indicate, save that God is to
be sought in the better parts of the world, i.e., of His creation? Further, do not those
admirable principles which He lays down respecting oaths, saying that we ought not to
"swear either by heaven, because it is the throne of God; nor by the earth, because it is
His footstool," harmonize most clearly with the words of the prophet, "Heaven is My
throne, and the earth is My footstool? " And also when casting out of the temple those who
sold sheep, and oxen, and doves, and pouring out the tables of the money-changers, and
saying, "Take these things, hence, and do not make My Father's house a house of
merchandise," He undoubtedly called Him His Father, to whose name Solomon had raised a
magnificent temple. The words, moreover, "Have you not read what was spoken by God to
Moses: I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;

He is not a God of the dead, but of the living," most clearly teach us, that He called the
God of the patriarchs (because they were holy, and were alive) the God of the living, the
same, viz., who had said in the prophets, "I am God, and besides Me there is no God. For
if the Saviour, knowing that He who is written in the law is the God of Abraham, and that
it is the same who says, "I am God, and besides Me there is no God, acknowledges that very
one to be His Father who is ignorant of the existence of any other God above Himself, as
the heretics suppose, He absurdly declares Him to be His Father who does not know of a
greater God. But if it is not from ignorance, but from deceit, that He says there is no
other God than Himself, then it is a much greater absurdity to confess that His Father is
guilty of falsehood. From all which this conclusion is arrived at, that He knows of no
other Father than God, the Founder and Creator of all things.

2. It would be tedious to collect out of all the passages in the Gospels the proofs by
which the God of the law and of the Gospels is shown to be one and the same. Let us touch
briefly upon the Acts of the Apostles, where Stephen and the other apostles address their
prayers to that God who made heaven and earth, and who spoke by the mouth of His holy
prophets, calling Him the "God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob; "the God who "brought
forth His people out of the land of Egypt. Which expressions undoubtedly clearly direct
our understandings to faith in the Creator, and implant an affection for Him in those who
have learned piously and faithfully thus to think of Him; according to the words of the
Saviour Himself, who, when He was asked which was the greatest commandment in the law,
replied, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself. And to these He added: "On these two commandments hang all the law and the
prophets. How is it, then, that He commends to him whom He was instructing, and was
leading to enter on the office of a disciple, this commandment above all others, by which
undoubtedly love was to be kindled in him towards the God of that law, inasmuch as such
had been declared by the law in these very words?

But let it be granted, notwithstanding all these most evident proofs, that it is of some
other unknown God that the Saviour says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart," etc., etc. How, in that case, if the law and the prophets are, as they say, from
the Creator, i.e., from another God than He whom He calls good, shall that appear to be
logically said which He subjoins, viz., that "on these two commandments hang the law and
the prophets? "For how shall that which is strange and foreign to God depend upon Him? And
when Paul says, "I thank my God, whom I serve my spirit from my forefathers with pure
conscience," he clearly shows that he came not to some new God, but to Christ. For what
other forefathers of Paul can be intended, except those of whom he says, "Are they
Hebrews? so am I: are they Israelites? so am I. Nay, will not the very preface of his
Epistle to the Romans clearly show the same thing to those who know how to understand the
letters of Paul, viz., what God he preaches? For his words are:

"Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart to the Gospel of
God, which He had promised afore by His prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning His
Son, who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and who was declared to be
the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from
the dead of Christ Jesus our Lord," etc. Moreover, also the following, "Thou shalt not
muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? or
saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written, that he
that plougheth should plough in hope, and he that thresheth in hope of partaking of the
fruits. By which he manifestly shows that God, who gave the law on our account, i.e., on
account of the apostles, says, "Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth
out the corn; "whose care was not for oxen, but for the apostles, who were preaching the
Gospel of Christ. In other passages also, Paul, embracing the promises of the law, says,
"Honour thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise; that it
may be well with thee, and that thy days may be long upon the land, the good land, which
the Lord thy God will give thee.

By which he undoubtedly makes known that the law, and the God of the law, and His
promises, are pleasing to him. 3. But as those who uphold this heresy are sometimes
accustomed to mislead the hearts of the simple by certain deceptive sophisms, I do not
consider it improper to bring forward the assertions which they are in the habit of
making, and to refute their deceit and falsehood. The following, then, are their
declarations. It is written, that "no man hath seen God at any time. But that God whom
Moses preaches was both seen by Moses himself, and by his fathers before him; whereas He
who is announced by the Saviour has never been seen at all by any one. Let us therefore
ask them and ourselves whether they maintain that He whom they acknowledge to be God, and
allege to be a different God from the Creator, is visible or invisible. And if they shall
say that He is visible, besides being proved to go against the declaration of Scripture,
which says of the Saviour, "He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every
creature," they will fall also into the absurdity of asserting that God is corporeal. For
nothing can be seen except by help of form, and size, and colour, which are special
properties of bodies. And if God is declared to be a body, then He will also be found to
be material, since every body is composed of matter. But if He be composed of matter, and
matter is undoubtedly corruptible, then, according to them, God is liable to corruption!
We shall put to them a second question.

Is matter made, or is it uncreated, i.e., not made? And if they shall answer that it is
not made, i.e., uncreated, we shall ask them if one portion of matter is God, and the
other part the world? But if they shall say of matter that it is made, it will undoubtedly
follow that they confess Him whom they declare to be God to have been made!-a result which
certainly neither their reason nor ours can admit. But they will say, God is invisible.
And what will you do? If you say that He is invisible by nature, then neither ought He to
be visible to the Saviour. Whereas, on the contrary, God, the Father of Christ, is said to
be seen, because "he who sees the Son," he says, "sees also the Father. This certainly
would press us very hard, were the expression not understood by us more correctly of
understanding, and not of seeing. For he who has understood the Son will understand the
Father also. In this way, then, Moses too must be supposed to have seen God, not beholding
Him with the bodily eye, but understanding Him with the vision of the heart and the
perception of the mind, and that only in some degree. For it is manifest that He, viz.,
who gave answers to Moses, said, "You shall not see My face, but My hinder parts.

These words are, of course, to be understood in that mystical sense which is befitting
divine words, those old wives' fables being rejected and despised which are invented by
ignorant persons respecting the anterior and posterior parts of God. Let no one indeed
suppose that we have indulged any feeling of impiety in saying that even to the Saviour
the Father is not visible. Let him consider the distinction which we employ in dealing
with heretics. For we have explained that it is one thing to see and to be seen, and
another to know and to be known, or to understand and to be understood. To see, then, and
to be seen, is a property of bodies, which certainly will not be appropriately applied
either to the Father, or to the Son, or to the Holy Spirit, in their mutual relations with
one another. For the nature of the Trinity surpasses the measure of vision, granting to
those who are in the body, i.e., to all other creatures, the property of vision in
reference to one another. But to a nature that is incorporeal and for the most part
intellectual, no other attribute is appropriate save that of knowing or being known, as
the Saviour Himself declares when He says, "No man knoweth the Son, save the Father; nor
does any one know the Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. It is
clear, then, that He has not said, "No one has seen the Father, save the Son;

"but, "No one knoweth the Father, save the Son." 4. And now, if, on account of those
expressions which occur in the Old Testament, as when God is said to be angry or to
repent, or when any other human affection or passion is described, (our opponents) think
that they are furnished with grounds for refuting us, who maintain that God is altogether
impassible, and is to be regarded as wholly free from all affections of that kind, we have
to show them that similar statements are found even in the parables of the Gospel; as when
it is said, that he who planted a vineyard, and let it out to husbandmen, who slew the
servants that were sent to them, and at last put to death even the son, is said in anger
to have taken away the vineyard from them, and to have delivered over the wicked
husbandmen to destruction, and to have handed over the vineyard to others, who would yield
him the fruit in its season. And so also with regard to those citizens who, when the head
of the household had set out to receive for himself a kingdom, sent messengers after him,
saying, "We will not have this man to reign over us; " for the head of the household
having obtained the kingdom, returned, and in anger commanded them to be put to death
before him, and burned their city with fire. But when we read either in the Old Testament
or in the New of the anger of God, we do not take such expressions literally, but seek in
them a spiritual meaning, that we may think of God as He deserves to be thought of. And on
these points, when expounding the verse in the Psalms 2, "Then shall He speak to them in
His anger, and trouble them in His fury," we showed, to the best of our poor ability, how
such an expression ought to be understood.

CHAPTER V.-ON JUSTICE AND GOODNESS.

1 I. Now, since this consideration has weight with some, that the leaders of that heresy
(of which we have been speaking) think they have established a kind of division, according
to which they have declared that justice is one thing and goodness another, and have
applied this division even to divine things, maintaining that the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ is indeed a good God, but not a just one, whereas the God of the law and the
prophets is just, but not good; I think it necessary to return, with as much brevity as
possible, an answer to these statements. These persons, then, consider goodness to be some
such affection as would have benefits conferred on all, although the recipient of them be
unworthy and undeserving of any kindness; but here, in my opinion, they have not rightly
applied their definition, inasmuch as they think that no benefit is conferred on him who
is visited with any suffering or calamity. Justice, on the other hand, they view as that
quality which rewards every one according to his deserts. But here, again, they do not
rightly interpret the meaning of their own definition. For they think that it is just to
send evils upon the wicked and benefits upon the good; i.e., so that, according to their
view, the just God does not appear to wish well to the bad, but to be animated by a kind
of hatred against them.

2 And they gather together instances of this, Wherever they find a history in the
Scriptures of the Old Testament, relating, e.g., the punishment of the deluge, or the fate
of those who are described as perishing in it, or the, destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah
by a shower of fire and brimstone, or the falling of all the people in the wilderness on
account of their sins, so that none of those who had left Egypt were found to have entered
the promised land, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb. Whereas from the New Testament
they gather together words of compassion and piety, through which the disciples are
trained by the Saviour, and by which it seems to be declared that no one is good save God
the Father only; and by this means they have ventured to style the Father of the Saviour
Jesus Christ a good God, but to say that the God of the world is a different one, whom
they are pleased to term just, but not also good.

3 2. Now I think they must, in the first place, be required to show, if they can,
agreeably to their own definition, that the Creator is just in punishing according to
their deserts, either those who perished at the time of the deluge, or the inhabitants of
Sodom, or those who had quitted Egypt, seeing we sometimes behold committed crimes more
wicked and detestable than those for which the above-mentioned persons were destroyed,
while we do not yet sere every sinner paying the penalty of his misdeeds. Will they say
that He who at one time was just has been made good? Or will they rather be of opinion
that He is even now just, but is patiently enduring human offences, while that then He was
not even just, inasmuch as He exterminated innocent and sucking children along with cruel
and ungodly giants? Now, such are their opinions, because they know not how to understand
anything beyond the letter; otherwise they would show how it is literal justice for sins
to be visited upon the heads of children to the third and fourth generation, and on
children's children after them. By us, however, such things are not understood literally;
but, as Ezekiel taught when relating the parable, we inquire what is the inner meaning
contained in the parable itself. Moreover, they ought to explain this also, how He is
just, and rewards every one according to his merits, who punishes earthly-minded persons
and the devil, seeing they have done nothing worthy of punishment.

4 For they could not do any good if, according to them, they were of a wicked and ruined
nature. For as they style Him a judge, He appears to be a judge not so much of actions as
of natures; and if a bad nature cannot do good, neither can a good nature do evil. Then,
in the next place, if He whom the), call good is good to all, He is undoubtedly good also
to those who are destined to perish. And why does He not save them? If He does not desire
to do so, He will be no longer good; if He does desire it, and cannot effect it, He will
not be omnipotent. Why do they not rather hear the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in the
Gospels, preparing fire for the devil and his angels? And how shall that proceeding, as
penal as it is sad, appear to be, according to their view, the work of the good God? Even
the Saviour Himself, the Son of the good God, protests in the Gospels, and declares that
"if signs and wonders had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes. And when He had come near to those very cities, and had
entered their territory, why, pray, does He avoid entering those cities, and exhibiting to
them abundance of signs and wonders, if it were certain that they would have repented,
after they had been performed, in sackcloth and ashes?

5 But as He does not do this, He undoubtedly abandons to destruction those whom the
language of the Gospel shows not to have been of a wicked or mined nature, inasmuch as it
declares they were capable of repentance. Again, in a certain parable of the Gospel, where
the king enters in to see the guests reclining at the banquet, he beheld a certain
individual not clothed with wedding raiment, and said. to him, "Friend, how camest thou in
hither, not having a wedding garment? "and then ordered his servants, "Bind him hand and
foot, and cast him into outer darkness; there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Let
them tell us who is that king who entered in to see the guests, and finding one amongst
them with unclean garments, commanded him to be bound by his servants, and thrust out into
outer darkness. Is he the same whom they call just? How then had he commanded good and bad
alike to be invited, without directing their merits to be inquired into by his servants?
By such procedure would be indicated, not the character of a just God who rewards
according to men's deserts, as they assert, but of one who displays undiscriminating
goodness towards all. Now, if this must necessarily be understood of the good God, i.e.,
either of Christ or of the Father of Christ, what other objection can they bring against
the justice of God's judgment?

6 Nay, what else is there so unjust charged by them against the God of the law as to order
him who had been invited by His servants, whom He had sent to call good and bad alike, to
be bound hand and foot, and to be thrown into outer darkness, because he had on unclean
garments? 7 3. And now, what we have drawn from the authority of Scripture ought to be
sufficient to refute the arguments of the heretics. It will not, however, appear improper
if we discuss the matter with them shortly, on the grounds of reason itself. We ask them,
then, if they know what is regarded among men as the ground of virtue and wickedness, and
if it appears to follow that we can speak of virtues in God, or, as they think, in these
two Gods. Let them give an answer also to the question, whether they consider goodness to
be a virtue; and as they will undoubtedly admit it to be so, what will they say of
injustice? They will never certainly, in my opinion, be so foolish as to deny that justice
is a virtue. Accordingly, if virtue is a blessing, and justice is a virtue, then without
doubt justice is goodness. But if they say that justice is not a blessing, it must either
be an evil or an indifferent thing. Now I think it folly to return any answer to those who
say that justice is an evil, for I shall have the appearance of replying either to
senseless words, or to men out of their minds. How can that appear an evil which is able
to reward the good with blessings, as they themselves also admit? But if they say that it
is a thing of indifference, it follows that since justice is so, sobriety also, and
prudence, and all the other virtues, are things of indifference.

8 And what answer shall we make to Paul, when he says, "If there be any virtue, and, if
there be any praise, think on these things, which ye have learned, and received, and
heard, and seen in me? " Let them learn, therefore, by searching the holy Scriptures, what
are the individual virtues, and not deceive themselves by saying that that God who rewards
every one according to his merits, does, through hatred of evil, recompense the wicked
with evil, and not because those who have sinned need to be treated with severer remedies,
and because He applies to them those measures which, with the prospect of improvement,
seem nevertheless, for the present, to produce a feeling of pain. They do not read what is
written respecting the hope of those who were destroyed in the deluge; of which hope Peter
himself thus speaks in his first Epistle: "That Christ, indeed, was put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit, by which He went and preached to the spirits who were
kept in prison, who once were unbelievers, when they awaited the long-suffering of God in
the days of Noah, when the ark was preparing, in which a few, i.e., eight souls, were
saved by water. Whereunto also baptism by a like figure now saves you. And with regard to
Sodom and Gomorrah, let them tell us whether they believe the prophetic words to be those
of the Creator God-of Him, viz., who is related to have rained upon them a shower of fire
and brimstone.

9 What does Ezekiel the prophet say of them? "Sodom," he says, "shall be restored to her
former condition. But why, in afflicting those who are deserving of punishment, does He
not afflict them for their good?-who also says to Chaldea, "Thou hast coals of fire, sit
upon them; they will be a help to thee. And of those also who fell in the desert, let them
hear what is related in the Psalms 78, which bears the superscription of Asaph; for he
says, "When He slew them, then they sought Him. He does not say that some sought Him after
others had been slain, but he says that the destruction of those who were killed was of
such a nature that, when put to death, they sought God. By all which it is established,
that the God of the law and the Gospels is one and the same, a just and good God, and that
He confers benefits justly, and punishes with kindness; since neither goodness without
justice, nor justice without goodness, can display the (real) dignity of the divine
nature.

10 We shall add the following remarks, to which we are driven by their subtleties. If
justice is a different thing from goodness, then, since evil is the opposite of good, and
injustice of justice, injustice will doubtless be something else than an evil; and as, in
your opinion, the just man is not good, so neither will the unjust man be wicked; and
again, as the good man is not just, so the wicked man also will not be unjust. But who
does not see the absurdity, that to a good God one should be opposed that is evil; while
to a just God, whom they allege to be inferior to the good, no one should be opposed! For
there is none who can be called unjust, as there is a Satan who is called wicked. What,
then, are we to do? Let us give up the position which we defend, for they will not be able
to maintain that a bad man is not also unjust, and an unjust man wicked. And if these
qualities be indissolubly inherent in these opposites, viz., injustice in wickedness, or
wickedness in injustice, then unquestionably the good man will be inseparable from the
just man, and the just from the good; so that, as we speak of one and the same wickedness
in malice and injustice, we may also hold the virtue of goodness and justice to be one and
the same.

11 4. They again recall us, however, to the words of Scripture, by bringing forward that
celebrated question of theirs, affirming that it is written, "A bad tree cannot produce
good fruits; for a tree is known by its fruit. What, then, is their position? What sort of
tree the law is, is shown by its fruits, i.e., by the language of its precepts. For if the
law be found to be good, then undoubtedly He who gave it is believed to be a good God. But
if it be just rather than good, then God also will be considered a just legislator. The
Apostle Paul makes use of no circumlocution, when he says, "The law is good; and the
commandment is holy, and just, and good. From which it is clear that Paul had not learned
the language of those who separate justice from goodness, but had been instructed by that
God, and illuminated by His Spirit, who is at the same time both holy, and good, and just;
and speaking by whose Spirit he declared that the commandment of the law was holy, and
just, and good. And that he might show more clearly that goodness was in the commandment
to a greater degree than justice and holiness, repeating his words, he used, instead of
these three epithets, that of goodness alone, saying, "Was then that which is good made
death unto me? God forbid.

12 As he knew that goodness was the genus of the virtues, and that justice and holiness
were species belonging to the genus, and having in the former verses named genus and
species together, he fell back, when repeating his words, on the genus alone. But in those
which follow he says, "Sin wrought death in me by that which is good," where he sums up
generically what he had beforehand explained specifically. And in this way also is to be
understood the declaration, "A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth
forth good things; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure, bringeth forth evil things.
For here also he assumed that there was a genus in good or evil, pointing out
unquestionably that in a good man there were both justice, and temperance, and prudence,
and piety, and everything that can be either called or understood to be good. In like
manner also he said that a man was wicked who should without any doubt be unjust, and
impure, and unholy, and everything which singly makes a bad man. For as no one considers a
man to be wicked without these marks of wickedness (nor indeed can he be so), so also it
is certain that without these virtues no one will be deemed to be good. There still
remains to them, however, that saying of the Lord in the Gospel, which they think is given
them in a special manner as a shield, viz., "There is none good but one, God the Father.

13 This word they declare is peculiar to the Father of Christ, who, however, is different
from the God who is Creator of all things, to which Creator he gave no appellation of
goodness. Let us see now if, in the Old Testament, the God of the prophets and the Creator
and Legislator of the word is not called good. What are the expressions which occur in the
Psalms? "How good is God to Israel, to the upright in heart! and, "Let Israel now say that
He is good, that His mercy endureth for ever; " the language in the Lamentations of
Jeremiah, "The Lord is good to them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. As
therefore God is frequently called good in the Old Testament, so also the Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ is styled just in the Gospels. Finally, in the Gospel according to John,
our Lord Himself, when praying to the Father, says, "O just Father, the world hath not
known Thee. And lest perhaps they should say that it was owing to His having assumed human
flesh that He called the Creator of the world "Father," and styled Him "Just," they are
excluded from such a refuge by the words that immediately follow, "The world hath not
known Thee. But, according to them, the world is ignorant of the good God alone. For the
word unquestionably recognises its Creator, the Lord Himself saying that the world loveth
what is its own.

14 Clearly, then, He whom they consider to be the good God, is called just in the Gospels.
Any one may at leisure gather together a greater number of proofs, consisting of those
passages, where in the New Testament the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is called just,
and in the Old also, where the Creator of heaven and earth is called good; so that the
heretics, being convicted by numerous testimonies, may perhaps some time be put to the
blush.

CHAPTER VI.-ON THE INCARNATION OF CHRIST.

1. It is now time, after this cursory notice of these points, to resume our investigation
of the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour, viz., how or why He became man. Having
therefore, to the best of our feeble ability, considered His divine nature from the
contemplation of His own works rather than from our own feelings, and having nevertheless
beheld (with the eye) His visible creation while the invisible creation is seen by faith,
because human frailty can neither see all things with the bodily eye nor comprehend them
by reason, seeing we men are weaker and frailer than any other rational beings (for those
which are in heaven, or are supposed to exist above the heaven, are superior), it remains
that we seek a being intermediate between all created things and God, i.e., a Mediator,
whom the Apostle Paul styles the "first-born of every creature. Seeing, moreover, those
declarations regarding His majesty which are contained in holy Scripture, that He is
called the "image of the invisible God, and the first-born of every creature," and that
"in Him were all things created, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or
dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created by Him, and in Him: and
He is before all things, and by Him all things consist," who is the head of all things,
alone having as head God the Father; for it is written, "The head of Christ is God;

" seeing clearly also that it is written, "No one knoweth the Father, save the Son, nor
doth any one know the Son, save the Father" (for who can know what wisdom is, save He who
called it into being? or, who can understand clearly what truth is, save the Father of
truth? who can investigate with certainty the universal nature of His Word, and of God
Himself, which nature proceeds from God, except God alone, with whom the Word was), we
ought to regard it as certain that this Word, or Reason (if it is to be so termed), this
Wisdom, this Truth, is known to no other than the Father only; and of Him it is written,
that "I do not think that the world itself could contain the books which might be
written," regarding, viz., the glory and majesty of the Son of God. For it is impossible
to commit to writing (all) those particulars which belong to the glory of the Saviour.
After the consideration of questions of such importance concerning the being of the Son of
God, we are lost in the deepest amazement that such a nature, pre-eminent above all
others, should have divested itself of its condition of majesty and become man, and
tabernacled amongst men, as the grace that was poured upon His lips testifies, and as His
heavenly Father bore Him witness, and as is confessed by the various signs and wonders and
miracles that were performed by Him;

who also, before that appearance of His which He manifested in the body, sent the prophets
as His forerunners, and the messengers of His advent; and after His ascension into heaven,
made His holy apostles, men ignorant and unlearned, taken from the ranks of tax-gatherers
or fishermen, but who were filled with the power of His divinity, to itinerate throughout
the world, that they might gather together out of every race and every nation a multitude
of devout believers in Himself. 2. But of all the marvellous and mighty acts related of
Him, this altogether surpasses human admiration, and is beyond the power of mortal
frailness to understand or feel, how that mighty power of divine majesty, that very Word
of the Father, and that very wisdom of God, in which were created all things, visible and
invisible, can be believed to have existed within the limits of that man who appeared in
Judea; nay, that the Wisdom of God can have entered the womb of a woman, and have been
born an infant, and have uttered wailings like the cries of little children! And that
afterwards it should be related that He was greatly troubled in death, saying, as He
Himself; declared, "My soul is sorrowful even unto death; " and that at the last He was
brought to that death which is accounted the most shameful among men, although He rose
again on the third day. Since, then, we see in Him some things so human that they appear
to differ in no respect from the common frailty of mortals, and some things so divine that
they can appropriately belong to nothing else than to the primal and ineffable nature of
Deity, the narrowness of human understanding can find no outlet; but, overcome with the
amazement of a mighty admiration, knows not whither to withdraw, or what to take hold of,
or whither to turn. If it think of a God, it goes a mortal; if it think of a man;

it beholds Him returning from the grave, after overthrowing the empire of death, laden
with its spoils. And therefore the spectacle is to be contemplated with all fear and
reverence, that the truth of both natures may be clearly shown to exist in one and the
same Being; so that nothing unworthy or unbecoming may be perceived in that divine and
ineffable substance nor yet those things which were done be supposed to be the illusions
of imaginary appearances. To utter these things in human ears, and to explain them in
words, far surpasses the powers either of our rank, or of our intellect and language. I
think that it surpasses the power even of the holy apostles; nay, the explanation of that
mystery may perhaps be beyond the grasp of the entire creation of celestial powers.
Regarding Him, then, we shall state, in the fewest possible words, the contents of our
creed rather than the assertions which human reason is wont to advance; and this from no
spirit of rashness, but as called for by the nature of our arrangement, laying before you
rather (what may be termed) our suspicions than any clear affirmations.

3. The Only-begotten of God, therefore, through whom, as the previous course of the
discussion has shown, all things were made, visible and invisible, according to the view
of Scripture, both made all things, and loves what He made. For since He is Himself the
invisible image of the invisible God, He conveyed invisibly a share in Himself to all His
rational creatures, so that each one obtained a part of Him exactly proportioned to the
amount of affection with which he regarded Him. But since, agreeably to the faculty of
free-will, variety and diversity characterized the individual souls, so that one was
attached with a warmer love to the Author of its being, and another with a feebler and
weaker regard, that soul (anima) regarding which Jesus said, "No one shall take my life
(animam) from me," inhering, from the beginning of the creation, and afterwards,
inseparably and indissolubly in Him, as being the Wisdom and Word of God, and the Truth
and the true Light, and receiving Him wholly, and passing into His light and splendour,
was made with Him in a pre-eminent degree one spirit, according to the promise of the
apostle to those who ought to imitate it, that "he who is joined in the Lord is one
spirit.

This substance of a soul, then, being intermediate between God and the flesh-it being
impossible for the nature of God to intermingle with a body without an intermediate
instrument-the God-man is born, as we have said, that substance being the intermediary to
whose nature it was not contrary to assume a body. But neither, on the other hand, was it
opposed to the nature of that soul, as a rational existence, to receive God, into whom, as
stated above, as into the Word, and the Wisdom, and the Truth, it had already wholly
entered. And therefore deservedly is it also called, along with the flesh which it had
assumed, the Son of God, and the Power of God, the Christ, and the Wisdom of God, either
because it was wholly in the Son of God, or because it received the Son of God wholly into
itself. And again, the Son of God, through whom all things were created, is named Jesus
Christ and the Son of man. For the Son of God also is said to have died-in reference,
viz., to that nature which could admit of death; and He is called the Son of man, who is
announced as about to come in the glory of God the Father, with the holy angels. And for
this reason, throughout the whole of Scripture, not only is the divine nature spoken of in
human words, but the human nature is adorned by appellations of divine dignity.

More truly indeed of this than of any other can the statement be affirmed, "They shall
both be in one flesh, and are no longer two, but one flesh. For the Word of God is to be
considered as being more in one flesh with the soul than a man with his wife. But to whom
is it more becoming to be also one spirit with God, than to this soul which has so joined
itself to God by love as that it may justly be said to be one spirit with Him? 4. That the
perfection of his love and the sincerity of his deserved affection formed for it this
inseparable union with God, so that the assumption of that soul was not accidental, or the
result of a personal preference, but was conferred as the reward of its virtues, listen to
the prophet addressing it thus: "Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated wickedness:
therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." As
a reward for its love, then, it is anointed with the oil of gladness; i.e., the soul of
Christ along with the Word of God is made Christ. Because to be anointed with the oil of
gladness means nothing else than to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And when it is said
"above thy fellows," it is meant that the grace of the Spirit was not given to it as to
the prophets, but that the essential fulness of the Word of God Himself was in it,
according to the saying of the apostle, "In whom dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily." Finally, on this account he has not only said, "Thou hast loved righteousness;
"but he adds, "and Thou hast hated wickedness." For to have hated wickedness is what the
Scripture says of Him, that "He did no sin, neither was any guile found in His mouth," and
that "He was tempted in all things like as we are, without sin." Nay, the Lord Himself
also said, "Which of you will convince Me of sin? " And again He says with reference to
Himself, "Behold, the prince of this world cometh, and findeth nothing in Me." All which
(passages) show that in Him there was no sense of sin; and that the prophet might show
more clearly that no sense of sin had ever entered into Him, he says, "Before the boy
could have knowledge to call upon father or mother, He turned away from wickedness."

5. Now, if our having shown above that Christ possessed a rational soul should cause a
difficulty to any one, seeing we have frequently proved throughout all our discussions
that the nature of souls is capable both of good and evil, the difficulty will be
explained in the following way. That the nature, indeed, of His soul was the same as that
of all others cannot be doubted otherwise it could not be called a soul were it not truly
one. But since the power of choosing good and evil is within the reach of all, this soul
which belonged to Christ elected to love righteousness, so that in proportion to the
immensity of its love it clung to it unchangeably and inseparably, so that firmness of
purpose, and immensity of affection, and an inextinguishable warmth of love, destroyed all
susceptibility (sensum) for alteration and change; and that which formerly depended upon
the will was changed by the power of long custom into nature; and so we must believe that
there existed in Christ a human and rational soul, without supposing that it had any
feeling or possibility of sin.

6. To explain the matter more fully, it will not appear absurd to make use of an
illustration, although on a subject of so much difficulty it is not easy to obtain
suitable illustrations. However, if we may speak without offence, the metal iron is
capable of cold and heat. If, then, a mass of iron be kept constantly in the fire,
receiving the heat through all its pores and veins, and the fire being continuous and the
iron never removed from it, it become wholly converted into the latter; could we at all
say of this, which is by nature a mass of iron, that when placed in the fire, and
incessantly burning, it was at any time capable of admitting cold? On the contrary,
because it is more consistent with truth, do we not rather say, what we often see
happening in furnaces, that it has become wholly fire, seeing nothing but fire is visible
in it? And if any one were to attempt to touch or handle it, he would experience the
action not of iron, but of fire. In this way, then, that soul which, like an iron in the
fire, has been perpetually placed in the Word, and perpetually in the Wisdom, and
perpetually in God, is God in all that it does, feels, and understands, and therefore can
be called neither convertible nor mutable, inasmuch as, being incessantly heated, it
possessed immutability from its union with the Word of God.

To all the saints, finally, some warmth from the Word of God must be supposed to have
passed; and in this soul the divine fire itself must be believed to have rested, from
which some warmth may have passed to others. Lastly, the expression, "God, thy God,
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows," shows that that soul is
anointed in one way with the oil of gladness, i.e., with the word of God and wisdom; and
his fellows, i.e., the holy prophets and apostles, in another. For they are said to have
"run in the odour of his ointments; " and that soul was the vessel which contained that
very ointment of whose fragrance all the worthy prophets and apostles were made partakers.
As, then, the substance of an ointment is one thing and its odour another, so also Christ
is one thing and His fellows another. And as the vessel itself, which contains the
substance of the ointment, can by no means admit any foul smell; whereas it is possible
that those who enjoy its odour may, if they remove a little way from its fragrance,
receive any foul odour which comes upon them: so, in the same way, was it impossible that
Christ, being as it were the vessel itself, in which was the substance of the ointment,
should receive an odour of an opposite kind, while they who are His "fellows" will be
partakers and receivers of His odour, in proportion to their nearness to the vessel.

7. I think, indeed, that Jeremiah the prophet, also, understanding what was the nature of
the wisdom of God in him, which was the same also which he had assumed for the salvation
of the world, said, "The breath of our countenance is Christ the Lord, to whom we said,
that under His shadow we shall live among the nations. And inasmuch as the shadow of our
body is inseparable from the body, and unavoidably performs and repeats its movements and
gestures, I think that he, wishing to point out the work of Christ's soul, and the
movements inseparably belonging to it, and which accomplished everything according to His
movements and will, called this the shadow of Christ the Lord, under which shadow we were
to live among the nations. For in the mystery of this assumption the nations live, who,
imitating it through faith, come to salvation. David also, when saying, "Be mindful of my
reproach, O Lord, with which they reproached me in exchange for Thy Christ," seems to me
to indicate the same. And what else does Paul mean when he says, "Your life is hid with
Christ in God; " and again in another passage, "Do you seek a proof of Christ, who
speaketh in me? " And now he says that Christ was hid in God. The meaning of which
expression, unless it be shown to be something such as we have pointed out above as
intended by the prophet in the words "shadow of Christ," exceeds, perhaps, the
apprehension of the human mind.

But we see also very many other statements in holy Scripture respecting the meaning of the
word "shadow," as that well-known one in the Gospel according to Luke, where Gabriel says
to Mary, "The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee. And the apostle says with reference to the law, that they who have
circumcision in the flesh, "serve for the similitude and shadow of heavenly things. And
elsewhere, "Is not our life upon the earth a shadow? " If, then, not only the law which is
upon the earth is a shadow, but also all our life which is upon the earth is the same, and
we live among the nations under the shadow of Christ, we must see whether the truth of all
these shadows may not come to be known in that revelation, when no longer through a glass,
and darkly, but face to face, all the saints shall deserve to behold the glory of God, and
the causes and truth of things. And the pledge of this truth being already received
through the Holy Spirit, the apostle said, "Yea, though we have known Christ after the
flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more."

The above, meanwhile, are the thoughts which have occurred to us, when treating of
subjects of such difficulty as the incarnation and deity of Christ. If there be any one,
indeed, who can discover something better, and who can establish his assertions by clearer
proofs from holy Scriptures, let his opinion be received in preference to mine.

CHAPTER VII.-ON THE HOLY SPIRIT.

1. As, then, after those first discussions which, according to the requirements of the
case, we held at the beginning regarding the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, it seemed right
that we should retrace our steps, and show that the same God was the creator and founder
of the world, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, i.e., that the God of the law and
of the prophets and of the Gospel was one and the same; and that, in the next place, it
ought to be shown, with respect to Christ, in what manner He who had formerly been
demonstrated to be the Word and Wisdom of God became man; it remains that we now return
with all possible brevity to the subject of the Holy Spirit. It is time, then, that we say
a few words to the best of our ability regarding the Holy Spirit, whom our Lord and
Saviour in the Gospel according to John has named the Paraclete. For as it is the same God
Himself, and the same Christ, so also is it the same Holy Spirit who was in the prophets
and apostles, i.e., either in those who believed in God before the advent of Christ, or in
those who by means of Christ have sought refuge in God. We have heard, indeed, that
certain heretics have dared to say that there are two Gods and two Christs, but we have
never known of the doctrine of two Holy Spirits being preached by any one. For how could
they maintain this out of Scripture, or what distinction could they lay down between Holy
Spirit and Holy Spirit, if indeed any definition or description of Holy Spirit can be
discovered? For although we should concede to Marcion or to Valentinus that it is possible
to draw distinctions in the question of Deity, and to describe the nature of the good God
as one, and that of the just God as another, what will he devise, or what will he
discover, to enable him to introduce a distinction in the Holy Spirit? I consider, then,
that they are able to discover nothing which may indicate a distinction of any kind
whatever.

2. Now we are of opinion that every rational creature, without any distinction, receives a
share of Him in the same way as of the Wisdom and of the Word of God. I observe, however,
that the chief advent of the Holy Spirit is declared to men, after the ascension of Christ
to heaven, rather than before His coming into the world. For, before that, it was upon the
prophets alone, and upon a few individuals-if there happened to be any among the people
deserving of it-that the gift of the Holy Spirit was conferred; but after the advent of
the Saviour, it is written that the prediction of the prophet Joel was fulfilled, "In the
last days it shall come to pass, and I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and they
shall prophesy," which is similar to the well-known statement, "All nations shall serve
Him." By the grace, then, of the Holy Spirit, along with numerous other results, this most
glorious consequence is clearly demonstrated, that with regard to those things which were
written in the prophets or in the law of Moses, it was only a few persons at that time,
viz., the prophets themselves, and scarcely another individual out of the whole nation,
who were able to look beyond the mere corporeal meaning and discover something greater,
i.e., something spiritual, in the law or in the prophets; but now there are countless
multitudes of believers who, although unable to unfold methodically and clearly the
results of their spiritual understanding, are nevertheless most firmly persuaded that
neither ought circumcision to be understood literally, nor the rest of the Sabbath, nor
the pouring out of the blood of an animal, nor that answers were given by God to Moses on
these points. And this method of apprehension is undoubtedly suggested to the minds of all
by the power of the Holy Spirit.

3. And as there are many ways of apprehending Christ, who, although He is wisdom, does not
act the part or possess the power of wisdom in all men, but only in those who give
themselves to the study of wisdom in Him; and who, although called a physician, does not
act as one towards all, but only towards those who understand their feeble and sickly
condition, and flee to His compassion that they may obtain health; so also I think is it
with the Holy Spirit, in whom is contained every kind of gifts, For on some is bestowed by
the Spirit the word of wisdom, on others the word of knowledge, on others faith; and so to
each individual of those who are capable of receiving Him, is the Spirit Himself made to
be that quality, or understood to be that which is needed by the individual who has
deserved to participate. These divisions and differences not being perceived by those who
hear Him called Paraclete in the Gospel, and not duly considering in consequence of what
work or act He is named the Paraclete, they have compared Him to some common spirits or
other, and by this means have tried to disturb the Churches of Christ, and so excite
dissensions of no small extent among brethren;

whereas the Gospel shows Him to be of such power and majesty, that it says the apostles
could not yet receive those things which the Saviour wished to teach them until the advent
of the Holy Spirit, who, pouring Himself into their souls, might enlighten them regarding
the nature and faith of the Trinity. But these persons, because of the ignorance of their
understandings, are not only unable themselves logically to state the truth, but cannot
even give their attention to what is advanced by us; and entertaining Unworthy ideas of
His divinity, have delivered themselves over to errors and deceits, being depraved by a
spirit of error, rather than instructed by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, according to
the declaration of the apostle, "Following the doctrine of devils, forbidding to marry, to
the destruction and ruin of many, and to abstain from meats, that by an ostentatious
exhibition of stricter observance they may seduce the souls of the innocent."

4. We must therefore know that the Paraclete is the Holy Spirit, who teaches truths which
cannot be uttered in words, and which are, so to speak, unutterable, and "which it is not
lawful for a man to utter," i.e., which cannot be indicated by human language. The phrase
"it is not lawful" is, we think, used by the apostle instead of "it is not possible; "as
also is the case in the passage where he says, "All things are lawful for me, but all
things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me; but all things edify not. For
those things which are in our power because we may have them, he says are lawful for us.
But the Paraclete, who is called the Holy Spirit, is so called from His work of
consolation, paraclesis being termed in Latin consolatio. For if any one has deserved to
participate in the Holy Spirit by the knowledge of His ineffable mysteries, he undoubtedly
obtains comfort and joy of heart. For since he comes by the teaching of the Spirit to the
knowledge of the reasons of all things which happen-how or why they occur-his soul can in
no respect be troubled, or admit any feeling of sorrow; nor is he alarmed by anything,
since, clinging to the Word of God and His wisdom, he through the Holy Spirit calls Jesus
Lord. And since we have made mention of the Paraclete, and have explained as we were able
what sentiments ought to be entertained regarding Him;

and since our Saviour also is called the Paraclete in the Epistle of John, when he says,
"If any of us sin, we have a Paraclete with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He
is the propitiation for our sins; " let us consider whether this term Paraclete should
happen to have one meaning when applied to the Saviour, and another when applied to the
Holy Spirit. Now Paraclete, when spoken of the Saviour, seems to mean intercessor. For in
Greek, Paraclete has both significations-that of intercessor and comforter. On account,
then, of the phrase which follows, when he says, "And He is the propitiation for our
sins," the name Paraclete seems to be understood in the case of our Saviour as meaning
intercessor; for He is said to intercede with the Father because of our sins. In the case
of the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete must be understood in the sense of comforter, inasmuch
as He bestows consolation upon the souls to whom He openly reveals the apprehension of
spiritual knowledge.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS continued

CHAPTER VIII.-ON THE SOUL (ANIMA).

1. The order of our arrangement now requires us, after the discussion of the preceding
subjects, to institute a general inquiry regarding the soul; and, beginning with points of
inferior importance, to ascend to those that are of greater. Now, that there are souls in
all living things, even in those which live in the waters, is, I suppose, doubted by no
one. For the general opinion of all men maintains this; and confirmation from the
authority of holy Scripture is added, when it is said that "God made great whales, and
every living creature that moveth which the waters brought forth after their kind. It is
confirmed also from the common intelligence of reason, by those who lay down in certain
words a definition of soul. For soul is defined as follows: a substance fantastikh/ and
o9rmhtikh/, which may be rendered into Latin, although not so appropriately, sensibilis et
mobilis. This certainly may be said appropriately of all living beings, even of those
which abide in the waters; and of winged creatures too, this same definition of anima may
be shown to hold good. Scripture also has added its authority to a second opinion, when it
says, "Ye shall not eat the blood, because the life of all flesh is its blood; and ye
shall not eat the life with the flesh; " in which it intimates most clearly that the blood
of every animal is its life.

And if any one now were to ask how it can be said with respect to bees, wasps, and ants,
and those other things which are in the waters, oysters and cockles, and all others which
are without blood, and are most clearly shown to be living things, that the "life of all
flesh is the blood," we must answer, that in living things of that sort the force which is
exerted in other animals by the power of red blood is exerted in them by that liquid which
is within them, although it be of a different colour; for colour is a thing of no
importance, provided the substance be endowed with life. That beasts of burden or cattle
of smaller size are endowed with souls, there is, by general assent, no doubt whatever.
The opinion of holy Scripture, however, is manifest, when God says, "Let the earth bring
forth the living creature after its kind, four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and
beasts of the earth after their kind. And now with respect to man, although no one
entertains any doubt, or needs to inquire, yet holy Scripture declares that "God breathed
into his countenance the breath of life, and man became a living soul. It remains that we
inquire respecting the angelic order whether they also have souls, or are souls; and also
respecting the other divine and celestial powers, as well as those of an opposite kind.

We nowhere, indeed, find any authority in holy Scripture for asserting that either the
angels, or any other divine spirits that are ministers of God, either possess souls or are
called souls, and yet they are felt by very many persons to be endowed with life. But with
regard to God, we find it written as follows: "And I will put My soul upon that soul which
has eaten blood, and I will root him out from among his people; " and also in another
passage, "Your new moons, and sabbaths, and great days, I will not accept; your fasts, and
holidays, and festal days, My soul hateth. And in the Psalms 22, regarding Christ-for it
is certain, as the Gospel bears witness, that this Psalm is spoken of Him-the following
words occur: "O Lord, be not far from helping me; look to my defence: O God, deliver my
soul from the sword, and my beloved one from the hand of the dog; " although there are
also many other testimonies respecting the soul of Christ when He tabernacled in the
flesh.

2. But the nature of the incarnation will render unnecessary any inquiry into the soul of
Christ. For as He truly possessed flesh, so also He truly possessed a soul. It is
difficult indeed both to feel and to state how that which is called in Scripture the soul
of God is to be understood; for we acknowledge that nature to be simple, and without any
intermixture or addition. In whatever way, however, it is to be understood, it seems,
meanwhile, to be named the soul of God; whereas regarding Christ there is no doubt. And
therefore there seems to me no absurdity in either understanding or asserting some such
thing regarding the holy angels and the other heavenly powers, since that definition of
soul appears applicable also to them. For who can rationally deny that they are "sensible
and moveable? "But if that definition appear to be correct, according to which a soul is
said to be a substance rationally "sensible and moveable," the same definition would seem
also to apply to angels. For what else is in them than rational feeling and motion? Now
those beings who are comprehended under the same definition have undoubtedly the same
substance. Paul indeed intimates that there is a kind of animal-man who, he says, cannot
receive the things of the Spirit of God, but declares that the doctrine of the Holy Spirit
seems to him foolish, and that he cannot understand what is to be spiritually discerned.

In another passage he says it is sown an animal body, and arises a spiritual body,
pointing out that in the resurrection of the just there will be nothing of an animal
nature. And therefore we inquire whether there happen to be any substance which, in
respect of its being anima, is imperfect. But whether it be imperfect because it falls
away from perfection, or because it was so created by God, will form the subject of
inquiry when each individual topic shall begin to be discussed in order. For if the animal
man receive not the things of the Spirit of God, and because he is animal, is unable to
admit the understanding of a better, i.e., of a divine nature, it is for this reason
perhaps that Paul, wishing to teach us more plainly what that is by means of which we are
able to comprehend those things which are of the Spirit, i.e., spiritual things, conjoins
and associates with the Holy Spirit an understanding rather than a soul. For this, I
think, he indicates when he says, "I will pray with the spirit, I will pray with the
understanding also; I will sing with the spirit, I will sing with the understanding also.
And he does not say that "I will pray with the soul," but with the spirit and the
understanding. Nor does he say, "I will sing with the soul," but with the spirit and the
understanding.

3. But perhaps this question is asked, If it be the understanding which prays and sings
with the spirit, and if it be the same which receives both perfection and salvation, how
is it that Peter says, "Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls?
" If the soul neither prays nor sings with the spirit, how shall it hope for salvation? or
when it attains to blessedness, shall it be no longer called a soul? Let us see if perhaps
an answer may be given in this way, that as the Saviour came to save what was lost, that
which formerly was said to be lost is not lost when it is saved; so also, perhaps, this
which is saved is called a soul, and when it has been placed in a state of salvation will
receive a name from the Word that denotes its more perfect condition. But it appears to
some that this also may be added, that as the thing which was lost undoubtedly existed
before it was lost, at which time it was something else than destroyed, so also will be
the case when it is no longer in a ruined condition. In like manner also, the soul which
is said to have perished will appear to have been something at one time, when as yet it
had not perished, and on that account would be termed soul, and being again freed from
destruction, it may become a second time what it was before it perished, and be called a
soul.

But from the very signification of the name soul which the Greek word conveys, it has
appeared to a few curious inquirers that a meaning of no small importance may be
suggested. For in sacred language God is called a fire, as when Scripture says," Our God
is a consuming fire. Respecting the substance of the angels also it speaks as follows:
"Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a burning fire; " and in another place,
"The angel of the Lord appeared in a flame of fire in the bush. We have, moreover,
received a commandment to be "fervent in spirit; " by which expression undoubtedly the
Word of God is shown to be hot and fiery. The prophet Jeremiah also hears from Him, who
gave him his answers, "Behold, I have given My words into thy mouth a fire. As God, then,
is a fire, and the angels a flame of fire, and all the saints are fervent in spirit, so,
on the contrary, those who have fallen away from the love of God are undoubtedly said to
have cooled in their affection for Him, and to have become cold. For the Lord also says,
that, "because iniquity has abounded, the love of many will grow cold. Nay, all things,
whatever they are, which in holy Scripture are compared with the hostile power, the devil
is said to be perpetually finding cold; and what is found to be colder than he? In the sea
also the dragon is said to reign.

For the prophet intimates that the serpent and dragon, which certainly is referred to one
of the wicked spirits, is also in the sea. And elsewhere the prophet says, "I will draw
out my holy sword upon the dragon the flying serpent, upon the dragon the crooked serpent,
and will slay him. And again he says: "Even though they hide from my eyes, and descend
into the depths of the sea, there will I command the serpent, and it shall bite them. In
the book of Job also, he is said to be the king of all things in the waters. The prophet
threatens that evils will be kindled by the north wind upon all who inhabit the earth. Now
the north wind is described in holy Scripture as cold, according to the statement in the
book of Wisdom, "That cold north wind; " which same thing also must undoubtedly be
understood of the devil. If, then, those things which are holy are named fire, and light,
and fervent, while those which are of an opposite nature are said to be cold; and if the
love of many is said to wax cold; we have to inquire whether perhaps the name soul, which
in Greek is termed yukh/, be so termed from growing cold out of a betterand more divine
condition, and be thence derived, because it seems to have cooled from thatnatural and
divine warmth, and therefore has been placed in its present position, and called by its
present name.

Finally, see if you caneasily find a place in holy Scripture where thesoul is properly
mentioned in terms of praise: it frequently occurs, on the contrary, accompanied with
expressions of censure, as in the passage, "An evil soul ruins him who possesses it; "
and, "The soul which sinneth, it shall die. For after it has been said, "All souls are
Mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is Mine," it seemed to follow
that He would say, "The soul that doeth righteousness, it shall be saved," and "The soul
which sinneth, it shall die. But now we see that He has associated with the soul what is
censurable, and has been silent as to that which was deserving of praise. We have
therefore to see if, perchance, as we have said is declared by the name itself, it was
called yukh/, i.e., anima, because it has waxed cold from the fervour of just things, and
from participation in the divine fire, and yet has not lost the power of restoring itself
to that condition of fervour in which it was at the beginning. Whence the prophet also
appears to point out some such state of things by the words, "Return, O my soul, unto thy
rest. From all which this appears to be made out, that the understanding, falling away
from its status and dignity, was made or named soul; and that, if repaired and corrected,
it returns to the condition of the understanding.

4. Now, if this be the case, it seems to me that this very decay and falling away of the
understanding is not the same in all, but that this conversion into a soul is carried to a
greater or less degree in different instances, and that certain understandings retain
something even of their former vigour, and others again either nothing or a very small
amount. Whence some are found from the very commencement of their lives to be of more
active intellect, others again of a slower habit of mind, and some are born wholly obtuse,
and altogether incapable of instruction. Our statement, however, that the understanding is
converted into a soul, or whatever else seems to have such a meaning, the reader must
carefully consider and settle for himself, as these views are not be regarded as advanced
by us in a dogmatic manner, but simply as opinions, treated in the style of investigation
and discussion. Let the reader take this also into consideration, that it is observed with
regard to the soul of the Saviour, that of those things which are written in the Gospel,
some are ascribed to it under the name of soul, and others under that of spirit. For when
it wishes to indicate any suffering or perturbation affecting Him, it indicates it under
the name of soul; as when it says, "Now is My soul troubled; " and, "My soul is sorrowful,
even unto death; " and, "No man taketh My soul from Me, but I lay it down of Myself." Into
the hands of His Father He commends not His soul, but His spirit; and when He says that
the flesh is weak, He does not say that the soul is willing, but the spirit: whence it
appears that the soul is something intermediate between the weak flesh and the willing
spirit.

5. But perhaps some one may meet us with one of those objections which we have ourselves
warned you of in our statements, and say, "How then is there said to be also a soul of
God? "To which we answer as follows: That as with respect to everything corporeal which is
spoken of God, such as fingers, or hands, or arms, or eyes, or feet, or mouth, we say that
these are not to be understood as human members, but that certain of His powers are
indicated by these names of members of the body; so also we are to suppose that it is
something else which is pointed out by this title-soul of God. And if it is allowable for
us to venture to say anything more on such a subject, the soul of God may perhaps be
understood to mean the only-begotten Son of God. For as the soul, when implanted in the
body, moves all things in it, and exerts its force over everything on which it operates;
so also the only-begotten Son of God, who is His Word and Wisdom, stretches and extends to
every power of God, being implanted in it; and perhaps to indicate this mystery is God
either called Or described in Scripture as a body.

We must, indeed, take into consideration whether it is not perhaps on this account that
the soul of God may be understood to mean His only-begotten Son, because He Himself came
into this world of affliction, and descended into this valley of tears, and into this
place of our humiliation; as He says in the Psalm, "Because Thou hast humiliated us in the
place of affliction. Finally, I am aware that certain critics, in explaining the words
used in the Gospel by the Saviour, "My soul is sorrowful, even unto death," have
interpreted them of the apostles, whom He termed His soul, as being better than the rest
of His body. For as the multitude of believers is called His body, they say that the
apostles, as being better than the rest of the body, ought to be understood to mean His
soul. We have brought forward as we best could these points regarding the rational soul,
as topics of discussion for our readers, rather than as dogmatic and well-defined
propositions. And with respect to the souls of animals and other dumb creatures, let that
suffice which we have stated above in general terms.

CHAPTER IX.-ON THE WORLD AND THE MOVEMENTS OF RATIONAL CREATURES, WHETHER GOOD OR BAD; AND ON THE CAUSES OF THEM.

1. But let us now return to the order of our proposed discussion, and behold the
commencement of creation, so far as the understanding can behold the beginning of the
creation of God. In that commencement, then, we are to suppose that God created so great a
number of rational or intellectual creatures (or by whatever name they are to be called),
which we have formerly termed understandings, as He foresaw would be sufficient. It is
certain that He made them according to some definite number, predetermined by Himself: for
it is not to be imagined, as some would have it, that creatures have not a limit, because
where there is no limit there can neither be any comprehension nor any limitation. Now if
this were the case, then certainly created things could neither be restrained nor
administered by God. For, naturally, whatever is infinite will also be incomprehensible.
Moreover, as Scripture says, "God has arranged all things in number and measure; " and
therefore number will be correctly applied to rational creatures or understandings, that
they may be so numerous as to admit of being arranged, governed, and controlled by God.
But measure will be appropriately applied to a material body; and this measure, we are to
believe, was created by God such as He knew would be sufficient for the adorning of the
world. These, then, are the things which we are to believe were created by God in the
beginning, i.e., before all things. And this, we think, is indicated even in that
beginning which Moses has introduced in terms somewhat ambiguous, when he says, "In the
beginning God made the heaven and the earth." For it is certain that the firmament is not
spoken of, nor the dry land, but that heaven and earth from which this present heaven and
earth which we now see afterwards borrowed their names.

2. But since those rational natures, which we have said above were made in the beginning,
were created when they did not previously exist, in consequence of this very fact of their
nonexistence and commencement of being, are they necessarily changeable and mutable; since
whatever power was in their substance was not in it by nature, but was the result of the
goodness of their Maker. What they are, therefore, is neither their own nor endures for
ever, but is bestowed by God. For it did not always exist; and everything which is a gift
may also be taken away, and disappear. And a reason for removal will consist in the
movements of souls not being conducted according to right and propriety. For the Creator
gave, as an indulgence to the understandings created by Him, the power of free and
voluntary action, by which the good that was in them might become their own, being
preserved by the exertion of their own will; but slothfulness, and a dislike of labour in
preserving what is good, and an aversion to and a neglect of better things, furnished the
beginning of a departure from goodness. But to depart from good is nothing else than to be
made bad. For it is certain that to want goodness is to be wicked. Whence it happens that,
in proportion as one falls away from goodness, in the same proportion does he become
involved in wickedness.

In which condition, according to its actions, each understanding, neglecting goodness
either to a greater or more limited extent, was dragged into the opposite of good, which
undoubtedly is evil. From which it appears that the Creator of all things admitted certain
seeds and causes of variety and diversity, that He might create variety and diversity in
proportion to the diversity of understandings, i.e., of rational creatures, which
diversity they must be supposed to have conceived from that cause which we have mentioned
above. And what we mean by variety and diversity is what we now wish to explain. 3. Now we
term world everything which is above the heavens, or in the heavens, or upon the earth, or
in those places which are called the lower regions, or all places whatever that anywhere
exist, together with their inhabitants. This whole, then, is called world. In which world
certain beings are said to be super-celestial, i.e., placed in happier abodes, and clothed
with heavenly and resplendent bodies; and among these many distinctions are shown to
exist, the apostle, e.g., saying, "That one is the glory of the sun, another the glory of
the moon, another the glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in
glory. Certain beings are called earthly, and among them, i.e., among men, there is no
small difference; for some of them are Barbarians, others Greeks; and of the Barbarians
some are savage and fierce, and others of a milder disposition. And certain of them live
under laws that have been thoroughly approved; others, again, under laws of a more common
or severe kind; while some, again, possess customs of an inhuman and savage character,
rather than laws. And certain of them, from the hour of their birth, are reduced to
humiliation and subjection, and brought up as slaves, being placed under the dominion
either of masters, or princes, or tyrants. Others, again, are brought up in a manner more
consonant with freedom and reason: some with sound bodies, some with bodies diseased from
their early years; some defective in vision, others in hearing and speech;

some born in that condition, others deprived of the use of their senses immediately after
birth, or at least undergoing such misfortune on reaching manhood. And why should I repeat
and enumerate all the horrors of human misery, from which some have been free, and in
which others have been involved, when each one can weigh and consider them for himself?
There are also certain invisible powers to which earthly things have been entrusted for
administration; and amongst them no small difference must be believed to exist, as is also
found to be the case among men. The Apostle Paul indeed intimates that there are certain
lower powers, and that among them, in like manner, must undoubtedly be sought a ground of
diversity. Regarding dumb animals, and birds, and those creatures which live in the
waters, it seems superfluous to require; since it is certain that these ought to be
regarded not as of primary, but of subordinate rank.

4. Seeing, then, that all things which have been created are said to have been made
through Christ, and in Christ, as the Apostle Paul most clearly indicates, when he says,
"For in Him and by Him were all things created, whether things in heaven or things on
earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or powers, or principalities, or
dominions; all things were created by Him, and in Him; " and as in his Gospel John
indicates the same thing, saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God: the same was in the beginning with God: all things were made by
Him; and without Him was not anything made; " and as in the Psalm also it is written," In
wisdom hast Thou made them all; " -seeing, then, Christ is, as it were, the Word and
Wisdom, and so also the Righteousness, it will undoubtedly follow that those things which
were created in the Word and Wisdom are said to be created also in that righteousness
which is Christ; that in created things there may appear to be nothing unrighteous or
accidental, but that all things may be shown to be in conformity with the law of equity
and righteousness.

How, then, so great a variety of things, and so great a diversity, can be understood to be
altogether just and righteous, I am sure no human power or language can explain, unless as
prostrate suppliants we pray to the Word, and Wisdom, and Righteousness Himself, who is
the only-begotten Son of God, and who, pouring Himself by His graces into our senses, may
deign to illuminate what is dark, to lay open what is concealed, and to reveal what is
secret; if, indeed, we should be found either to seek, or ask, or knock so worthily as to
deserve to receive when we ask, or to find when we seek, or to have it opened to us when
we knock. Not relying, then, on our own powers, but on the help of that Wisdom which made
all things, and of that Righteousness which we believe to be in all His creatures,
although we are in the meantime unable to declare it, yet, trusting in His mercy, we shall
endeavour to examine and inquire how that great variety and diversity in the world may
appear to be consistent with all righteousness and reason. I mean, of course, merely
reason in general; for it would be a mark of ignorance either to seek, or of folly to
give, a special reason for each individual case.

5. Now, when we say that this world was established in the variety in which we have above
explained that it was created by God, and when we say that this God is good, and
righteous, and most just, there are numerous individuals, especially those who, coming
from the school of Marcion, and Valentinus, and Basilides, have heard that there are souls
of different natures, who object to us, that it cannot consist with the justice of God in
creating the word to assign to some of His creatures an abode in the heavens, and not only
to give such a better habitation, but also to grant them a higher and more honourable
position; to favour others with the grant of principalities; to bestow powers upon some,
dominions on others; to confer upon some the most honourable seats in the celestial
tribunals; to enable some to shine with more resplendent glory, and to glitter with a
starry splendour; to give to some the glory of the sun, to others the glory of the moon,
to others the glory of the stars; to cause one star to differ from another star in glory.

And, to speak once for all, and briefly, if the Creator God wants neither the will to
undertake nor the power to complete a good and perfect work, what reason can there be
that, in the creation of rational natures, i.e., of beings of whose existence He Himself
is the cause, He should make some of higher rank, and others of second, or third, or of
many lower and inferior degrees? In the next place, they object to us, with regard to
terrestrial beings, that a happier lot by birth is the case with some rather than with
others; as one man, e.g., is begotten of Abraham, and born of the promise; another, too,
of Isaac and Rebekah, and who, while still in the womb, supplants his brother, and is said
to be loved by God before he is born. Nay, this very circumstance,-especially that one man
is born among the Hebrews, with whom he finds instruction in the divine law; another among
the Greeks, themselves also wise, and men of no small learning; and then another amongst
the Ethiopians, who are accustomed to feed on human flesh; or amongst the Scythians, with
whom parricide is an act sanctioned by law; or amongst the people of Taurus, where
strangers are offered in sacrifice,-is a ground of strong objection. Their argument
accordingly is this:

If there be this great diversity of circumstances, and this diverse and varying condition
by birth, in which the faculty of free-will has no scope (for no one chooses for himself
either where, or with whom, or in what condition he is born); if, then, this is not caused
by the difference in the nature of souls, i.e., that a soul of an evil nature is destined
for a wicked nation, and a good soul for a righteous nation, what other conclusion remains
than that these things must be supposed to be regulated by accident and chance? And if
that be admitted, then it will be no longer believed that the world was made by God, or
administered by His providence; and as a consequence, a judgment of God upon the deeds of
each individual will appear a thing not to be looked for. In which matter, indeed, what is
dearly the truth of things is the privilege of Him alone to know who searches all things,
even the deep things of God.

6. We, however, although but men, not to nourish the insolence of the heretics by our
silence, will return to their objections such answers as occur to us, so far as our
abilities enable us. We have frequently shown, by those declarations which we were able to
produce from the holy Scriptures, that God, the Creator of all things, is good, and just,
and all-powerful. When He in the beginning created those beings which He desired to
create, i.e., rational natures, He had no other reason for creating them than on account
of Himself, i.e., His own goodness. As He Himself, then, was the cause of the existence of
those things which were to be created, in whom there was neither any variation nor change,
nor want of power, He created all whom He made equal and alike, because there was in
Himself no reason for producing variety and diversity. But since those rational creatures
themselves, as we have frequently shown, and will yet show in the proper place, were
endowed with the power of free-will, this freedom of will incited each one either to
progress by imitation of God, or reduced him to failure through negligence. And this, as
we have already stated, is the cause of the diversity among rational creatures, deriving
its origin not from the will or judgment of the Creator, but from the freedom of the
individual will.

Now God, who deemed it just to arrange His creatures according to their merit, brought
down these different understandings into the harmony of one world, that He might adorn, as
it were, one dwelling, in which there ought to be not only vessels of gold and silver, but
also of wood and clay (and some indeed to honour, and others to dishonour), with those
different vessels, or souls, or understandings. And these are the causes, in my opinion,
why that world presents the aspect of diversity, while Divine Providence continues to
regulate each individual according to the variety of his movements, or of his feelings and
purpose. On which account the Creator will neither appear to be unjust in distributing
(for the causes already mentioned) to every one according to his merits; nor will the
happiness or unhappiness of each one's birth, or whatever be the condition that falls to
his lot, be deemed accidental; nor will different creators, or souls of different natures,
be believed to exist.

7. But even holy Scripture does not appear to me to be altogether silent on the nature of
this secret, as when the Apostle Paul, in discussing the case of Jacob and Esau, says:
"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him who calleth, it
was said, The elder shall serve the younger, as it is written, Jacob have I loved, but
Esau have I hated. And after that, he answers himself, and says, "What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? "And that he might furnish us with an opportunity of
inquiring into these matters, and of ascertaining how these things do not happen without a
reason, he answers himself, and says, "God forbid. For the same question, as it seems to
me, which is raised concerning Jacob and Esau, may be raised regarding all celestial and
terrestrial creatures, and even those of the lower world as well.

And in like manner it seems to me, that as he there says, "The children being not yet
born, neither having done any good or evil," so it might also be said of all other things,
"When they were not yet" created, "neither had yet done any good or evil, that the decree
of God according to election may stand," that (as certain think) some things on the one
hand were created heavenly, some on the other earthly, and others, again, beneath the
earth, "not of works" (as they think), "but of Him who calleth," what shall we say then,
if these things are so? "Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. As, therefore,
when the Scriptures are carefully examined regarding Jacob and Esau, it is not found to be
unrighteousness with God that it should be said, before they were born, or had done
anything in this life, "the elder shall serve the younger; "and as it is found not to be
unrighteousness that even in the womb Jacob supplanted his brother, if we feel that he was
worthily beloved by God, according to the deserts of his previous life, so as to deserve
to be preferred before his brother;

so also is it with regard to heavenly creatures, if we notice that diversity was not the
original condition of the creature, but that, owing to causes that have previously
existed, a different office is prepared by the Creator for each one in proportion to the
degree of his merit, on this ground, indeed, that each one, in respect of having been
created by God an understanding, or a rational spirit, has, according to the movements of
his mind and the feelings of his soul, gained for himself a greater or less amount of
merit, and has become either an object of love to God, or else one of dislike to Him;
while, nevertheless, some of those who are possessed of greater merit are ordained to
suffer with others for the adorning of the state of the world, and for the discharge of
duty to creatures of a lower grade, in order that by this means they themselves may be
participators in the endurance of the Creator, according to the words of the apostle: "For
the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath
subjected the same in hope. Keeping in view, then, the sentiment expressed by the apostle,
when, speaking of the birth of Esau and Jacob, he says, "Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid," I think it fight that this same sentiment should be carefully applied to
the case of all other creatures, because, as we formerly remarked, the righteousness of
the Creator ought to appear in everything.

And this, it appears to me, will be seen more clearly at last, if each one, whether of
celestial or terrestrial or infernal beings, be said to have the causes of his diversity
in himself, and antecedent to his bodily birth. For all things were created by the Word of
God, and by His Wisdom, and were set in order by His Justice. And by the grace of His
compassion He provides for all men, and encourages all to the use of whatever remedies may
lead to their cure, and incites them to salvation. 8. As, then, there is no doubt that at
the day of judgment the good will be separated from the bad, and the just from the unjust,
and all by the sentence of God will be distributed according to their deserts throughout
those places of which they are worthy, so I am of opinion some such state of things was
formerly the case, as, God willing, we shall show in what follows. For God must be
believed to do and order all things and at all times according to His judgment. For the
words which the apostle uses when he says, "In a great house there are not only vessels of
gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honour and some to dishonour;
" and those which he adds, saying, "If a man purge himself, he will be a vessel unto
honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's use, unto every good work," undoubtedly point
out this, that he who shall purge himself when he is in this life, will be prepared for
every good work in that which is to come; while he who does not purge himself will be,
according to the amount of his impurity, a vessel unto dishonour, i.e., unworthy.

It is therefore possible to understand that there have been also formerly rational
vessels, whether purged or not, i.e., which either purged themselves or did not do so, and
that consequently every vessel, according to the measure of its purity or impurity,
received a place, or region, or condition by birth, or an office to discharge, in this
world. All of which, down to the humblest, God providing for and distinguishing by the
power of His wisdom, arranges all things by His controlling judgment, according to a most
impartial retribution, so far as each one ought to be assisted or cared for in conformity
with his deserts. In which certainly every principle of equity is shown, while the
inequality of circumstances preserves the justice of a retribution according to merit. But
the grounds of the merits in each individual case are only recognised truly and clearly by
God Himself, along with His only-begotten Word, and His Wisdom, and the Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER X.-ON THE RESURRECTION, AND THE JUDGMENT, THE FIRE OF HELL, AND PUNISHMENTS.

1. But since the discourse has reminded us of the subjects of a future judgment and of
retribution, and of the punishments of sinners, according to the threatenings of holy
Scripture and the contents of the Church's teaching-viz., that when the time of judgment
comes, everlasting fire, and outer darkness, and a prison, and a furnace, and other
punishments of like. nature, have been prepared for sinners-let us see what our opinions
on these points ought to be. But that these subjects may be arrived at in proper order, it
seems to me that we ought first to consider the nature of the resurrection, that we may
know what that (body) is which shall come either to punishment, or to rest, or to
happiness; which question in other treatises which we have composed regarding the
resurrection we have discussed at greater length, and have shown what our opinions were
regarding it. But now, also, for the sake of logical order in our treatise, there will be
no absurdity in restating a few points from such works, especially since some take offence
at the creed of the Church, as if our belief in the resurrection were foolish, and
altogether devoid of sense; and these are principally heretics, who, I think, are to be
answered in the following manner. If they also admit that there is a resurrection of the
dead, let them answer us this, What is that which died? Was it not a body? It is of the
body, then, that there will be a resurrection.

Let them next tell us if they think that we are to make use of bodies or not. I think that
when the Apostle Paul says, that "it is sown a natural body, it will arise a spiritual
body," they cannot deny that it is a body which arises, or that in the resurrection we are
to make use of bodies. What then? If it is certain that we are to make use of bodies, and
if the bodies which have fallen are declared to rise again (for only that which before has
fallen can be properly said to rise again), it can be a matter of doubt to no one that
they rise again, in order that we may be clothed with them a second time at the
resurrection. The one thing is closely connected with the other. For if bodies rise again,
they undoubtedly rise to be coverings for us; and if it is necessary for us to be invested
with bodies, as it is certainly necessary, we ought to be invested with no other than our
own. But if it is true that these rise again, and that they arise "spiritual" bodies,
there can be no doubt that they are said to rise from the dead, after casting away
corruption and laying aside mortality; otherwise it will appear vain and superfluous for
any one to arise from the dead in order to die a second time.

And this, finally, may be more distinctly comprehended thus, if one carefully consider
what are the qualities of an animal body, which, when sown into the earth, recovers the
qualities of a spiritual body. For it is out of the animal body that the very power and
grace of the resurrection educe the spiritual body, when it transmutes it from a condition
of indignity to one of glory. 2. Since the heretics, however, think themselves persons of
great learning and wisdom, we shall ask them if every body has a form of some kind, i.e.,
is fashioned according to some shape. And if they shall say that a body is that which is
fashioned according to no shape, they will show themselves to be the most ignorant and
foolish of mankind. For no one will deny this, save him who is altogether without any
learning. But if, as a matter of course, they say that every body is certainly fashioned
according to some definite shape, we shall ask them if they can point out and describe to
us the shape of a spiritual body; a thing which they can by no means do. We shall ask
them, moreover, about the differences of those who rise again.How will they show that
statement to be true, that there is "one flesh of birds, another of fishes; bodies
celestial, and bodies terrestrial; that the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory
of the terrestrial another; that one is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the
moon, another the glory of the stars; that one star differeth from another star in glory;
and that so is the resurrection of the dead? " According to that gradation, then, which
exists among heavenly bodies, let them show to us the differences in the glory of those
who rise again;

and if they have endeavoured by any means to devise a principle that may be in accordance
with the differences in heavenly bodies, we shall ask them to assign the differences in
the resurrection by a comparison of earthly bodies. Our understanding of the passage
indeed is, that the apostle, wishing to describe the great difference among those who rise
again in glory, i.e., of the saints, borrowed a comparison from the heavenly bodies,
saying, "One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon, another the glory of
the stars. And wishing again to teach us the differences among those who shall come to the
resurrection, without having purged themselves in this life, i.e., sinners, he borrowed an
illustration from earthly things, saying, "There is one flesh of birds, another of fishes.
For heavenly things are worthily compared to the saints, and earthly things to sinners.
These statements are made in reply to those who deny the resurrection of the dead, i.e.,
the resurrection of bodies.

3. We now turn our attention to some of our own (believers), who, either from feebleness
of intellect or want of proper instruction, adopt a very low and abject view of the
resurrection of the body. We ask these persons in what manner they understand that an
animal body is to be changed by the grace of the resurrection, and to become a spiritual
one; and how that which is sown in weakness will arise in power; how that which is planted
in dishonour will arise in glory; and that which was sown in corruption, will be changed
to a state of incorruption. Because if they believe the apostle, that a body which arises
in glory, and power, and incorruptibility, has already become spiritual, it appears absurd
and contrary to his meaning to say that it can again be entangled with the passions of
flesh and blood, seeing the apostle manifestly declares that "flesh and blood shall not
inherit the kingdom of God, nor shall corruption inherit incorruption. But how do they
understand the declaration of the apostle, "We shall all be changed? "This transformation
certainly is to be looked for, according to the order which we have taught above; and in
it, undoubtedly, it becomes us to hope for something worthy of divine grace;

and this we believe will take place in the order in which the apostle describes the sowing
in the ground of a "bare grain of corn, or of any other fruit," to which "God gives a body
as it pleases Him," as soon as the grain of corn is dead. For in the same way also our
bodies are to be supposed to fall into the earth like a grain; and (that germ being
implanted in them which contains the bodily substance) although the bodies die, and become
corrupted, and are scattered abroad, yet by the word of God, that very germ which is
always safe in the substance of the body, raises them from the earth, and restores and
repairs them, as the power which is in the grain of wheat, after its corruption and death,
repairs and restores the grain into a body having stalk and ear. And so also to those who
shall deserve to obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, that germ of the body's
restoration, which we have before mentioned, by God's command restores out of the earthly
and animal body a spiritual one, capable of inhabiting the heavens;

while to each one of those who may be of inferior merit, or of more abject condition, or
even the lowest in the scale, and altogether thrust aside, there is yet given, in
proportion to the dignity of his life and soul, a glory and dignity of body,-nevertheless
in such a way, that even the body which rises again of those who are to be destined to
everlasting fire or to severe punishments, is by the very change of the resurrection so
incorruptible, that it cannot be corrupted and dissolved even by severe punishments. If,
then, such be the qualities of that body which will arise from the dead, let us now see
what is the meaning of the threatening of eternal fire. 4. We find in the prophet Isaiah,
that the fire with which each one is punished is described as his own; for he says, "Walk
in the light of your own fire, and in the flame which ye have kindled. By these words it
seems to be indicated that every sinner kindles for himself the flame of his own fire, and
is not plunged into some fire which has been already kindled by another, or was in
existence before himself. Of this fire the fuel and food are our sins, which are called by
the Apostle Paul wood, and hay, and stubble. And I think that, as abundance of food, and
provisions of a contrary kind and amount, breed fevers in the body, and fevers, too, of
different sorts and duration, according to the proportion in which the collected poison
supplies material and fuel for disease (the quality of this material, gathered together
from different poisons, proving the causes either of a more acute or more lingering
disease); so, when the soul has gathered together a multitude of evil works, and an
abundance of sins against itself, at a suitable time all that assembly of evils boils up
to punishment, and is set on fire to chastisements;

when the mind itself, or conscience, receiving by divine power into the memory all those
things of which it had stamped on itself certain signs and forms at the moment of sinning,
will see a kind of history, as it were, of all the foul, and shameful, and unholy deeds
which it has done, exposed before its eyes: then is the conscience itself harassed, and,
pierced by its own goads, becomes an accuser and a witness against itself. And this, I
think, was the opinion of the Apostle Paul himself, when he said, "Their thoughts mutually
accusing or excusing them in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus
Christ, according to my Gospel. From which it is understood that around the substance of
the soul certain tortures are produced by the hurtful affections of sins themselves. 5.
And that the understanding of this matter may not appear very difficult, we may draw some
considerations from the evil effects of those passions which are wont to befall some
souls, as when a soul is consumed by the fire of love, or wasted away by zeal or envy, or
when the passion of anger is kindled, or one is consumed by the greatness of his madness
or his sorrow; on which occasions some, finding the excess of these evils unbearable, have
deemed it more tolerable to submit to death than to endure perpetually torture of such a
kind. You will ask indeed whether, in the case of those who have been entangled in the
evils arising from those vices above enumerated, and who, while existing in this life,
have been unable to procure any amelioration for themselves, and have in this condition
departed from the world, it be sufficient in the way of punishment that they be tortured
by the remaining in them of these hurtful affections, i.e., of the anger, or of the fury,
or of the madness, or of the sorrow, whose fatal poison was in this life lessened by no
healing medicine; or whether, these affections being changed, they will be subjected to
the pains of a general punishment. Now I am of opinion that another species of punishment
may be understood to exist;

because, as we feel that when the limbs of the body are loosened and torn away from their
mutual supports, there is produced pain of a most excruciating kind, so, when the soul
shall be found to be beyond the order, and connection, and harmony in which it was created
by God for the purposes of good and useful action and observation, and not to harmonize
with itself in the connection of its rational movements, it must be deemed to bear the
chastisement and torture of its own dissension, and to feel the punishments of its own
disordered condition. And when this dissolution and rending asunder of soul shall have
been tested by the application of fire, a solidification undoubtedly into a firmer
structure will take place, and a restoration be effected. 6. There are also many other
things which escape our notice, and are known to Him alone who is the physician of our
souls. For if, on account of those bad effects which we bring upon ourselves by eating and
drinking, we deem it necessary for the health of the body to make use of some unpleasant
and painful drug, sometimes even, if the nature of the disease demand, requiring the
severe process of the amputating knife; and if the virulence of the disease shall
transcend even these remedies, the evil has at last to be burned out by fire; how much
more is it to be understood that God our Physician, desiring to remove the defects of our
souls, which they had contracted from their different sins and crimes, should employ penal
measures of this sort, and should apply even, in addition, the punishment of fire to those
who have lost their soundness of mind! Pictures of this method of procedure are found also
in the holy Scriptures. In the book of Deuteronomy, the divine word threatens sinners with
the punishments of fevers, and colds, and jaundice, and with the pains of feebleness of
vision, and alienation of mind and paralysis, and blindness, and weakness of the reins.

If any one, then, at his leisure gather together out of the whole of Scripture all the
enumerations of diseases which in the threatenings addressed to sinners are called by the
names of bodily maladies, he will find that either the vices of souls, or their
punishments, are figuratively indicated by them. To understand now, that in the same way
in which physicians apply remedies to the sick, in order that by careful treatment they
may recover their health, God so deals towards those who have lapsed and fallen into sin,
is proved by this, that the cup of God's fury is ordered, through the agency of the
prophet Jeremiah, to be offered to all nations, that they may drink it, and be in a state
of madness, and vomit it forth. In doing which, He threatens them, saying, That if any one
refuse to drink, he shall not be cleansed. By which certainly it is understood that the
fury of God's vengeance is profitable for the purgation of souls. That the punishment,
also, which is said to be applied by fire, is understood to be applied with the object of
healing, is taught by Isaiah, who speaks thus of Israel: "The Lord will wash away the
filth of the sons or daughters of Zion, and shall purge away the blood from the midst of
them by the spirit of judgment, and the spirit of burning. Of the Chaldeans he thus
speaks: "Thou hast the coals of fire; sit upon them: they will be to thee a help.

And in other passages he says, "The Lord will sanctify in a burning fire" and in the
prophecies of Malachi he says, "The Lord sitting will blow, and purify, and will pour
forth the cleansed sons of Judah." 7. But that fate also which is mentioned in the Gospels
as overtaking unfaithful stewards who, it is said, are to be divided, and a portion of
them placed along with unbelievers, as if that portion which is not their own were to be
sent elsewhere, undoubtedly indicates some kind of punishment on those whose spirit, as it
seems to me, is shown to be separated from the soul. For if this Spirit is of divine
nature, i.e., is understood to be a Holy Spirit, we shall understand this to be said of
the gift of the Holy Spirit: that when, whether by baptism, or by the grace of the Spirit,
the word of wisdom, or the word of knowledge, or of any other gift, has been bestowed upon
a man, and not rightly administered, i.e., either buried in the earth or tied up in a
napkin, the gift of the Spirit will certainly be withdrawn from his soul, and the other
portion which remains, that is, the substance of the soul, will be assigned its place with
unbelievers, being divided and separated from that Spirit with whom, by joining itself to
the Lord, it ought to have been one spirit. Now, if this is not to be understood of the
Spirit of God, but of the nature of the soul itself, that will be called its better part
which was made in the image and likeness of God;

whereas the other part, that which afterwards, through its fall by the exercise of free-
will, was assumed contrary to the nature of its original condition of purity,-this part,
as being the friend and beloved of matter, is punished with the fate of unbelievers. There
is also a third sense in which that separation may be understood, this viz., that as each
believer, although the humblest in the Church, is said to be attended by an angel, who is
declared by the Saviour always to behold the face of God the Father, and as this angel was
certainly one with the object of his guardianship; so, if the latter is rendered unworthy
by his want of obedience, the angel of God is said to be taken from him, and then that
part of him-the part, viz., which belongs to his human nature-being rent away from the
divine part, is assigned a place along with unbelievers, because it has not faithfully
observed the admonitions of the angel allotted it by God.

8. But the outer darkness, in nay judgment, is to be understood not so much of some dark
atmosphere without any light, as of those persons who, being plunged in the darkness of
profound ignorance, have been placed beyond the reach of any light of the understanding.
We must see, also, lest this perhaps should be the meaning of the expression, that as the
saints will receive those bodies in which they have lived in holiness and purity in the
habitations of this life, bright and glorious after the resurrection, so the wicked also,
who in this life have loved the darkness of error and the night of ignorance, may be
clothed with dark and black bodies after the resurrection, that the very mist of ignorance
which had in this life taken possession of their minds within them, may appear in the
future as the external covering of the body. Similar is the view to be entertained
regarding the prison. Let these remarks, which have been made as brief as possible, that
the order of our discourse in the meantime might be preserved, suffice for the present
occasion.

CHAPTER XI.-ON COUNTER PROMISES.

1. Let us now briefly see what views we are to form regarding promises. It is certain that
there is no living thing which can be altogether inactive and immoveable, but delights in
motion of every kind, and in perpetual activity and volition; and this nature, I think it
evident, is in all living things. Much more, then, must a rational animal, i.e., the
nature of man, be in perpetual movement and activity. If, indeed, he is forgetful of
himself, and ignorant of what becomes him, all his efforts are directed to serve the uses
of the body, and in all his movements he is occupied with his own pleasures and bodily
lusts; but if he be one who studies to care or provide for the general good, then, either
by consulting for the benefit of the state or by obeying the magistrates, he exerts
himself for that, whatever it is, which may seem certainly to promote the public
advantage. And if now any one be of such a nature as to understand that there is something
better than those things which seem to be corporeal, and so bestow his labour upon wisdom
and science, then he will undoubtedly direct all his attention towards pursuits of that
kind, that he may, by inquiring into the truth, ascertain the causes and reason of things.
As therefore, in this life, one man deems it the highest good to enjoy bodily pleasures,
another to consult for the benefit of the community, a third to devote attention to study
and learning; so let us inquire whether in that life which is the true one (which is said
to be hidden with Christ in God, i.e., in that eternal life), there will be for us some
such order and condition of existence.

2. Certain persons, then, refusing the labour of thinking, and adopting a superficial view
of the letter of the law, and yielding rather in some measure to the indulgence of their
own desires and lusts, being disciples of the letter alone, are of opinion that the
fulfilment of the promises of the future are to be looked for in bodily pleasure and
luxury; and therefore they especially desire to have again, after the resurrection, such
bodily structures as may never be without the power of eating, and drinking, and
performing all the functions of flesh and blood, not following the opinion of the Apostle
Paul regarding the resurrection of a spiritual body. And consequently they say, that after
the resurrection there will be marriages, and the begetting of children, imagining to
themselves that the earthly city of Jerusalem is to be rebuilt, its foundations laid in
precious stones, and its walls constructed of jasper, and its battlements of crystal; that
it is to have a wall composed of many precious stones, as jasper, and sapphire, and
chalcedony, and emerald, and sardonyx, and onyx, and chrysolite, and chrysoprase, and
jacinth, and amethyst. Moreover, they think that the natives of other countries are to be
given them as the ministers of their pleasures, whom they are to employ either as tillers
of the field or builders of walls, and by whom their ruined and fallen city is again to be
raised up;

and they think that they are to receive the wealth of the nations to live on, and that
they will have control over their riches; that even the camels of Midian and Kedar will
come, and bring to them gold, and incense, and precious stones. And these views they think
to establish on the authority of the prophets by those promises which are written
regarding Jerusalem; and by those passages also where it is said, that they who serve the
Lord shall eat and drink, but that sinners shall hunger and thirst; that the righteous
shall be joyful, but that sorrow shall possess the wicked. And from the New Testament also
they quote the saying of the Saviour, in which He makes a promise to His disciples
concerning the joy of wine, saying, "Henceforth I shall not drink of this cup, until I
drink it with you new in My Father's kingdom. They add, moreover, that declaration, in
which the Saviour calls those blessed who now hunger and thirst, promising them that they
shall be satisfied; and many other scriptural illustrations are adduced by them, the
meaning of which they do not perceive is to be taken figuratively. Then, again, agreeably
to the form of things in this life, and according to the gradations of the dignities or
ranks in this world, or the greatness of their powers, they think they are to be kings and
princes, like those earthly monarchs who now exist; chiefly, as it appears, on account of
that expression in the Gospel:

"Have thou power over five cities. And to speak shortly, according to the manner of things
in this life in all similar matters, do they desire the fulfilment of all things looked
for in the promises, viz., that what now is should exist again. Such are the views of
those who, while believing in Christ, understand the divine Scriptures in a sort of Jewish
sense, drawing from them nothing worthy of the divine promises. 3. Those, however, who
receive the representations of Scripture according to the understanding of the apostles,
entertain the hope that the saints will eat indeed, but that it will be the bread of life,
which may nourish the soul with the food of truth and wisdom, and enlighten the mind, and
cause it to drink from the cup of divine wisdom, according to the declaration of holy
Scripture: "Wisdom has prepared her table, she has killed her beasts, she has mingled her
wine in her cup, and she cries with a loud voice, Come to me, eat the bread which I have
prepared for you, and drink the wine which I have mingled." By this food of wisdom, the
understanding, being nourished to an entire and perfect condition like that in which man
was made at the beginning, is restored to the image and likeness of God; so that, although
an individual may depart from this life less perfectly instructed, but who has done works
that are approved of, he will be capable of receiving instruction in that Jerusalem, the
city of the saints, i.e., he will be educated and moulded, and made a living stone, a
stone elect and precious, because he has undergone with firmness and constancy the
struggles of life and the trials of piety; and will there come to a truer and clearer
knowledge of that which here has been already predicted, viz., that "man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth from the mouth of God." And they also are
to be understood to be the princes and rulers who both govern those of lower rank, and
instruct them, and teach them, and train them to divine things.

4. But if these views should not appear to fill the minds of those who hope for such
results with a becoming desire, let us go back a little, and, irrespective of the natural
and innate longing of the mind for the thing itself, let us make inquiry so that we may be
able at last to describe, as it were, the very forms of the bread of life, and the quality
of that wine, and the peculiar nature of the principalities, all in conformity with the
spiritual view of things. Now, as in those arts which are usually performed by means of
manual labour, the reason why a thing is done, or why it is of a special quality, or for a
special purpose, is an object of investigation to the mind, while the actual work itself
is unfolded to view by the agency of the hands; so, in those works of God which were
created by Him, it is to be observed that the reason and understanding of those things
which we see done by Him remains undisclosed. And as, when our eye beholds the products of
an artist's labour, the mind, immediately on perceiving anything of unusual artistic
excellence, burns to know of what nature it is, or how it was formed, or to what purposes
it was fashioned; so, in a much greater degree, and in one that is beyond all comparison,
does the mind burn with an inexpressible desire to know the reason of those things which
we see done by God.

This desire, this longing, we believe to be unquestionably implanted within us by God; and
as the eye naturally seeks the light and vision, and our body naturally desires food and
drink, so our mind is possessed with a becoming and natural desire to become acquainted
with the truth of God and the causes of things. Now we have received this desire from God,
not in order that it should never be gratified or be capable of gratification; otherwise
the love of truth would appear to have been implanted by God into our minds to no purpose,
if it were never to have an opportunity of satisfaction. Whence also, even in this life,
those who devote themselves with great labour to the pursuits of piety and religion,
although obtaining only some small fragments from the numerous and immense treasures of
divine knowledge, yet, by the very circumstance that their mind and soul is engaged in
these pursuits, and that in the eagerness of their desire they outstrip themselves, do
they derive much advantage; and, because their minds are directed to the study and love of
the investigation of truth, are they made fitter for receiving the instruction that is to
come;

as if, when one would paint an image, he were first with a light pencil to trace out the
outlines of the coming picture, and prepare marks for the reception of the features that
are to be afterwards added, this preliminary sketch in outline is found to prepare the way
for the laying on of the true colours of the painting; so, in a measure, an outline and
sketch may be traced on the tablets of our heart by the pencil of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And therefore perhaps is it said, "Unto every one that hath shall be given, and be added.
By which it is established, that to those who possess in this life a kind of outline of
truth and knowledge, shall be added the beauty of a perfect image in the future. 5. Some
such desire, I apprehend, was indicated by him who said, "I am in a strait betwixt two,
having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is far better; " knowing that when
he should have returned to Christ he would then know more clearly the reasons of all
things which are done on earth, either respecting man, or the soul of man, or the mind; or
regarding any other subject, such as, for instance, what is the Spirit that operates, what
also is the vital spirit, or what is the grace of the Holy Spirit that is given to
believers. Then also will he understand what Israel appears to be, or what is meant by the
diversity of nations; what the twelve tribes of Israel mean, and what the individual
people of each tribe. Then, too, will he understand the reason of the priests and Levites,
and of the different priestly orders, the type of which was in Moses, and also what is the
true meaning of the jubilees, and of the weeks of years with God. He will see also the
reasons for the festival days, and holy days, and for all the sacrifices and
purifications. He will perceive also the reason of the purgation from leprosy, and what
the different kinds of leprosy are, and the reason of the purgation of those who lose
their seed. He will come to know, moreover, what are the good influences, and their
greatness, and their qualities;

and those too which are of a contrary kind, and what the affection of the former, and what
the strife-causing emulation of the latter is towards men. He will behold also the nature
of the soul, and the diversity of animals (whether of those which live in the water, or of
birds, or of wild beasts), and why each of the genera is subdivided into so many species;
and what intention of the Creator, or what purpose of His wisdom, is concealed in each
individual thing. He will become acquainted, too, with the reason why certain properties
are found associated with certain roots or herbs, and why, on the other hand, evil effects
are averted by other herbs and roots. He will know, moreover, the nature of the apostate
angels, and the reason why they have power to flatter in some things those who do not
despise them with the whole power of faith, and why they exist for the purpose of
deceiving and leading men astray. He will learn, too, the judgment of Divine Providence on
each individual thing; and that, of those events which happen to men, none occur by
accident or chance, but in accordance with a plan so carefully considered, and so
stupendous, that it does not overlook even the number of the hairs of the heads, not
merely of the saints, but perhaps of all human beings, and the plan of which providential
government extends even to caring for the sale of two sparrows for a denarius, whether
sparrows there be understood figuratively or literally.

Now indeed this providential government is still a subject of investigation, but then it
will be fully manifested. From all which we are to suppose, that meanwhile not a little
time may pass by until the reason of those things only which are upon the earth be pointed
out to the worthy and deserving after their departure from life, that by the knowledge of
all these things, and by the grace of full knowledge, they may enjoy an unspeakable joy.
Then, if that atmosphere which is between heaven and earth is not devoid of inhabitants,
and those of a rational kind, as the apostle says, "Wherein in times past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit who now worketh in the children of disobedience. And again he says, "We shall
be caught up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air, and so shall we ever be with the
Lord."

6. We are therefore to suppose that the saints will remain there until they recognise the
twofold mode of government in those things which are performed in the air. And when I say
"twofold mode," I mean this: When we were upon earth, we saw either animals or trees, and
beheld the differences among them, and also the very great diversity among men; but
although we saw these things, we did not understand the reason of them; and this only was
suggested to us from the visible diversity, that we should examine and inquire upon what
principle these things were either created or diversely arranged. And a zeal or desire for
knowledge of this kind being conceived by us on earth, the full understanding and
comprehension of it will be granted after death, if indeed the result should follow
according to our expectations. When, therefore, we shall have fury comprehended its
nature, we shall understand in a twofold manner what we saw on earth. Some such view,
then, must we hold regarding this abode in the air.

I think, therefore, that all the saints who depart from this life will remain in some
place situated on the earth, which holy Scripture calls paradise, as in some place of
instruction, and, so to speak, class-room or school of souls, in which they are to be
instructed regarding all the things which they had seen on earth, and are to receive also
some information respecting things that are to follow in the future, as even when in this
life they had obtained in some degree indications of future events, although "through a
glass darkly," all of which are revealed more clearly and distinctly to the saints in
their proper time and place. If any one indeed be pure in heart, and holy in mind, and
more practised in perception, he will, by making more rapid progress, quickly ascend to a
place in the air, and reach the kingdom of heaven, through those mansions, so to speak, in
the various places which the Greeks have termed spheres, i.e., globes, but which holy
Scripture has called heavens; in each of which he will first see clearly what is done
there, and in the second place, will discover the reason why things are so done: and thus
he will in order pass through all gradations, following Him who hath passed into the
heavens, Jesus the Son of God, who said, "I will that where I am, these may be also. And
of this diversity of places He speaks, when He says, "In My Father's house are many
mansions.

He Himself is everywhere, and passes swiftly through all things; nor are we any longer to
understand Him as existing in those narrow Limits in which He was once confined for our
sakes, i.e., not in that circumscribed body which He occupied on earth, when dwelling
among men, according to which He might be considered as enclosed in some one place. 7.
When, then, the saints shall have reached the celestial abodes, they will clearly see the
nature of the stars one by one, and will understand whether they are endued with life, or
their condition, whatever it is. And they will comprehend also the other reasons for the
works of God, which He Himself will reveal to them. For He will show to them, as to
children, the causes of things and the power of His creation, and will explain why that
star was placed in that particular quarter of the sky, and why it was separated from
another by so great an intervening space; what, e.g., would have been the consequence if
it had been nearer or more remote; or if that star had been larger than this, how the
totality of things would not have remained the same, but all would have been transformed
into a different condition of being. And so, when they have finished all those matters
which are connected with the stars, and with the heavenly revolutions, they will come to
those which are not seen, or to those whose names only we have heard, and to things which
are invisible, which the Apostle Paul has informed us are numerous, although what they
are, or what difference may exist among them, we cannot even conjecture by our feeble
intellect.

And thus the rational nature, growing by each individual step, not as it grew in this life
in flesh, and body, and soul, but enlarged in understanding and in power of perception, is
raised as a mind already perfect to perfect knowledge, no longer at all impeded by those
carnal senses, but increased in intellectual growth; and ever gazing purely, and, so to
speak, face to face, on the causes of things, it attains perfection, firstly, viz., that
by which it ascends to (the truth), and secondly, that by which it abides in it, having
problems and the understanding of things, and the causes of events, as the food on which
it may feast. For as in this life our bodies grow physically to what they are, through a
sufficiency of food in early life supplying the means of increase, but after the due
height has been attained we use food no longer to grow, but to live, and to be preserved
in life by it; so also I think that the mind, when it has attained perfection, eats and
avails itself of suitable and appropriate food in such a degree, that nothing ought to be
either deficient or superfluous. And in all things this food is to be understood as the
contemplation and understanding of God, which is of a measure appropriate and suitable to
this nature, which was made and created;

and this measure it is proper should be observed by every one of those who are beginning
to see God, i.e., to understand Him through purity of heart.

INTRODUCTION

Preface of Rufinus.

1 Reader, remember me in your prayers, that we too may deserve to be made emulators of the
spirit. The two former books on The Principles I translated not only at your instance, but
even under pressure from you during the days of Lent; but as you, my devout brother
Macarius, were not only living near me during that time, but had more leisure at your
command than now, so I also worked the harder; whereas I have been longer in explaining
these two latter books, seeing you came less frequently from a distant extremity of the
city to urge on my labour. Now if you remember what I warned you of in my former
preface,-that certain persons would be indignant, if they did not hear that we spoke some
evil of Origen,-that, I imagine, you have forthwith experienced, has come to pass. But if
those demons who excite the tongues of men to slander were so infuriated by that work, in
which he had not as yet fully unveiled their secret proceedings, what, think you, will be
the case in this, in which he will expose all those dark and hidden ways, by which they
creep into the hearts of men, and deceive weak and unstable souls? You will immediately
see all things thrown into confusion, seditions stirred up, clamours raised throughout the
whole city, and that individual summoned to receive sentence of condemnation who
endeavoured to dispel the diabolical darkness of ignorance by means of the light of the
Gospel lamp.

2 Let such things, however, be lightly esteemed by him who is desirous of being trained in
divine learning, while retaining in its integrity the rule of the Catholic faith. I think
it necessary, however, to remind you that the principle observed in the former books has
been observed also in these, viz., not to translate what appeared contrary to Origen's
other opinions, and to our own belief, but to pass by such passages as being interpolated
and forged by others. But if he has appeared to give expression to any novelties regarding
rational creatures (on which subject the essence of our faith does not depend), for the
sake of discussion and of adding to our knowledge, when perhaps it was necessary for us to
answer in such an order some heretical opinions, I have not omitted to mention these
either in the present or preceding books, unless when he wished to repeat in the following
books what he had already stated in the previous ones, when I have thought it convenient,
for the sake of brevity, to curtail some of these repetitions. Should any one, however,
peruse these passages from a desire to enlarge his knowledge, and not to raise captious
objections, he will do better to have them expounded by persons of skill.

3 For it is an absurdity to have the fictions of poetry and the ridiculous plays of comedy
interpreted by grammarians, and to suppose that without a master and an interpreter any
one is able to learn those things which are spoken either of God or of the heavenly
virtues, and of the whole universe of things, in which some deplorable error either of
pagan philosophers or of heretics is confuted; and the result of which is, that men would
rather rashly and ignorantly condemn things that are difficult and obscure, than ascertain
their meaning by diligence and study. 4 Translated From Latin OF Rufinus. Translation From
The Greek.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS continued

CHAPTER I.-ON THE FREEDOM OF THE WILL, WITH AN EXPLANATION AND INTERPRETATION OF THOSE STATEMENTS OF SCRIPTURE WHICH APPEAR TO NULLIFY IT.

1. Some such opinions, we believe, ought to be entertained regarding the divine promises,
when we direct our understanding to the contemplation of that eternal and infinite world,
and gaze on its ineffable joy and blessedness. But as the preaching of the Church includes
a belief in a future and just judgment of God, which belief incites and persuades men to a
good and virtuous life, and to an avoidance of sin by all possible means; and as by this
it is undoubtedly indicated that it is within our own power to devote ourselves either to
a life that is worthy of praise, or to one that is worthy of censure, I therefore deem it
necessary to say a few words regarding the freedom of the will, seeing that this topic has
been treated by very many writers in no mean style. And that we may ascertain more easily
what is the freedom of the will, let us inquire into the nature of will and of desire.

1. Since in the preaching of the Church there is included the doctrine respecting a just
judgment of God, which, when believed to be true, incites those who hear it to live
virtuously, and to shun sin by all means, inasmuch as they manifestly acknowledge that
things worthy of praise and blame are within our own power, come and let us discuss by
themselves a few points regarding the freedom of the will-a question of all Others most
necessary. And that we may understand what the freedom of the will is, it is necessary to
unfold the conception of it, that this being declared with precision, the subject may be
placed before us. 2. Of all things which move, some have the cause of their motion within
themselves, others receive it from without: and all those things only are moved from
without which are without life, as stones, and pieces of wood, and whatever things are of
such a nature as to be held together by the constitution of their matter alone, or of
their bodily substance. That view must indeed be dismissed which would regard the
dissolution of bodies by corruption as motion, for it has no bearing upon our present
purpose. Others, again, have the cause of motion in themselves, as animals, or trees, and
all things which are held together by natural life or soul; among which some think ought
to be classed the veins of metals. Fire, also, is supposed to be the cause of its own
motion, and perhaps also springs of water. And of those things which have the causes of
their motion in themselves, some are said to be moved out of themselves, others by
themselves. And they so distinguish them, because those things are moved out of themselves
which are alive indeed, but have no soul; whereas those things which have a soul are moved
by themselves, when a phantasy, i.e., a desire or incitement, is presented to them, which
excites them to move towards something. Finally, in certain things endowed with a soul,
them is such a phantasy, i.e., a will or feeling, as by a kind of natural instinct calls
them forth, and arouses them to orderly and regular motion;

as we see to be the case with spiders, which are stirred up in a most orderly manner by a
phantasy, i.e., a sort of wish and desire for weaving, to undertake the production of a
web, some natural movement undoubtedly calling forth the effort to work of this kind. Nor
is this very insect found to possess any other feeling than the natural desire of weaving;
as in like manner bees also exhibit a desire to form honeycombs, and to collect, as they
say, aërial honey. 2. Of things that move, some have the cause of their motion within
themselves; others, again, are moved only from without. Now only portable things are moved
from without, such as pieces of wood, and stones, and all matter that is held together by
their constitution alone. And let that view be removed from consideration which calls the
flux of bodies motion, since it is not needed for our present purpose. But animals and
plants have the cause of their motion within themselves, and in general whatever is held
together by nature and a soul, to which class of things they say that metals also belong.
And besides these, fire too is self-moved, and perhaps also fountains of water. Now, of
those things which have the cause of their movement within themselves, some, they say, are
moved out of themselves, others from themselves: things without life, out of themselves;
animate things, from themselves. For animate things are moved from themselves, a phantasy
springing up in them which incites to effort. And again, in certain animals phantasies are
formed which call forth an effort, the nature of the phantasy stirring up the effort in an
orderly manner, as in the spider is formed the phantasy of weaving; and the attempt to
weave follows, the nature of its phantasy inciting the insect in an orderly manner to this
alone. And besides its phantasial nature, nothing else is believed to belong to the
insect. And in the bee there is formed the phantasy to produce wax.

3. But since a rational animal not only has within itself these natural movements, but has
moreover, to a greater extent than other animals, the power of reason, by which it can
judge and determine regarding natural movements, and disapprove and reject some, while
approving and adopting others, so by the judgment of this reason may the movements of men
be governed and directed towards a commendable life. And from this it follows that, since
the nature of this reason which is in man has within itself the power of distinguishing
between good and evil, and while distinguishing possesses the faculty of selecting what it
has approved, it may justly be deemed worthy of praise in choosing what is good, and
deserving of censure in following that which is base or wicked. This indeed must by no
means escape our notice, that in some dumb animals there is found a more regular movement
than in others, as in hunting-dogs or war-horses, so that they may appear to some to be
moved by a kind of rational sense. But we must believe this to be the result not so much
of reason as of some natural instinct, largely bestowed for purposes of that kind. Now, as
we had begun to remark, seeing that such is the nature of a rational animal, some things
may happen to us human beings from without; and these, coming in contact with our sense of
sight, or hearing, or any other of our senses, may incite and arouse us to good movements,
or the contrary;

and seeing they come to us from an external source, it is not within our own power to
prevent their coming. But to determine and approve what use we ought to make of those
things which thus happen, is the duty of no other than of that reason within us, i.e., of
our own judgment; by the decision of which reason we use the incitement, which comes to us
from without for that purpose, which reason approves, our natural movements being
determined by its authority either to good actions or the reverse. 3. The rational animal,
however, has, in addition to its phantasial nature, also reason, which judges the
phantasies, and disapproves of some and accepts others, in order that the animal may be
led according to them. Therefore, since there are in the nature of reason aids towards the
contemplation of virtue and vice, by following which, after beholding good and evil, we
select the one and avoid the other, we are deserving of praise when we give ourselves to
the practice of virtue, and censurable when we do the reverse. We must not, however, be
ignorant that the greater part of the nature assigned to all things is a varying quantity
among animals, both in a greater and a less degree; so that the instinct in hunting-dogs
and in war-horses approaches somehow, so to speak, to the faculty of reason. Now, to fall
under some one of those external causes which stir up within us this phantasy or that, is
confessedly not one of those things that are dependent upon ourselves; but to determine
that we shall use the occurrence in this way or differently, is the prerogative of nothing
else than of the reason within us, which, as occasion offers, arouses us towards efforts
inciting to what is virtuous and becoming, or turns us aside to what is the reverse.

4. If any one now were to say that those things which happen to us from an external cause,
and call forth our movements, are of such a nature that it is impossible to resist them,
whether they incite us to good or evil, let the holder of this opinion turn his attention
for a little upon himself, and carefully inspect the movements of his own mind, unless he
has discovered already, that when an enticement to any desire arises, nothing is
accomplished until the assent of the soul is gained, and the authority of the mind has
granted indulgence to the wicked suggestion; so that a claim might seem to be made by two
parties on certain probable grounds as to a judge residing within the tribunals of our
hurt, in order that, after the statement of reasons, the decree of execution may proceed
from the judgment of reason. For, to take an illustration: if, to a man who has determined
to live continently and chastely, and to keep himself free from all pollution with women,
a woman should happen to present herself, inciting and alluring him to act contrary to his
purpose, that woman is not a complete and absolute cause or necessity of his
transgressing, since it is in his power, by remembering his resolution, to bridle the
incitements to lust, and by the stern admonitions of virtue to restrain the pleasure of
the allurement that solicits him; so that, all feeling of indulgence being driven away,
his determination may remain firm and enduring. Finally, if to any men of learning,
strengthened by divine training, allurements of that kind present themselves, remembering
forthwith what they are, and calling to mind what has long been the subject of their
meditation and instruction, and fortifying themselves by the support of a holier doctrine,
they reject and repel all incitement to pleasure, and drive away opposing lusts by the
interposition of the reason implanted within them.

4. But if any one maintain that this very external cause is of such a nature that it is
impossible to resist it when it comes in such a way, let him turn his attention to his own
feelings and movements, (and see) whether there is not an approval, and assent, and
inclination of the controlling principle towards some object on account of some specious
arguments. For, to take an instance, a woman who has appeared before a man that has
determined to be chaste, and to refrain from carnal intercourse, and who has incited him
to act contrary to his purpose, is not a perfects cause of annulling his determination.
For, being altogether pleased with the luxury and allurement of the pleasure, and not
wishing to resist it, or to keep his purpose, he commits an act of licentiousness. Another
man, again (when the same things have happened to him who has received more instruction,
and has disciplined himself ), encounters, indeed, allurements and enticements; but his
reason, as being strengthened to a higher point, and carefully trained, and confirmed in
its views towards a virtuous course, or being near to confirmation, repels the incitement,
and extinguishes the desir

5. Seeing, then, that these positions are thus established by a sort of natural evidence,
is it not superfluous to throw back the causes of our actions on those things which happen
to us from without, and thus transfer the blame from ourselves, on whom it wholly lies?
For this is to say that we are like pieces of wood, or stones, which have no motion in
themselves, but receive the causes of their motion from without. Now such an assertion is
neither true nor becoming, and is invented only that the freedom of the will may be
denied; unless, indeed, we are to suppose that the freedom of the will consists in this,
that nothing which happens to us from without can incite us to good or evil. And if any
one were to refer the causes of our faults to the natural disorder of the body, such a
theory is proved to be contrary to the reason of all teaching. For, as we see in very many
individuals, that after living unchastely and intemperately, and after being the captives
of luxury and lust, if they should happen to be aroused by the word of teaching and
instruction to enter upon a better course of life, there takes place so great a change,
that from being luxurious and wicked men, they are converted into those who are sober, and
most chaste and gentle;

so, again, we see in the case of those who are quiet and honest, that after associating
with restless and shameless individuals, their good morals are corrupted by evil
conversation, and they become like those whose wickedness is complete. And this is the
case sometimes with men of mature age, so that such have lived more chastely in youth than
when more advanced years have enabled them to indulge in a freer mode of life. The result
of our reasoning, therefore, is to show that those things which happen to us from without
are not in our own power; but that to make a good or bad use of those things which do so
happen, by help of that reason which is within us, and which distinguishes and determines
how these things ought to be used, is within our power. 5. Such being the case, to say
that we are moved from without, and to put away the blame from ourselves, by declaring
that we are like to pieces of wood and stones, which are dragged about by those causes
that act upon them from without, is neither true nor in conformity with reason, but is the
statement of him who wishes to destroy the conception of free-will. For if we were to ask
such an one what was free-will, he would say that it consisted in this, that when
purposing to do some thing, no external cause came inciting to the reverse. But to blame,
on the other hand, the mere constitution of the body, is absurd; for the disciplinary
reason, taking hold of those who are most intemperate and savage (if they will follow her
exhortation), effects a transformation, so that the alteration and change for the better
is most extensive,-the most licentious men frequently becoming better than those who
formerly did not seem to be such by nature; and the most savage men passing into such a
state of mildness, that those persons who never at any time were so savage as they were,
appear savage in comparison, so great a degree of gentleness having been produced within
them. And we see other men, most steady and respectable, driven from their state of
respectability and steadiness by intercourse with evil customs, so as to fall into habits
of licentiousness, often beginning their wickedness in middle age, and plunging into
disorder after the period of youth has passed, which, so far as its nature is concerned,
is unstable. Reason, therefore, demonstrates that external events do not depend on us, but
that it is our own business to use them in this way or the opposite, having received
reason as a judge and an investigator of the manner in which we ought to meet those events
that come from without.

6. And now, to confirm the deductions of reason by the authority of Scripture-viz., that
it is our own doing whether we live rightly or not, and that we are not compelled, either
by those causes which come to us from without, or, as some think, by the presence of fate-
we adduce the testimony of the prophet Micah, in these words: "If it has been announced to
thee, O man, what is good, or what the Lord requires of thee, except that thou shouldst do
justice, and love mercy, and be ready to walk with the Lord thy God. Moses also speaks as
follows: "I have placed before thy face the way of life and the way of death: choose what
is good, and walk in it. Isaiah, moreover, makes this declaration: "If you are willing,
and hear me, ye shall eat the good of the land. But if you be unwilling, and will not hear
me, the sword shall consume you; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this. In the Psalm,
too, it is written: "If My people had heard Me, if Israel had walked in My ways, I would
have humbled her enemies to nothing; " by which he shows that it was in the power of the
people to hear, and to walk in the ways of God. The Saviour also saying, "I say unto you,
Resist not evil; " and, "Whoever shall be angry with his brother, shall be in danger of
the judgment;

" and, "Whosoever shall look upon a woman to lust after her, hath already committed
adultery with her in his heart; " and in issuing certain other commands,-conveys no other
meaning than this, that it is in our own power to observe what is commanded. And therefore
we are rightly rendered liable to condemnation if we transgress those commandments which
we are able to keep. And hence He Himself also declares: "Every one who hears my words,
and doeth them, I will show to whom he is like: he is like a wise man who built his house
upon a rock," etc. So also the declaration: "Whoso heareth these things, and doeth them
not, is like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand," etc. Even the words
addressed to those who are on His right hand, "Come unto Me, all ye blessed of My Father,"
etc.; "for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me drink,"
manifestly show that it depended upon themselves, that either these should be deserving of
praise for doing what was commanded and receiving what was promised, or those deserving of
censure who either heard or received the contrary, and to whom it was said, "Depart, ye
cursed, into everlasting fire. Let us observe also, that the Apostle Paul addresses us as
having power over our own will, and as possessing in ourselves the causes either of our
salvation or of our ruin:

"Dost thou despise the riches of His goodness, and of His patience, and of His long-
suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But, according
to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou art treasuring up for thyself wrath on the day
of judgment and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every
one according to his work: to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for
glory and immortality, eternal life; while to those who are contentious, and believe not
the truth, but who believe iniquity, anger, indignation, tribulation, and distress, on
every soul of man that worketh evil, on the Jew first, and (afterwards) on the Greek; but
glory, and honour, and peace to every one that doeth good, to the Jew first, and
(afterwards) to the Greek. You will find also innumerable other passages in holy
Scripture, which manifestly show that we possess freedom of will. Otherwise there would be
a contrariety in commandments being given us, by observing which we may be saved, or by
transgressing which we may be condemned, if the power of keeping them were not implanted
in us.

6. Now, that it is our business to live virtuously, and that God asks this of us, as not
being dependent on Him nor on any other, nor, as some think, upon fate, but as being our
own doing, the prophet Micah will prove when he says: "If it has been announced to thee, O
man, what is good, or what does the Lord require of thee, except to do justice and to love
mercy? " Moses also: "I have placed before thy face the way of life, and the way of death:
choose what is good, and walk in it. Isaiah too: "If you are willing, and hear me, ye
shall eat the good of the land; but if ye be unwilling, and Will not hear me, the sword
will consume you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. And in the Psalms: "If My
people had heard Me, and Israel had walked in My ways, I would have humbled their enemies
to nothing, and laid My hand upon those that afflicted them; " showing that it was in the
power of His people to hear and to walk in the ways of God. And the Saviour also, when He
commands, "But I say unto you, Resist not evil; " and, "Whosoever shall be angry with his
brother, shall be in danger of the judgment; " and, "Whosoever shall look upon a woman to
lust after her, hath already committed adultery with her in his heart;

" and by any other commandment which He gives, declares that it lies with ourselves to
keep what is enjoined, and that we shall reasonably be liable to condemnation if we
transgress. And therefore He says in addition: "He that heareth My words, and doeth them,
shall be likened to a prudent man, who built his house upon a rock," etc., etc.; "while he
that heareth them, but doeth them not, is like a foolish man, who built his house upon the
sand," etc. And when He says to those on His right hand, "Come, ye blessed of My Father,"
etc.; "for I was an hungered, and ye gave Me to eat; I was athirst, and ye gave Me to
drink," it is exceedingly manifest that He gives the promises to these as being deserving
of praise. But, on the contrary, to the others, as being censurable in comparison with
them, He says, "Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire! And let us observe how Paul also
converses with us as having freedom of will, and as being ourselves the cause of ruin or
salvation, when he says, "Dost thou despise the riches of His goodness, and of His
patience, and of His long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to
repentance? But, according to thy hardness and impenitent heart, thou art treasuring up
for thyself wrath on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who
will render to every one according to his works:

to those who, by patient continuance in well-doing, seek for glory and immortality,
eternal life; while to those who are contentious, and believe not the truth, but who
believe iniquity, anger, wrath, tribulation, and distress, on every soul of man that
worketh evil; on the Jew first, and on the Greek: but glory, and honour, and peace to
every one that worketh good; to the Jew first, and to the Greek. There are, indeed,
innumerable passages in the Scriptures which establish with exceeding clearness the
existence of freedom of will. 7. But, seeing there are found in the sacred Scriptures
themselves certain expressions occurring in such a connection, that the opposite of this
may appear capable of being understood from them, let us bring them forth before us, and,
discussing them according to the rule of piety, let us furnish an explanation of them, in
order that from those few passages which we now expound, the solution of those others
which resemble them, and by which any power over the will seems to be excluded, may become
clear. Those expressions, accordingly, make an impression on very many, which are used by
God in speaking of Pharaoh, as when He frequently says, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart.
For if he is hardened by God, and commits sin in consequence of being so hardened, the
cause of his sin is not himself. And if so, it will appear that Pharaoh does not possess
freedom of will; and it will be maintained, as a consequence, that, agreeably to this
illustration, neither do others who perish owe the cause of their destruction to the
freedom of their own will.

That expression, also, in Ezekiel, when he says, "I will take away their stony hearts, and
will give them hearts of flesh, that they may walk in My precepts, and keep My ways," may
impress some, inasmuch as it seems to be a gift of God, either to walk in His ways or to
keep His precepts, if He take away that stony heart which is an obstacle to the keeping of
His commandments, and bestow and implant a better and more impressible heart, which is
called now a heart of flesh. Consider also the nature of the answer given in the Gospel by
our Lord and Saviour to those who inquired of Him why He spoke to the multitude in
parables. His words are: "That seeing they may not see; and hearing they may hear, and not
understand; lest they should be converted, and their sins be forgiven them. The words,
moreover, used by the Apostle Paul, that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; " in another passage also, "that to will and to do
are of God: " and again, elsewhere, "Therefore hath He mercy upon whom He will, and whom
He will He hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why cloth He yet find fault? For who
shall resist His will? O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing
formed say to him who hath formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?

Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour,
and another to dishonour? -these and similar declarations seem to have no small influence
in preventing very many from believing that every one is to be considered as having
freedom over his own will, and in making it appear to be a consequence of the will of God
whether a man is either saved or lost. 7. But, since certain declarations of the Old
Testament and of the New lead to the opposite conclusion-namely, that it does not depend
on ourselves to keep the commandments and to be saved, or to transgress them and to be
lost-let us adduce them one by one, and see the explanations of them, in order that from
those which we adduce, any one selecting in a similar way all the passages that seem to
nullify free-will, may consider what is said about them by way of explanation. And now,
the statements regarding Pharaoh have troubled many, respecting whom God declared several
times, "I will harden Pharaoh's heart. For if he is hardened by God, and commits sin in
consequence of being hardened, he is not the cause of sin to himself; and if so, then
neither does Pharaoh possess free-will. And some one will say that, in a similar way, they
who perish have not free-will, and will not perish of themselves. The declaration also in
Ezekiel, "I will take away their stony hearts, and will put in them hearts of flesh, that
they may walk in My precepts, and keep My commandments," might lead one to think that it
was God who gave the power to walk in His commandments, and to keep His precepts, by His
withdrawing the hindrance-the stony heart, and implanting a better-a heart of flesh. And
let us look also at the passage in the Gospel-the answer which the Saviour returns to
those who inquired why He spake to the multitude in parables.

His words are: "That seeing they might not see; and hearing they may hear, and not
understand; lest they should be converted, and their sins be forgiven them. The passage
also in Paul: "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. The declarations, too, in other places, that "both to will and to do are of
God; " "that God hath mercy upon whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? ""The
persuasion is of Him that calleth, and not of us. "Nay, O man, who art thou that repliest
against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that hath formed it, Why hast thou made me
thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honour, and another unto dishonour? " Now these passages are sufficient of themselves to
trouble the multitude, as if man were not possessed of free-will, but as if it were God
who saves and destroys whom He will.

8. Let us begin, then, with those words which were spoken to Pharaoh, who is said to have
been hardened by God, in order that he might not let the people go; and, along with his
case, the language of the apostle also will be considered, where he says, "Therefore He
hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth. For it is on these passages
chiefly that the heretics rely, asserting that salvation is not in our own power, but that
souls are of such a nature as must by all means be either lost or saved; and that in no
way can a soul which is of an evil nature become good, or one which is of a virtuous
nature be made bad. And hence they maintain that Pharaoh, too, being of a ruined nature,
was on that account hardened by God, who hardens those that are of an earthly nature, but
has compassion on those who are of a spiritual nature. Let us see, then, what is the
meaning of their assertion; and let us, in the first place, request them to tell us
whether they maintain that the soul of Pharaoh was of an earthly nature, such as they term
lost. They will undoubtedly answer that it was of an earthly nature. If so, then to
believe God, or to obey Him, when his nature opposed his so doing, was an impossibility.

And if this were his condition by nature, what further need was there for his heart to be
hardened, and this not once, but several times, unless indeed because it was possible for
him to yield to persuasion? Nor could any one be said to be hardened by another, save him
who of himself was not obdurate. And if he were not obdurate of himself, it follows that
neither was he of an earthly nature, but such an one as might give way when overpowered by
signs and wonders. But he was necessary for God's purpose, in order that, for the saving
of the multitude, He might manifest in him His power by his offering resistance to
numerous miracles, and struggling against the will of God, and his heart being by this
means said to be hardened. Such are our answers, in the first place, to these persons; and
by these their assertion may be overturned, according to which they think that Pharaoh was
destroyed in consequence of his evil nature. And with regard to the language of the
Apostle Paul, we must answer them in a similar way. For who are they whom God hardens,
according to your view? Those, namely, whom you term of a ruined nature, and who, I am to
suppose, would have done something else had they not been hardened. If, indeed, they come
to destruction in consequence of being hardened, they no longer perish naturally, but in
virtue of what befalls them. Then, in the next place, upon whom does God show mercy?

On those, namely, who are to be saved. And in what respect do those persons stand in need
of a second compassion, who are to be saved once by their nature, and so come naturally to
blessedness, except that it is shown even from their case, that, because it was possible
for them to perish, they therefore obtain mercy, that so they may not perish, but come to
salvation, and possess the kingdom of the good. And let this be our answer to those who
devise and invent the fable of good or bad natures, i.e., of earthly or spiritual souls,
in consequence of which, as they say, each one is either saved or lost. 8. Let us begin,
then, with what is said about Pharaoh-that he was hardened by God, that he might not send
away the people; along with which will be examined also the statement of the apostle,
"Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. And
certain of those who hold different opinions misuse these passages, themselves also almost
destroying free-will by introducing ruined natures incapable of salvation, and others
saved which it is impossible can be lost; and Pharaoh, they say, as being of a ruined
nature, is therefore hardened by God, who has mercy upon the spiritual, but hardens the
earthly. Let us see now what they mean. For we shall ask them if Pharaoh was of an earthy
nature; and when they answer, we shall say that he who is of an earthy nature is
altogether disobedient to God: but if disobedient, what need is there of his heart being
hardened, and that not once, but frequently? Unless perhaps, since it was possible for him
to obey (in which case he would certainly have obeyed, as not being earthy, when hard
pressed by the signs and wonders), God needs him to be disobedient to a greater degree, in
order that He may manifest His mighty deeds for the salvation of the multitude, and
therefore hardens his heart. This will be our answer to them in the first place, in order
to overturn their supposition that Pharaoh was of a ruined nature.

And the same reply must be given to them with respect to the statement of the apostle. For
whom does God harden? Those who perish, as if they would obey unless they were hardened,
or manifestly those who would be saved because they are not of a ruined nature. And on
whom has He mercy? Is it on those who are to be saved? And how is there need of a second
mercy for those who have been prepared once for salvation, and who will by all means
become blessed on account of their nature? Unless perhaps, since they are capable of
incurring destruction, if they did not receive mercy, they will obtain mercy, in order
that they may not incur that destruction of which they are capable, but may be in the
condition of those who are saved. And this is our answer to such persons. 9. And now we
must return an answer also to those who would have the God of the law to be just only, and
not also good; and let us ask such in what manner they consider the heart of Pharaoh to
have been hardened by God-by what acts or by what prospective arrangements. For we must
observe the conception of a God who in our opinion is both just and good, but according to
them only just. And let them show us how a God whom they also acknowledge to be just, can
with justice cause the heart of a man to be hardened, that, in consequence of that very
hardening, he may sin and be ruined. And how shall the justice of God be defended, if He
Himself is the cause of the destruction of those whom, owing to their unbelief (through
their being hardened), He has afterwards condemned by the authority of a judge? For why
does He blame him, saying, "But since thou wilt not let My people go, lo, I will smite all
the first-born in Egypt, even thy first-born," and whatever else was spoken through Moses
by God to Pharaoh? For it behoves every one who maintains the truth of what is recorded in
Scripture, and who desires to show that the God of the law and the prophets is just, to
render a reason for all these things, and to show how there is in them nothing at all
derogatory to the justice of God, since, although they deny His goodness, they admit that
He is a just judge, and creator of the world. Different, however, is the method of our
reply to those who assert that the creator of this world is a malignant being, i.e., a
devil.

9. But to those who think they understand the term "hardened," we must address the
inquiry, What do they mean by saying that God, by His working, hardens the heart, and with
what purpose does He do this? For let them observe the conception of a God who is in
reality just and good; but if they will not allow this, let it be conceded to them for the
present that He is just; and let them show how the good and just God, or the just. God
only, appears to be just, in hardening the heart of him who perishes because of his being
hardened: and how the just God becomes the cause of destruction and disobedience, when men
are chastened by Him on account of their hardness and disobedience. And why does He find
fault with him, saying, "Thou wilt not let My people go; " "Lo, I will smite all the
first-born in Egypt, even thy first-born; " and whatever else is recorded as spoken from
God to Pharaoh through the intervention of Moses? For he who believes that the Scriptures
are true, and that God is just, must necessarily endeavour, if he be honest, to show how
God, in using such expressions, may be distinctly understood to be just. But if any one
should stand, declaring with uncovered head that the Creator of the world was inclined to
wickedness, we should need other words to answer them.

10. But since we acknowledge the God who spoke by Moses to be not only just, but also
good, let us carefully inquire how it is in keeping with the character of a just and good
Deity to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh. And let us see whether, following the example
of the Apostle Paul, we are able to solve the difficulty by help of some parallel
instances: if we can show, e.g., that by one and the same act God has pity upon one
individual, but hardens another; not purposing or desiring that he who is hardened should
be so, but because, in the manifestation of His goodness and patience, the heart of those
who treat His kindness and forbearance with contempt and insolence is hardened by the
punishment of their crimes being delayed; while those, on the other hand, who make His
goodness and patience the occasion of their repentance and reformation, obtain compassion.
To show more clearly, however, what we mean, let us take the illustration employed by the
Apostle Paul in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where he says, "For the earth, which drinketh
in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is
dressed, will receive blessing from God; but that which beareth thorns and briers is
rejected, and is nigh unto cursing, whose end is to be burned.

Now from those words of Paul which we have quoted, it is clearly shown that by one and the
same act on the part of God-that, viz., by which He sends rain upon the earth-one portion
of the ground, when carefully cultivated, brings forth good fruits; while another,
neglected and uncared for, produces thorns and thistles. And if one, speaking as it were
in the person of the rain, were to say, "It is I, the rain, that have made the good
fruits, and it is I that have caused the thorns and thistles to grow," however hard the
statement might appear, it would nevertheless be true; for unless the rain had fallen,
neither fruits, nor thorns, nor thistles would have sprung up, whereas by the coming of
the rain the earth gave birth to both. Now, although it is due to the beneficial action of
the rain that the earth has produced herbs of both kinds, it is not to the rain that the
diversity of the herbs is properly to be ascribed; but on those will justly rest the blame
for the bad seed, who, although they might have turned up the ground by frequent
ploughing, and have broken the clods by repeated harrowing, and have extirpated all
useless and noxious weeds, and have cleared and prepared the fields for the coming showers
by all the labour and toil which cultivation demands, have nevertheless neglected to do
this, and who will accordingly reap briers and thorns, the most appropriate fruit of their
sloth.

And the consequence therefore is, that while the rain falls in kindness and impartiality
equally upon the whole earth, yet, by one and the same operation of the rain, that soil
which is cultivated yields with a blessing useful fruits to the diligent and careful
cultivators, while that which has become hardened through the neglect of the husbandman
brings forth only thorns and thistles. Let us therefore view those signs and miracles
which were done by God, as the showers furnished by Him from above; and the purpose and
desires of men, as the cultivated and uncultivated soil, which is of one and the same
nature indeed, as is every soil compared with another, but not in one and the same state
of cultivation. From which it follows that every one's will, if untrained, and fierce, and
barbarous, is either hardened by the miracles and wonders of God, growing more savage and
thorny than ever, or it becomes more pliant, and yields itself up with the whole mind to
obedience, if it be cleared from vice and subjected to training.

10. But since they say that they regard Him as a just God, and we as one who is at the
same time good and just, let us consider how the good and just God could harden the heart
of Pharaoh. See, then, whether, by an illustration used by the apostle in the Epistle to
the Hebrews, we are able to prove that by one operation God has mercy upon one man while
He hardens another, although not intending to harden; but, (although) having a good
purpose, hardening follows as a result of the inherent principle of wickedness in such
persons, and so He is said to harden him who is hardened. "The earth," he says, "which
drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for
whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God; but that which beareth thorns and briers
is rejected, and is nigh to cursing, whose end is to be burned. As respects the rain,
then, there is one operation; and there being one operation as regards the rain, the
ground which is cultivated produces fruit, while that which is neglected and is barren
produces thorns. Now, it might seem profane for Him who rains to say, "I produced the
fruits, and the thorns that are in the earth; "and yet, although profane, it is true. For,
had rain not fallen, there would have been neither fruits nor thorns; but, having fallen
at the proper time and in moderation, both were produced.

The ground, now, which drank in the rain which often fell upon it, and yet produced thorns
and briers, is rejected and nigh to cursing. The blessing, then, of the rain descended
even upon the inferior land; but it, being neglected and uncultivated, yielded thorns and
thistles. In the same way, therefore, the wonderful works also done by God are, as it
were, the rain; while the differing purposes are, as it were, the cultivated and neglected
land, being (yet), like earth, of one nature. 11. But, to establish the point more
clearly, it will not be superfluous to employ another illustration, as if, e.g., one were
to say that it is the sun which hardens and liquefies, although liquefying and hardening
are things of an opposite nature. Now it is not incorrect to say that the sun, by one and
the same power of its heat, melts wax indeed, but dries up and hardens mud: not that its
power operates One way upon mud, and in another way upon wax; but that the qualities of
mud and wax are different, although according to nature they are one thing, both being
from the earth. In this way, then, one and the same working upon the part of God, which
was administered by Moses in signs and wonders, made manifest the hardness of Pharaoh,
which he had conceived in the intensity of his wickedness but exhibited the obedience of
those other Egyptians who were intermingled with the Israelites, and who are recorded to
have quitted Egypt at the same time with the Hebrews. With respect to the statement that
the heart of Pharaoh was subdued by degrees, so that on one occasion he said, "Go not far
away;

ye shall go a three days' journey, but leave your wives, and your children, and your
cattle," and as regards any other statements, according to which he appears to yield
gradually to the signs and wonders, what else is shown, save that the power of the signs
and miracles was making some impression on him, but not so much as it ought to have done?
For if the hardening were of such a nature as many take it to be, he would not indeed have
given way even in a few instances. But I think there is no absurdity in explaining the
tropical or figurative nature of that language employed in speaking of "hardening,"
according to common usage. For those masters who are remarkable for kindness to their
slaves, are frequently accustomed to say to the latter, when, through much patience and
indulgence on their part, they have become insolent and worthless: "It is I that have made
you what you are; I have spoiled you; it is my endurance that has made you good for
nothing: I am to blame for your perverse and wicked habits, because I do not have you
immediately punished for every delinquency according to your deserts. For we must first
attend to the tropical or figurative meaning of the language, and so come to see the force
of the expression, and not find fault with the word, whose inner meaning we do not
ascertain. Finally, the Apostle Paul, evidently treating of such, says to him who remained
in his sins:

"Despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not
knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but, after thy hardness and
impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath on the day of wrath and revelation of
the righteous judgment of God. Such are the words of the apostle to him who is in his
sins. Let us apply these very expressions to Pharaoh, and see if they also are not spoken
of him with propriety, since, according to his hardness and impenitent heart, he treasured
and stored up for himself wrath on the day of wrath, inasmuch as his hardness could never
have been declared and manifested, unless signs and wonders of such number and
magnificence had been performed. 11. And as if the sun, uttering a voice, were to say, "I
liquefy and dry up," liquefaction and drying up being opposite things, he would not speak
falsely as regards the point in question; wax being melted and mud being dried by the same
heat; so the same operation, which was performed through the instrumentality of Moses,
proved the hardness of Pharaoh on the one hand, the result of his wickedness, and the
yielding of the mixed Egyptian multitude who took their departure with the Hebrews. And
the brief statement that the heart of Pharaoh was softened, as it were, when he said, "But
ye shall not go far: ye will go a three days' journey, and leave your wives," and anything
else which he said, yielding little by little before the signs, proves that the wonders
made some impression even upon him, but did not accomplish all (that they might). Yet even
this would not have happened, if that which is supposed by the many-the hardening of
Pharaoh's heart-had been produced by God Himself. And it is not absurd to soften down such
expressions agreeably to common usage: for good masters often say to their slaves, when
spoiled by their kindness and forbearance, "I have made you bad, and I am to blame for
offences of such enormity. For we must attend to the character and force of the phrase,
and not argue sophistically," disregarding the meaning of the expression. Paul
accordingly, having examined these points clearly, says to the sinner:

"Or despisest thou the riches of His goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering; not
knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but, after thy hardness and
impenitent heart, treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God. Now, let what the apostle says to the sinner be
addressed to Pharaoh, and then the announcements made to him will be understood to have
been made with peculiar fitness, as to one who, according to his hardness and unrepentant
heart, was treasuring up to himself wrath; seeing that his hardness would not have been
proved nor made manifest unless miracles had been performed, and miracles, too, of such
magnitude and importance. 12. But if the proofs which we have adduced do not appear full
enough, and the similitude of the apostle seem wanting in applicability, let us add the
voice of prophetic authority, and see what the prophets declare regarding those who at
first, indeed, leading a righteous life, have deserved to receive numerous proofs of the
goodness of God, but afterwards, as being human beings, have fallen astray, with whom the
prophet, making himself also one, says:"Why, O Lord, hast Thou made us to err from Thy
way? and hardened our heart, that we should not fear Thy name? Return, for Thy servants'
sake, for the tribes of Thine inheritance, that we also for a little may obtain some
inheritance from Thy holy hill. Jeremiah also employs similar language: "O Lord, Thou hast
deceived us, and we were deceived; Thou hast held (us), and Thou hast prevailed. The
expression, then, "Why, O Lord, hast Thou hardened our heart, that we should not fear Thy
name? "used by those who prayed for mercy, is to be taken in a figurative, moral
acceptation, as if one were to say, "Why hast Thou spared us so long, and didst not
requite us when we sinned, but didst abandon us, that so our wickedness might increase,
and our liberty of sinning be extended when punishment ceased? "In like manner, unless a
horse continually feel the spur of his rider, and have his mouth abraded by a bit, he
becomes hardened.

And a boy also, unless constantly disciplined by chastisement, will grow up to be an
insolent youth, and one ready to fall headlong into vice. God accordingly abandons and
neglects those whom He has judged undeserving of chastisement: "For whom the Lord loveth
He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. From which we are to suppose
that those are to be received into the rank and affection of sons, who have deserved to be
scourged and chastened by the Lord, in order that they also, through endurance of trials
and tribulations, may be able to say, "Who shall separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus? shall tribulation, or anguish, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword? " For by all these is each one's resolution manifested and displayed, and the
firmness of his perseverance made known, not so much to God, who knows all things before
they happen, as to the rational and heavenly virtues, who have obtained a part in the work
of procuring human salvation, as being a sort of assistants and ministers to God. Those,
on the other hand, who do not yet offer themselves to God with such constancy and
affection, and are not ready to come into His service, and to prepare their souls for
trial, are said to be abandoned by God, i.e., not to be instructed, inasmuch as they are
not prepared for instruction, their training or care being undoubtedly postponed to a
later time.

These certainly do not know what they will obtain from God, unless they first entertain
the desire of being bene-fired; and this finally will be the case, if a man come first to
a knowledge of himself, and feel what are his defects, and understand from whom he either
ought or can seek the supply of his deficiencies. For he who does not know beforehand of
his weakness or his sickness, cannot seek a physician; or at least, after recovering his
health, that man will not be grateful to his physician who did not first recognise the
dangerous nature of his ailment. And so, unless a man has first ascertained the defects of
his life, and the evil nature of his sins, and made this known by confession from his own
lips, he cannot be cleansed or acquitted, lest he should be ignorant that what he
possesses has been bestowed on him by favour, but should consider as his own property what
flows from the divine liberality, which idea undoubtedly generates arrogance of mind and
pride, and finally becomes the cause of the individual's ruin. And this, we must believe,
was the case with the devil, who viewed as his own, and not as given him by God, the
primacy which he held at the time when he was unstained; and thus was fulfilled in him the
declaration, that "every one who exalteth himself shall be abased.

From which it appears to me that the divine mysteries were concealed from the wise and
prudent, according to the statement of Scripture, that "no flesh should glory before God,"
and revealed to children-to those, namely, who, after they have become infants and little
children, i.e., have returned to the humility and simplicity of children, then make
progress; and on arriving at perfection, remember that they have obtained their state of
happiness, not by their own merits, but by the grace and compassion of God. 12. But since
such narratives are slow to secure assent, and are considered to be forced, let us see
from the prophetical declarations also, what those persons say, who, although they have
experienced the great kindness of God, have not lived virtuously, but have afterwards
sinned. "Why, O Lord, hast Thou made us to err from Thy ways? Why hast Thou hardened our
heart, so as not to fear Thy name? Return for Thy servants' sake, for the tribes of Thine
inheritance, that we may inherit a shall portion of Thy holy mountain. And in Jeremiah:
"Thou hast deceived me, O Lord, and I was deceived; Thou wert strong, and Thou didst
prevail. For the expression, "Why hast Thou hardened our hear, so as not to fear Thy name?
"uttered by those who are begging to receive mercy, is in its nature as follows: "Why hast
Thou spared us so long, not visiting us because of our sins, but deserting us, until our
transgressions come to a height? "Now He leaves the greater part of men unpunished, both
in order that the habits of each one may be examined, so far as it depends upon ourselves,
and that the virtuous may be made manifest in consequence of the test applied; while the
others, not escaping notice from God-for He knows all things before they exist-but from
the rational creation and themselves, may afterwards obtain the means of cure, seeing they
would not have known the benefit had they not condemned themselves.

It is of advantage to each one, that he perceive his own peculiar nature and the grace of
God. For he who does not perceive his own weakness and the divine favour, although he
receive a benefit, yet, not having made trial of himself, nor having condemned himself,
will imagine that the benefit conferred upon him by the grace of Heaven is his own doing.
And this imagination, producing also vanity, will be the cause of a downfall: which, we
conceive, was the case with the devil, who attributed to himself the priority which he
possessed when in a state of sinlessness. "For every one that exalteth himself shall be
abased," and "every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted. And observe, that for this
reason divine things have been concealed from the wise and prudent, in order, as says the
apostle, that "no flesh should glory in the presence of God; " and they have been revealed
to babes, to those who after childhood have come to better things, and who remember that
it is not so much from their own effort, as by the unspeakable goodness (of God), that
they have reached the greatest possible extent of blessedness.

13. It is therefore by the sentence of God that he is abandoned who deserves to be so,
while over some sinners God exercises forbearance; not, however, without a definite
principle of action. Nay, the very fact that He is long-suffering conduces to the
advantage of those very persons, since the soul over which He exercises this providential
care is immortal; and, as being immortal and everlasting, it is not, although not
immediately cared for, excluded from salvation, which is postponed to a more convenient
time. For perhaps it is expedient for those who have been more deeply imbued with the
poison of wickedness to obtain this salvation at a later period. For as medical men
sometimes, although they could quickly cover over the scars of wounds, keep back and delay
the cure for the present, in the expectation of a better and more perfect recovery,
knowing that it is more salutary to retard the treatment in the cases of swellings caused
by wounds, and to allow the malignant humours to flow off for a while, rather than to
hasten a superficial cure, by shutting up in the veins the poison of a morbid humour,
which, excluded from its customary outlets, will undoubtedly creep into the inner parts of
the limbs, and penetrate to the very vitals of the viscera, producing no longer mere
disease in the body, but causing destruction to life;

so, in like manner, God also, who knows the secret things of the heart, and foreknows the
future, in much forbearance allows certain events to happen, which, coming from without
upon men, cause to come forth into the light the passions and vices which are concealed
within, that by their means those may be cleansed and cured who, through great negligence
and carelessness, have admitted within themselves the roots and seeds of sins, so that,
when driven outwards and brought to the surface, they may in a certain degree be cast
forth and dispersed. And thus, although a man may appear to be afflicted with evils of a
serious kind, suffering convulsions in all his limbs, he may nevertheless, at some future
time, obtain relief and a cessation from his trouble; and, after enduring his afflictions
to satiety, may, after many sufferings, be restored again to his (proper) condition. For
God deals with souls not merely with a view to the short space of our present life,
included within sixty years or more, but with reference to a perpetual and never-ending
period, exercising His providential care over souls that are immortal, even as He Himself
is eternal and immortal. For He made the rational nature, which He formed in His own image
and likeness, incorruptible; and therefore the soul, which is immortal, is not excluded by
the shortness of the present life from the divine remedies and cures.

13. It is not without reason, then, that he who is abandoned, is abandoned to the divine
judgment, and that God is long-suffering with certain sinners; but because it will be for
their advantage, with respect to the immortality of the soul and the unending world, that
they be not quickly brought into a state of salvation, but be conducted to it more slowly,
after having experienced many evils. For as physicians, who are able to cure a man
quickly, when they suspect that a hidden poison exists in the body, do the reverse of
healing, making this more certain through their very desire to heal, deeming it better for
a considerable time to retain the patient under inflammation and sickness, in order that
he may recover his health more surely, than to appear to produce a rapid recovery, and
afterwards to cause a relapse, and (thus) that hasty cure last only for a time; in the
same way, God also, who knows the secret things of the heart, and foresees future events,
in His long-suffering, permits (certain events to occur), and by means of those things
which happen from without extracts the secret evil, in order to cleanse him who through
carelessness has received the seeds of sin, that having vomited them forth when they came
to the surface, although he may have been deeply involved in evils, he may afterwards
obtain healing after his wickedness, and be renewed? For God governs souls not with
reference, let me say, to the fifty years of the present life, but with reference to an
illimitable age: for He made the thinking principle immortal in its nature, and kindred to
Himself; and the rational soul is not, as in this life, excluded from cure.

14. But let us take from the Gospels also the similitudes of those things which we have
mentioned, in which is described a certain rock, having on it a little superficial earth,
on which, when a seed falls, it is said quickly to spring up; but when sprung up, it
withers as the sun ascends in the heavens, and dies away, because it did not cast its root
deeply into the ground? Now this rock undoubtedly represents the human soul, hardened on
account of its own negligence, and converted into stone because of its wickedness. For God
gave no one a stony heart by a creative act; but each individual's heart is said to become
stony through his own wickedness and disobedience. As, therefore, if one were to blame a
husbandman for not casting his seed more quickly upon rocky ground, because seed cast upon
other rocky soil was seen to spring up speedily, the husbandman would certainly say in
reply: "I sow this soil more slowly, for this reason, that it may retain the seed which it
has received; for it suits this ground to be sown somewhat slowly, lest perhaps the crop,
having sprouted too rapidly, and coming forth from the mere surface of a shallow soil,
should be unable to withstand the rays of the sun. Would not he who formerly found fault
acquiesce in the reasons and superior knowledge of the husbandman, and approve as done on
rational grounds what formerly appeared to him as rounded on no reason?

And in the same way, God, the thoroughly skilled husbandman of all His creation,
undoubtedly conceals and delays to another time those things which we think ought to have
obtained health sooner, in order that not the outside of things, rather than the inside,
my be cured. But if any one now were to object to us that certain seeds do even fall upon
rocky ground, i.e., on a hard and stony heart, we should answer that even this does not
happen without the arrangement of Divine Providence; inasmuch as, but for this, it would
not be known what condemnation was incurred by rashness in hearing and indifference in
investigation, nor, certainly, what benefit was derived from being trained in an orderly
manner. And hence it happens that the soul comes to know its defects, and to cast the
blame upon itself, and, consistently with this, to reserve and submit itself to training,
i.e., in order that it may see that its faults must first be removed, and that then it
must come to receive the instruction of wisdom. As, therefore, souls are innumerable, so
also are their manners, and purposes, and movements, and appetencies, and incitements
different, the variety of which can by no means be grasped by the human mind; and
therefore to God alone must be left the art, and the knowledge, and the power of an
arrangement of this kind, as He alone can know both the remedies for each individual soul,
and measure out the time of its cure.

It is He alone then who, as we said, recognises the ways of individual men, and determines
by what way He ought to lead Pharaoh, that through him His name might be named in all the
earth, having previously chastised him by many blows, and finally drowning him in the sea.
By this drowning, however, it is not to be supposed that God's providence as regards
Pharaoh was terminated; for we must not imagine, because he was drowned, that therefore he
had forthwith completely perished: "for in the hand of God are both we and our words; all
wisdom, also, and knowledge of workmanship," as Scripture declares. But these points we
have discussed according to our ability, treating of that chapter of Scripture in which it
is said that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and agreeably to the statement, "He hath
mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth."

14. Come now, and let us use the following image from the Gospel. There is a certain rock,
with a little surface-soil, on which, if seeds fall, they quickly spring up; but when
sprung up, as not having root, they are burned and withered when the sun has arisen. Now
this rock is a human soul, hardened on account of its negligence, and converted to stone
because of its wickedness; for no one receives from God a heart created of stone, but it
becomes such in consequence of wickedness. If one, then, were to find fault with the
husbandman for not sowing his seed sooner upon the rocky soil, when he that it may retain
the seed which it has received; for it suits this ground to be sown somewhat slowly, lest
perhaps the crop, having sprouted too rapidly, and coming forth from the mere surface of a
shallow soil, should be unable to withstand the rays of the sun. Would not he who formerly
found fault acquiesce in the reasons and superior knowledge of the husbandman, and approve
as done on rational grounds what formerly appeared to him as rounded on no reason? And in
the same way, God, the thoroughly skilled husbandman of all His creation, undoubtedly
conceals and delays to another time those things which we think ought to have obtained
health sooner, in order that not the outside of things, rather than the inside, my be
cured.

But if any one now were to object to us that certain seeds do even fall upon rocky ground,
i.e., on a hard and stony heart, we should answer that even this does not happen without
the arrangement of Divine Providence; inasmuch as, but for this, it would not be known
what condemnation was incurred by rashness in hearing and indifference in investigation,
nor, certainly, what benefit was derived from being trained in an orderly manner. And
hence it happens that the soul comes to know its defects, and to cast the blame upon
itself, and, consistently with this, to reserve and submit itself to training, i.e., in
order that it may see that its faults must first be removed, and that then it must come to
receive the instruction of wisdom. As, therefore, souls are innumerable, so also are their
manners, and purposes, and movements, and appetencies, and incitements different, the
variety of which can by no means be grasped by the human mind; and therefore to God alone
must be left the art, and the knowledge, and the power of an arrangement of this kind, as
He alone can know both the remedies for each individual soul, and measure out the time of
its cure. It is He alone then who, as we said, recognises the ways of individual men, and
determines by what way He ought to lead Pharaoh, that through him His name might be named
in all the earth, having previously chastised him by many blows, and finally drowning him
in the sea.

By this drowning, however, it is not to be supposed that God's providence as regards
Pharaoh was terminated; for we must not imagine, because he was drowned, that therefore he
had forthwith completely perished: "for in the hand of God are both we and our words; all
wisdom, also, and knowledge of workmanship," as Scripture declares. But these points we
have discussed according to our ability, treating of that chapter of Scripture in which it
is said that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and agreeably to the statement, "He hath
mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth." 15. Let us now look at
those passages of Ezekiel where he says, "I will take away from them their stony heart,
and I will put in them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes, and keep Mine
ordinances. For if God, when He pleases, takes away a heart of stone and bestows a heart
of flesh, that His ordinances may be observed and His commandments may be obeyed, it will
then appear that it is not in our power to put away wickedness. For the taking away of a
stony heart seems to be nothing else than the removal of the wickedness by which one is
hardened, from whomsoever God pleases to remove it. Nor is the bestowal of a heart of
flesh, that the precepts of God may be observed and His commandments obeyed, any other
thing than a man becoming obedient, and no longer resisting the truth, but performing
works of virtue. If, then, God promises to do this, and if, before He takes away the stony
heart, we are unable to remove it from ourselves, it follows that it is not in our power,
but in God's only, to cast away wickedness. And again, if it is not our doing to form
within us a heart of flesh, but the work of God alone, it will not be in our power to live
virtuously, but it will in everything appear to be a work of divine grace.

Such are the assertions of those who wish to prove from the authority of Holy Scripture
that nothing lies in our own power. Now to these we answer, that these passages are not to
be so understood, but in the following manner. Take the case of one who was ignorant and
untaught, and who, feeling the disgrace of his ignorance, should, driven either by an
exhortation from some person, or incited by a desire to emulate other wise men, hand
himself over to one by whom he is assured that he will be carefully trained and
competently instructed. If he, then, who had formerly hardened himself in ignorance, yield
himself, as we have said, with full purpose of mind to a master, and promise to obey him
in all things, the master, on seeing clearly the resolute nature of his determination;
will appropriately promise to take away all ignorance, and to implant knowledge within his
mind; not that he undertakes to do this if the disciple refuse or resist his efforts, but
only on his offering and binding himself to obedience in all things. So also the Word of
God promises to those who draw near to Him, that He will take away their stony heart, not
indeed from those who do not listen to His word, but from those who receive the precepts
of His teaching; as in the Gospels we find the sick approaching the Saviour, asking to
receive health, and thus at last be cured.

And in order that the blind might be healed and regain their sight, their part consisted
in making supplication to the Saviour, and in believing that their cure could be effected
by Him; while His part, on the other hand, lay in restoring to them the power of vision.
And in this way also does the Word of God promise to bestow instruction by taking away the
stony heart, i.e., by the removal of wickedness, that so men may be able to walk in the
divine precepts, and observe the commandments of the law. 15. Let us look also at the
declaration in Ezekiel, which says, "I shall take away their stony hearts, and will put in
them hearts of flesh, that they may walk in My statutes and keep My precepts. For if God,
when He wills, takes away the stony hearts, and implants hearts of flesh, so that His
precepts are obeyed and His commandments are observed, it is not in our power to put away
wickedness. For the taking away of the stony hearts is nothing else than the taking away
of the wickedness, according to which one is hardened, from him from whom God wills to
take it; and the implanting of a heart of flesh, so that a man may walk in the precepts of
God and keep His commandments, what else is it than to become somewhat yielding and
unresistent to the truth, and to be capable of practising virtues? And if God promises to
do this, and if, before He takes away the stony hearts, we do not lay them aside, it is
manifest that it does not depend upon ourselves to put away wickedness; and if it is not
we who do anything towards the production within us of the heart of flesh, but if it is
God's doing, it will not be our own act to live agreeably to virtue, but altogether (the
result of) divine grace. Such will be the statements of him who, from the mere words (of
Scripture), annihilates free-will.

But we shall answer, saying, that we ought to understand these passages thus: That as a
man, e.g., who happened to be ignorant and uneducated, on perceiving his own defects,
either in consequence of an exhortation from his teacher, or in some other way, should
spontaneously give himself up to him whom he considers able to introduce him to education
and virtue; and, on his yielding himself up, his instructor promises that he will take
away his ignorance, and implant instruction, not as if it contributed nothing to his
training, and to the avoiding of ignorance, that he brought himself to be healed, but
because the instructor promised to improve him who desired improvement; so, in the same
way, the Word of God promises to take away wickedness, which it calls a stony heart, from
those who come to it, not if they are unwilling, but (only) if they submit themselves to
the Physician of the sick, as in the Gospels the sick are found coming to the Saviour, and
asking to obtain healing, and so are cured. And, let me say, the recovery of sight by the
blind is, so far as their request goes, the act of those who believe that they are capable
of being healed; but as respects the restoration of sight, it is the work of our Saviour.

Thus, then, does the Word of God promise to implant knowledge in those who come to it, by
taking away the stony and hard heart, which is wickedness, in order that one may walk in
the divine commandments, and keep the divine injunctions. 16. There is next brought before
us that declaration uttered by the Saviour in the Gospel: "That seeing they may see, and
not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest they should happen to be
converted, and their sins be forgiven them. On which our opponent will remark: "If those
who shall hear more distinctly are by all means to be corrected and converted, and
converted in such a manner as to be worthy of receiving the remission of sins, and if it
be not in their own power to hear the word distinctly, but if it depend on the Instructor
to teach more openly and distinctly, while he declares that he does not proclaim to them
the word with clearness, lest they should perhaps hear and understand, and be converted,
and be saved, it will follow, certainly, that their salvation is not dependent upon
themselves. And if this be so, then we have no free-will either as regards salvation or
destruction. Now were it not for the words that are added, "Lest perhaps they should be
converted, and their sins be forgiven them," we might be more inclined to return the
answer, that the Saviour was unwilling that those individuals whom He foresaw would not
become good, should understand the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, and that therefore
He spoke to them in parables; but as that addition follows, "Lest perhaps they should be
converted, and their sins be forgiven them," the explanation is rendered more difficult.

And, in the first place, we have to notice what defence this passage furnishes against
those heretics who are accustomed to hunt out of the Old Testament any expressions which
seem, according to their view, to predicate severity and cruelty of God the Creator, as
when He is described as being affected with the feeling of vengeance or punishment, or by
any of those emotions, however named, from which they deny the existence of goodness in
the Creator; for they do not judge of the Gospels with the same mind and feelings, and do
not observe whether any such statements are found in them as they condemn and censure in
the Old Testament. For manifestly, in the passage referred to, the Saviour is shown, as
they themselves admit, not to speak distinctly, for this very reason, that men may not be
converted, and when converted, receive the remission of sins. Now, if the words be
understood according to the letter merely, nothing less, certainly, will be contained in
them than in those passages which they find fault with in the Old Testament. And if they
are of opinion that any expressions occurring in such a connection in the New Testament
stand in need of explanation, it will necessarily follow that those also occurring in the
Old Testament, which are the subject of censure, may be freed from aspersion by an
explanation of a similar kind, so that by such means the passages found in both Testaments
may be shown to proceed from one and the same God.

But let us return, as we best may, to the question proposed. 16. There was after this the
passage from the Gospel, where the Saviour said, that for this reason did He speak to
those without in parables, that "seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not
understand; lest they should be converted, and their sins be forgiven them. Now, our
opponent will say, "If some persons are assuredly converted on hearing words of greater
clearness, so that they become worthy of the remission of sins, and if it does not depend
upon themselves to hear these words of greater clearness, but upon him who teaches, and he
for this reason does not announce them to them more distinctly, lest they should see and
understand, it is not within the power of such to be saved; and if so, we are not
possessed of free-will as regards salvation and destruction. Effectual, indeed, would be
the reply to such arguments, were it not for the addition, "Lest they should be converted,
and their sins be forgiven them,"-namely, that the Saviour did not wish those who were not
to become good and virtuous to understand the more mystical (parts of His teaching), and
for this reason spake to them in parables; but now, on account of the words, "Lest they
should be converted, and their sins be forgiven them," the defence is more difficult.

In the first place, then, we must notice the passage in its bearing on the heretics, who
hunt out those portions from the Old Testament where is exhibited, as they themselves
daringly assert, the cruelty of the Creator of the world in His purpose of avenging and
punishing the wicked, or by whatever other name they wish to designate such a quality, so
speaking only that they may say that goodness does not exist in the Creator; and who do
not deal with the New Testament in a similar manner, nor in a spirit of candour, but pass
by places similar to those which they consider censurable in the Old Testament. For
manifestly, and according to the Gospel, is the Saviour shown, as they assert, by His
former words, not to speak distinctly for this reason, that men might not be converted,
and, being converted, might become deserving of the remission of sins: which statement of
itself is nothing inferior to those passages from the Old Testament which are objected to.
And if they seek to defend the Gospel, we must ask them whether they are not acting in a
blameworthy manner in dealing differently with the same questions; and, while not
stumbling against the New Testament, but seeking to defend it, they nevertheless bring a
charge against the Old regarding similar points, whereas they ought to offer a defence in
the same way of the passages from the New. And therefore we shall force them, on account
of the resemblances, to regard all as the writings of one God.

Come, then, and let us, to the best of our ability, furnish an answer to the question
submitted to us. 17. We said formerly, when discussing the case of Pharaoh, that sometimes
it does not lead to good results for a man to be cured too quickly, especially if the
disease, being shut up within the inner parts of the body, rage with greater fierceness.
Whence God, who is acquainted with secret things, and knows all things before they happen,
in His great goodness delays the cure of such, and postpones their recovery to a remoter
period, and, so to speak, cures them by not curing them, lest a too favourable state of
health should render them incurable. It is therefore possible that, in the case of those
to whom, as being "without," the words of our Lord and Saviour were addressed, He, seeing
from His scrutiny of the hearts and reins that they were not yet able to receive teaching
of a clearer type, veiled by the covering of language the meaning of the profounder
mysteries, lest perhaps, being rapidly converted and healed, i.e., having quickly obtained
the remission of their sins, they should again easily slide back into the same disease
which they had found could be healed without any difficulty. For if this be the case, no
one can doubt that the punishment is doubled, and the amount of wickedness increased;
since not only are the sins which had appeared to be forgiven repeated, but the court of
virtue also is desecrated when trodden by deceitful and polluted beings, filled within
with hidden wickedness.

And what remedy can there ever be for those who, after eating the impure and filthy food
of wickedness, have tasted the pleasantness of virtue, and received its sweetness into
their mouths, and yet have again betaken themselves to the deadly and poisonous provision
of sin? And who doubts that it is better for delay and a temporary abandonment to occur,
in order that if, at some future time, they should happen to be satiated with wickedness,
and the filth with which they are now delighted should become loathsome, the word of God
may at last be appropriately made clear to them, and that which is holy be not given to
the dogs, nor pearls be cast before swine, which will trample them under foot, and turn,
moreover, and rend and assault those who have proclaimed to them the word of God? These,
then, are they who are said to be "without," undoubtedly by way of contrast with those who
are said to be "within," and to hear the word of God with greater clearness. And yet those
who are "without" do hear the word, although it is covered by parables, and overshadowed
by proverbs. There are others, also, besides those who are without, who are called
Tyrians, and who do not hear at all, respecting whom the Saviour knew that they would have
repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, if the miracles performed among others
had been done amongst them, and yet these do not hear those things which are heard even by
those who are "without:

"and I believe, for this reason, that the rank of such in wickedness was far lower and
worse than that of those who are said to be "without," i.e., who are not far from those
who are within, and who have deserved to hear the word, although in parables; and because,
perhaps, their cure was delayed to that time when it will be more tolerable for them on
the day of judgment, than for those before whom those miracles which are recorded were
performed, that so at last, being then relieved from the weight of their sins, they may
enter with more ease and power of endurance upon the way of safety. And this is a point
which I wish impressed upon those who peruse these pages, that with respect to topics of
such difficulty and obscurity we use our utmost endeavour, not so much to ascertain
clearly the solutions of the questions (for every one will do this as the Spirit gives him
utterance), as to maintain the rule of faith in the most unmistakeable manner, by striving
to show that the providence of God, which equitably administers all things, governs also
immortal souls on the justest principles, (conferring rewards) according to the merits and
motives of each individual;

the present economy of things not being confined within the life of this world, but the
pre-existing state of merit always furnishing the ground for the state that is to follow,
and thus by an eternal and immutable law of equity, and by the controlling influence of
Divine Providence, the immortal soul is brought to the summit of perfection. If one,
however, were to object to our statement, that the word of preaching was purposely put
aside by certain men of wicked and worthless character, and (were to inquire) why the word
was preached to those over whom the Tyrians, who were certainly despised, are preferred in
comparison (by which proceeding, certainly, their wickedness was increased, and their
condemnation rendered more severe, that they should hear the word who were not to believe
it), they must be answered in the following manner: God, who is the Creator of the minds
of all men, foreseeing complaints against His providence, especially on the part of those
who say, "How could we believe when we neither beheld those things which others saw, nor
heard those words which were preached to others? in so far is the blame removed from us,
since they to whom the word was announced, and the signs manifested, made no delay
whatever, but became believers, overpowered by the very force of the miracles;

"wishing to destroy the grounds for complaints of this kind, and to show that it was no
concealment of Divine Providence, but the determination of the human mind which was the
cause of their ruin, bestowed the grace of His benefits even upon the unworthy and the
unbelieving, that every mouth might indeed be shut, and that the mind of man might know
that all the deficiency was on its own part, and none on that of God; and that it may, at
the same time, be understood and recognised that he receives a heavier sentence of
condemnation who has despised the divine benefits conferred upon him than he who has not
deserved to obtain or hear them, and that it is a peculiarity of divine compassion, and a
mark of the extreme justice of its administration, that it sometimes conceals from certain
individuals the opportunity of either seeing or hearing the mysteries of divine power,
lest, after beholding the power of the miracles, and recognising and hearing the mysteries
of its wisdom, they should, on treating them with contempt and indifference, be punished
with greater severity for their impiety.

17. We asserted also, when investigating the subject of Pharaoh, that sometimes a rapid
cure is not for the advantage of those who are healed, if, after being seized by
troublesome diseases, they should easily get rid of those by which they had been
entangled. For, despising the evil as one that is easy of cure, and not being on their
guard a second time against falling into it, they will be involved in it (again).
Wherefore, in the case of such persons, the everlasting God, the Knower of secrets, who
knows all things before they exist, in conformity with His goodness, delays sending them
more rapid assistance, and, so to speak, in helping them does not help, the latter course
being to their advantage. It is probable, then, that those "without," of whom we are
speaking, having been foreseen by the Saviour, according to our supposition, as not
(likely) to prove steady in their conversion, if they should hear more clearly the words
that were spoken, were (so) treated by the Saviour as not to hear distinctly the deeper
(things of His teaching), lest, after a rapid conversion, and after being healed by
obtaining remission of sins, they should despise the wounds of their wickedness, as being
slight and easy of healing, and should again speedily relapse into them. And perhaps also,
suffering punishment for their former transgressions against virtue, which they had
committed when they had forsaken her, they had not yet filled up the (full) time;

in order that, being abandoned by the divine superintendence, and being filled to a
greater degree by their own evils which they had sown, they may afterwards be called to a
more stable repentance; so as not to be quickly entangled again in those evils in which
they had formerly been involved when they treated with insolence the requirements of
virtue, and devoted themselves to worse things. Those, then, who are said to be "without"
(manifestly by comparison with those "within "), not being very far from those "within,"
while those "within" hear clearly, do themselves hear indistinctly, because they are
addressed in parables; but nevertheless they do hear. Others, again, of those "without,"
who are called Tyrians, although it was foreknown that they would have repented long ago,
sitting in sackcloth and ashes, had the Saviour come near their borders, do not hear even
those words which are heard by those "without" (being, as is probable, very far inferior
in merit to those "without" ), in order that at another season, after it has been more
tolerable for them than for those who did not receive the word (among whom he mentioned
also the Tyrians), they may, on hearing the word at a more appropriate time, obtain a more
lasting repentance.

But observe whether, besides our desire to investigate (the truth), we do not rather
strive to maintain an attitude of piety in everything regarding God and His Christ, seeing
we endeavour by every means to prove that, in matters so great and so peculiar regarding
the varied providence of God, He takes an oversight of the immortal soul. If, indeed, one
were to inquire regarding those things that are objected to, why those who saw wonders and
who heard divine words are not benefited, while the Tyrians would have repented if such
had been performed and spoken amongst them; and should ask, and say, Why did the Saviour
proclaim such to these persons, to their own hurt, that their sin might be reckoned to
them as heavier? we must say, in answer to such an one, that He who understands the
dispositions of all those who find fault with His providence-(alleging) that it is owing
to it that they have not believed, because it did not permit them to see what it enabled
others to behold, and did not arrange for them to hear those words by which others, on
hearing them, were benefited-wishing to prove that their defence is not founded on reason,
He grants those advantages which those who blame His administration asked; in order that,
after obtaining them, they may notwithstanding be convicted of the greatest impiety in not
having even then yielded themselves to be benefited, and may cease from such audacity;

and having been made free in respect to this very point, may learn that God occasionally,
in conferring benefits upon certain persons, delays and procrastinates, not conferring the
favour of seeing and hearing those things which, when seen and heard, would render the sin
of those who did not believe, after acts so great and peculiar, heavier and more serious.
18. Let us now look to the expression, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For our opponents assert, that if it does not
depend upon him that willeth, nor on him that runneth, but on God that showeth mercy, that
a man be saved, our salvation is not in our own power. For our nature is such as to admit
of our either being saved or not, or else our salvation rests solely on the will of Him
who, if He wills it, shows mercy, and confers salvation. Now let us inquire, in the first
place, of such persons, whether to desire blessings be a good or evil act; and whether to
hasten after good as a final aim be worthy of praise. If they were to answer that such a
procedure was deserving of censure, they would evidently he mad; for all holy men both
desire blessings and run after them, and certainly are not blameworthy. How, then, is it
that he who is not saved, if he be of an evil nature, desires blessing, and runs after
them, but does not find them? For they say that a bad tree does not bring forth good
fruits, whereas it is a good fruit to desire blessings. And how is the fruit of a bad tree
good?

And if they assert that to desire blessings, and to run after them, is an act of
indifference, i.e., neither good nor bad, we shall reply, that if it be an indifferent act
to desire blessings, and to run after them, then the opposite of that will also he an
indifferent act, viz., to desire evils, and to run after them; whereas it is certain that
it is not an indifferent act to desire evils, and to run after them, but one that is
manifestly wicked. It is established, then, that to desire and follow after blessings is
not an indifferent, but a virtuous proceeding.Having now repelled these objections by the
answer which we have given, let us hasten on to the discussion of the subject itself, in
which it is said, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. In the book of Psalms-in the Songs of Degrees, which are ascribed to
Solomon-the following statement occurs: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in
vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. By
which words he does not indeed indicate that we should cease from building or watching
over the safe keeping of that city which is within us; but what he points out is this,
that whatever is built without God, and whatever is guarded without him, is built in vain,
and guarded to no purpose.

For in all things that are well built and well protected, the Lord is held to be the cause
either of the building or of its protection. As if, e.g., we were to behold some
magnificent structure and mass of splendid building reared with beauteous architectural
skill, would we not justly and deservedly say that such was built not by human power, but
by divine help and might? And yet from such a statement it will not be meant that the
labour and industry of human effort were inactive, and effected nothing at all. Or again,
if we were to see some city surrounded by a severe blockade of the enemy, in which
threatening engines were brought against the walls, and the place hard pressed by a
vallum, and weapons, and fire, and all the instruments of war, by which destruction is
prepared, would we not rightly and deservedly say, if the enemy were repelled and put to
flight, that the deliverance had been wrought for the liberated city by God? And yet we
would not mean, by so speaking, that either the vigilance of the sentinels, or the
alertness of the young men, or the protection of the guards, had been wanting. And the
apostle also must be understood in a similar manner, because the human will alone is not
sufficient to obtain salvation;

nor is any mortal running able to win the heavenly (rewards), and to obtain the prize of
our high calling of God in Christ Jesus, unless this very good will of ours, and ready
purpose, and whatever that diligence within us may be, be aided or furnished with divine
help. And therefore most logically did the apostle say, that "it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; "in the same manner as if
we were to say of agriculture what is actually written: "I planted, Apollos watered; but
God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that
watereth; but God that giveth the increase. As, therefore, when a field has brought good
and rich crops to perfect maturity, no one would piously and logically assert that the
husbandman had made those fruits, but would acknowledge that they had been produced by
God; so also is our own perfection brought about, not indeed by our remaining inactive and
idle, (but by some activity on our part): and yet the consummation of it will not be
ascribed to us, but to God, who is the first and chief cause of the work.

So, when a ship has overcome the dangers of the sea, although the result be accomplished
by great labour on the part of the sailors, and by the aid of all the art of navigation,
and by the zeal and carefulness of the pilot, and by the favouring influence of the
breezes, and the careful observation of the signs of the stars, no one in his sound senses
would ascribe the safety of the vessel, when, after being tossed by the waves, and wearied
by the billows, it has at last reached the harbour in safety, to anything else than to the
mercy of God. Not even the sailors or pilot venture to say, "I have saved the ship," but
they refer all to the mercy of God; not that they feel that they have contributed no skill
or labour to save the ship, but because they know that while they contributed the labour,
the safety of the vessel was ensured by God. So also in the race of our life we ourselves
must expend labour, and bring diligence and zeal to bear; but it is from God that
salvation is to be hoped for as the fruit of our labour. Otherwise, if God demand none of
our labour, His commandments will appear to be superfluous. In vain, also, does Paul blame
some for having fallen from the truth, and praise others for abiding in the faith; and to
no purpose does he deliver certain precepts and institutions to the Churches:

in vain, also, do we ourselves either desire or run after what is good. But it is certain
that these things are not done in vain; and it is certain that neither do the apostles
give instructions in vain, nor the Lord enact laws without a reason. It follows,
therefore, that we declare it to be in vain, rather, for the heretics to speak evil of
these good declarations. 18. Let us look next at the passage: "So, then, it is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For they who find
fault say: If "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy," salvation does not depend upon ourselves, but upon the arrangement made by
Him who has formed us such as we are, or on the purpose of Him who showeth mercy when he
pleases. Now we must ask these persons the following questions: Whether to desire what is
good is virtuous or vicious; and whether the desire to run in order to reach the goal in
the pursuit of what is good be worthy of praise or censure? And if they shall say that it
is worthy of censure, they will return an absurd answer; since the saints desire and run,
and manifestly in so acting do nothing that is blameworthy. But if they shall say that it
is virtuous to desire what is good, and to run after what is good, we shall ask them how a
perishing nature desires better things; for it is like an evil tree producing good fruit,
since it is a virtuous act to desire better things. They will give (perhaps) a third
answer, that to desire and run after what is good is one of those things that are
indifferent, and neither beautiful nor wicked.

Now to this we must say, that if to desire and to run after what is good be a thing of
indifference, then the opposite also is a thing of indifference, viz., to desire what is
evil, and to run after it. But it is not a thing of indifference to desire what is evil,
and to run after it. And therefore also, to desire what is good, and to run after it, is
not a thing of indifference. Such, then, is the defence which I think we can offer to the
statement, that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. Solomon says in the book of Psalms (for the Song of Degrees is his, from
which we shall quote the words): "Unless the Lord build the house, they labour in vain
that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh in vain: " not
dissuading us from building, nor teaching us not to keep watch in order to guard the city
in our soul, but showing that what is built without God, and does not receive a guard from
Him, is built in vain and watched to no purpose, because God might reasonably be entitled
the Lord of the building; and the Governor of all things, the Ruler of the guard of the
city.

As, then, if we were to say that such a building is not the work of the builder, but of
God, and that it was not owing to the successful effort of the watcher, but of the God who
is over all, that such a city suffered no injury from its enemies, we should not be wrong,
it being understood that something also had been done by human means, but the benefit
being gratefully referred to God who brought it to pass; so, seeing that the (mere) human
desire is not sufficient to attain the end, and that the running of those who are, as it
were, athletes, does not enable them to gain the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus-for these things are accomplished with the assistance of God-it is well said
that "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. As if also it were said with regard to husbandry what also is actually recorded: "I
planted, Apollos watered; and God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now we could not
piously assert that the production of full crops was the work of the husbandman, or of him
that watered, but the work of God. So also our own perfection is brought about, not as if
we ourselves did nothing; for it is not completed by us, but God produces the greater part
of it.

And that this assertion may be more clearly believed, we shall take an illustration from
the art of navigation. For in comparison with the effect of the winds, and the mildness of
the air, and the light of the stars, all co-operating in the preservation of the crew,
what proportion could the art of navigation be said to bear in the bringing of the ship
into harbour?-since even the sailors themselves, from piety, do not venture to assert
often that they had saved the ship, but refer all to God; not as if they had done nothing,
but because what had been done by Providence was infinitely greater than what had been
effected by their art. And in the matter of our salvation, what is done by God is
infinitely greater than what is done by ourselves; and therefore, I think, is it said that
"it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For if in the manner which they imagine we must explain the statement, that "it is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," the
commandments are superfluous; and it is in vain that Paul himself blames some for having
fallen away, and approves of others as having remained upright, and enacts laws for the
Churches: it is in vain also that we give ourselves up to desire better things, and in
vain also (to attempt) to run.

But it is not in vain that Paul gives such advice, censuring some and approving of others;
nor in vain that we give ourselves up to the desire of better things, and to the chase
after things that are pre-eminent. They have accordingly not well explained the meaning of
the passage. 19. After this there followed this point, that "to will and to do are of
God." Our opponents maintain that if to will be of God, and if to do be of Him, or if,
whether we act or desire well or ill, it be of God, then in that case we are not possessed
of free-will. Now to this we have to answer, that the words of the apostle do not say that
to will evil is of God, or that to will good is of Him; nor that to do good or evil is of
God; but his statement is a general one, that to will and to do are of God. For as we have
from God this very quality, that we are men that we breathe, that we move; so also we have
from God (the faculty) by which we will, as if we were to say that our power of motion is
from God, or that the performing of these duties by the individual members, and their
movements, are from God. From which, certainly, I do not understand this, that because the
hand moves, e.g., to punish unjustly, or to commit an act of theft, the act is of God, but
only that the power of motion is from God; while it is our duty to turn those movements,
the power of executing which we have from God, either to purposes of good or evil. And so
what the apostle says is, that we receive indeed the power of volition, but that we misuse
the will either to good or evil desires. In a similar way, also, we must judge of results.

19. Besides these, there is the passage, "Both to will and to do are of God." And some
assert that, if to will be of God, and to do be of God, and if, whether we will evil or do
evil, these (movements) come to us from God, then, if so, we are not possessed of free-
will. But again, on the other hand, when we will better things, and do things that are
more excellent, seeing that willing and doing are from God, it is not we who have done the
more excellent things, but we only appeared (to perform them), while it was God that
bestowed them; so that even in this respect we do not possess free-will. Now to this we
have to answer, that the language of the apostle does not assert that to will evil is of
God, or to will good is of Him (and similarly with respect to doing better and worse); but
that to will in a general way, and to run in a general way, (are from Him). For as we have
from God (the property) of being living things and human beings, so also have we that of
willing generally, and, so to speak, of motion in general. And as, possessing (the
property) of life and of motion, and of moving, e.g., these members, the hands or the
feet, we could not rightly say that we had from God this species of motion, whereby we
moved to strike, or destroy, or take away another's goods, but that we had received from
Him simply the generic power of motion, which we employed to better or worse purposes; so
we have obtained from God (the power) of acting, in respect of our being living things,
and (the power) to will from the Creator while we employ the power of will, as well as
that of action, for the noblest objects, or the opposite.

20. But with respect to the declaration of the apostle, "Therefore hath He mercy on whom
He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth He
yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest
against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour,
and another unto dishonour? " Some one will perhaps say, that as the potter out of the
same lump makes some vessels to honour, and others to dishonour, so God creates some men
for perdition, and others for salvation; and that it is not therefore in our own power
either to be saved or to perish; by which reasoning we appear not to be possessed of free-
will. We must answer those who are of this opinion with the question, Whether it is
possible for the apostle to contradict himself? And if this cannot be imagined of an
apostle, how shall he appear, according to them, to be just in blaming those who committed
fornication in Corinth, or those who sinned, and did not repent of their unchastity, and
fornication, and uncleanness, which they had committed? How, also, does he greatly praise
those who acted rightly, like the house of Onesiphorus, saying, "The Lord give mercy to
the house of Onesiphorus;

for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when he had come to Rome,
he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find
mercy of the Lord in that day. Now it is not consistent with apostolic gravity to blame
him who is worthy of blame, i.e., who has sinned, and greatly to praise him who is
deserving of praise for his good works; and again, as if it were in no one's power to do
any good or evil, to say that it was the Creator's doing that every one should act
virtuously or wickedly, seeing He makes one vessel to honour, and another to dishonour.
And how can he add that statement, "We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ,
that every one of us may receive in his body, according to what he hath done, whether it
be good or bad? " For what reward of good will be conferred on him who could not commit
evil, being formed by the Creator to that very end? or what punishment will deservedly be
inflicted on him who was unable to do good in consequence of the creative act of his
Maker? Then, again, how is not this opposed to that other declaration elsewhere, that "in
a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of
earth, and some to honour, and some to dishonour.

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified,
and meet for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work. He, accordingly, who purges
himself, is made a vessel unto honour, while he who has disdained to cleanse himself from
his impurity is made a vessel unto dishonour. From such declarations, in my opinion, the
cause of our actions can in no degree be referred to the Creator. For God the Creator
makes a certain vessel unto honour, and other vessels to dishonour; but that vessel which
has cleansed itself from all impurity He makes a vessel unto honour, while that which has
stained itself with the filth of vice He makes a vessel unto dishonour. The conclusion
from which, accordingly, is this, that the cause of each one's actions is a pre-existing
one; and then every one, according to his deserts, is made by God either a vessel unto
honour or dishonour. Therefore every individual vessel has furnished to its Creator out of
itself the causes and occasions of its being formed by Him to be either a vessel unto
honour or one unto dishonour.

And if the assertion appear correct, as it certainly is, and in harmony with all piety,
that it is due to previous causes that every vessel be prepared by God either to honour or
to dishonour, it does not appear absurd that, in discussing remoter causes in the same
order, and in the same method, we should come to the same conclusion respecting the nature
of souls, and (believe) that this was the reason why Jacob was beloved before he was born
into this world, and Esau hated, while he still was contained in the womb of his mother.
20. Still the declaration of the apostle will appear to drag us to the conclusion that we
are not possessed of freedom of will, in which, objecting against himself, he says,
"Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. Thou
wilt say then unto me, Why doth He yet find fault? For who hath resisted His will? Nay
but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that
formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the
same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? " For it will be
said: If the potter of the same lump make some vessels to hon-our and others to dishonour,
and God thus form some men for salvation and others for ruin, then salvation or ruin does
not depend upon ourselves, nor are we possessed of free-will. Now we must ask him who
deals so with these passages, whether it is possible to conceive of the apostle as
contradicting himself. I presume, however, that no one will venture to say so. If, then,
the apostle does not utter contradictions, how can he, according to him who so understands
him, reasonably find fault, censuring the individual at Corinth who had committed
fornication, or those who had fallen away, and had not repented of the licentiousness and
impurity of which they had been guilty?

And how can he bless those whom he praises as having done well, as he does the house of
Onesiphorus in these words: "The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft
refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when he was in Rome, he sought me out
very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy of the Lord in
that day. It is not consistent for the same apostle to blame the sinner as worthy of
censure, and to praise him who had done well as deserving of approval; and again, on the
other hand, to say, as if nothing depended on ourselves, that the cause was in the Creator
why the one vessel was formed to honour, and the other to dishonour. And how is this
statement correct: "For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every
one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be
good or bad," since they who have done evil have advanced to this pitch of wickedness
because they were created vessels unto dishonour, while they that have lived virtuously
have done good because they were created from the beginning for this purpose, and became
vessels unto honour?

And again, how does not the statement made elsewhere conflict with the view which these
persons draw from the words which we have quoted (that it is the fault of the Creator that
one vessel is in honour and another in dishonour), viz., "that in a great house there are
not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour,
and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself, he shall be a vessel unto honour,
sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work; " for if he
who purges himself becomes a vessel unto honour, and he who allows himself to remain
unpurged becomes a vessel unto dishonour, then, so far as these words are concerned, the
Creator is not at all to blame. For the Creator makes vessels of honour and vessels of
dishonour, not from the beginning according to His foreknowledge, since He does not
condemn or justify beforehand according to it; but (He makes) those into vessels of honour
who purged themselves, and those into vessels of dishonour who allowed themselves to
remain unpurged: so that it results from older causes (which operated) in the formation of
the vessels unto honour and dishonour, that one was created for the former condition, and
another for the latter.

But if we once admit that there were certain older causes (at work) in the forming of a
vessel unto honour, and of one unto dishonour, what absurdity is there in going back to
the subject of the soul, and (in supposing) that a more ancient cause for Jacob being
loved and for Esau being hated existed with respect to Jacob before his assumption of a
body, and with regard to Esau before he was conceived in the womb of Rebecca? 21. Nay,
that very declaration, that from the same lump a vessel is formed both to honour and to
dishonour, will not push us hard; for we assert that the nature of all rational souls is
the same, as one lump of clay is described as being under the treatment of the potter.
Seeing, then, the nature of rational creatures is one, God, according to the previous
grounds of merit, created and formed out of it, as the potter out of the one lump, some
persons to honour and others to dishonour. Now, as regards the language of the apostle,
which he utters as if in a tone of censure, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest
against God? "he means, I think, to point out that such a censure does not refer to any
believer who lives tightly and justly, and who has confidence in God, i.e., to such an one
as Moses was, of whom Scripture says that "Moses spake, and God answered him by a voice; "
and as God answered Moses, so also does every saint answer God. But he who is an
unbeliever, and loses confidence in answering before God owing to the unworthiness of his
life and conversation, and who, in relation to these matters, does not seek to learn and
make progress, but to oppose and resist, and who, to speak more plainly, is such an one as
to be able to say those words which the apostle indicates, when he says, "Why, then, does
He yet find fault?

for who will resist His will? "-to such an one may the censure of the apostle rightly be
directed, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? "This censure
accordingly applies not to believers and saints, but to unbelievers and wicked men.Now, to
those who introduce souls of different natures, and who turn this declaration of the
apostle to the support of their own opinion, we have to reply as follows: If even they are
agreed as to what the apostle says, that out of the one lump are formed both those who are
made to honour and those who are made to dishonour, whom they term of a nature that is to
be saved and destroyed, there will then be no longer souls of different natures, but one
nature for all. And if they admit that one and the same potter may undoubtedly denote one
Creator, there will not be different creators either of those who are saved, or of those
who perish. Now, truly, let them choose whether the), will have a good Creator to be
intended who creates had and ruined men, or one who is not good, who creates good men and
those who are prepared to honour. For the necessity of returning an answer will extort
from them one of these two alternatives. But according to our declaration, whereby we say
that it is owing to preceding causes that God makes vessels either to honour or to
dishonour, the approval of God's justice is in no respect limited.

For it is possible that this vessel, which owing to previous causes was made in this world
to honour, may, if it behave negligently, be converted in another world, according to the
deserts of its conduct, into a vessel unto dishonour: as again, if any one, owing to
preceding causes, was formed by his Creator in this life a vessel unto dishonour, and
shall mend his ways and cleanse himself from all filth and vice, he may, in the new world,
be made a vessel to honour, sanctified and useful, and prepared unto every good work.
Finally, those who were formed by God in this world to be Israelites, and who have lived a
life unworthy of the nobility of their race, and have fallen away from the grandeur of
their descent, will, in the world to come, in a certain degree be converted, on account of
their unbelief, from vessels of honour into vessels of dishonour; while, on the other
hand, many who in this life were reckoned among Egyptian or Idumean vessels, having
adopted the faith and practice of Israelites, when they shall have done the works of
Israelites, and shall have entered the Church of the Lord, will exist as vessels of honour
in the revelation of the sons of God. From which it is more agreeable to the rule of piety
to believe that every rational being, according to his purpose and manner of life, is
converted, sometimes from had to good, and falls away sometimes from good to bad:

that some abide in good, and others advance to a better condition, and always ascend to
higher things, until they reach the highest grade of all; while others, again, remain in
evil, or, if the wickedness within them begin to spread itself further, they descend to a
worse condition, and sink into the lowest depth of wickedness. Whence also we must suppose
that it is possible there may be some who began at first indeed with small offences, but
who have poured out wickedness to such a degree, and attained such proficiency in evil,
that in the measure of their wickedness they are equal even to the opposing powers: and
again, if, by means of many severe administrations of punishment, they are able at some
future time to recover their senses, and gradually attempt to find healing for their
wounds, they may, on ceasing from their wickedness, be restored to a state of goodness.
Whence we are of opinion that, seeing the soul, as we have frequently said, is immortal
and eternal, it is possible that, in the many and endless periods of duration in the
immeasurable and different worlds, it may descend from the highest good to the lowest
evil, or be restored from the lowest evil to the highest good.

21. And at the same time, it is clearly shown that, as far as regards the underlying
nature, as there is one (piece of) clay which is under the hands of the potter, from which
piece vessels are formed unto honour and dishonour; so the one nature of every soul being
in the hands of God, and, so to speak, there being (only) one lump of reasonable beings,
certain causes of more ancient date led to some being created vessels unto hon-our, and
others vessels unto dishonour. But if the language of the apostle convey a censure when he
says, "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? "it teaches us that he who
has confidence before God, and is faithful, and has lived virtuously, would not hear the
words, "Who art thou that repliest against God? "Such an one, e.g., as Moses was, "For
Moses spake, and God answered him with a voice; " and as God answers Moses, so does a
saint also answer God. But he who does not possess this confidence, manifestly, either
because he has lost it, or because he investigates these matters not from a love of
knowledge, but from a desire to find fault, and who therefore says, "Why does He yet find
fault? for who hath resisted His will? "would merit the language of censure, which says,
"Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?

"Now to those who introduce different natures, and who make use of the declaration of the
apostle (to support their view), the following must be our answer. If they maintain that
those who perish and those who are saved are formed of one lump, and that the Creator of
those who are saved is the Creator also of them who are lost, and if He is good who
creates not only spiritual but also earthy (natures) (for this follows from their view),
it is nevertheless possible that be who, in consequence of certain former acts of
righteousness, had now been made a vessel of honour, but who had not (afterwards) acted in
a similar manner, nor done things befitting a vessel of honour, was converted in another
world into a vessel of dishonour; as, on the other hand, it is possible that he who, owing
to causes more ancient than the present life, was here a vessel of dishonour, may after
reformation become in the new creation "a vessel of honour, sanctified and meet for the
Master's use, prepared unto every good work. And perhaps those who are now Israelites, not
having lived worthily of their descent, will be deprived of their rank, being changed, as
it were, from vessels of honour into those of dishonour; and many of the present Egyptians
and Idumeans who came near to Israel, when they shall have borne fruit to a larger extent,
shall enter into the Church of the Lord, being no longer accounted Egyptians and Idumeans,
but becoming Israelites:

so that, according to this view, it is owing to their (varying) purposes that some advance
from a worse to a better condition, and others fall from better to worse; while others,
again, are preserved in a virtuous course, or ascend from good to better; and others, on
the contrary, remain in a course of evil, or from bad become worse, as their wickedness
flows on. 22. But since the words of the apostle, in what he says regarding vessels of
honour or dishonour, that "if a man therefore purge himself, he will be a vessel unto
honour, sanctified and meet for the Master's service, and prepared unto every good work,"
appear to place nothing in the power of God, but all in ourselves; while in those in which
he declares that "the potter hath power over the clay, to make of the same lump one vessel
to honour, another to dishonour," he seems to refer the whole to God,-it is not to be
understood that those statements are contradictory, but the two meanings are to be reduced
to agreement, and one signification must be drawn from both, viz., that we are not to
suppose either that those things which are in our own power can be done without the help
of God, or that those which are in God's hand can be brought to completion without the
intervention of our acts, and desires, and intention; because we have it not in our own
power so to will or do anything, as not to know that this very faculty, by which we are
able to will or to do, was bestowed on us by God, according to the distinction which we
indicated above.

Or again, when God forms vessels, some to honour and others to dishonour, we are to
suppose that He does not regard either our wills, or our purposes, or our deserts, to be
the causes of the honour or dishonour, as if they were a sort of matter from which He may
form the vessel of each one of us either to honour or to dishonour; whereas the very
movement of the soul itself, or the purpose of the understanding, may of itself suggest to
him, who is not unaware of his heart and the thoughts of his mind, whether his vessel
ought to be formed to honour or to dishonour. But let these points suffice, which we have
discussed as we best could, regarding the questions connected with the freedom of the
will. 22. But since the apostle in one place does not pretend that the becoming of a
vessel unto honour or dishonour depends upon God, but refers back the whole to ourselves,
saying, "If, then, a man purge himself, he will be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, meet
for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work; "and elsewhere does not even
pretend that it is dependent upon ourselves, but appears to attribute the whole to God,
saying, "The potter hath power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honour and another to dishonour; "and as his statements are not contradictory, we must
reconcile them, and extract one complete statement from both. Neither does our own power,
apart from the knowledge of God, compel us to make progress; nor does the knowledge of God
(do so), unless we ourselves also contribute something to the good result; nor does our
own power, apart from the knowledge of God, and the use of the power that worthily belongs
to us, make a man become (a vessel) unto honour or dishonour; nor does the will of God
alone form a man to honour or to dishonour, unless He hold our will to be a kind of matter
that admits of variation, and that inclines to a better or worse course of conduct. And
these observations are sufficient to have been made by us on the subject of free-will.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS continued

CHAPTER II.-ON THE OPPOSING POWERS.

1. We have now to notice, agreeably to the statements of Scripture, how the opposing
powers, or the devil himself, contends with the human; race, inciting and instigating men
to sin. And in the first place, in the book of Genesis, the serpent is described as having
seduced Eve; regarding whom, in the work entitled The Ascension of Moses (a little
treatise, of which the Apostle Jude makes mention in his Epistle), the archangel Michael,
when disputing with the devil regarding the body of Moses, says that the serpent, being
inspired by the devil, was the cause of Adam and Eve's transgression. This also is made a
subject of inquiry by some, viz., who the angel was that, speaking from heaven to Abraham,
said, "Now I know that thou fearest God, and on my account hast not spared thy beloved
son, whom thou lovedst. For he is manifestly described as an angel who said that he knew
then that Abraham feared God, and had not spared his beloved son, as the Scripture
declares, although he did not say that it was on account of God that Abraham had done
this, but on his, that is, the speaker's account. We must also ascertain who that is of
whom it is stated in the book of Exodus that he wished to slay Moses, because he was
taking his departure for Egypt;

and afterwards, also, who he is that is called the destroying angel, as well as he who in
the book of Leviticus is called Apopompaeus, i.e., Averter, regarding whom Scripture says,
"One lot for the Lord, and one lot for Apopompaeus, i.e., the Averter. In the first book
of Kings, also, an evil spirit is said to strangle Saul; and in the third book, Micaiah
the prophet says, "I saw the Lord of Israel sitting on His throne, and all the host of
heaven standing by Him, on His right hand and on His left. And the Lord said, Who will
deceive Achab king of Israel, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on
this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood
before the Lord, and said, I will deceive him. And the Lord said to him, Wherewith? And he
said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And
He said, Thou shalt deceive him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so quickly. And now
therefore the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all thy prophets: the Lord hath
spoken evil concerning thee. Now by this last quotation it is clearly shown that a certain
spirit, from his own (free) will and choice, elected to deceive (Achab), and to work a
lie, in order that the Lord might mislead the king to his death, for he deserved to
suffer.

In the first book of Chronicles also it is said, "The devil, Satan, stood up against
Israel, and provoked David to number the people. In the Psalms, moreover, an evil angel is
said to harass certain persons. In the book of Ecclesiastes, too, Solomon says, "If the
spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for soundness will restrain
many transgressions. In Zechariah we read that the devil stood on the right hand of
Joshua, and resisted him. Isaiah says that the sword of the Lord arises against the
dragon, the crooked serpent. And what shall I say of Ezekiel, who in his second vision
prophesies most unmistakeably to the prince of Tyre regarding an opposing power, and who
says also that the dragon dwells in the rivers of Egypt? Nay, with what else are the
contents of the whole work which is written regarding Job occupied, save with the (doings)
of the devil, who asks that power may be given him over all that Job possesses, and over
his sons, and even over his person? And yet the devil is defeated through the patience of
Job. In that book the Lord has by His answers imparted much information regarding the
power of that dragon which opposes us. Such, meanwhile, are tree statements made in the
Old Testament, so far as we can at present recall them, on the subject of hostile powers
being either named in Scripture, or being said to oppose the human race, and to be
afterwards subjected to punishment.

Let us now look also to the New Testament, where Satan approaches the Saviour, and tempts
Him: wherein also it is stated that evil spirits and unclean demons, which had taken
possession of very many, were expelled by the Saviour from the bodies of the sufferers,
who are said also to be made free by Him. Even Judas, too, when the devil had already put
it in his heart to betray Christ, afterwards received Satan wholly into him; for it is
written, that after the sop "Satan entered into him." And the Apostle Paul teaches us that
we ought not to give place to the devil; but "put on," he says, "the armour of God, that
ye may be able to resist the wiles of the devil: " pointing out that the saints have to
"wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Nay, he says that the Saviour even was crucified by the princes of this world, who shall
come to nought, whose wisdom also, he says, he does not speak. By all this, therefore,
holy Scripture teaches us that there are certain invisible enemies that fight against us,
and against whom it commands us to arm ourselves. Whence, also, the more simple among the
believers in the Lord Christ are of opinion, that all the sins which men have committed
are caused by the persistent efforts of these opposing powers exerted upon the minds of
sinners, because in that invisible struggle these powers are found to be superior (to
man). For if, for example, there were no devil, no single human being would go astray.

2. We, however, who see the reason (of the thing) more clearly, do not hold this opinion,
taking into account those (sins) which manifestly originate as a necessary consequence of
our bodily constitution. Must we indeed suppose that the devil is the cause of our feeling
hunger or thirst? Nobody, I think, will venture to maintain that. If, then, he is not the
cause of our feeling hunger and thirst, wherein lies the difference when each individual
has attained the age of puberty, and that period has called forth the incentives of the
natural heat? It will undoubtedly follow, that as the devil is not the cause of our
feeling hunger and thirst, so neither is he the cause of that appetency which naturally
arises at the time of maturity, viz., the desire of sexual intercourse. Now it is certain
that this cause is not always so set in motion by the devil that we should be obliged to
suppose that bodies would nor possess a desire for intercourse of that kind if the devil
did not exist. Let us consider, in the next place, if, as we have already shown, food is
desired by human beings, not from a suggestion of the devil, but by a kind of natural
instinct, whether, if there were no devil, it were possible for human experience to
exhibit such restraint in partaking of food as never to exceed the proper limits; i.e.,
that no one would either take otherwise than the case required, or more than reason would
allow;

and so it would result that men, observing due measure and moderation in the matter of
eating, would never go wrong. I do not think, indeed, that so great moderation could be
observed by men (even if there were no instigation by the devil inciting thereto), as that
no individual, in partaking of food, would go beyond due limits and restraint, until he
had learned to do so from long usage and experience. What, then, is the state of the case?
In the matter of eating and drinking it was possible for us to go wrong, even without any
incitement from the devil, if we should happen to be either less temperate or less careful
(than we ought); and are we to suppose, then, in our appetite for sexual intercourse, or
in the restraint of our natural desires, our condition is not something similar? I am of
opinion, indeed, that the same course of reasoning must be understood to apply to other
natural movements as those of covetousness, or of anger, or of sorrow, or of all those
generally which through the vice of intemperance exceed the natural bounds of moderation.
There are therefore manifest reasons for holding the opinion, that as in good things the
human will is of itself weak to accomplish any good (for it is by divine help that it is
brought to perfection in everything); so also, in things of an opposite nature we receive
certain initial elements, and, as it were, seeds of sins, from those things which we use
agreeably to nature;

but when we have indulged them beyond what is proper, and have not resisted the first
movements to intemperance, then the hostile power, seizing the occasion of this first
transgression, incites and presses us hard in every way, seeking to extend our sins over a
wider field, and furnishing us human beings with occasions and beginnings of sins, which
these hostile powers spread far and wide, and, if possible, beyond all limits. Thus, when
men at first for a little desire money, covetousness begins to grow as the passion
increases, and finally the fall into avarice takes place. And after this, when blindness
of mind has succeeded passion, and the hostile powers, by their suggestions, hurry on the
mind, money is now no longer desired, but stolen, and acquired by force, or even by
shedding human blood. Finally, a confirmatory evidence Of the fact that vices of such
enormity proceed from demons, may be easily seen in this, that those individuals who are
oppressed either by immoderate love, or incontrollable anger, or excessive sorrow, do not
suffer less than those who are bodily vexed by devils. For it is recorded in certain
histories, that some have fallen into madness from a state of love, others from a state of
anger, not a few from a state of sorrow, and even from one of excessive joy;

which results, I think, from this, that those opposing powers, i.e., those demons, having
gained a lodgment in their minds which has been already laid open to them by intemperance,
have taken complete possession of their sensitive nature, especially when no feeling of
the glory of virtue has aroused them to resistance. 3. That there are certain sins,
however, which do not proceed from the opposing powers, but take their beginnings from the
natural movements of the body, is manifestly declared by the Apostle Paul in the passage:
"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are
contrary the one to the other; so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. If, then,
the flesh lust against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, we have occasionally
to wrestle against flesh and blood, i.e., as being men, and walking according to the
flesh, and not capable of being tempted by greater than human temptations; since it is
said of us, "There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man: but God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able. For as the
presidents of the public games do not allow the competitors to enter the lists
indiscriminately or fortuitously, but after a careful examination, pairing in a most
impartial consideration either of size or age, this individual with that-boys, e.g., with
boys, men with men, who are nearly related to each other either in age or strength; so
also must we understand the procedure of divine providence, which arranges on most
impartial principles all who descend into the struggles of this human life, according to
the nature of each individual's power, which is known only to Him who alone beholds the
hearts of men:

so that one individual fights against one temptation of the flesh, another against a
second; one is exposed to its influence for so long a period of time, another only for so
long; one is tempted by the flesh to this or that indulgence, another to one of a
different kind; one has to resist this or that hostile power, another has to combat two or
three at the same time; or at one time this hostile influence, at another that; at some
particular date having to resist one enemy, and at another a different one; being, after
the performance of certain acts, exposed to one set of enemies, after others to a second.
And observe whether some such state of things be not indicated by the language of the
apostle: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able,"
i.e., each one is tempted in proportion to the amount of his strength or power of
resistance. Now, although we have said that it is by the just judgment of God that every
one is tempted according to the amount of his strength, we are not therefore to suppose
that he who is tempted ought by all means to prove victorious in the struggle; in like
manner as he who contends in the lists, although paired with his adversary on a just
principle of arrangement, will nevertheless not necessarily prove conqueror. But unless
the powers of the combatants are equal, the prize of the victor will not be justly won;

nor will blame justly attach to the vanquished, because He allows us indeed to be tempted,
but not "beyond what we are able: "for it is in proportion to our strength that we are
tempted; and it is not written that, in temptation, He will make also a way to escape so
as that we should bear it, but a way to escape so as that we should be able to bear it.
But it depends upon ourselves to use either with energy or feebleness this power which He
has given us. For there is no doubt that under every temptation we have a power of
endurance, if we employ properly the strength that is granted us. But it is not the same
thing to possess the power of conquering and to be victorious, as the apostle himself has
shown in very cautious language, saying, "God will make a way to escape, that you may be
able to bear it," not that you will bear it. For many do not sustain temptation, but are
overcome by it. Now God enables us not to sustain (temptation), (otherwise there would
appear to be no struggle), but to have the power of sustaining it. But this power which is
given us to enable us to conquer may be used, according to our faculty of free-will,
either in a diligent manner, and then we prove victorious, or in a slothful manner, and
then we are defeated.

For if such a power were wholly given us as that we must by all means prove victorious,
and never be defeated, what further reason for a struggle could remain to him who cannot
be overcome? Or what merit is there in a victory, where the power of successful resistance
is taken away? But if the possibility of conquering be equally conferred on us all, and if
it be in our own power how to use this possibility, i.e., either diligently or slothfully,
then will the vanquished be justly censured, and the victor be deservedly lauded. Now from
these points which we have discussed to the best of our power, it is, I think, clearly
evident that there are certain transgressions which we by no means commit under the
pressure of malignant powers; while there are others, again, to which we are incited by
instigation on their part to excessive and immoderate indulgence. Whence it follows that
we have to inquire how those opposing powers produce these incitements within us.

4. With respect to the thoughts which proceed from our heart, or the recollection of
things which we have done, or the contemplation of any things or causes whatever, we find
that they sometimes proceed from ourselves, and sometimes are originated by the opposing
powers; not seldom also are they suggested by God, or by the holy angels. Now such a
statement will perhaps appear incredible, unless it be confirmed by the testimony of holy
Scripture, That, then, thoughts arise within ourselves, David testifies in the Psalms,
saying, "The thought of a man will make confession to Thee, and the rest of the thought
shall observe to Thee a festival day. That this, however, is also brought about by the
opposing powers, is shown by Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes in the following manner:
"If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place; for soundness
restrains great offences. The Apostle Paul also will bear testimony to the same point in
the words: "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against
the knowledge of Christ. That it is an effect due to God, nevertheless, is declared by
David, when he says in the Psalms, "Blessed is the man whose help is in Thee, O Lord, Thy
ascents (are) in his heart. And the apostle says that "God put it into the heart of Titus.

That certain thoughts are suggested to men's hearts either by good or evil angels, is
shown both by the angel that accompanied Tobias, and by the language of the prophet, where
he says, "And the angel who spoke in me answered. The book of the Shepherd declares the
same, saying that each individual is attended by two angels; that whenever good thoughts
arise in our hearts, they are suggested by the good angel; but when of a contrary kind,
they are the instigation of the evil angel. The same is declared by Barnabas in his
Epistle, where he says there are two ways, one of light and one of darkness, over which he
asserts that certain angels are placed;-the angels of God over the way of light, the
angels of Satan over the way of darkness. We are not, however, to imagine that any other
result follows from what is suggested to our heart, whether good or bad, save a (mental)
commotion only, and an incitement instigating us either to good or evil. For it is quite
within our reach, when a malignant power has begun to incite us to evil, to cast away from
us the wicked suggestions, and to resist the vile inducements, and to do nothing that is
at all deserving of blame. And, on the other hand, it is possible, when a divine power
calls us to better things, not to obey the call; our freedom of will being preserved to us
in either case.

We said, indeed, in the foregoing pages, that certain recollections of good or evil
actions were suggested to us either by the act of divine providence or by the opposing
powers, as is shown in the book of Esther, when Artaxerxes had not remembered the services
of that just man Mordecai, but, when wearied out with his nightly vigils, had it put into
his mind by God to require that the annals of his great deeds should be read to him;
whereon, being reminded of the benefits received from Mordecai, he ordered his enemy Haman
to be hanged, but splendid honours to be conferred on him, and impunity from the
threatened danger to be granted to the whole of the holy nation. On the other hand,
however, we must suppose that it was through the hostile influence of the devil that the
suggestion was introduced into the minds of the high priests and the scribes which they
made to Pilate, when they came and said, "Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while
he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again. The design of Judas, also,
respecting the betrayal of our Lord and Saviour, did not originate in the wickedness of
his mind alone. For Scripture testifies that the "devil had already put it into his heart
to betray Him. And therefore Solomon rightly commanded, saying, "Keep thy heart with all
diligence. And the Apostle Paul warns us:

"Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest
perhaps we should let them slip. And when he says, "Neither give place to the devil," he
shows by that injunction that it is through certain acts, or a kind of mental
slothfulness, that room is made for the devil, so that, if he once enter our heart, he
will either gain possession of us, or at least will pollute the soul, if he has not
obtained the entire mastery over it, by casting on us his fiery darts; and by these we are
sometimes deeply wounded, and sometimes only set on fire. Seldom indeed, and only in a few
instances, are these fiery darts quenched, so as not to find a place where they may wound,
i.e., when one is covered by the strong and mighty shield of faith. The declaration,
indeed, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places," must be so understood as if "we" meant, "I
Paul, and you Ephesians, and all who have not to wrestle against flesh and blood: "for
such have to struggle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the
darkness of this world, not like the Corinthians, whose struggle was as yet against flesh
and blood, and who had been overtaken by no temptation but such as is common to man.

5. We are not, however, to suppose that each individual has to contend against all these
(adversaries). For it is impossible for any man, although he were a saint, to carry on a
contest against all of them at the same time. If that indeed were by any means to be the
case, as it is certainly impossible it should be so, human nature could not possibly bear
it without undergoing entire destruction. But as, for example, if fifty soldiers were to
say that they were about to engage with fifty others, they would not be understood to mean
that one of them had to contend against the whole fifty, but each one would rightly say
that "our battle was against fifty," all against all; so also this is to be understood as
the apostle's meaning, that all the athletes and soldiers of Christ have to wrestle and
struggle against all the adversaries enumerated,-the struggle having, indeed, to be
maintained against all, but by single individuals either with individual powers, or at
least in such manner as shall be determined by God, who is the just president of the
struggle. For I am of opinion that there is a certain limit to the powers of human nature,
although there may be a Paul, of whom it is said, "He is a chosen vessel unto Me; " or a
Peter, against whom the gates of hell do not prevail; or a Moses, the friend of God:

yet not one of them could sustain, without destruction to himself, the whole simultaneous
assault of these opposing powers, unless indeed the might of Him alone were to work in
him, who said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. And therefore Paul exclaims
with confidence, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengtheneth me; " and again,
"I laboured more abundantly than they all; yet not I, but the grace of God which was with
me. On account, then, of this power, which certainly is not of human origin operating and
speaking in him, Paul could say, "For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor power, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. For I do not think that human nature
can alone of itself maintain a contest with angels, and with the powers of the height and
of the abyss, and with any other creature; but when it feels the presence of the Lord
dwelling within it, confidence in the divine help will lead it to say, "The Lord is my
light, and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom
shall I be afraid? When the enemies draw near to me, to eat my flesh, my enemies who
trouble me, they stumbled and fell.

Though an host encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against
me, in Him shall I be confident. From which I infer that a man perhaps would never be able
of himself to vanquish an opposing power, unless he had the benefit of divine assistance.
Hence, also, the angel is said to have wrestled with Jacob. Here, however, I understand
the writer to mean, that it was not the same thing for the angel to have wrestled with
Jacob, and to have wrestled against him; but the angel that wrestles with him is he who
was present with him in order to secure his safety, who, after knowing also his moral
progress, gave him in addition the name of Israel, i.e., he is with him in the struggle,
and assists him in the contest; seeing there was undoubtedly another angel against whom he
contended, and against whom he had to carry on a contest. Finally, Paul has not said that
we wrestle with princes, or with powers, but against principalities and powers. And hence,
although Jacob wrestled, it was unquestionably against some one of those powers which,
Paul declares, resist and contend with the human race, and especially with the saints. And
therefore at last the Scripture says of him that "he wrestled with the angel, and had
power with God," so that the struggle is supported by help of the angel, but the prize of
success conducts the conqueror to God.

6. Nor are we, indeed, to suppose that struggles of this kind are carried on by the
exercise of bodily strength, and of the arts of the wrestling school; but spirit contends
with spirit, according to the declaration of Paul, that our struggle is against
principalities, and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Nay, the
following is to be understood as the nature of the struggles; when, e.g., losses and
dangers befall us, or calumnies and false accusations are brought against us, it not being
the object of the hostile powers that we should suffer these (trials) only, but that by
means of them we should be driven either to excess of anger or sorrow, or to the last
pitch of despair; or at least, which is a greater sin, should be forced, when fatigued and
overcome by any annoyances, to make complaints against God, as one who does not administer
human life justly and equitably; the consequence of which is, that our faith may be
weakened, or our hopes disappointed, or we may be compelled to give up the truth of our
opinions, or be led to entertain irreligious sentiments regarding God. For some such
things are written regarding Job, after the devil had requested God that power should be
given him over his goods.

By which also we are taught, that it is not by any accidental attacks that we are
assailed, whenever we are visited with any such loss of property, nor that it is owing to
chance when one of us is taken prisoner, or when the dwellings in which those who are dear
to us are crushed to death, fall in ruins; for, with respect to all these occurrences,
every believer ought to say, "Thou couldst have no power at all against Me, except it were
given thee from above. For observe that the house of Job did not fall upon his sons until
the devil had first received power against them; nor would the horsemen have made an
irruption in three bands, to carry away his camels or his oxen, and other cattle, unless
they had been instigated by that spirit to whom they had delivered themselves up as the
servants of his will. Nor would that fire, as it seemed to be, or thunderbolt, as it has
been considered, have fallen upon the sheep of the patriarch, until the devil had said to
God, "Hast Thou not made a hedge about all that is without and within his house and around
all the rest of his property? But now put forth Thy hand, and touch all that he hath, (and
see) if he do not renounce Thee to Thy face."

7. The result of all the foregoing remarks is to show, that all the occurrences in the
world which are considered to be of an intermediate kind, whether they be mournful or
otherwise are brought about, not indeed by God, and yet not without Him; while He not only
does not prevent those wicked and opposing powers that are desirous to bring about these
things (from accomplishing their purpose), but even permits them to do so, although only
on certain occasions and to certain individuals, as is said with respect to Job himself,
that for a certain time he was made to fall under the power of others, and to have his
house plundered by unjust persons. And therefore holy Scripture teaches us to receive all
that happens as sent by God, knowing that without Him no event occurs. For how can we
doubt that such is the case, viz., that nothing comes to man without (the will of) God,
when our Lord and Saviour declares, "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of
them shall not fall on the ground without your Father who is in heaven." But the necessity
of the case has drawn us away in a lengthened digression on the subject of the struggle
waged by the hostile powers against men, and of those sadder events which happen to human
life, i.e., its temptations-according to the declaration of Job, "Is not the whole life of
man upon the earth a temptation? " -in order that the manner of their occurrence, and the
spirit in which we should regard them, might be clearly shown. Let us notice next, how men
fall away into the sin of false knowledge, or with what object the opposing powers are
wont to stir up conflict with us regarding such things.

CHAPTER III.-ON THREEFOLD WISDOM.

1. The holy apostle, wishing to teach us some great and hidden truth respecting science
and wisdom, says, in the first Epistle to the Corinthians: "We speak wisdom among them
that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of the world, that
come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which
God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of the world knew:
for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. In this passage,
wishing to describe the different kinds of wisdom, he points out that there is a wisdom of
this world, and a wisdom of the princes of this world, and another wisdom of God. But when
he uses the expression "wisdom of the princes of this world," I do not think that he means
a wisdom common to all the princes of this world, but one rather that is peculiar to
certain individuals among them.

And again, when he says, "We speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom,
which God ordained before the world unto our glory," we must inquire whether his meaning
be, that this is the same wisdom of God which was hidden from other times and generations,
and was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy
apostles and prophets, and Which was also that wisdom of God before the advent of the
Saviour, by means of which Solomon obtained his wisdom, and in reference to which the
language of the Saviour Himself declared, that what He taught was greater than Solomon, in
these words, "Behold, a greater than Solomon is here," -words which show, that those who
were instructed by the Saviour were instructed in something higher than the knowledge of
Solomon. For if one were to assert that the Saviour did indeed Himself possess greater
knowledge, but did not communicate more to others than Solomon did, how will that agree
with the statement which follows: "The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment,
and condemn the men of this generation, because she came from the ends of the earth to
hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here? "There is
therefore a wisdom of this world, and also probably a wisdom belonging to each individual
prince of this world.

But with respect to the wisdom of God alone, we perceive that this is indicated, that it
operated to a less degree in ancient and former times, and was (afterwards)more fully
revealed and manifested through Christ. We shall inquire, however, regarding the wisdom of
God in the proper place. 2. But now, since we are treating of the manner in which the
opposing powers stir up those contests, by means of which false knowledge is introduced
into the minds of men, and human souls led astray, while they imagine that they have
discovered wisdom, I think it necessary to name and distinguish the wisdom of this world,
and of the princes of this world, that by so doing we may discover who are the fathers of
this wisdom, nay, even of these kinds of wisdom. I am of opinion, therefore, as I have
stated above, that there is another wisdom of this world besides those (different kinds
of) wisdom which belong to the princes of this world, by which wisdom those things seem to
be understood and comprehended which belong to this world. This wisdom, however, possesses
in itself no fitness for forming any opinion either respecting divine things, or the plan
of the world's government, or any other subjects of importance, or regarding the training
for a good or happy life; but is such as deals wholly with the art of poetry, e.g., or
that of grammar, or rhetoric, or geometry, or music, with which also, perhaps, medicine
should be classed. In all these subjects we are to suppose that the wisdom of this world
is included.

The wisdom of the princes of this world, on the other hand, we understand to be such as
the secret and occult philosophy, as they call it, of the Egyptians, and the astrology of
the Chaldeans and Indians, who make profession of the knowledge of high things, and also
that manifold variety of opinion which prevails among the Greeks regarding divine things.
Accordingly, in the holy Scriptures we find that there are princes over individual
nations; as in Daniel we read that there was a prince of the kingdom of Persia, and
another prince of the kingdom of Graecia, who are clearly shown, by the nature of the
passage, to be not human beings, but certain powers. In the prophecies of Ezekiel, also,
the prince of Tyre is unmistakeably shown to be a kind of spiritual power. When these,
then, and others of the same kind, possessing each his own wisdom, and building up his own
opinions and sentiments, beheld our Lord and Saviour professing and declaring that He had
for this purpose come into the world, that all the opinions of science, falsely so called,
might be destroyed, not knowing what was concealed within Him, they forthwith laid a snare
for Him: for "the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers assembled together,
against the Lord and His Christ.

But their snares being discovered, and the plans which they had attempted to carry out
being made manifest when they crucified the Lord of glory, therefore the apostle says, "We
speak wisdom among them that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this world, nor of the
princes of this world, who are brought to nought, which none of the princes of this world
knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." 3. We must,
indeed, endeavour to ascertain whether that wisdom of the princes of this world, with
which they endeavour to imbue men, is introduced into their minds by the opposing powers,
with the purpose of ensnaring and injuring them, or only for the purpose of deceiving
them, i.e., not with the object of doing any hurt to man; but, as these princes of this
world esteem such opinions to be true, they desire to impart to others what they
themselves believe to be the truth: and this is the view which I am inclined to adopt. For
as, to take an illustration, certain Greek authors, or the leaders of some heretical sect,
after having imbibed an error in doctrine instead of the truth, and having come to the
conclusion in their own minds that such is the truth, proceed, in the next place, to
endeavour to persuade others of the correctness of their opinions; so, in like manner, are
we to suppose is the procedure of the princes of this world, in which to certain spiritual
powers has been assigned the rule over certain nations, and who are termed on that account
the princes of this world. There are besides, in addition to these princes, certain
special energies of this world, i.e., spiritual powers, which bring about certain effects,
which they have themselves, in virtue of their freedom of will, chosen to produce, and to
these belong those princes who practise the wisdom of this world:

there being, for example, a peculiar energy and power, which is the inspirer of poetry;
another, of geometry; and so a separate power, to remind us of each of the arts and
professions of this kind. Lastly, many Greek writers have been of opinion that the art of
poetry cannot exist without madness; whence also it is several times related in their
histories, that those whom they call poets were suddenly filled with a kind of spirit of
madness. And what are we to say also of those whom they call diviners, from whom, by the
working of those demons who have the mastery over them, answers are given in carefully
constructed verses? Those persons, too, whom they term Magi or Malevolent, frequently, by
invoking demons over boys of tender years, have made them repeat poetical compositions
which were the admiration and amazement of all. Now these effects we are to suppose are
brought about in the following manner: As holy and immaculate souls, after devoting
themselves to God with all affection and purity, and after preserving themselves free from
all contagion of evil spirits, and after being purified by lengthened abstinence, and
imbued with holy and religious training, assume by this means a portion of divinity, and
earn the grace of prophecy, and other divine gifts; so also are we to suppose that those
who place themselves in the way of the opposing powers, i.e., who purposely admire and
adopt their manner of life and habits, receive their inspiration, and become partakers of
their wisdom and doctrine.

And the result of this is, that they are filled with the working of those spirits to whose
service they have subjected themselves. 4. With respect to those, indeed, who teach
differently regarding Christ from what the rule of Scripture allows, it is no idle task to
ascertain whether it is from a treacherous purpose that these opposing powers, in their
struggles to prevent a belief in Christ, have devised certain fabulous and impious
doctrines; or whether, on hearing the word of Christ, and not being able to cast it forth
from the secrecy of their conscience, nor yet to retain it pure and holy, they have, by
means of vessels that were convenient to their use, and, so to speak, through their
prophets, introduced various errors contrary to the rule of Christian truth. Now we are to
suppose rather that apostate and refugee powers, which have departed from God out of the
very wickedness of their mind and will, or from envy of those for whom there is prepared
(on their becoming acquainted with the truth) an ascent to the same rank, whence they
themselves had fallen, did, in order to prevent any progress of that kind, invent these
errors and delusions of false doctrine. It is then clearly established, by many proofs,
that while the soul of man exists in this body, it may admit different energies, i.e.,
operations, from a diversity of good and evil spirits. Now, of wicked spirits there is a
twofold mode of operation: i.e., when they either take complete and entire possession of
the mind, so as to allow their captives the power neither of understanding nor feeling;

as, for instance, is the case with those commonly called possessed, whom we see to be
deprived of reason, and insane (such as those were who are related in the Gospel to have
been cured by the Saviour); or when by their wicked suggestions they deprave a sentient
and intelligent soul with thoughts of various kinds, persuading it to evil, of which Judas
is an illustration, who was induced at the suggestion of the devil to commit the crime of
treason, according to the declaration of Scripture, that "the devil had already put it
into the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray him." But a man receives the energy, i.e., the
working, of a good spirit, when he is stirred and incited to good, and is inspired to
heavenly or divine things; as the holy angels and God Himself wrought in the prophets,
arousing and exhorting them by their holy suggestions to a better course of life, yet so,
indeed, that it remained within the will and judgment of the individual, either to be
willing or unwilling to follow the call to divine and heavenly things. And from this
manifest distinction, it is seen how the soul is moved by the presence of a better spirit,
i.e., if it encounter no perturbation or alienation of mind whatever from the impending
inspiration, nor lose the free control of its will; as, for instance, is the case with
all, whether prophets or apostles, who ministered to the divine responses without any
perturbation of mind. Now, that by the suggestions of a good spirit the memory of man is
aroused to the recollection of better things, we have already shown by previous instances,
when we mentioned the cases of Mordecai and Artaxerxes.

5. This too, I think, should next be inquired into, viz., what are the reasons why a human
soul is acted on at one time by good (spirits), and at another by bad: the grounds of
which I suspect to be older than the bodily birth of the individual. as John (the Baptist)
showed by his leaping and exulting in his mother's womb, when the voice of the salutation
of Mary reached the ears of his mother Elisabeth; and as Jeremiah the prophet declares,
who was known to God before he was formed in his mother's womb, and before he was born was
sanctified by Him, and while yet a boy received the grace of prophecy. And again, on the
other hand it is shown beyond a doubt, that some have been possessed by hostile spirits
from the very beginning of their lives: i.e., some were born with an evil spirit; and
others, according to credible histories, have practised divination. from childhood. Others
have been under the influence of the demon called Python, i.e., the ventriloquial spirit,
from the commencement of their existence.

To all which instances, those who maintain that everything in the world is under the
administration of Divine Providence (as is also our own belief), can, as it appears to me,
give no other answer, so as to show that no shadow of injustice rests upon the divine
government, than by holding that there were certain causes of prior existence, in
consequence of which the souls, before their birth in the body, contracted a certain
amount of guilt in their sensitive nature, or in their movements, on account of which they
have been judged worthy by Divine Providence of being placed in this condition. For a soul
is always in possession of free-will, as well when it is in the body as when it is without
it; and freedom of will is always directed either to good or evil. Nor can any rational
and sentient being, i.e., a mind or soul, exist without some movement either good or bad.
And it is probable that these movements furnish grounds for merit even before they do
anything in this world; so that onaccount of these merits or grounds they are, immediately
on their birth, and even before it, so to speak, assorted by Divine Providence for the
endurance either of good or evil.

Let such, then, be our views respecting those events which appear to befall men, either
immediately after birth, or even before they enter upon the light. But as regards the
suggestions which are made to the soul, i.e, to the faculty of human thought, by different
spirits, and which arouse men to good actions or the contrary, even in such a case we must
suppose that there sometimes existed certain causes anterior to bodily birth. For
occasionally the mind, when watchful, and casting away from it what is evil, calls to
itself the aid of the good; or if it be, on the contrary, negligent and slothful, it makes
room through insufficient caution for these spirits, which, lying in wait secretly like
robbers, contrive to rush into the minds of men when they see a lodgment made for them by
sloth; as the Apostle Peter says, "that our adversary the devil goes about like a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may devour." On which account our heart must be kept with all
carefulness both by day and night, and no place be given to the devil; but every effort
must be used that the ministers of God-those spirits, viz., who were sent to minister to
them who are called to be heirs of salvation -may find a place within us, and be delighted
to enter into the guest-chamber of our soul, and dwelling within us may guide us by their
counsels; if, indeed, they shall find the habitation of our heart adorned by the practice
of virtue and holiness. But let that be sufficient which we have said, as we best could,
regarding those powers which are hostile to the human race.

CHAPTER IV.-ON HUMAN TEMPTATIONS.

1. And now the subject of human temptations must not, in my opinion, be passed over in
silence, which take their rise sometimes from flesh and blood, or from the wisdom of flesh
and blood, which is said to be hostile to God. And whether the statement be true which
certain allege, viz., that each individual has as it were two souls, we shall determine
after we have explained the nature of those temptations, which are said to be more
powerful than any of human origin, i.e., which we sustain from principalities and powers,
and from the rulers of the darkness of this world, and from spiritual wickedness in high
places, or to which we are subjected from wicked spirits and unclean demons. Now, in the
investigation of this subject, we must, I think, inquire according to a logical method
whether there be in us human beings, who are composed of soul and body and vital spirit,
some other element, possessing an incitement of its own, and evoking a movement towards
evil. For a question of this kind is wont to be discussed by some in this way: whether,
viz., as two souls are said to co-exist within us, the one is more divine and heavenly and
the other inferior;

or whether, from the very fact that we inhere in bodily structures which according to
their own proper nature are dead, and altogether devoid of life (seeing it is from us,
i.e., from our souls, that the material body derives its life, it being contrary and
hostile to the spirit), we are drawn on and enticed to the practice of those evils which
are agreeable to the body; or whether, thirdly (which was the opinion of some of the Greek
philosophers), although our soul is one in substance, it nevertheless consists of several
elements, and one portion of it is called rational and another irrational, and that which
is termed the irrational part is again separated into two affections-those of covetousness
and passion. These three opinions, then, regarding the soul, which we have stated above,
we have found to be entertained by some, but that one of them, which we have mentioned as
being adopted by certain Grecian philosophers, viz., that the soul is tripartite, I do not
observe to be greatly confirmed by the authority of holy Scripture; while with respect to
the remaining two there is found a considerable number of passages in the holy Scriptures
which seem capable of application to them.

2. Now, of these opinions, let us first discuss that which is maintained by some, that
there is in us a good and heavenly soul, and another earthly and inferior; and that the
better soul is implanted within us from heaven, such as was that which, while Jacob was
still in the womb, gave him the prize of victory in supplanting his brother Esau, and
which in the case of Jeremiah was sanctified from his birth, and in that of John was
filled by the Holy Spirit from the womb. Now, that which they term the inferior soul is
produced, they allege, along with the body itself out of the seed of the body, whence they
say it cannot live or subsist beyond the body, on which account also they say it is
frequently termed flesh. For the expression, "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit," they
take to be applicable not to the flesh, but to this soul, which is properly the soul of
the flesh. From these words, moreover, they endeavour notwithstanding to make good the
declaration in Leviticus: "The life of all flesh is the blood thereof. For, from the
circumstance that it is the diffusion of the blood throughout the whole flesh which
produces life in the flesh, they assert that this soul, which is said to be the life of
all flesh, is contained in the blood. This statement, moreover, that the flesh struggles
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh;

and the further statement, that "the life of all flesh is the blood thereof," is,
according to these writers, simply calling the wisdom of the flesh by another name,
because it is a kind of material spirit, which is not subject to the law of God, nor can
be so, because it has earthly wishes and bodily desires. And it is with respect to this
that they think the apostle uttered the words: "I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members. And if one were to object to them that these words were spoken of the nature
of the body, which indeed, agreeably to the peculiarity of its nature, is dead, but is
said to have sensibility, or wisdom which is hostile to God, or which struggles against
the spirit; or if one were to say that, in a certain degree, the flesh itself was
possessed of a voice, which should cry out against the endurance of hunger, or thirst, or
cold, or of any discomfort arising either from abundance or poverty,-they would endeavour
to weaken and impair the force of such (arguments), by showing that there were many other
mental perturbations which derive their origin in no respect from the flesh, and yet
against which the spirit struggles, such as ambition, avarice, emulation, envy, pride, and
others like these;

and seeing that with these the human mind or spirit wages a kind of contest, they lay down
as the cause of all these evils, nothing else than this corporal soul, as it were, of
which we have spoken above, and which is generated from the seed by a process of
traducianism. They are accustomed also to adduce, in support of their assertion, the
declaration of the apostle, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, poisonings, hatred, contentions,
emulations, wrath, quarrelling, dissensions, heresies, sects, envyings, drunkenness,
revellings, and the like; " asserting that all these do not derive their origin from the
habits or pleasures of the flesh, so that all such movements are to be regarded as
inherent in that substance which has not a soul, i.e., the fresh. The declaration,
moreover, "For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men among you
according to the flesh are called," would seem to require to be understood as if there
were one kind of wisdom, carnal and material, and another according to the spirit, the
former of which cannot indeed be called wisdom, unless there be a soul of the flesh, which
is wise in respect of what is called carnal wisdom. And in addition to these passages they
adduce the following: "Since the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh, so that we cannot do the things that we would.

What are these things now respecting which he says, "that we cannot do the things that we
would? "It is certain, they reply, that the spirit cannot be intended; for the will of the
spirit suffers no hindrance. But neither can the flesh be meant, because if it has not a
soul of its own, neither can it assuredly possess a will. It remains, then, that the will
of this soul be intended which is capable of having a Will of its own, and which certainly
is opposed to the will of the spirit. And if this be the case, it is established that the
will of the soul is something intermediate between the flesh add the spirit, undoubtedly
obeying and serving that one of the two which it has elected to obey. And if it yield
itself up to the pleasures of the flesh, it renders men carnal; but when it unites itself
with the spirit, it produces men of the Spirit, and who on that account are termed
spiritual. And this seems to be the meaning of the apostle in the words, "But ye are not
in the flesh, but in the Spirit."

We have accordingly to ascertain what is this very will (intermediate) between flesh and
spirit, besides that will which is said to belong to the flesh or the spirit. For it is
held as certain, that everything which is said to be a work of the spirit is (a product
of) the will of the spirit, and everything that is called a work of the flesh (proceeds
from) the will of the flesh. What else then, besides these, is that will of the soul which
receives a separate name, and which will, the apostle being opposed to our executing,
says: "Ye cannot do the things that ye would? "By this it would seem to be intended, that
it ought to adhere to neither of these two, i.e., to neither flesh nor spirit. But some
one will say, that as it is better for the soul to execute its own will than that of the
flesh; so, on the other hand, it is better to do the will of the spirit than its own will.
How, then, does the apostle say, "that ye cannot do the things that ye would? "Because in
that contest which is waged between flesh and spirit, the spirit is by no means certain of
victory, it being manifest that in very many individuals the flesh has the mastery.

3. But since the subject of discussion on which we have entered is one of great
profundity, which it is necessary to consider in all its bearings, let us see whether some
such point as this may not be determined: that as it is better for the soul to follow the
spirit when the latter has overcome the flesh, so also, if it seem to be a worse course
for the former to follow the flesh in its struggles against the spirit, when the latter
would recall the soul to its influence, it may nevertheless appear a more advantageous
procedure for the soul to be under the mastery of the flesh than to remain under the power
of its own will. For, since it is said to be neither hot nor cold, but to continue in a
sort of tepid condition, it will find conversion a slow and somewhat difficult
undertaking. If indeed it clung to the flesh, then, satiated at length, and filled with
those very evils which it suffers from the vices of the flesh, and wearied as it were by
the heavy burdens of luxury and lust, it may sometimes be converted with greater ease and
rapidity from the filthiness of matter to a desire for heavenly things, and (to a taste
for) spiritual graces.

And the apostle must be supposed to have said, that "the Spirit contends against the
flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit, so that we cannot do the things that we would"
(those things, undoubtedly, which are designated as being beyond the will of the spirit,
and the will of the flesh), meaning (as if we were to express it in other words) that it
is better for a man to be either in a state of virtue or in one of wickedness, than in
neither of these; but that the soul, before its conversion to the spirit, and its union
with it, appears during its adherence to the body, and its meditation of carnal things, to
be neither in a good condition nor in a manifestly bad one, but resembles, so to speak, an
animal. It is better, however, for it, if possible, to be rendered spiritual through
adherence to the spirit; but if that cannot be done, it is more expedient for it to follow
even the wickedness of the flesh, than, placed under the influence of its own will, to
retain the position of an irrational animal.

These points we have now discussed, in our desire to consider each individual opinion, at
greater length than we intended, that those views might not be supposed to have escaped
our notice which are generally brought forward by those who inquire whether there is
within us any other soul than this heavenly and rational one, which is naturally opposed
to the latter, and is called either the flesh, or the wisdom of the flesh, or the soul of
the flesh. 4. Let us now see what answer is usually returned to these statements by those
who maintain that there is in us one movement, and one life, proceeding from one and the
same soul, both the salvation and the destruction of which are ascribed to itself as a
result of its own actions. And, in the first place, let us notice of what nature those
commotions of the soul are which we suffer, when we feel ourselves inwardly drawn in
different directions; when there arises a kind of contest of thoughts in our hearts, and
certain probabilities are suggested us, agreeably to which we lean now to this side, now
to that, and by which we are sometimes convicted of error, and sometimes approve of our
acts. It is nothing remarkable, however, to say of wicked spirits, that they have a
varying and conflicting judgment, and one out of harmony with itself, since such is found
to be the case in all men, whenever, in deliberating upon an uncertain event, council is
taken, and men consider and consult what is to be chosen as the better and more useful
course. It is not therefore surprising that, if two probabilities meet, and suggest
opposite views, they should drag the mind in contrary directions. For example, if a man be
led by reflection to believe and to fear God, it cannot then be said that the flesh
contends against the Spirit; but, amidst the uncertainty of what may he true and
advantageous, the mind is drawn in opposite directions.

So, also, when it is supposed that the flesh provokes to the indulgence of lust, but
better counsels oppose allurements of that kind, we are not to suppose that it is one life
which is resisting another, but that it is the tendency of the nature of the body, which
is eager to empty out and cleanse the places filled with seminal moisture; as, in like
manner, it is not to be supposed that it is any opposing power, or the life of another
soul, which excites within us the appetite of thirst, and impels us to drink, or which
causes us to feel hunger, and drives us to satisfy it. But as it is by the natural
movements of the body that food and drink are either desired or rejected, so also the
natural seed, collected together in course of time in the various vessels, has an eager
desire to be expelled and thrown away, and is so far from never being removed, save by the
impulse of some exciting cause, that it is even sometimes spontaneously emitted. When,
therefore, it is said that "the flesh struggles against the Spirit," these persons
understand the expression to mean that habit or necessity, or the delights of the flesh,
arouse a man, and withdraw him from divine and spiritual things. For, owing to the
necessity of the body being drawn away, we are not allowed to have leisure for divine
things, which are to be eternally advantageous.

So again, the soul, devoting itself to divine and spiritual pursuits, and being united to
the spirit, is said to fight against the flesh, by not permitting it to be relaxed by
indulgence, and to become unsteady through the influence of those pleasures for which it
feels a natural delight. In this way, also, they claim to understand the words, "The
wisdom of the flesh is hostile to God," not that the flesh really has a soul, or a wisdom
of its own. But as we are accustomed to say, by an abuse of language, that the earth is
thirsty, and wishes to drink in water, this use of the word "wishes" is not proper, but
catachrestic,-as if we were to say again, that this house wants to be rebuilt, and many
other similar expressions; so also is the wisdom of the flesh to be understood, or the
expression, that "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. They generally connect with these
the expression, "The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground. For what
cries unto the Lord is not properly the blood which was shed; but the blood is said
improperly to cry out, vengeance being demanded upon him who had shed it.

The declaration also of the apostle, "I see another law in my members, warring against the
law of my mind," they so understand as if he had said, That he who wishes to devote
himself to the word of God is, on account of his bodily necessities and habits, which like
a sort of law are ingrained in the body, distracted, and divided, and impeded, lest, by
devoting himself vigorously to the study of wisdom, he should be enabled to behold the
divine mysteries. 5. With respect, however, to the following being ranked among the works
of the flesh, viz., heresies, and envyings, and contentions, or other (vices), they so
understand the passage, that the mind, being rendered grosser in feeling, from its
yielding itself to the passions of the body, and being oppressed by the mass of its vices,
and having no refined or spiritual feelings, is said to be made flesh, and derives its
name from that in which it exhibits more vigour and force of will. They also make this
further inquiry, "Who will be found, or who will be said to be, the creator of this evil
sense, called the sense of the flesh? "Because they defend the opinion that there is no
other creator of soul and flesh than God. And if we were to assert that the good God
created anything in His own creation that was hostile to Himself, it would appear to be a
manifest absurdity. If, then, it is written, that "carnal wisdom is enmity against God,"
and if this be declared to be a result of creation, God Himself will appear to have formed
a nature hostile to Himself, which cannot be subject to Him nor to His law, as if it were
(supposed to be) an animal of which such qualities are predicated. And if this view be
admitted, in what respect will it appear to differ from that of those who maintain that
souls of different natures are created, which, according to their natures, are destined
either to be lost or saved?

But this is an opinion of the heretics alone, who, not being able to maintain the justice
of God on grounds of piety, compose impious inventions of this kind. And now we have
brought forward to the best of our ability, in the person of each of the parties, what
might be advanced by way of argument regarding the several views, and let the reader
choose out of them for himself that which he thinks ought to be preferred.

CHAPTER V.-THAT THE WORLD TOOK ITS BEGINNING IN TIME.

1. And now, since there is one of the articles of the Church which is held principally in
consequence of our belief in the truth of our sacred history, viz. that this world was
created and took its beginning at a certain time, and, in conformity to the cycle of time
decreed to all things, is to be destroyed on account of its corruption, there seems no
absurdity in re-discussing a few points connected with this subject. And so far, indeed,
as the credibility of Scripture is concerned, the declarations on such a matter seem easy
of proof. Even the heretics, although widely opposed on many other things, yet on this
appear to be at one, yielding to the authority of Scripture. Concerning, then, the
creation of the world, *83tion of Scripture can give us more information regarding it,
than the account which Moses has transmitted respecting its origin? And although it
comprehends matters of pro-founder significance than the mere historical narrative appears
to indicate, and contains very many things that are to be spiritually understood, and
employs the letter, as a kind of veil, in treating of profound and mystical subjects;
nevertheless the language of the narrator shows that all visible things were created at a
certain time. But with regard to the consummation of the world, Jacob is the first who
gives any information, in addressing his children in the words: "Gather yourselves
together unto me, ye sons of Jacob, that I may tell you what shall be in the last days,"
or "after the last days. If, then, there be "last days," or a period "succeeding the last
days," the days which had a beginning must necessarily come to an end. David, too,
declares: "The heavens shall perish, but Thou shall endure; yea, all of them shall wax old
as doth a garment: as a vesture shalt Thou change them, and they shall be changed: but
Thou art the same, and Thy years shall have no end. Our Lord and Saviour, indeed, in the
words, "He who made them at the beginning, made them male and female," Himself bears
witness that the world was created;

and again, when He says, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My word shall not pass
away," He points out that they are perishable, and must come to an end. The apostle,
moreover, in declaring that "the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but
by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the
children of God," manifestly announces the end of the world; as he does also when he again
says, "The fashion of this world passeth away. Now, by the expression which he employs,
"that the creature was made subject to vanity," he shows that there was a beginning to
this world: for if the creature were made subject to vanity on account of some hope, it
was certainly made subject from a cause; and seeing it was from a cause, it must
necessarily have had a beginning: for, without some beginning, the creature could not be
subject to vanity, nor could that (creature) hope to be freed from the bondage of
corruption, which had not begun to serve. But any one who chooses to search at his
leisure, will find numerous other passages in holy Scripture in which the world is both
said to have a beginning and to hope for an end.

2. Now, if there be any one who would here oppose either the authority or credibility of
our Scriptures, we would ask of him whether he asserts that God can, or cannot, comprehend
all things? To assert that He cannot, would manifestly be an act of impiety. If then he
answer, as he must, that God comprehends all things, it follows from the very fact of
their being capable of comprehension, that they are understood to have a beginning and an
end, seeing that which is altogether without any beginning cannot be at all comprehended.
For however far understanding may extend, so far is the faculty of comprehending
illimitably withdrawn and removed when there is held to be no beginning. 3. But this is
the objection which they generally raise: they say, "If the world had its beginning in
time, what was God doing before the world began? For it is at once impious and absurd to
say that the nature of God is inactive and immoveable, or to suppose that goodness at one
time did not do good, and omnipotence at one time did not exercise its power. Such is the
objection which they are accustomed to make to our statement that this world had its
beginning at a certain time, and that, agreeably to our belief in Scripture, we can
calculate the years of its past duration. To these propositions I consider that none of
the heretics can easily return an answer that will be in conformity with the nature of
their opinions. But we can give a logical answer in accordance with the standard of
religion, when we say that not then for the first time did God begin to work when He made
this visible world; but as, after its destruction, there will be another world, so also we
believe that others existed before the present came into being. And both of these
positions will be confirmed by the authority of holy Scripture. For that there will be
another world after this, is taught by Isaiah, who says, "There will be new heavens, and a
new earth, which I shall make to abide in my sight, saith the Lord; " and that before this
world others also existed is shown by Eccelesiastes, in the words:

"What is that which hath been? Even that which shall be. And what is that which has been
created? Even this which is to be created: and there is nothing altogether new under the
sun. Who shall speak and declare, Lo, this is new? It hath already been in the ages which
have been before us. By these testimonies it is established both that there were ages
before our own, and that there will be others after it. It is not, however, to be supposed
that several worlds existed at once, but that, after the end of this present world, others
will take their beginning; respecting which it is unnecessary to repeat each particular
statement, seeing we have already done so in the preceding pages. 4. This point, indeed,
is not to be idly passed by, that the holy Scriptures have called the creation of the
world by a new and peculiar name, terming it katabolh/, which has been very improperly
translated into Latin by "constitutio; "for in Greek katabolh/ signifies rather
"dejicere," i.e., to cast downwards,-a word which has been, as we have already remarked,
improperly translated into Latin by the phrase "constitutio mun-di," as in the Gospel
according to John, where the Saviour says, "And there will be tribulation in those days,
such as was not since the beginning of the world; " in which passage katabolh/ is rendered
by beginning (constitutio), which is to be understood as above explained. The apostle
also, in the Epistle to the Ephesians, has employed the same language, saying, "Who hath
chosen us before the foundation of the world; " and this foundation he calls katabolh/, to
be understood in the same sense as before. It seems worth while, then, to inquire what is
meant by this new term; and I am, indeed, of opinion that, as the end and consummation of
the saints will be in those (ages) which are not seen, and are eternal, we must conclude
(as frequently pointed out in the preceding pages), from a contemplation of that very end,
that rational creatures had also a similar beginning. And if they had a beginning such as
the end for which they hope, they existed undoubtedly from the very beginning in those
(ages) which are not seen, and are eternal.

And if this is so, then there has been a descent from a higher to a lower condition, on
the part not only of those souls who have deserved the change by the variety of their
movements, but also on that of those who, in order to serve the whole world, were brought
down from those higher and invisible spheres to these lower and visible ones, although
against their will-"Because the creature was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but
because of Him who subjected the same in hope; " so that both sun, and moon, and stars,
and angels might discharge their duty to the world, and to those souls which, on account
of their excessive mental defects, stood in need of bodies of a grosser and more solid
nature; and for the sake of those for whom this arrangement was necessary, this visible
world was also called into being. From this it follows, that by the use of the word a
descent from a higher to a lower condition, shared by all in common, would seem to be
pointed out. The hope indeed of freedom is entertained by the whole of creation-of being
liberated from the corruption of slavery-when the sons of God, who either fell away or
were scattered abroad, shall be gathered together into one, or when they shall have
fulfilled their other duties in this world, which are known to God alone, the Disposer of
all things.

We are, indeed, to suppose that the world was created of such quality and capacity as to
contain not only all those souls which it was determined should be trained in this world,
but also all those powers which were prepared to attend, and serve, and assist them. For
it is established by many declarations that all rational creatures are of one nature: on
which ground alone could the justice of God in all His dealings with them be defended,
seeing every one has the reason in himself, why he has been placed in this or that rank in
life. 5. This arrangement of things, then, which God afterwards appointed (for He had,
from the very origin of the world, clearly perceived the reasons and causes affecting
those who, either owing to mental deficiencies, deserved to enter into bodies, or those
who were carried away by their desire for visible things, and those also who, either
willingly or unwillingly, were compelled, (by Him who subjected the same in hope), to
perform certain services to such as had fallen into that condition), not being understood
by some, who failed to perceive that it was owing to preceding causes, originating in
free-will, that this variety of arrangement had been instituted by God, they have
concluded that all things in this world are directed either by fortuitous movements or by
a necessary fate, and that nothing is within the power of our own will. And, therefore,
also they were unable to show that the providence of God was beyond the reach of censure.

6. But as we have said that all the souls who lived in this world stood in need of many
ministers, or rulers, or assistants; so, in the last times, when the end of the world is
already imminent and near, and the whole human race is verging upon the last destruction,
and when not only those who were governed by others have been reduced to weakness, but
those also to whom had been committed the cares of government, it was no longer such help
nor such defenders that were needed, but the help of the Author and Creator Himself was
required to restore to the one the discipline of obedience, which had been corrupted and
profaned, and to the other the discipline of rule. And hence the only-begotten Son of God,
who was the Word and the Wisdom of the Father, when He was in the possession of that glory
with the Father, which He had before the world was, divested Himself of it, and, taking
the form of a servant, was made obedient unto death, that He might teach obedience to
those who could not otherwise than by obedience obtain salvation. He restored also the
laws of rule and government which had been corrupted, by subduing all enemies under His
feet, that by this means (for it was necessary that He should reign until He had put all
enemies under His feet, and destroyed the last enemy-death) He might teach rulers
themselves moderation in their government.

As He had come, then, to restore the discipline, not only of government, but of obedience,
as we have said, accomplishing in Himself first what He desired to be accomplished by
others, He became obedient to the Father, not only to the death of the cross, but also, in
the end of the world, embracing in Himself all whom He subjects to the Father, and who by
Him come to salvation, He Himself, along with them, and in them, is said also to be
subject to the Father; all things subsisting in Him, and He Himself being the Head of all
things, and in Him being the salvation and the fulness of those who obtain salvation. And
this consequently is what the apostle says of Him: "And when all things shall be subjected
to Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject to Him that put all things under Him,
that God may be all in all."

7. I know not, indeed, how the heretics, not understanding the meaning of the apostle in
these words, consider the term "subjection" degrading as applied to the Son; for if the
propriety of the title be called in question, it may easily be ascertained from making a
contrary supposition. Because if it be not good to be in subjection, it follows that the
opposite will be good, viz., not to be in subjection. Now the language of the apostle,
according to their view, appears to indicate by these words, "And when all things shall be
subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things
under Him," that He, who is not now in subjection to the Father, will become subject to
Him when the Father shall have first subdued all things unto Him. But I am astonished how
it can be conceived to be the meaning, that He who, while all things are not yet subdued
to Him, is not Himself in subjection, should-at a time when all things have been subdued
to Him, and when He has become King of all men, and holds sway over all things-be supposed
then to be made subject, seeing He was not formerly in subjection;

for such do not understand that the subjection of Christ to the Father indicates that our
happiness has attained to perfection, and that the work undertaken by Him has been brought
to a victorious termination, seeing He has not only purified the power of supreme
government over the whole of creation, but presents to the Father the principles of the
obedience and subjection of the human race in a corrected and improved condition. If,
then, that subjection be held to be good and salutary by which the Son is said to be
subject to the Father, it is an extremely rational and logical inference to deduce that
the subjection also of enemies, which is said to be made to the Son of God, should be
understood as being also salutary and useful; as if, when the Son is said to be subject to
the Father, the perfect restoration of the whole of creation is signified, so also, when
enemies are said to be subjected to the Son of God, the salvation of the conquered and the
restoration of the lost is in that understood to consist.

8. This subjection, however, will be accomplished in certain ways, and after certain
training, and at certain times; for it is not to be imagined that the subjection is to be
brought about by the pressure of necessity (lest the whole world should then appear to be
subdued to God by force), but by word, reason, and doctrine; by a call to a better course
of things, by the best systems of training, by the employment also of suitable and
appropriate threatenings, which will justly impend over those who despise any care or
attention to their salvation and usefulness. In a word, we men also, in training either
our slaves or children, restrain them by threats and fear while they are, by reason of
their tender age, incapable of using their reason; but when they have begun to understand
what is good, and useful, and honourable, the fear of the lash being over, they acquiesce
through the suasion of words and reason in all that is good. But how, consistently with
the preservation of freedom of will in all rational creatures, each one ought to be
regulated, i.e., who they are whom the word of God finds and trains, as if they were
already prepared and capable of it; who they are whom it puts off to a later time; who
these are from whom it is altogether concealed, and who are so situated as to be far from
hearing it;

who those, again, are who despise the word of God when made known and preached to them,
and who are driven by a kind of correction and chastisement to salvation, and whose
conversion is in a certain degree demanded and extorted; who those are to whom certain
opportunities of salvation are afforded, so that sometimes, their faith being proved by an
answer alone, they have unquestionably obtained salvation; -from what causes or on what
occasions these results take place, or what the divine wisdom sees within them, or what
movements of their will leads God so to arrange all these things, is known to Him alone,
and to His only-begotten Son, through whom all things were created and restored, and to
the Holy Spirit, through whom all things are sanctified, who proceedeth from the Father,
to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS continued

CHAPTER VI.-ON THE END OF THE WORLD.

1. Now, respecting the end of the world and the consummation of all things, we have stated
in the preceding pages, to the best of our ability, so far as the authority of holy
Scripture enabled us, what we deem sufficient for purposes of instruction; and we shall
here only add a few admonitory remarks, since the order of investigation has brought us
back to the subject. The highest good, then, after the attainment of which the whole of
rational nature is seeking, which is also called the end of all blessings, is defined by
many philosophers as follows: The highest good, they say, is to become as like to God as
possible. But this definition I regard not so much as a discovery of theirs, as a view
derived from holy Scripture. For this is pointed out by Moses, before all other
philosophers, when he describes the first creation of man in these words: "And God said,
Let Us make man in Our own image, and after Our likeness; " and then he adds the words:
"So God created man in His own image: in the image of God created He him; male and female
created He them, and He blessed them. Now the expression, "In the image of God created He
him," without any mention of the word" likeness," conveys no other meaning than this, that
man received the dignity of God's image at his first creation;

but that the perfection of his likeness has been reserved for the consummation,-namely,
that he might acquire it for himself by the exercise of his own diligence in the imitation
of God, the possibility of attaining to perfection being granted him at the beginning
through the dignity of the divine image, and the perfect realization of the divine
likeness being reached in the end by the fulfilment of the (necessary) works. Now, that
such is the case, the Apostle John points out more clearly and unmistakeably, when he
makes this declaration: "Little children, we do not yet know what we shall be; but if a
revelation be made to us from the Saviour, ye will say, without any doubt, we shall be
like Him. By which expression he points out with the utmost certainty, that not only was
the end of all things to be hoped for, which he says was still unknown to him, but also
the likeness to God, which will be conferred in proportion to the completeness of our
deserts. The Lord Himself, in the Gospel, not only declares that these same results are
future, but that they are to be brought about by His own intercession, He Himself deigning
to obtain them from the Father for His disciples, saying, "Father, I will that where I am,
these also may be with Me; and as Thou and I are one, they also may be one in Us.

In which the divine likeness itself already appears to advance, if we may so express
ourselves, and from being merely similar, to become the same, because undoubtedly in the
consummation or end God is "all and in all. And with reference to this, it is made a
question by some whether the nature of bodily matter, although cleansed and purified, and
rendered altogether spiritual, does not seem either to offer an obstruction towards
attaining the dignity of the (divine) likeness, or to the property of unity, because
neither can a corporeal nature appear capable of any resemblance to a divine nature which
is certainly incorporeal; nor can it be truly and deservedly designated one with it,
especially since we are taught by the truths of our religion that that which alone is one,
viz., the Son with the Father, must be referred to a peculiarity of the (divine) nature.
2. Since, then, it is promised that in the end God will be all and in all, we are not, as
is fitting, to suppose that animals, either sheep or other cattle, come to that end, lest
it should be implied that God dwelt even in animals, whether sheep or other cattle; and
so, too, with pieces of wood or stones, lest it should be said that God is in these also.
So, again, nothing that is wicked must be supposed to attain to that end, lest, while God
is said to be in all things, He may also be said to be in a vessel of wickedness. For if
we now assert that God is everywhere and in all things, on the ground that nothing can be
empty of God, we nevertheless do not say that He is now "all things" in those in whom He
is. And hence we must look more carefully as to what that is which denotes the perfection
of blessedness and the end of things, which is not only said to be God in all things, but
also "all in all." Let us then inquire what all those things are which God is to become in
all.

3. I am of opinion that the expression, by which God is said to be "all in all," means
that He is "all" in each individual person. Now He will be "all" in each individual in
this way: when all which any rational understanding, cleansed from the dregs of every sort
of vice, and with every cloud of wickedness completely swept away, can either feel, or
understand, or think, will be wholly God; and when it will no longer behold or retain
anything else than God, but when God will be the measure and standard of all its
movements; and thus God will be "all," for there will no longer be any distinction of good
and evil, seeing evil nowhere exists; for God is all things, and to Him no evil is near:
nor will there be any longer a desire to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, on the part of him who is always in the possession of good, and to whom God is all.
So then, when the end has been restored to the beginning, and the termination of things
compared with their commencement, that condition of things will be re-established in which
rational nature was placed, when it had no need to eat of the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil;

so that when all feeling of wickedness has been removed, and the individual has been
purified and cleansed, He who alone is the one good God becomes to him "all," and that not
in the case of a few individuals, or of a considerable number, but He Himself is "all in
all. And when death shall no longer anywhere exist, nor the sting of death, nor any evil
at all, then verily God will be "all in all. But some are of opinion that that perfection
and blessedness of rational creatures, or natures, can only remain in that same condition
of which we have spoken above, i.e., that all things should possess God, and God should be
to them all things, if they are in no degree prevented by their union with a bodily
nature. Otherwise they think that the glory of the highest blessedness is impeded by the
intermixture of any material substance. But this subject we have discussed at greater
length, as may be seen in the preceding pages.

4. And now, as we find the apostle making mention of a spiritual body, let us inquire, to
the best of our ability, what idea we are to form of such a thing. So far, then, as our
understanding can grasp it, we consider a spiritual body to be of such a nature as ought
to be inhabited not only by all holy and perfect souls, but also by all those creatures
which will be liberated from the slavery of corruption. Respecting the body also, the
apostle has said, "We have a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens," i.e., in
the mansions of the blessed. And from this statement we may form a conjecture, how pure,
how refined, and how glorious are the qualities of that body, if we compare it with those
which, although they are celestial bodies, and of most brilliant splendour, were
nevertheless made with hands, and are visible to our sight. But of that body it is said,
that it is a house not made with hands, but eternal in the heavens. Since, then, those
things "which are seen are temporal, but those things which are not seen are eternal," all
those bodies which we see either on earth or in heaven, and which are capable of being
seen, and have been made with hands, but are not eternal, are far excelled in glory by
that which is not visible, nor made with hands, but is eternal.

From which comparison it may be conceived how great are the comeliness, and splendour, and
brilliancy of a spiritual body; and how true it is, that "eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive, what God hath prepared for
them that love Him. We ought not, however, to doubt that the nature of this present body
of ours may, by the will of God, who made it what it is, be raised to those qualities of
refinement, and purity, and splendour (which characterize the body referred to), according
as the condition of things requires, and the deserts of our rational nature shall demand.
Finally, when the world required variety and diversity, matter yielded itself with all
docility throughout the diverse appearances and species of things to the Creator, as to
its Lord and Maker, that He might educe from it the various forms of celestial and
terrestrial beings. But when things have begun to hasten to that consummation that all may
be one, as the Father is one with the Son, it may be understood as a rational inference,
that where all are one, there will no longer be any diversity.

5. The last enemy, moreover, who is called death, is said on this account to be destroyed,
that there may not be anything left of a mournful kind when death does not exist, nor
anything that is adverse when there is no enemy. The destruction of the last enemy,
indeed, is to be understood, not as if its substance, which was formed by God, is to
perish, but because its mind and hostile will, which came not from God, but from itself,
are to be destroyed. Its destruction, therefore, will not be its non-existence, but its
ceasing to be an enemy, and (to be) death. For nothing is impossible to the Omnipotent,
nor is anything incapable of restoration to its Creator: for He made all things that they
might exist, and those things which were made for existence cannot cease to be. For this
reason also will they admit of change and variety, so as to be placed, according to their
merits, either in a better or worse position; but no destruction of substance can befall
those things which were created by God for the purpose of permanent existence. For those
things which agreeably to the common opinion are believed to perish, the nature either of
our faith or of the truth will not permit us to suppose to be destroyed. Finally, our
flesh is supposed by ignorant men and unbelievers to be destroyed after death, in such a
degree that it retains no relic at all of its former substance.

We, however, who believe in its resurrection, understand that a change only has been
produced by death, but that its substance certainly remains; and that by the will of its
Creator, and at the time appointed, it will be restored to life; and that a second time a
change will take place in it, so that what at first was flesh (formed) out of earthly
soil, and was afterwards dissolved by death, and again reduced to dust and ashes ("For
dust thou art," it is said, "and to dust shall thou return"), will be again raised from
the earth, and shall after this, according to the merits of the indwelling soul, advance
to the glory of a spiritual body. 6. Into this condition, then, we are to suppose that all
this bodily substance of ours will be brought, when all things shall be re-established in
a state of unity, and when God shall be all in all. And this result must be understood as
being brought about, not suddenly, but slowly and gradually, seeing that the process of
amendment and correction will take place imperceptibly in the individual instances during
the lapse of countless and unmeasured ages, some outstripping others, and tending by a
swifter course towards perfection, while others again follow close at hand, and some again
a long way behind; and thus, through the numerous and uncounted orders of progressive
beings who are being reconciled to God from a state of enmity, the last enemy is finally
reached, who is called death, so that he also may be destroyed, and no longer be an enemy.
When, therefore, all rational souls shall have been restored to a condition of this kind,
then the nature of this body of ours will undergo a change into the glory of a spiritual
body. For as we see it not to be the case with rational natures, that some of them have
lived in a condition of degradation owing to their sins, while others have been called to
a state of happiness on account of their merits; but as we see those same souls who had
formerly been sinful, assisted, after their conversion and reconciliation to God, to a
state of happiness;

so also are we to consider, with respect to the nature of the body, that the one which we
now make use of in a state of meanness, and corruption, and weakness, is not a different
body from that which we shall possess in incorruption, and in power, and in glory; but
that the same body, when it has cast away the infirmities in which it is now entangled,
shall be transmuted into a condition of glory, being rendered spiritual, so that what was
a vessel of dishonour may, when cleansed, become a vessel unto honour, and an abode of
blessedness. And in this condition, also, we are to believe, that by the will of the
Creator, it will abide for ever without any change, as is confirmed by the declaration of
the apostle, when he says, "We have a house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
For the faith of the Church does not admit the view of certain Grecian philosophers, that
there is besides the body, composed of four elements, another fifth body, which is
different in all its parts, and diverse from this our present body;

since neither out of sacred Scripture can any produce the slightest suspicion of evidence
for such an opinion, nor can any rational inference from things allow the reception of it,
especially when the holy apostle manifestly declares, that it is not new bodies which are
given to those who rise from the dead, but that they receive those identical ones which
they had possessed when living, transformed from an inferior into a better condition. For
his words are: "It is sown an animal body, it will rise a spiritual body; it is sown in
corruption, it will arise in incorruption: it is sown in weakness, it will arise in power:
it is sown in dishonour, it will arise in glory. As, therefore, there is a kind of advance
in man, so that from being first an animal being, and not understanding what belongs to
the Spirit of God, he reaches by means of instruction the stage of being made a spiritual
being, and of judging all things, while he himself is judged by no one;

so also, with respect to the state of the body, we are to hold that this very body which
now, on account of its service to the soul, is styled an animal body, will, by means of a
certain progress, when the soul, united to God, shall have been made one spirit with Him
(the body even then ministering, as it were, to the spirit), attain to a spiritual
condition and quality, especially since, as we have often pointed out, bodily nature was
so formed by the Creator, as to pass easily into whatever condition he should wish, or the
nature of the case demand. 7. The whole of this reasoning, then, amounts to this: that God
created two general natures,-a visible, i.e., a corporeal nature; and an invisible nature,
which is incorporeal. Now these two natures admit of two different permutations. That
invisible and rational nature changes in mind and purpose, because it is endowed with
freedom of will, and is on this account found sometimes to be engaged in the practice of
good, and sometimes in that of the opposite. But this corporeal nature admits of a change
in substance; whence also God, the arranger of all things, has the service of this matter
at His command in the moulding, or fabrication, or re-touching of whatever He wishes, so
that corporeal nature may be transmuted, and transformed into any forms or species
whatever, according as the deserts of things may demand; which the prophet evidently has
in view when he says, "It is God who makes and transforms all things."

8. And now the point for investigation is, whether, when God shall be all in all, the
whole of bodily nature will, in the consummation of all things, consist of one species,
and the sole quality of body be that which shall shine in the indescribable glory which is
to be regarded as the future possession of the spiritual body. For if we rightly
understand the matter, this is the statement of Moses in the beginning of his book, when
he says, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. For this is the
beginning of all creation: to this beginning the end and consummation of all things must
be recalled, i.e., in order that that heaven and that earth may be the habitation and
resting-place of the pious; so that all the holy ones, and the meek, may first obtain an
inheritance in that land, since this is the teaching of the law, and of the prophets, and
of the Gospel. In which land I believe there exist the true and living forms of that
worship which Moses handed down under the shadow of the law; of which it is said, that
"they serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things" -those, viz., who were in
subjection in the law. To Moses himself also was the injunction given, "Look that thou
make them after the form and pattern which were showed thee on the mount.

From which it appears to me, that as on this earth the law was a sort of schoolmaster to
those who by it were to he conducted to Christ, in order that, being instructed and
trained by it, they might more easily, after the training of the law, receive the more
perfect principles of Christ; so also another earth, which receives into it all the
saints, may first imbue and mould them by the institutions of the true and everlasting
law, that they may more easily gain possession of those perfect institutions of heaven, to
which nothing can be added; in which there will be, of a truth, that Gospel which is
called everlasting, and that Testament, ever new, which shall never grow old. 9. In this
way, accordingly, we are to suppose that at the consummation and restoration of all
things, those who make a gradual advance, and who ascend (in the scale of improvement),
will arrive in due measure and order at that land, and at that training which is contained
in it, where they may be prepared for those better institutions to which no addition can
be made. For, after His agents and servants, the Lord Christ, who is King of all, will
Himself assume the kingdom; i.e., after instruction in the holy virtues, He will Himself
instruct those who are capable of receiving Him in respect of His being wisdom, reigning
in them until He has subjected them to the Father, who has subdued all things to Himself,
i.e., that when they shall have been made capable of receiving God, God may be to them all
in all. Then accordingly, as a necessary consequence, bodily nature will obtain that
highest condition to which nothing more can be added. Having discussed, up to this point,
the quality of bodily nature, or of spiritual body, we leave it to the choice of the
reader to determine what he shall consider best. And here we may bring the third book to a
conclusion.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS continued

BOOK IV

Translated by Frederick Crombie. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. IV, edited by Alexander
Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. Text restored from the Christian Classics
Ethereal Library edition. Chapter I, §§1–23 translated from the Latin of Rufinus Chapter
I, §§1–23 translated from the Greek Sections 24–37 translated from the Latin Summary of
doctrine (§§28–37)

Translated from the Latin of Rufinus — Chapter I.—That the Scriptures are Divinely
Inspired.

1. But as it is not sufficient, in the discussion of matters of such importance, to
entrust the decision to the human senses and to the human understand­ing, and to pronounce
on things invisible as if they were seen by us,2698 we must, in order to establish the
positions which we have laid down, adduce the tes­timony of Holy Scripture. And that this
testimony may produce a sure and unhesitating belief, either with regard to what we have
still to advance, or to what has been already stated, it seems necessary to show, in the
first place, that the Scriptures them­selves are divine, i.e., were inspired by the Spirit
of God. We shall therefore with all possible brevity draw forth from the Holy Scriptures
themselves, such evidence on this point as may produce upon us a suitable impression,
(making our quotations) from Moses, the first legislator of the Hebrew nation, and from
the words of Jesus Christ, the Author and Chief of the Christian religious system.2699 For
al­though there have been numerous legislators among the Greeks and Barbarians, and also
countless teach­ers and philosophers who professed to declare the truth, we do not
remember any legislator who was able to produce in the minds of foreign nations an
affection and a zeal (for him) such as led them either voluntarily to adopt his laws, or
to defend them with all the efforts of their mind.

No one, then, has been able to introduce and make known what seemed to himself the truth,
among, I do not say many foreign nations, but even amongst the indi­viduals of one single
nation, in such a manner that a knowledge and belief of the same should extend to all. And
yet there can be no doubt that it was the wish of the legislators that their laws should
be ob­served by all men, if possible; and of the teachers, that what appeared to
themselves to be truth, should become known to all. But knowing that they could by no
means succeed in producing any such mighty power within them as would lead foreign nations
to obey their laws, or have regard to their statements, they did not venture even to essay
the attempt, lest the failure of the undertaking should stamp their conduct with the mark
of imprudence. And yet there are throughout the whole world—throughout all Greece, and all
foreign countries—countless in­dividuals who have abandoned the laws of their country, and
those whom they had believed to be gods, and have yielded themselves up to the obedi­ence
of the law of Moses, and to the discipleship and worship of Christ; and have done this,
not without exciting against themselves the intense ha­tred of the worshippers of images,
so as frequently to be exposed to cruel tortures from the latter, and sometimes even to be
put to death. And yet they embrace, and with all affection preserve, the words and
teaching of Christ.

2. And we may see, moreover, how that religion itself grew up in a short time, making
progress by the punishment and death of its worshippers, by the plundering of their goods,
and by the tortures of every kind which they endured; and this result is the more
surprising, that even the teachers of it them­selves neither were men of skill,2700 nor
very numerous; and yet these words are preached throughout the whole world, so that Greeks
and Barbarians, wise and foolish, adopt the doctrines of the Christian religion.2701 From
which it is no doubtful inference, that it is not by human power or might that the words
of Jesus Christ come to prevail with all faith and power over the understandings and souls
of all men. For, that these results were both predicted by Him, and es­tablished by divine
answers proceeding from Him, is clear from His own words: “Ye shall be brought before
governors and kings for My sake, for a testi­mony against them and the Gentiles.”2702 And
again: “This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached among all nations.”2703 And again:
“Many shall say to Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten and drunk in Thy name,
and in Thy name cast out devils? And I will say unto them, Depart from Me, ye workers of
iniquity, I never knew you.”2704 If these sayings, indeed, had been so uttered by Him, and
yet if these predictions had not been fulfilled, they might perhaps appear to be
untrue,2705 and not to pos­sess any authority. But now, when His declarations do pass into
fulfilment, seeing they were predicted with such power and authority, it is most clearly
shown to be true that He, when He was made man, delivered to men the precepts of
salvation.2706

3. What, then, are we to say of this, which the prophets had beforehand foretold of Him,
that princes would not cease from Judah, nor leaders from be­tween his thighs, until He
should come for whom it has been reserved (viz., the kingdom), and until the expectation
of the Gentiles should come? For it is most distinctly evident from the history itself,
from what is clearly seen at the present day, that from the times of Christ onwards there
were no kings amongst the Jews. Nay, even all those objects of Jewish pride,2707 of which
they vaunted so much, and in which they exulted, whether regarding the beauty of the
temple or the ornaments of the altar, and all those sacerdotal fillets and robes of the
high priests, were all destroyed together. For the proph­ecy was fulfilled which had
declared, “For the chil­dren of Israel shall abide many days without king and prince:
there shall be no victim, nor altar, nor priesthood, nor answers.”2708 These testimonies,
ac­cordingly, we employ against those who seem to assert that what is spoken in Genesis by
Jacob refers to Judah; and who say that there still remains a prince of the race of
Judah—he, viz., who is the prince of their nation, whom they style Patriarch2709—and that
there cannot fail (a ruler) of his seed, who will re­main until the advent of that Christ
whom they pic­ture to themselves. But if the prophet’s words be true, when he says, “The
children of Israel shall abide many days without king, without prince;

and there shall be no victim, nor altar, nor priesthood;”2710 and if, certainly, since the
overthrow of the temple, victims are neither offered, nor any altar found, nor any
priesthood exists, it is most certain that, as it is written, princes have departed from
Judah, and a leader from between his thighs, until the coming of Him for whom it has been
reserved. It is established, then, that He is come for whom it has been reserved, and in
whom is the expectation of the Gentiles. And this manifestly seems to be fulfilled in the
multitude of those who have believed on God through Christ out of the different nations.
4. In the song of Deuteronomy,2711 also, it is pro­phetically declared that, on account of
the sins of the former people, there was to be an election of a fool­ish nation,—no other,
certainly, than that which was brought about by Christ; for thus the words run: “They have
moved Me to anger with their images, and I will stir them up to jealousy; I will arouse
them to anger against a foolish nation.”2712 We may therefore evidently see how the
Hebrews, who are said to have excited God’s anger by means of those (idols), which are no
gods, and to have aroused His wrath by their images, were themselves also excited to
jealousy by means of a foolish nation, which God hath chosen by the advent of Jesus Christ
and His disciples. For the following is the language of the apostle: “For ye see your
calling, brethren, how that not many wise men among you after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble (are called): but God has chosen the foolish things of the world, and the
things which are not, to destroy the things which formerly existed.”2713 Carnal Israel,
therefore, should not boast; for such is the term used by the apostle: “No flesh, I say,
should glory in the presence of God.”2714

5. What are we to say, moreover, regarding those prophecies of Christ contained in the
Psalms, espe­cially the one with the superscription, “A song for the Beloved;”2715 in
which it is stated that “His tongue is the pen of a ready writer; fairer than the children
of men; that “grace is poured into His lips? Now, the indication that grace has been
poured upon His lips is this, that, after a short period had elapsed—for He taught only
during a year and some months2716—the whole world, nevertheless, became filled with His
doctrine, and with faith in His religion. There arose, then, “in His days righteous men,
and abundance of peace,”2717 abiding even to the end, which end is entitled “the taking
away of the moon; and “His dominion shall extend from sea to sea, and from the river to
the ends of the earth.”2718 There was a sign also given to the house of David. For a
virgin conceived, and bare Emmanuel, which, when interpreted, signifies, “God with us:
know it, O nations, and be overcome.”2719 For we are con­quered and overcome, who are of
the Gentiles, and remain as a kind of spoils of His victory, who have subjected our necks
to His grace. Even the place of His birth was predicted in the prophecies of Micah, who
said, “And thou, Bethlehem, land of Judah, art by no means small among the leaders of
Judah:

for out of thee shall come forth a Leader, who shall rule My people Israel.”2720 The weeks
of years, also, which the prophet Daniel had predicted, extending to the leadership of
Christ,2721 have been ful­filled. Moreover, he is at hand, who in the book of Job2722 is
said to be about to destroy the huge beast, who also gave power to his own disciples to
tread on serpents and scorpions, and on all the power of the enemy, without being injured
by him. But if any one will consider the journeys of Christ’s apostles throughout the
different places, in which as His mes­sengers they preached the Gospel, he will find that
both what they ventured to undertake is beyond the power of man, and what they were
enabled to ac­complish is from God alone. If we consider how men, on hearing that a new
doctrine was introduced by these, were able to receive them; or rather, when desiring
often to destroy them, they were prevented by a divine power which was in them, we shall
find that in this nothing was effected by human strength, but that the whole was the
result of the divine power and providence,—signs and wonders, manifest be­yond all doubt,
bearing testimony to their word and doctrine.

6. These points now being briefly established, viz., regarding the deity of Christ, and
the fulfilment of all that was prophesied respecting Him, I think that this position also
has been made good, viz., that the Scriptures themselves, which contained these
predic­tions, were divinely inspired,—those, namely, which had either foretold His advent,
or the power of His doctrine, or the bringing over of all nations (to His obedience). To
which this remark must be added, that the divinity and inspiration both of the
predic­tions of the prophets and of the law of Moses have been clearly revealed and
confirmed, especially since the advent of Christ into the world. For before the fulfilment
of those events which were predicted by them, they could not, although true and inspired
by God, be shown to be so, because they were as yet unfulfilled. But the coming of Christ
was a declara­tion that their statements were true and divinely in­spired, although it was
certainly doubtful before that whether there would be an accomplishment of those things
which had been foretold.

If any one, moreover, consider the words of the prophets with all the zeal and reverence
which they deserve, it is certain that, in the perusal and careful examination thus given
them, he will feel his mind and senses touched by a divine breath, and will ac­knowledge
that the words which he reads were no human utterances, but the language of God; and from
his own emotions he will feel that these books were the composition of no human skill, nor
of any mortal eloquence, but, so to speak, of a style that is divine.2723 The splendour of
Christ’s advent, therefore, illuminating the law of Moses by the light of truth, has taken
away that veil which had been placed over the letter (of the law), and has unsealed, for
every one who believes upon Him, all the blessings which were concealed by the covering of
the word. 7. It is, however, a matter attended with consider­able labour, to point out, in
every instance, how and when the predictions of the prophets were fulfilled, so as to
appear to confirm those who are in doubt, seeing it is possible for everyone who wishes to
be­come more thoroughly acquainted with these things, to gather abundant proofs from the
records of the truth themselves. But if the sense of the letter, which is beyond man, does
not appear to present itself at once, on the first glance, to those who are less versed in
divine discipline, it is not at all to be wondered at, because divine things are brought
down somewhat slowly to (the comprehension of) men, and elude the view in proportion as
one is either sceptical or unworthy. For although it is certain that all things which
exist in this world, or take place in it, are ordered by the providence of God, and
certain events indeed do appear with sufficient clearness to be under the disposal of His
providential government, yet others again unfold themselves so mysteriously and
incomprehensibly, that the plan of Divine Providence with regard to them is completely
concealed; so that it is occasionally believed by some that particular occurrences do not
belong to (the plan of) Providence, because the principle eludes their grasp, according to
which the works of Divine Providence are administered with indescri­bable skill; which
principle of administration, how­ever, is not equally concealed from all. For even among
men themselves, one individual devotes less consideration to it, another more;

while by every man, He who is on earth, whoever is the inhabitant of heaven, is more
acknowledged.2724 And the nature of bodies is clear to us in one way, that of trees in
another, that of animals in a third; the nature of souls, again, is concealed in a
different way; and the manner in which the diverse movements of ra­tional understandings
are ordered by Providence, eludes the view of men in a greater degree, and even, in my
opinion, in no small degree that of the angels also. But as the existence of divine
provi­dence is not refuted by those especially who are certain of its existence, but who
do not comprehend its workings or arrangements by the powers of the human mind; so neither
will the divine inspiration of holy Scripture, which extends throughout its body, be
believed to be non-existent, because the weakness of our understanding is unable to trace
out the hid­den and secret meaning in each individual word, the treasure of divine wisdom
being hid in the vulgar and unpolished vessels of words,2725 as the apostle also points
out when he says, “We have this treasure in earthen vessels,”2726 that the virtue of the
divine power may shine out the more brightly, no colouring of human eloquence being
intermingled with the truth of the doctrines.

For if our books induced men to believe because they were composed either by rhetorical
arts or by the wisdom of philosophy, then undoubtedly our faith would be considered to be
based on the art of words, and on human wisdom, and not upon the power of God; whereas it
is now known to all that the word of this preaching has been so accepted by numbers
throughout almost the whole world, because they understood their belief to rest not on the
persuasive words of human wisdom, but on the manifestation of the Spirit and of power. On
which account, being led by a heavenly, nay, by a more than heavenly power, to faith and
acceptance,2727 that we may worship the sole Creator of all things as our God, let us also
do our utmost endeavour, by abandoning the language of the elements of Christ, which are
but the first beginnings of wisdom, to go on to perfection, in order that that wisdom
which is given to them who are perfect, may be given to us also. For such is the promise
of him to whom was entrusted the preaching of this wisdom, in the words: “Howbeit we speak
wisdom among them that are perfect; yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes
of this world, who will be brought to nought;”2728 by which he shows that this wisdom of
ours has nothing in common, so far as regards the beauty of language, with the wisdom of
this world.

This wisdom, then, will be inscribed more clearly and perfectly on our hearts, if it be
made known to us according to the revelation of the mystery which has been hid from
eternity,2729 but now is mani­fest through the Scriptures of prophecy, and the advent of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever. Amen. Many, not
understanding the Scriptures in a spir­itual sense, but incorrectly,2730 have fallen into
heresies. 8. These particulars, then, being briefly stated regarding the inspiration of
the sacred Scriptures by the Holy Spirit, it seems necessary to explain this point also,
viz., how certain persons, not reading them correctly, have given themselves over to
erroneous opinions, inasmuch as the procedure to be followed, in order to attain an
understanding of the holy writ­ings, is unknown to many. The Jews, in fine, owing to the
hardness of their heart, and from a desire to appear wise in their own eyes, have not
believed in our Lord and Saviour, judging that those statements which were uttered
respecting Him ought to be understood literally, i.e., that He ought in a sensible and
visible manner to preach deliverance to the cap­tives, and first build a city which they
truly deem the city of God, and cut off at the same time the chariots of Ephraim,2731 and
the horse from Jerusalem; that He ought also to eat butter and honey,2732 in order to
choose the good before He should come to know how to bring forth evil.2733 They think,
also, that it has been predicted that the wolf—that four-footed animal—is, at the coming
of Christ, to feed with the lambs, and the leopard to lie down with kids, and the calf and
the bull to pasture with lions, and that they are to be led by a little child to the
pas­ture; that the ox and the bear are to lie down together in the green fields, and that
their young ones are to be fed together;

that lions also will frequent stalls with the oxen, and feed on straw. And seeing that,
according to history, there was no accomplishment of any of those things predicted of Him,
in which they believed the signs of Christ’s advent were espe­cially to be observed, they
refused to acknowledge the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ; nay, contrary to all the
principles of human and divine law,2734 i.e., contrary to the faith of prophecy, they
crucified Him for assuming to Himself the name of Christ. There­upon the heretics, reading
that it is written in the law, “A fire has been kindled in Mine anger;”2735 and that “I
the Lord am a jealous (God), visiting the sins of the fathers upon the children unto the
third and fourth generation;”2736 and that “it repenteth Me that I anointed Saul to be
king;”2737 and, “I am the Lord, who make peace and create evil;”2738 and again, “There is
not evil in a city which the Lord hath not done;”2739 and, “Evils came down from the Lord
upon the gates of Jerusalem;”2740 and, “An evil spirit from the Lord plagued Saul;”2741
and reading many other passages similar to these, which are found in Scripture, they did
not venture to assert that these were not the Scriptures of God, but they considered them
to be the words of that creator God whom the Jews worshipped, and who, they judged, ought
to be regarded as just only, and not also as good;

but that the Saviour had come to announce to us a more per­fect God, who, they allege; is
not the creator of the world,—there being different and discordant opinions among them
even on this very point, because, when they once depart from a belief in God the Creator,
who is Lord of all, they have given themselves over to various inventions and fables,
devising certain (fictions), and asserting that some things were visi­ble, and made by one
(God), and that certain other things were invisible, and were created by another,
according to the vain and fanciful suggestions of their own minds. But not a few also of
the more simple of those, who appear to be restrained within the faith of the Church, are
of opinion that there is no greater God than the Creator, holding in this a correct and
sound opinion; and yet they entertain regarding Him such views as would not be entertained
regarding the most unjust and cruel of men.

9. Now the reason of the erroneous apprehension of all these points on the part of those
whom we have mentioned above, is no other than this, that holy Scripture is not understood
by them according to its spiritual, but according to its literal meaning. And therefore we
shall endeavour, so far as our mod­erate capacity will permit, to point out to those who
believe the holy Scriptures to be no human compo­sitions, but to be written by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, and to be transmitted and entrusted to us by the will of God the
Father, through His only-begot­ten Son Jesus Christ, what appears to us, who ob­serve
things by a right way of understanding,2742 to be the standard and discipline delivered to
the apostles by Jesus Christ, and which they handed down in suc­cession to their
posterity, the teachers of the holy Church. Now, that there are certain mystical
econo­mies2743 indicated in holy Scripture, is admitted by all, I think, even the simplest
of believers. But what these are, or of what kind they are, he who is rightly minded, and
not overcome with the vice of boasting, will scrupulously2744 acknowledge himself to be
igno­rant.

For if anyone, e.g., were to adduce the case of the daughters of Lot, who seem, contrary
to the law of God,2745 to have had intercourse with their father, or that of the two wives
of Abraham, or of the two sisters who were married to Jacob, or of the two hand­maids who
increased the number of his sons, what other answer could be returned than that these were
certain mysteries,2746 and forms of spiritual things, but that we are ignorant of what
nature they are? Nay, even when we read of the construction of the taber­nacle, we deem it
certain that the written descriptions are the figures of certain hidden things; but to
adapt these to their appropriate standards, and to open up and discuss every individual
point, I consider to be exceedingly difficult, not to say impossible. That that
description, however, is, as I have said, full of mysteries, does not escape even the
common understanding. But all the narrative portion, relating either to the marriages, or
to the begetting of the children, or to battles of different kinds, or to any other
histories whatever, what else can they be supposed to be, save the forms and figures of
hidden and sacred things?

As men, however, make little effort to exercise their intellect, or imagine that they
possess knowledge before they really learn, the con­sequence is that they never begin to
have knowledge or if there be no want of a desire, at least, nor of an instructor, and if
divine knowledge be sought after, as it ought to be, in a religious and holy spirit, and
in the hope that many points will be opened up by the revelation of God—since to human
sense they are exceedingly difficult and obscure—then, perhaps, he who seeks in such a
manner will find what it is lawful2747 to discover. 10. But lest this difficulty perhaps
should be sup­posed to exist only in the language of the prophets, seeing the prophetic
style is allowed by all to abound in figures and enigmas, what do we find when we come to
the Gospels? Is there not hidden there also an inner, namely a divine sense, which is
re­vealed by that grace alone which he had received who said, “But we have the mind of
Christ, that we might know the things freely given to us by God. Which things also we
speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Spirit teach­eth?”2748
And if one now were to read the revelations which were made to John, how amazed would he
not be that there should be contained within them so great an amount of hidden, ineffable
mysteries,2749 in which it is clearly understood, even by those who cannot comprehend what
is concealed, that some­thing certainly is concealed. And yet are not the Epistles of the
Apostles, which seem to some to be plainer, filled with meanings so profound, that by
means of them, as by some small receptacle,2750 the clearness of incalculable light2751
appears to be poured into those who are capable of understanding the meaning of divine
wisdom? And therefore, because this is the case, and because there are many who go wrong
in this life, I do not consider that it is easy to pronounce, without danger, that anyone
knows or understands those things, which, in order to be opened up, need the key of
knowledge;

which key, the Saviour declared, lay with those who were skilled in the law. And here,
although it is a digression, I think we should inquire of those who assert that be­fore
the advent of the Saviour there was no truth among those who were engaged in the study of
the law, how it could be said by our Lord Jesus Christ that the keys of knowledge were
with them, who had the books of the prophets and of the law in their hands. For thus did
He speak: “Woe unto you, ye teachers of the law, who have taken away the key of knowledge:
ye entered not in yourselves, and them who wished to enter in ye hindered.”2752 11. But,
as we had begun to observe, the way which seems to us the correct one for the
understand­ing of the Scriptures, and for the investigation of their meaning, we consider
to be of the following kind: for we are instructed by Scripture itself in re­gard to the
ideas which we ought to form of it. In the Proverbs of Solomon we find some such rule as
the following laid down, respecting the consideration of holy Scripture: “And do thou,” he
says, “de­scribe these things to thyself in a threefold manner, in counsel and knowledge,
and that thou mayest an­swer the words of truth to those who have proposed them to
thee.”2753 Each one, then, ought to describe in his own mind, in a threefold manner, the
under­standing of the divine letters,—that is, in order that all the more simple
individuals may be edified, so to speak, by the very body of Scripture; for such we term
that common and historical sense: while, if some have commenced to make considerable
prog­ress, and are able to see something more (than that), they may be edified by the very
soul of Scripture. Those, again, who are perfect, and who resemble those of whom the
apostle says, “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect, but not the wisdom of this
world, nor of the princes of this world, who will be brought to nought;

but we speak the wisdom of God, hidden in a mystery, which God hath decreed before the
ages unto our glory;”2754—all such as these may be edified by the spiritual law itself
(which has a shadow of good things to come), as if by the Spirit. For as man is said to
consist of body, and soul, and spirit, so also does sacred Scripture, which has been
granted by the divine bounty2755 for the salva­tion of man; which we see pointed out,
moreover, in the little book of The Shepherd, which seems to be despised by some, where
Hermas is commanded to write two little books, and afterwards to announce to the
presbyters of the Church what he learned from the Spirit. For these are the words that are
written: “And you will write,” he says, “two books; and you will give the one to Clement,
and the other to Grapte.2756 And let Grapte admonish the widows and orphans, and let
Clement send through all the cities which are abroad, while you will announce to the
presbyters of the Church. Grapte, accordingly, who is commanded to admonish the orphans
and widows, is the pure understanding of the letter itself; by which those youthful minds
are admonished, who have not yet deserved to have God as their Father, and are on that
account styled orphans. They, again, are the widows, who have withdrawn themselves from
the unjust man, to whom they had been united con­trary to law;

but who have remained widows, because they have not yet advanced to the stage of being
joined to a heavenly Bridegroom. Clement, more­over, is ordered to send into those cities
which are abroad what is written to those individuals who already are withdrawing from the
letter,—as if the meaning were to those souls who, being built up by this means, have
begun to rise above the cares of the body and the desires of the flesh; while he himself,
who had learned from the Holy Spirit, is commanded to announce, not by letter nor by book,
but by the living voice, to the presbyters of the Church of Christ, i.e., to those who
possess a mature faculty of wisdom, capable of receiving spiritual teaching. 12. This
point, indeed, is not to be passed by with­out notice, viz., that there are certain
passages of Scripture where this “body,” as we termed it, i.e., this inferential
historical sense,2757 is not always found, as we shall prove to be the case in the
following pages, but where that which we termed “soul” or “spirit” can only be understood.
And this, I think, is indicated in the Gospels, where there are said to be placed,
according to the manner of purification among the Jews, six water-vessels, containing two
or three firkins2758 a-piece; by which, as I have said, the language of the Gospel seems
to indicate, with respect to those who are secretly called by the apostle “Jews,” that
they are purified by the word of Scrip­ture,—receiving indeed sometimes two firkins, i.e.,
the understanding of the “soul” or “spirit,” accord­ing to our statement as above;
sometimes even three (firkins), when in the reading (of Scripture) the “bodily” sense,
which is the “historical,” may be preserved for the edification of the people. Now six
water-vessels are appropriately spoken of, with regard to those persons who are purified
by being placed in the world; for we read that in six days­—which is the perfect
number—this world and all things in it were finished. How great, then, is the utility of
this first “historical” sense which we have mentioned, is attested by the multitude of all
be­lievers, who believe with adequate faith and sim­plicity, and does not need much
argument, because it is openly manifest to all;

whereas of that sense which we have called above the “soul,” as it were, of Scripture, the
Apostle Paul has given us numerous examples in the first Epistle to the Corinthians. For
we find the expression, “Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the
corn.”2759 And afterwards, when explaining what precept ought to be understood by this, he
adds the words: “Doth God take care for oxen? or saith He it altogether for our sakes? For
our sakes, no doubt, this is written; that he who plougheth should plough in hope, and he
that thresheth, in hope of partaking.”2760 Very many other passages also of this nature,
which are in this way explained of the law, contribute extensive information to the
hearers. 13. Now a “spiritual” interpretation is of this nature: when one is able to point
out what are the heavenly things of which these serve as the pat­terns and shadow, who are
Jews “according to the flesh,” and of what things future the law contains a shadow, and
any other expressions of this kind that may be found in holy Scripture; or when it is a
subject of inquiry, what is that wisdom hidden in a mystery which “God ordained before the
world for our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew;”2761 or the meaning of
the apostle’s language, when, employ­ing certain illustrations from Exodus or Numbers, he
says: “These things happened to them in a figure,2762 and they are written on our account,
on whom the ends of the ages have come.”2763 Now, an opportunity is afforded us of
understanding of what those things which happened to them were figures, when he adds: “And
they drank of that spiritual Rock which fol­lowed them, and that Rock was Christ.”2764 In
an­other Epistle also, when referring to the tabernacle, he mentions the direction which
was given to Moses: “Thou shalt make (all things) according to the pat­tern which was
showed thee in the mount.”2765 And writing to the Galatians, and upbraiding certain
indi­viduals who seem to themselves to read the law, and yet without understanding it,
because of their igno­rance of the fact that an allegorical meaning underlies what is
written, he says to them in a certain tone of rebuke:

“Tell me, ye who desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written
that Abraham had two sons; the one by a bond-maid, the other by a free woman. But he who
was of the bond-woman was born according to the flesh; but he of the free woman was by
promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants.”2766 And here this
point is to be attended to, viz., the caution with which the apostle employs the
expres­sion, “Ye who are under the law, do ye not hear the law? Do ye not hear, i.e., do
ye not understand and know? In the Epistle to the Colossians, again, briefly summing up
and condensing the meaning of the whole law, he says: “Let no man therefore judge you in
meat, or in drink, or in respect of holy days, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath,
which are a shadow of things to come.”2767 Writing to the Hebrews also, and treating of
those who belong to the circum­cision, he says: “Those who serve to the example and shadow
of heavenly things.”2768 Now perhaps, through these illustrations, no doubt will be
enter­tained regarding the five books of Moses, by those who hold the writings of the
apostle, as divinely in­spired.

And if they require, with respect to the rest of the history, that those events which are
contained in it should be considered as having happened for an ensample to those of whom
they are written, we have observed that this also has been stated in the Epistle to the
Romans, where the apostle adduces an in­stance from the third book of Kings, saying, “I
have left me seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal;”2769 which expression
Paul understood as figuratively spoken of those who are called Israel­ites according to
the election, in order to show that the advent of Christ had not only now been of
ad­vantage to the Gentiles, but that very many even of the race of Israel had been called
to salvation. 14. This being the state of the case, we shall sketch out, as if by way of
illustration and pattern, what may occur to us with regard to the manner in which holy
Scripture is to be understood on these several points, repeating in the first instance,
and pointing out this fact, that the Holy Spirit, by the providence and will of God,
through the power of His only-begotten Word, who was in the beginning God with God,
enlightened the ministers of truth, the prophets and apostles, to understand the mysteries
of those things or causes which take place among men, or with respect to men.2770 And by
“men,” I now mean souls that are placed in bodies, who, relating those mysteries that are
known to them, and revealed through Christ, as if they were a kind of human transactions,
or handing down certain legal observances and injunctions, described them
figura­tively;2771 not that anyone who pleased might view these expositions as deserving
to be trampled under foot, but that he who should devote himself with all chastity, and
sobriety, and watchfulness, to studies of this kind, might be able by this means to trace
out the meaning of the Spirit of God, which is perhaps lying profoundly buried, and the
context, which may be pointing again in another direction than the ordinary usage of
speech would indicate.

And in this way he might become a sharer in the knowledge of the Spirit, and a partaker in
the divine counsel, because the soul cannot come to the perfec­tion of knowledge otherwise
than by inspiration of the truth of the divine wisdom. Accordingly, it is of God, i.e., of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, that these men, filled with the Divine
Spirit, chiefly treat; then the mysteries relating to the Son of God—how the Word became
flesh, and why He descended even to the assumption of the form of a servant—are the
subject, as I have said, of explanation by those persons who are filled with the Divine
Spirit. It next followed, necessarily, that they should instruct mortals by divine
teaching, re­garding rational creatures, both those of heaven and the happier ones of
earth; and also (should explain) the differences among souls, and the origin of these
differences; and then should tell what this world is, and why it was created; whence also
sprung the great and terrible wickedness which extends over the earth. And whether that
wickedness is found on this earth only, or in other places, is a point which it was
necessary for us to learn from divine teaching.

Since, then, it was the intention of the Holy Spirit to enlighten with respect to these
and similar sub­jects, those holy souls who had devoted themselves to the service of the
truth, this object was kept in view, in the second place, viz., for the sake of those who
either could not or would not give themselves to this labour and toil by which they might
deserve to be instructed in or to recognise things of such value and importance, to wrap
up and conceal, as we said before, in ordinary language, under the cover­ing of some
history and narrative of visible things, hidden mysteries. There is therefore introduced
the narrative of the visible creation, and the creation and formation of the first man;
then the offspring which followed from him in succession, and some of the actions which
were done by the good among his posterity, are related, and occasionally certain crimes
also, which are stated to have been committed by them as being human; and afterwards
certain un­chaste or wicked deeds also are narrated as being the acts of the wicked. The
description of battles, moreover, is given in a wonderful manner, and the alternations of
victors and vanquished, by which certain ineffable mysteries are made known to those who
know how to investigate statements of that kind.

By an admirable discipline of wisdom, too, the law of truth, even of the prophets, is
implanted in the Scriptures of the law, each of which is woven by a divine art of wisdom,
as a kind of covering and veil of spiritual truths; and this is what we have called the
“body” of Scripture, so that also, in this way, what we have called the covering of the
letter, woven by the art of wisdom, might be capable of edifying and profiting many, when
others would derive no benefit. 15. But as if, in all the instances of this covering
(i.e., of this history), the logical connection and order of the law had been preserved,
we would not certainly believe, when thus possessing the meaning of Scripture in a
continuous series, that anything else was contained in it save what was indicated on the
surface; so for that reason divine wisdom took care that certain stumbling-blocks, or
interruptions,2772 to the historical meaning should take place, by the intro­duction into
the midst (of the narrative) of certain impossibilities and incongruities; that in this
way the very interruption of the narrative might, as by the interposition of a bolt,
present an obstacle to the reader, whereby he might refuse to acknowledge the way which
conducts to the ordinary meaning; and being thus excluded and debarred from it, we might
be recalled to the beginning of another way, in order that, by entering upon a narrow
path, and passing to a loftier and more sublime road, he might lay open the immense
breadth of divine wisdom.2773 This, however, must not be unnoted by us, that as the chief
object of the Holy Spirit is to preserve the coherence of the spiritual meaning, either in
those things which ought to be done or which have been already performed, if He anywhere
finds that those events which, according to the history, took place, can be adapted to a
spiritual meaning, He composed a texture of both kinds in one style of narration, always
concealing the hidden meaning more deeply;

but where the historical narrative could not be made appropriate to the spiritual
coherence of the occur­rences, He inserted sometimes certain things which either did not
take place or could not take place; sometimes also what might happen, but what did not:
and He does this at one time in a few words, which, taken in their “bodily” meaning, seem
inca­pable of containing truth, and at another by the in­sertion of many. And this we find
frequently to be the case in the legislative portions, where there are many things
manifestly useful among the “bodily” precepts, but a very great number also in which no
principle of utility is at all discernible, and some­times even things which are judged to
be impossi­bilities. Now all this, as we have remarked, was done by the Holy Spirit in
order that, seeing those events which lie on the surface can be neither true nor useful,
we may be led to the investigation of that truth which is more deeply concealed, and to
the ascertaining of a meaning worthy of God in those Scriptures which we believe to be
inspired by Him.

16. Nor was it only with regard to those Scriptures which were composed down to the advent
of Christ that the Holy Spirit thus dealt; but as being one and the same Spirit, and
proceeding from one God, He dealt in the same way with the evangelists and apostles. For
even those narratives which He in­spired them to write were not composed without the aid
of that wisdom of His, the nature of which we have above explained. Whence also in them
were intermingled not a few things by which, the historical order of the narrative being
interrupted and broken up, the attention of the reader might be recalled, by the
impossibility of the case, to an examination of the inner meaning. But, that our meaning
may be ascertained by the facts themselves, let us examine the passages of Scripture. Now
who is there, pray, possessed of understanding, that will regard the statement as
appropriate,2774 that the first day, and the second, and the third, in which also both
evening and morning are mentioned, existed without sun, and moon, and stars—the first day
even without a sky? And who is found so ignorant as to suppose that God, as if He had been
a husbandman, planted trees in paradise, in Eden towards the east, and a tree of life in
it, i.e., a visible and palpable tree of wood,2775 so that anyone eating of it with bodily
teeth should obtain life, and, eating again of another tree, should come to the knowledge
of good and evil?

No one, I think, can doubt that the statement that God walked in the afternoon in
paradise, and that Adam lay hid under a tree, is related figuratively in Scripture, that
some mystical meaning may be indicated by it. The departure of Cain from the presence of
the Lord will manifestly cause a careful reader to inquire what is the presence of God,
and how anyone can go out from it. But not to extend the task which we have before us
beyond its due limits, it is very easy for anyone who pleases to gather out of holy
Scripture what is recorded indeed as having been done, but what nevertheless cannot be
believed as having rea­sonably and appropriately occurred according to the historical
account. The same style of Scriptural narrative occurs abundantly in the Gospels, as when
the devil is said to have placed Jesus on a lofty mountain, that he might show Him from
thence all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. How could it literally come
to pass, either that Jesus should be led up by the devil into a high mountain, or that the
latter should show him all the kingdoms of the world (as if they were lying beneath his
bodily eyes, and adjacent to one mountain), i.e., the king­doms of the Persians, and
Scythians, and Indians? or how could he show in what manner the kings of these kingdoms
are glorified by men?

And many other instances similar to this will be found in the Gospels by anyone who will
read them with atten­tion, and will observe that in those narratives which appear to be
literally recorded, there are inserted and interwoven things which cannot be admitted
his­torically, but which may be accepted in a spiritual signification.2776 17. In the
passages containing the commandments also, similar things are found. For in the law Moses
is commanded to destroy every male that is not cir­cumcised on the eighth day, which is
exceedingly incongruous;2777 since it would be necessary, if it were related that the law
was executed according to the history, to command those parents to be punished who did not
circumcise their children, and also those who were the nurses of little children. The
declara­tion of Scripture now is, “The uncircumcised male, i.e., who shall not have been
circumcised, shall be cut off from his people.”2778 And if we are to inquire regarding the
impossibilities of the law, we find an animal called the goat-stag,2779 which cannot
possibly exist, but which, as being in the number of clean beasts, Moses commands to be
eaten; and a griffin,2780 which no one ever remembers or heard of as yielding to human
power, but which the legislator forbids to be used for food. Respecting the celebrated2781
ob­servance of the Sabbath also he thus speaks: “Ye shall sit, everyone in your dwellings;
no one shall move from his place on the Sabbath-day.”2782 Which precept it is impossible
to observe literally; for no man can sit a whole day so as not to move from the place
where he sat down.

With respect to each one of these points now, those who belong to the cir­cumcision, and
all who would have no more meaning to be found in sacred Scripture than what is indicated
by the letter, consider that there should be no investigation regarding the goat-stag, and
the griffin, and the vulture; and they invent some empty and trifling tales about the
Sabbath, drawn from some traditional sources or other, alleging that everyone’s place is
computed to him within two thousand cubits.2783 Others, again, among whom is Dositheus the
Samari­tan, censure indeed expositions of this kind, but themselves lay down something
more ridiculous, viz., that each one must remain until the evening in the posture, place,
or position in which he found himself on the Sabbath-day; i.e., if found sitting, he is to
sit the whole day, or if reclining, he is to recline the whole day. Moreover, the
injunction which runs, “Bear no burden on the Sabbath-day,”2784 seems to me an
impossibility. For the Jewish doctors, in conse­quence of these (prescriptions), have
betaken them­selves, as the holy apostle says, to innumerable fables, saying that it is
not accounted a burden if a man wear shoes without nails, but that it is a burden if shoes
with nails be worn; and that if it be carried on one shoulder, they consider it a burden
but if on both, they declare it to be none.

18. And now, if we institute a similar examination with regard to the Gospels, how shall
it appear other­wise than absurd to take the injunction literally, “Sa­lute no man by the
way?”2785 And yet there are simple individuals, who think that our Saviour gave this
com­mand to His apostles! How, also, can it appear possible for such an order as this to
be observed, especially in those countries where there is a rigorous winter, attended by
frost and ice, viz., that one should possess “neither two coats, nor shoes?”2786 And this,
that when one is smitten on the right cheek, he is ordered to present the left also, since
everyone who strikes with the right hand smites the left cheek? This precept also in the
Gospels must be accounted among impossibilities, viz., that if the right eye “of­fend”
thee, it is to be plucked out; for even if we were to suppose that bodily eyes were spoken
of, how shall it appear appropriate, that when both eyes have the property of sight, the
responsibility of the “offence” should be transferred to one eye, and that the right one?
Or who shall be considered free of a crime of the greatest enormity, that lays hands upon
himself? But perhaps the Epistles of the Apostle Paul will appear to be beyond this. For
what is his meaning, when he says, “Is any man called, being circumcised?

Let him not become uncircumcised.”2787 This expression indeed, in the first place, does
not on careful consideration seem to be spoken with reference to the subject of which he
was treating at the time, for this discourse consisted of injunctions relating to marriage
and to chastity; and these words, therefore, will have the appearance an unnecessary
addition to such a subject. In the second place, however, what objection would there be,
if, for the sake of avoiding that unseemli­ness which is caused by circumcision, a man
were able to become uncircumcised?2788 And, in the third place, that is altogether
impossible. The object of all these statements on our part, is to show that it was the
design of the Holy Spirit, who deigned to bestow upon us the sacred Scriptures, to show
that we were not to be edified by the letter alone, or by everything in it,—a thing which
we see to be frequently impossible and inconsistent; for in that way not only absurdities,
but impossibilities, would be the result; but that we are to understand that certain
occurrences were interwoven in this “visible” history, which, when considered and
un­derstood in their inner meaning, give forth a law which is advantageous to men and
worthy of God.

19. Let no one, however, entertain the suspicion that we do not believe any history in
Scripture to be real, because we suspect certain events related in it not to have taken
place; or that no precepts of the law are to be taken literally, because we consider
certain of them, in which either the nature or possi­bility of the case so requires,
incapable of being ob­served; or that we do not believe those predictions which were
written of the Saviour to have been ful­filled in a manner palpable to the senses; or that
His commandments are not to be literally obeyed. We have therefore to state in answer,
since we are manifestly so of opinion, that the truth of the history may and ought to be
preserved in the majority of instances. For who can deny that Abraham was buried in the
double cave2789 at Hebron, as well as Isaac and Jacob, and each of their wives? Or who
doubts that Shechem was given as a portion to Joseph?2790 or that Jerusalem is the
metropolis of Judea, on which the temple of God was built by Solomon?—and countless other
statements. For the passages which hold good in their historical ac­ceptation are much
more numerous than those which contain a purely spiritual meaning. Then, again, who would
not maintain that the command to “honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well
with thee,”2791 is sufficient of itself without any spiritual meaning, and necessary for
those who observe it?

especially when Paul also has confirmed the com­mand by repeating it in the same words.
And what need is there to speak of the prohibitions, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,”
“Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not bear false witness,”2792 and others of the same
kind? And with respect to the precepts enjoined in the Gospels, no doubt can be
entertained that very many of these are to be literally observed, as, e.g., when our Lord
says, “But I say unto you, Swear not at all;”2793 and when He says, “Whosoever looketh
upon a woman to lust after her, hath com­mitted adultery with her already in his
heart;”2794 the admonitions also which are found in the writings of the Apostle Paul,
“Warn them that are unruly, com­fort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient
towards all men,”2795 and very many others. And yet I have no doubt that an attentive
reader will, in numerous instances, hesitate whether this or that his­tory can be
considered to be literally true or not; or whether this or that precept ought to be
observed according to the letter or no. And therefore great pains and labour are to be
employed, until every reader reverentially understand that he is dealing with divine and
not human words inserted in the sacred books.

20. The understanding, therefore, of holy Scrip­ture which we consider ought to be
deservedly and consistently maintained, is of the following kind. A certain nation is
declared by holy Scripture to have been chosen by God upon the earth, which nation has
received several names: for sometimes the whole of it is termed Israel, and sometimes
Jacob; and it was divided by Jeroboam son of Nebat into two por­tions; and the ten tribes
which were formed under him were called Israel, while the two remaining ones (with which
were united the tribe of Levi, and that which was descended from the royal race of David)
was named Judah. Now the whole of the country possessed by that nation, which it had
received from God, was called Judea, in which was situated the metropolis, Jerusalem; and
it is called metropolis, being as it were the mother of many cities, the names of which
you will frequently find mentioned here and there in the other books of Scripture, but
which are collected together into one catalogue in the book of Joshua the son of Nun.2796

21. This, then, being the state of the case, the holy apostle desiring to elevate in some
degree, and to raise our understanding above the earth, says in a certain place, “Behold
Israel after the flesh;”2797 by which he certainly means that there is another Israel
which is not according to the flesh, but accord­ing to the Spirit. And again in another
passage, “For they are not all Israelites who are of Israel.”2798 22. Being taught, then,
by him that there is one Israel according to the flesh, and another according to the
Spirit, when the Saviour says, “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel,”2799 we do not understand these words as those do who savour of earthly things,
i.e., the Ebionites, who derive the appellation of “poor” from their very name (for
“Ebion” means “poor” in Hebrew2800); but we understand that there exists a race of souls
which is termed “Israel,” as is indicated by the interpretation of the name itself: for
Israel is interpreted to mean a “mind,” or “man seeing God. The apostle, again, makes a
similar revelation respecting Jeru­salem, saying, “The Jerusalem which is above is free,
which is the mother of us all.”2801 And in another of his Epistles he says: “But ye are
come unto mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, and to the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the Church of the first-born which is
written in heaven.”2802 If, then, there are certain souls in this world who are called
Israel, and a city in heaven which is called Jerusalem, it follows that those cities which
are said to belong to the nation of Israel have the heavenly Jerusalem as their
metrop­olis;

and that, agreeably to this, we understand as referring to the whole of Judah (of which
also we are of opinion that the prophets have spoken in certain mystical narratives), any
predictions delivered either regarding Judea or Jerusalem, or invasions of any kind, which
the sacred histories declare to have happened to Judea or Jerusalem. Whatever, then, is
either narrated or predicted of Jerusalem, must, if we accept the words of Paul as those
of Christ speaking in him, be understood as spoken in conformity with his opin­ion
regarding that city which he calls the heavenly Jerusalem, and all those places or cities
which are said to be cities of the holy land, of which Jerusalem is the metropolis. For we
are to suppose that it is from these very cities that the Saviour, wishing to raise us to
a higher grade of intelligence, promises to those who have well managed the money
entrusted to them by Himself, that they are to have power over ten or five cities. If,
then, the prophecies delivered concerning Judea, and Jerusalem, and Judah, and Israel, and
Jacob, not being understood by us in a carnal sense, signify certain divine mysteries, it
cer­tainly follows that those prophecies also which were delivered either concerning Egypt
or the Egyptians, or Babylonia and the Babylonians, and Sidon and the Sidonians, are not
to be understood as spoken of that Egypt which is situated on the earth, or of the earthly
Babylon, Tyre, or Sidon.

Nor can those predictions which the prophet Ezekiel delivered concerning Pharaoh king of
Egypt, apply to any man who may seem to have reigned over Egypt, as the nature of the
passage itself declares. In a similar manner also, what is spoken of the prince of Tyre
cannot be under­stood of any man or king of Tyre. And how could we possibly accept, as
spoken of a man, what is related in many passages of Scripture, and especially in Isaiah,
regarding Nebuchadnezzar? For he is not a man who is said to have “fallen from heaven,” or
who was “Lucifer,” or who “arose in the morning. But with respect to those predictions
which are found in Ezekiel concerning Egypt, such as that it is to be destroyed in forty
years, so that the foot of man should not be found within it, and that it should suf­fer
such devastation, that throughout the whole land the blood of men should rise to the
knees, I do not know that anyone possessed of understanding could refer this to that
earthly Egypt which adjoins Ethio­pia. But let us see whether it may not be under­stood
more fittingly in the following manner: viz., that as there is a heavenly Jerusalem and
Judea, and a nation undoubtedly which inhabits it, and is named Israel;

so also it is possible that there are certain localities near to these which may seem to
be called either Egypt, or Babylon, or Tyre, or Sidon, and that the princes of these
places, and the souls, if there be any, that inhabit them, are called Egyptians,
Baby­lonians, Tyrians, and Sidonians. From whom also, according to the mode of life which
they lead there, a sort of captivity would seem to result, in conse­quence of which they
are said to have fallen from Judea into Babylonia or Egypt, from a higher and better
condition, or to have been scattered into other countries. 23. For perhaps as those who,
departing this world in virtue of that death which is common to all, are arranged, in
conformity with their actions and deserts—according as they shall be deemed worthy—some in
the place which is called “hell,”2803 others in the bosom of Abraham, and in different
localities or mansions; so also from those places, as if dying there, if the expression
can be used,2804 do they come down from the “upper world”2805 to this “hell. For that
“hell” to which the souls of the dead are con­ducted from this world, is, I believe, on
account of this distinction, called the “lower hell” by Scripture, as is said in the book
of Psalms: “Thou hast deliv­ered my soul from the lowest hell.”2806 Everyone, accordingly,
of those who descend to the earth is, according to his deserts, or agreeably to the
position which he occupied there, ordained to be born in this world, in a different
country, or among a different nation, or in a different mode of life, or surrounded by
infirmities of a different kind, or to be descended from religious parents, or parents who
are not reli­gious; so that it may sometimes happen that an Israelite descends among the
Scythians, and a poor Egyptian is brought down to Judea. And yet our Saviour came to
gather together the lost sheep of the house of Israel; and as many of the Israelites did
not accept His teaching, those who belonged to the Gentiles were called.

From which it will appear to follow, that those prophecies which are delivered to the
individual nations ought to be referred rather to the souls, and to their different
heavenly mansions. Nay, the narratives of the events which are said to have happened
either to the nation of Israel, or to Jerusalem, or to Judea, when assailed by this or
that nation, cannot in many instances be understood as having actually2807 occurred, and
are much more ap­propriate to those nations of souls who inhabit that heaven which is said
to pass away, or who even now are supposed to be inhabitants of it. If now anyone demand
of us clear and distinct declarations on these points out of holy Scripture, we must
answer that it was the design of the Holy Spirit, in those portions which appear to relate
the history of events, rather to cover and conceal the meaning: in those passages, e.g.,
where they are said to go down into Egypt, or to be carried captive to Baby­lonia, or when
in these very countries some are said to be brought to excessive humiliation, and to be
placed under bondage to their masters; while others, again, in these very countries of
their captivity, were held in honour and esteem, so as to occupy positions of rank and
power, and were appointed to the gov­ernment of provinces;—all which things, as we have
said, are kept hidden and covered in the narratives of holy Scripture, because “the
kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field; which when a man findeth, he hideth
it, and for joy thereof goeth away and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that
field.”2808 By which similitude, consider whether it be not pointed out that the very soil
and surface, so to speak, of Scripture—that is, the literal meaning­—is the field, filled
with plants and flowers of all kinds; while that deeper and profounder “spiritual”
mean­ing are the very hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge which the Holy Spirit by
Isaiah calls the dark and invisible and hidden treasures, for the find­ing out of which
the divine help is required:

for God alone can burst the brazen gates by which they are enclosed and concealed, and
break in pieces the iron bolts and levers by which access is prevented to all those things
which are written and concealed in Genesis respecting the different kinds of souls, and of
those seeds and generations which either have a close connection with Israel2809 or are
widely separated from his descendants; as well as what is that descent of seventy souls
into Egypt, which seventy souls became in that land as the stars of heaven in multitude.
But as not all of them were the light of this world­—“for all who are of Israel are not
Israel”2810—they grow from being seventy souls to be an important people,2811 and as the
“sand by the sea-shore innumer­able.” Visibiliter de invisibilibus pronunciare. Principis
Christianorum religionis et dogmatis. Satis idonei. Religionem Christianæ doctrinæ. Matt.
x. 18. Cf. Matt. xxiv. 14. Cf. Matt. vii. 22, 23. Fortasse minus vera esse viderentur.
Salutaria præcepta. Illæ omnes ambitiones Judaicæ. Cf. Hos. iii. 4. Quoted from the
Septuagint. On the Patriarch of the Jews, cf. Milman’s History of the Jews, vol. ii. p.
399 sq., and vol. iii. p. 7 sq. Deut. xxxii. Deut. xxxii. Deut. xxxii. 21. 1 Cor. i.
26–28. 1 Cor. i. 29. Ps. xlv. 1, 2. [See note infra, Contra Celsum, B. II. cap. xii. S.]
Cf. Ps. lxxii. 7. Ps. lxxii. 8. Cf. Isa. viii. 8, 9. Quoted from the Septuagint. Cf. Mic.
v. 2 with Matt. ii. 6. Cf. Dan. ix. 25. Ad ducem Christum; “To Messiah the Prince,” Auth.
Vers. The allusion is perhaps to Job xli. 1. Divino, ut ita dixerim, cothurno. “Nam et
inter ipsos homines ab alio minus, ab alio amplius consideratur: plus vero ab omni homine,
qui in terris est, quis-quis ille est cœli habitator, agnoscitur.” The translation of
Rufinus, as Redepenning remarks, seems very confused. Probably also the text is corrupt.
The Greek without doubt gives the genuine thought of Origen. By omitting the ab we
approximate to the Greek, and get: “but he, whoever he be, who is inhabitant of heaven, is
better known than any man who is on the earth;” or according to the punctuation in the old
editions, “but he who is inhabitant of heaven is better known than any man on earth,
whoever he be.”

In vilioribus et incomptis verborum vasculis. Cf. 2 Cor. iv. 7. Ad fidem credulitatemque.
1 Cor. ii. 6. Temporibus eternis. Male. Cf. Zech. ix. 10. Cf. Isa. vii. 15. Ut priusquam
cognosceret proferre malum, eligeret bonum. Contra jus fasque. Cf. Jer. xv. 14. Cf. Ex.
xx. 5. Cf. 1 Sam. xv. 11. Cf. Isa. xlv. 7. Cf. Amos iii. 6. Cf. Mic. i. 12. Cf. 1 Sam.
xvi. 14; xviii. 10. The text, as it stands, is probably corrupt: “Propter quod conabimur
pro mediocritate sensus nostri his, qui credunt Scripturas sanctas non humana verba aliqua
esse composita, sed Sancti Spiritus inspiratione conscripta, et voluntate Dei patris per
unigenitum filium suum Jesum Christum nobis quoque esse tradita et commissa, quæ nobis
videntur, recta via intelligentiæ observantibus, demonstrare illam regulam et disciplinam,
quam ab Jesu Christo traditam sibi apostoli per successionem posteris quoque suis, sanctam
ecclesiam docentibus, tradiderunt.” Dispensationes. Religiosius. Contra fas.

Sacramenta quædam. Fas. Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 16 and 12, 13. Tantam occultationem ineffabilium
sacramentorum. Per breve quoddam receptaculum. Immensæ lucis claritas. Luke xi. 52. Cf.
Prov. xxii. 20, 21. The Masoretic text reads, ךךעֲירִוׁהלְ .תעַרָוָ תוֹצע“מֹבְּ
(סישִׁלִשָׁ, keri) סוׁשׁלִשָׁ ךךלְ יתִּבְתַכָ אׁלהְ .ךךיחֶלְשֹׁלְ תמֶאֱ סירִמָאֲ בישִהָלְ
תמֶאֱ יר”מְאִ טְשְק 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7. Largitione. [Hermas, vol. ii. pp. 3, 8, 12, this
series. Origen seems to overrule this contempt of a minority; and, what is more strange,
he appears to have accepted the fiction of the Pauline Hermas as authentic history. How
naturally this became the impression in the East has been explained; and the De
Principiis, it must not be forgotten, was not the product of the author’s mature mind.]
Consquentia historialis intelligentiæ. Metretes. Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 9 and Deut. xxv. 4. Cf. 1
Cor. ix. 9, 10. Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 7. In figurâ. Greek (text. recept.) τύποι. Lachmann reads
τυπικῶς.

1 Cor. x. 11. 1 Cor. x. 4. Cf. Ex. xxv. 40 and Heb. viii. 5. Gal. iv. 21–24. Col. ii. 16.
Heb. viii. 5. Rom. xi. 4; cf. 1 Kings xix. 18. Quæ inter homines, vel de hominibus
geruntur. Figuraliter describebant. Intercapedines. Ut ita celsioris cujusdam et
eminentioris tramitis per angusti callis ingressum immensam divinæ scientiæ latitudinem
pandat. Consequenter, alii “convenienter.” Lignum. [See note, p. 262, supra. See also Dr.
Lee, The Inspiration of Holy Scripture, pp. 523–527. S.] Inconsequens. Cf. Gen. xvii. 14.
Tragelaphus; “wild goat,” Auth. Vers. Deut. xiv. 5; Heb. וֹקּאַ, ἅπαξ λεγ. Gryphus;
“ossifrage,” Auth. Vers. Lev. xi. 13; Heb. סרֶפֶ. Opinatissimâ. Cf. Ex. xvi. 29. Ulnas.
Jer. xvii. 21. Luke x. 4. Luke x. 4. 1 Cor. vii. 18. Secundo vero, quid obesset, si
obscœnitatis vitandæ causa ejus, quæ ex circumcisione est, posset aliquis revocare
præputium? Duplici spelunca. Cf. Gen. xlviii. 22 and Josh. xxiv. 32.

Cf. Ex. xx. 12 and Eph. vi. 2, 3. Cf. Ex. xx. 13–16. Cf. Matt. v. 34. Matt. v. 28. 1
Thess. v. 14. In libro Jesu Naue. 1 Cor. x. 18. Rom. ix. 6. Matt. xv. 24. Ebion, Heb.
ןוֹיבְאֶ, (from הבָאָ, to desire), lit. “wishing,” “desiring;” secondarily, “poor.” Gal.
iv. 26. Cf. Heb. xii. 22, 23. Infernus. Velut illic, si dici potest, morientes. A superis.
Cf. Ps. xxx. 3. and Deut. xxxii. 22. Corporaliter. Matt. xiii. 44. Ad propinquitatem
pertinent Israel. Rom. ix. 6. Ex ipsis Septuaginta animabus fiunt aliqui.

Translated from the Greek

Chapter I.—On the Inspiration of Holy Scripture, and How the Same is to be Read and
Understood, and What is the Reason of the Uncertainty in it; and of the Impossibility or
Irrationality of Certain Things in it, Taken According to the Letter. (The translation
from the Greek is designedly literal, that the difference between the original and the
paraphrase of Rufinus may be more clearly seen.) 1. Since, in our investigation of matters
of such importance, not satisfied with the common opinions, and with the clear evi­dence
of visible things,2812 we take in addition, for the proof of our statements, testimonies
from what are believed by us to be divine writings, viz., from that which is called the
Old Testament, and that which is styled the New, and endeavour by reason to con­firm our
faith; and as we have not yet spoken of the Scriptures as divine, come and let us, as if
by way of an epitome, treat of a few points respecting them, lay­ing down those reasons
which lead us to regard them as divine writings. And be­fore making use of the words of
the writ­ings themselves, and of the things which are exhibited in them, we must make the
following statement regarding Moses and Jesus Christ,—the lawgiver of the Hebrews, and the
Introducer of the sav­ing doctrines according to Christianity. For, although there have
been very many legislators among the Greeks and Barbari­ans, and teachers who announced
opinions which professed to be the truth, we have heard of no legislator who was able to
imbue other nations with a zeal for the reception of his words; and although those who
professed to philosophize about truth brought forward a great apparatus of apparent
logical demonstration, no one has been able to impress what was deemed by him the truth
upon other na­tions, or even on any number of persons worth mentioning in a single nation.

And yet not only would the legislators have liked to enforce those laws which appeared to
be good, if possible, upon the whole human race, but the teachers also to have spread what
they imagined to be truth everywhere throughout the world. But as they were unable to call
men of other lan­guages and from many nations to observe their laws, and accept their
teaching, they did not at all attempt to do this, consider­ing not unwisely the
impossibility of such a result happening to them. Whereas all Greece, and the barbarous
part of our world, contains innumerable zealots, who have deserted the laws of their
fathers and the established gods, for the observance of the laws of Moses and the
discipleship of the words of Jesus Christ; although those who clave to the law of Moses
were hated by the worshippers of images, and those who accepted the words of Jesus Christ
were exposed, in addition, to the danger of death.

2. And if we observe how powerful the word has become in a very few years, notwithstanding
that against those who acknowledged Christianity conspiracies were formed, and some of
them on its account put to death, and others of them lost their property, and that,
notwithstand­ing the small number of its teachers,2813 it was preached everywhere
throughout the world, so that Greeks and Barbarians, wise and foolish, gave themselves up
to the worship that is through Jesus,2814 we have no difficulty in saying that the result
is be­yond any human power,2815 Jesus having taught with all authority and persuasive­ness
that His word should not be over­come; so that we may rightly regard as oracular
responses2816 those utterances of His, such as, “Ye shall be brought before governors and
kings for My sake, for a testimony against them and the Gen­tiles;”2817 and, “Many shall
say unto Me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not eaten in Thy name, and drunk in Thy name,
and in Thy name cast out devils? And I shall say unto them, Depart from Me, ye work­ers of
iniquity, I never knew you.”2818 Now it was perhaps (once) probable that, in uttering
these words, He spoke them in vain, so that they were not true; but when that which was
delivered with so much authority has come to pass, it shows that God, having really become
man, delivered to men the doctrines of salvation.2819

3. And what need is there to mention also that it was predicted of Christ2820 that then
would the rulers fail from Judah, and the leaders from his thighs,2821 when He came for
whom it is reserved (the king­dom, namely); and that the expectation of the Gentiles
should dwell in the land?2822 For it is clearly manifest from the history, and from what
is seen at the present day, that from the times of Jesus there were no longer any who were
called kings of the Jews;2823 all those Jewish institutions on which they prided
themselves—I mean those arrangements relating to the temple and the altar, and the
offering of the ser­vice, and the robes of the high priest ­having been destroyed. For the
prophecy was fulfilled which said, “The children of Israel shall sit many days, there
being no king, nor ruler, nor sacrifice, nor altar, nor priesthood, nor responses.”2824
And these predictions we employ to answer those who, in their perplexity as to the words
spoken in Genesis by Jacob to Judah, as­sert that the Ethnarch,2825 being of the race of
Judah, is the ruler of the people, and that there will not fail some of his seed, until
the advent of that Christ whom they figure to their imagination. But if “the children of
Israel are to sit many days without a king, or ruler, or altar, or priest­hood, or
responses;

and if, since the temple was destroyed, there exists no longer sacrifice, nor altar, nor
priesthood, it is manifest that the ruler has failed out of Judah, and the leader from
between his thighs. And since the prediction declares that “the ruler shall not fail from
Judah, and the leader from between his thighs, until what is reserved for Him shall come,”
it is manifest that He is come to whom (belongs) what is reserved—the expecta­tion of the
Gentiles. And this is clear from the multitude of the heathen who have believed on God
through Jesus Christ. 4. And in the song in Deuteronomy,2826 also, it is prophetically
made known that, on account of the sins of the former peo­ple, there was to be an election
of foolish nations, which has been brought to pass by no other than by Jesus. “For they,”
He says, “moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God, they have provoked Me to anger
with their idols; and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people, and
will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.”2827 Now it is possi­ble to understand
with all clearness how the Hebrews, who are said to have moved God to jealousy by that
which is not God, and to have provoked Him to anger by their idols, were (themselves)
aroused to jealousy by that which was not a people—the foolish nation, namely, which God
chose by the advent of Jesus Christ and His disciples. We see, indeed, “our call­ing, that
not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble (are called); but God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and base things, and
things that are de­spised, hath God chosen, and things that are not, to bring to nought
the things which formerly existed;”2828 and let not the Israel according to the flesh,
which is called by the apostle “flesh,” boast in the presence of God.

5. And what are we to say regarding the prophecies of Christ in the Psalms, there being a
certain ode with the superscription “For the Beloved,”2829 whose” tongue” is said to be
the “pen of a ready writer, who is fairer than the sons of men,” since “grace was poured
on His lips? For a proof that grace was poured on His lips is this, that although the
period of His teach­ing was short—for He taught somewhere about a year and a few
months—the world has been filled with his teaching, and with the worship of God
(established) through Him. For there arose “in His days right­eousness and abundance of
peace,”2830 which abides until the consummation, which has been called the taking away of
the moon; and He continues “ruling from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the
earth.”2831 And to the house of David has been given a sign: for the Virgin bore, and was
pregnant,2832 and brought forth a son, and His name is Emmanuel, which is, “God with us;
and as the same prophet says, the prediction has been fulfilled, “God (is) with us; know
it, O nations, and be overcome; ye who are strong, be vanquished:”2833 for we of the
heathen have been overcome and vanquished, we who have been taken by the grace of His
teaching. The place also of His birth has been foretold in (the prophecies of) Micah: “For
thou, Bethlehem,” he says, “land of Judah, art by no means the least among the rulers of
Judah;

for out of thee shall come forth a Ruler, who shall rule My people Israel.”2834 And
according to Daniel, seventy weeks were fulfilled until (the coming of) Christ the
Ruler.2835 And He came, who, according to Job,2836 has subdued the great fish,2837 and has
given power to His true disciples to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and all the power
of the enemy,2838 without sustaining any in­jury from them. And let one notice also the
universal advent of the apostles sent by Jesus to announce the Gospel, and he will see
both that the undertaking was beyond human power, and that the commandment came from God.
And if we examine how men, on hearing new doctrines, and strange words, yielded themselves
up to these teachers, being overcome, amid the very desire to plot against them, by a
divine power that watched over these (teachers), we shall not be incredulous as to whether
they also wrought miracles, God bearing witness to their words both by signs, and wonders,
and divers miracles.

6. And while we thus briefly2839 demon­strate the deity of Christ, and (in so doing) make
use of the prophetic declarations regarding Him, we demonstrate at the same time that the
writings which prophe­sied of Him were divinely inspired; and that those documents which
announced His coming and His doctrine were given forth with all power and authority, and
that on this account they obtained the election from the Gentiles.2840 We must say, also,
that the divinity of the prophetic declarations, and the spiritual nature of the law of
Moses, shone forth after the advent of Christ. For before the advent of Christ it was not
altogether possible to exhibit manifest proofs of the divine in­spiration of the ancient
Scripture; whereas His coming led those who might suspect the law and the prophets not to
be divine, to the clear conviction that they were composed by (the aid of) heavenly grace.
And he who reads the words of the proph­ets with care and attention, feeling by the very
perusal the traces of the divinity2841 that is in them, will be led by his own emotions to
believe that those words which have been deemed to be the words of God are not the
compositions of men. The light, moreover, which was contained in the law of Moses, but
which had been concealed by a veil, shone forth at the advent of Jesus, the veil being
taken away, and those blessings, the shadow of which was contained in the letter, coming
forth gradually to the knowledge (of men).

7. It would be tedious now to enumer­ate the most ancient prophecies respecting each
future event, in order that the doubter, being impressed by their divinity, may lay aside
all hesitation and distraction, and devote himself with his whole soul to the words of
God. But if in every part of the Scriptures the superhuman element of thought2842 does not
seem to present itself to the uninstructed, that is not at all wonderful for, with respect
to the works of that providence which embraces the whole world, some show with the utmost
clearness that they are works of provi­dence, while others are so concealed as to seem to
furnish ground for unbelief with respect to that God who orders all things with
unspeakable skill and power. For the artistic plan2843 of a providential Ruler is not so
evident in those matters belong­ing to the earth, as in the case of the sun, and moon, and
stars;

and not so clear in what relates to human occurrences, as it is in the souls and bodies of
animals,—the object and reason of the impulses, and phantasies and natures of animals, and
the structure of their bodies, being carefully ascertained by those who attend to these
things.2844 But as (the doctrine of) provi­dence is not at all weakened2845 (on account of
those things which are not understood) in the eyes of those who have once hon­estly
accepted it, so neither is the divinity of Scripture, which extends to the whole of it,
(lost) on account of the inability of our weakness to discover in every expres­sion the
hidden splendour of the doctrines veiled in common and unattractive phrase­ology.2846 For
we have the treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power of God may shine
forth, and that it may not be deemed to proceed from us (who are but) human beings. For if
the hack­neyed2847 methods of demonstration (common) among men, contained in the books (of
the Bible), had been successful in pro­ducing conviction; then our faith would rightly
have been supposed to rest on the wisdom of men, and not on the power of God;

but now it is manifest to everyone who lifts up his eyes, that the word and preaching have
not prevailed among the multitude “by persuasive words of wisdom, but by demonstration of
the Spirit and of power.”2848 Wherefore, since a celestial or even a super-celestial power
compels us to worship the only Creator, let us leave the doctrine of the beginning of
Christ, i.e., the elements,2849 and endeavour to go on to perfection, in order that the
wisdom spoken to the perfect may be spoken to us also. For he who possesses it promises to
speak wisdom among them that are perfect, but another wisdom than that of this world, and
of the rulers of this world, which is brought to nought. And this wisdom will be
distinctly stamped2850 upon us, and will produce a revelation of the mystery that was kept
silent in the eternal ages,2851 but now has been manifested through the pro­phetic
Scriptures, and the appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for
ever and ever. Amen.

8. Having spoken thus briefly2852 on the subject of the divine inspiration of the holy
Scriptures, it is necessary to proceed to the (consideration of the) manner in which they
are to be read and understood, seeing numerous errors have been com­mitted in consequence
of the method in which the holy documents2853 ought to be examined;2854 not having been
discovered by the multitude. For both the hardened in heart, and the ignorant persons2855
belonging to the circumcision, have not believed on our Saviour, thinking that they are
follow­ing the language of the prophecies re­specting Him, and not perceiving in a manner
palpable to their senses2856 that He had proclaimed liberty to the captives, nor that He
had built up what they truly con­sider the city of God, nor cut off “the chariots of
Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem,”2857 nor eaten butter and honey, and, before
knowing or preferring the evil, had selected the good.2858 And thinking, moreover, that it
was prophesied that the wolf—the four-footed animal—was to feed with the lamb, and the
leopard to lie down with the kid, and the calf and bull and lion to feed together, being
led by a little child, and that the ox and bear were to pasture together, their young ones
growing up together, and that the lion was to eat straw like the ox:2859 seeing none of
these things visibly accomplished during the advent of Him who is believed by us to be
Christ, they did not accept our Lord Jesus;

but, as having called Himself Christ improperly,2860 they crucified Him. And those
belonging to heretical sects reading this (statement), “A fire has been kindled in Mine
anger;”2861 and this, “I am a jealous God, visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the
children unto the third and fourth generation;”2862 and this, “I repent of having anointed
Saul to be king;”2863 and this, “I am a God that maketh peace, and createth evil;”2864
and, among others, this, “There is not wickedness in the city which the Lord hath not
done;”2865 and again this, “Evils came down from the Lord upon the gates of
Jerusalem;”2866 and, “An evil spirit from the Lord plagued Saul;”2867 and countless other
passages like these—they have not ventured to disbelieve these as the Scriptures of God;
but believing them to be the (words) of the Demiurge, whom the Jews worship, they thought
that as the Demiurge was an imperfect and unbenevo­lent God, the Saviour had come to
an­nounce a more perfect Deity, who, they say, is not the Demiurge, being of different
opinions regarding Him; and having once departed from the Demiurge, who is the only
uncreated God, they have given them­selves up to fictions, inventing to themselves
hypotheses, according to which they im­agine that there are some things which are visible,
and certain other things which are not visible, all which are the fancies of their own
minds.

And yet, indeed, the more simple among those who profess to belong to the Church have
supposed that there is no deity greater than the Demi­urge, being right in so thinking,
while they imagine regarding Him such things as would not be believed of the most savage
and unjust of mankind. 9. Now the cause, in all the points pre­viously enumerated, of the
false opinions, and of the impious statements or ignorant assertions2868 about God,
appears to be nothing else than the not understanding the Scripture according to its
spiritual meaning, but the interpretation of it agree­ably to the mere letter. And
therefore, to those who believe that the sacred books are not the compositions of men, but
that they were composed by inspiration2869 of the Holy Spirit, agreeably to the will of
the Father of all things through Jesus Christ, and that they have come down to us, we must
point out the ways (of interpreting them) which appear (correct) to us, who cling to the
standard2870 of the heavenly Church of Jesus Christ according to the succession of the
apostles. Now, that there are certain mystical economies made known by the holy
Scriptures, all—even the most simple of those who adhere to the word—have believed; but
what these are, candid and modest individuals confess that they know not. If, then, one
were to be perplexed about the intercourse of Lot with his daughters, and about the two
wives of Abraham, and the two sisters married to Jacob, and the two handmaids who bore him
children, they can return no other answer than this, that these are mysteries not
understood by us.

Nay, also, when the (description of the) fitting out of the tabernacle is read, believing
that what is written is a type,2871 they seek to adapt what they can to each particular
related about the tabernacle,—not being wrong so far as regards their belief that the
tabernacle is a type of something, but erring sometimes in adapting the descrip­tion of
that of which the tabernacle is a type, to some special thing in a manner worthy of
Scripture. And all the history that is considered to tell of marriages, or the begetting
of children, or of wars, or any histories whatever that are in circula­tion among the
multitude, they declare to be types; but of what in each individual instance, partly owing
to their habits not being thoroughly exercised—partly, too, owing to their
precipitation—sometimes, even when an individual does happen to be well trained and clear-
sighted, owing to the excessive difficulty of discovering things on the part of men,—the
nature of each particular regarding these (types) is not clearly ascertained.

10. And what need is there to speak of the prophecies, which we all know to be filled with
enigmas and dark sayings? And if we come to the Gospels, the exact understanding of these
also, as being the mind of Christ, requires the grace that was given to him who said, “But
we have the mind of Christ, that we might know the things freely given to us by God. Which
things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit
teacheth.”2872 And who, on read­ing the revelations made to John, would not be amazed at
the unspeakable mys­teries therein concealed, and which are evident (even) to him who does
not com­prehend what is written? And to what person, skilful in investigating words, would
the Epistles of the Apostles seem to be clear and easy of understanding, since even in
them there are countless numbers of most profound ideas, which, (issuing forth) as by an
aperture, admit of no rapid com­prehension?2873 And therefore, since these things are so,
and since innumerable indi­viduals fall into mistakes, it is not safe in reading (the
Scriptures) to declare that one easily understands what needs the key of knowledge, which
the Saviour declares is with the lawyers. And let those answer who will not allow that the
truth was with these before the advent of Christ, how the key of knowledge is said by our
Lord Jesus Christ to be with those who, as they allege, had not the books which contain
the secrets2874 of knowledge, and perfect mys­teries.2875 For His words run thus: “Woe
unto you, ye lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye have not entered in
yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.”2876

11. The way, then, as it appears to us, in which we ought to deal with the Scrip­tures,
and extract from them their mean­ing, is the following, which has been ascer­tained from
the Scriptures themselves. By Solomon in the Proverbs we find some such rule as this
enjoined respecting the divine doctrines of Scripture:2877 “And do thou portray them in a
threefold manner, in counsel and knowledge, to answer words of truth to them who propose
them to thee.”2878 The individual ought, then, to portray the ideas of holy Scripture in a
threefold manner upon his own soul; in order that the simple man may be edified by the
“flesh,” as it were, of the Scripture, for so we name the obvious sense; while he who has
ascended a certain way (may be edified) by the “soul,” as it were. The perfect man, again,
and he who resem­bles those spoken of by the apostle, when he says, “We speak wisdom among
them that are perfect, but not the wisdom of the world, nor of the rulers of this world,
who come to nought; but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which
God hath ordained before the ages, unto our glory,”2879 (may receive edification) from the
spiritual law, which has a shadow of good things to come. For as man consists of body, and
soul, and spirit, so in the same way does Scripture, which has been arranged to be given
by God for the salvation of men.

And therefore we deduce this also from a book which is despised by some—The Shepherd—in
respect of the command given to Hermas to write two books, and after so doing to announce
to the presbyters of the Church what he had learned from the Spirit. The words are as
follows: “You will write two books, and give one to Clement, and one to Grapte. And Grapte
shall admonish the widows and the orphans, and Clement will send to the cities abroad,
while you will announce to the presbyters of the Church. Now Grapte, who admonishes the
widows and the orphans, is the mere letter (of Scripture), which admonishes those who are
yet children in soul, and not able to call God their Father, and who are on that account
styled orphans,—admon­ishing, moreover, those who no longer have an unlawful
bridegroom,2880 but who remain widows, because they have not yet become worthy of the
(heavenly) Bridegroom; while Clement, who is already beyond the letter, is said to send
what is written to the cities abroad, as if we were to call these the “souls,” who are
above (the influence of) bodily (affections) and degraded2881 ideas,—the disciple of the
Spirit himself being enjoined to make known, no longer by let­ters, but by living words,
to the presbyters of the whole Church of God, who have become grey2882 through wisdom.

12. But as there are certain passages of Scripture which do not at all contain the
“corporeal” sense, as we shall show in the following (paragraphs), there are also places
where we must seek only for the “soul,” as it were, and “spirit” of Scrip­ture. And
perhaps on this account the water-vessels containing two or three firkins a-piece are said
to lie for the purification of the Jews, as we read in the Gospel ac­cording to John: the
expression darkly intimating, with respect to those who (are called) by the apostle “Jews”
secretly, that they are purified by the word of Scripture, receiving sometimes two
firkins, i.e., so to speak, the “psychical” and “spiritual” sense; and sometimes three
firkins, since some have, in addition to those already mentioned, also the “cor­poreal”
sense, which is capable of (pro­ducing) edification. And six water-vessels are reasonably
(appropriate) to those who are purified in the world, which was made in six days—the
perfect number. That the first “sense,” then, is profitable in this respect, that it is
capable of imparting edi­fication, is testified by the multitudes of genuine and simple
believers; while of that interpretation which is referred back to the “soul,” there is an
illustration in Paul’s first Epistle to the Corinthians. The ex­pression is, “Thou shalt
not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn;”2883 to which he adds, “Doth
God take care of oxen? or saith He it alto­gether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt,
this was written: that he that plougheth should plough in hope, and that he who thresheth,
in hope of partak­ing.”2884 And there are numerous interpre­tations adapted to the
multitude which are in circulation, and which edify those who are unable to understand
profounder mean­ings, and which have somewhat the same character.

13. But the interpretation is “spiritual,” when one is able to show of what heavenly
things the Jews “according to the flesh” served as an example and a shadow, and of what
future blessings the law contains a shadow. And, generally, we must investi­gate,
according to the apostolic promise, “the wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wis­dom which God
ordained before the world for the glory” of the just, which “none of the princes of this
world knew.”2885 And the same apostle says somewhere, after refer­ring to certain events
mentioned as occur­ring in Exodus and Numbers, “that these things happened to them
figuratively, but that they were written on our account, on whom the ends of the world are
come.”2886 And he gives an opportunity for ascertain­ing of what things these were
patterns, when he says: “For they drank of the spiritual Rock that followed them, and that
Rock was Christ.”2887 And in another Epistle, when sketching the various mat­ters relating
to the tabernacle, he used the words: “Thou shalt make everything ac­cording to the
pattern showed thee in the mount.”2888 Moreover, in the Epistle to the Galatians, as if
upbraiding those who think that they read the law, and yet do not understand it, judging
that those do not understand it who do not reflect that alle­gories are contained under
what is written, he says: “Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the
law? For it is written, Abraham had two sons;

the one by the bond-maid, the other by the free woman. But he who was by the bond-maid was
born according to the flesh; but he of the free woman was by promise. Which things are an
allegory:2889 for these are the two covenants,” and so on. Now we must carefully observe
each word employed by him. He says: “Ye who desire to be under the law,” not “Ye that are
under the law; and, “Do ye not hearthe law?”—“hearing” being under­stood to mean
“comprehending” and “knowing. And in the Epistle to the Colossians, briefly abridging the
meaning of the whole legislation, he says: “Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in
drink, or in respect of a festival, or of a new moon, or of Sabbaths, which are a shadow
of things to come.”2890 Moreover, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, discoursing of those who
belong to the circumcision, he writes: “who serve for an ensample and shadow of heavenly
things.”2891 Now it is probable that, from these illustrations, those will entertain no
doubt with respect to the five books of Moses, who have once given in their adhesion to
the apostle, as divinely inspired;2892 but do you wish to know, with regard to the rest of
the his­tory, if it also happened as a pattern?

We must note, then, the expression in the Epistle to the Romans, “I have left to myself
seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to Baal,”2893 quoted from the third book
of Kings, which Paul has understood as equivalent (in meaning) to those who are Israelites
according to elec­tion, because not only were the Gentiles benefited by the advent of
Christ, but also certain of the race of God.2894 14. This being the state of the case, we
have to sketch what seem to us to be the marks of the (true) understanding of Scriptures.
And, in the first place, this must be pointed out, that the object of the Spirit, which by
the providence of God, through the Word who was in the begin­ning with God, illuminated
the ministers of truth, the prophets and apostles, was especially (the communication) of
ineffa­ble mysteries regarding the affairs of men (now by men I mean those souls that make
use of bodies), in order that he who is capable of instruction may by investiga­tion, and
by devoting himself to the study of the profundities of meaning contained in the words,
become a participator of all the doctrines of his counsel. And among those matters which
relate to souls (who cannot otherwise obtain perfection apart from the rich and wise truth
of God), the (doctrines) belonging to God and His only-begotten Son are necessarily laid
down as primary, viz., of what nature He is, and in what manner He is the Son of God, and
what are the causes of His descending even to (the assumption of) human flesh, and of
complete humanity; and what, also, is the operation of this (Son), and upon whom and when
exer­cised. And it was necessary also that the subject of kindred beings, and other
ration­al creatures, both those who are divine and those who have fallen from
blessed­ness, together with the reasons of their fall, should be contained in the divine
teaching;

and also that of the diversities of souls, and of the origin of these diver­sities, and of
the nature of the world, and the cause of its existence. We must learn also the origin of
the great and terrible wickedness which overspreads the earth, and whether it is confined
to this earth only, or prevails elsewhere. Now, while these and similar objects were
present to the Spirit, who enlightened the souls of the holy ministers of the truth, there
was a second object, for the sake of those who were unable to endure the fatigue of
in­vestigating matters so important, viz., to conceal the doctrine relating to the
pre­viously mentioned subjects, in expressions containing a narrative which conveyed an
announcement regarding the things of the visible creation,2895 the creation of man, and
the successive descendants of the first men until they became numerous; and other
histories relating the acts of just men, and the sins occasionally committed by these same
men as being human beings, and the wicked deeds, both of unchastity and vice, committed by
sinful and ungodly men. And what is most remarkable, by the his­tory of wars, and of the
victors, and the vanquished, certain mysteries are indi­cated to those who are able to
test these statements. And more wonderful still, the laws of truth are predicted by the
written legislation;—all these being described in a connected series, with a power which
is truly in keeping with the wisdom of God.

For it was intended that the covering also of the spiritual truths—I mean the “bodi­ly”
part of Scripture—should not be with­out profit in many cases, but should be capable of
improving the multitude, according to their capacity. 15. But since, if the usefulness of
the legislation, and the sequence and beauty2896 of the history, were universally evident
of itself,2897 we should not believe that any other thing could be understood in the
Scriptures save what was obvious, the word of God has arranged that certain stumbling-
blocks, as it were, and offences, and impossibili­ties, should be introduced into the
midst of the law and the history, in order that we may not, through being drawn away in
all directions by the merely attractive na­ture of the language,2898 either altogether
fall away from the (true) doctrines, as learn­ing nothing worthy of God, or, by not
departing from the letter, come to the knowledge of nothing more divine. And this also we
must know, that the principal aim being to announce the “spiritual” connection in those
things that are done, and that ought to be done, where the Word found that things done
according to the history could be adapted to these mystical senses, He made use of them,
concealing from the multitude the deeper meaning; but where, in the narrative of the
develop­ment of super-sensual things,2899 there did not follow the performance of those
certain events, which was already indicated by the mystical meaning, the Scripture
interwove in the history (the account of) some event that did not take place, sometimes
what could not have happened; sometimes what could, but did not. And sometimes a few words
are interpolated which are not true in their literal acceptation,2900 and sometimes a
larger number.

And a similar practice also is to be noticed with regard to the legislation, in which is
often to be found what is useful in itself, and appro­priate to the times of the
legislation; and sometimes also what does not appear to be of utility; and at other times
impossibili­ties are recorded for the sake of the more skilful and inquisitive, in order
that they may give themselves to the toil of investi­gating what is written, and thus
attain to a becoming conviction of the manner in which a meaning worthy of God must be
sought out in such subjects. 16. It was not only, however, with the (Scriptures composed)
before the advent (of Christ) that the Spirit thus dealt; but as being the same Spirit,
and (proceeding) from the one God, He did the same thing both with the evangelists and the
apostles,—as even these do not contain through­out a pure history of events, which are
in­terwoven indeed according to the letter, but which did not actually occur.2901 Nor even
do the law and the commandments wholly convey what is agreeable to reason. For who that
has understanding will sup­pose that the first, and second, and third day, and the evening
and the morning, ex­isted without a sun, and moon, and stars? and that the first day was,
as it were, also without a sky? And who is so foolish as to suppose that God, after the
manner of a husbandman, planted a paradise in Eden, towards the east, and placed in it a
tree of life, visible and palpable, so that one tasting of the fruit by the bodily teeth
obtained life? and again, that one was a partaker of good and evil by masticating what was
taken from the tree?

And if God is said to walk in the paradise in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under
a tree, I do not suppose that anyone doubts that these things figuratively indi­cate
certain mysteries, the history having taken place in appearance, and not literally.2902
Cain also, when going forth from the presence of God, certainly appears to thoughtful men
as likely to lead the reader to inquire what is the presence of God, and what is the
meaning of going out from Him. And what need is there to say more, since those who are not
altogether blind can collect countless instances of a similar kind recorded as having
occurred, but which did not literally2903 take place? Nay, the Gospels themselves are
filled with the same kind of narratives; e.g., the devil leading Jesus up into a high
moun­tain, in order to show him from thence the kingdoms of the whole world, and the glory
of them. For who is there among those who do not read such accounts carelessly, that would
not condemn those who think that with the eye of the body­—which requires a lofty height
in order that the parts lying (immediately) under and adjacent may be seen—the kingdoms of
the Persians, and Scythians, and Indians, and Parthians, were beheld, and the manner in
which their princes are glorified among men? And the attentive reader may no­tice in the
Gospels innumerable other pas­sages like these, so that he will be convinced that in the
histories that are literally re­corded, circumstances that did not occur are inserted.

17. And if we come to the legislation of Moses, many of the laws manifest the
irrationality, and others the impossibility, of their literal2904 observance. The
irration­ality (in this), that the people are forbid­den to eat vultures, although no one
even in the direst famines was (ever) driven by want to have recourse to this bird; and
that children eight days old, which are un­circumcised, are ordered to be extermi­nated
from among their people, it being necessary, if the law were to be carried out at all
literally with regard to these, that their fathers, or those with whom they are brought
up, should be commanded to be put to death. Now the Scripture says: “Every male that is
uncircumcised, who shall not be circumcised on the eighth day, shall be cut off from among
his people.”2905 And if you wish to see impossibilities con­tained in the legislation, let
us observe that the goat-stag is one of those animals that cannot exist, and yet Moses
commands us to offer it as being a clean beast; whereas a griffin, which is not recorded
ever to have been subdued by man, the lawgiver forbids to be eaten. Nay, he who care­fully
considers (the famous injunction re­lating to) the Sabbath, “Ye shall sit each one in your
dwellings: let no one go out from his place on the seventh day,”2906 will deem it
impossible to be literally observed: for no living being is able to sit throughout a whole
day, and remain without moving from a sitting position.

And therefore those who belong to the circumcision, and all who desire that no meaning
should be exhibited, save the literal one, do not in­vestigate at all such subjects as
those of the goat-stag and griffin and vulture, but indulge in foolish talk on certain
points, multiplying words and adducing tasteless2907 traditions; as, for example, with
regard to the Sabbath, saying that two thousand cu­bits is each one’s limit.2908 Others,
again, among whom is Dositheus the Samaritan, condemning such an interpretation, think
that in the position in which a man is found on the Sabbath-day, he is to remain until
evening. Moreover, the not carrying of a burden on the Sabbath-day is an im­possibility;
and therefore the Jewish teach­ers have fallen into countless absurdities,2909 saying that
a shoe of such a kind was a burden, but not one of another kind; and that a sandal which
had nails was a bur­den, but not one that was without them; and in like manner what was
borne on one shoulder (was a load), but not that which was carried on both.

18. And if we go to the Gospel and institute a similar examination, what would be more
irrational than (to take literally the injunction), “Salute no man by the way,”2910 which
simple persons think the Sav­iour enjoined on the apostles? The com­mand, moreover, that
the right cheek should be smitten, is most incredible, since everyone who strikes, unless
he happen to have some bodily defect,2911 smites the left cheek with his right hand. And
it is im­possible to take (literally, the statement) in the Gospel about the “offending”
of the right eye. For, to grant the possibility of one being “offended” by the sense of
sight, how, when there are two eyes that see, should the blame be laid upon the right eye?
And who is there that, con­demning himself for having looked upon a woman to lust after
her, would rationally transfer the blame to the right eye alone, and throw it away? The
apostle, more­over, lays down the law, saying, “Is any man called, being circumcised? Let
him not become uncircumcised.” 2912 In the first place, anyone will see that he does not
utter these words in connection with the subject before him. For, when laying down
precepts on marriage and purity, how will it not appear that he has intro­duced these
words at random?2913 But, in the second place, who will say that a man does wrong who
endeavours to become un­circumcised, if that be possible, on account of the disgrace that
is considered by the multitude to attach to circumcision.

All these statements have been made by us, in order to show that the design of that divine
power which gave us the sacred Scriptures is, that we should not receive what is presented
by the letter alone (such things being sometimes not true in their literal acceptation,
but absurd and impos­sible), but that certain things have been introduced into the actual
history and into the legislation that are useful in their literal sense.2914 19. But that
no one may suppose that we assert respecting the whole that no his­tory is real2915
because a certain one is not; and that no law is to be literally observed, because a
certain one, (understood) ac­cording to the letter, is absurd or impossi­ble; or that the
statements regarding the Saviour are not true in a manner percept­ible to the senses;2916
or that no command­ment and precept of His ought to be obeyed;—we have to answer that,
with regard to certain things, it is perfectly clear to us that the historical account is
true; as that Abraham was buried in the double cave at Hebron, as also Isaac and Jacob,
and the wives of each of them; and that Shechem was given as a portion to Joseph;2917 and
that Jerusalem is the metropolis of Judea, in which the temple of God was built by
Solomon; and innumerable other statements. For the passages that are true in their
historical meaning are much more numerous than those which are interspersed with a purely
spiritual signification. And again, who would not say that the com­mand which enjoins to
“honour thy father and thy mother, that it may be well with thee,”2918 is useful, apart
from all allegorical meaning,2919 and ought to be observed, the Apostle Paul also having
employed these very same words?

And what need is there to speak of the (prohibitions), “Thou shalt not commit adultery,”
“Thou shalt not kill,” “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not bear false witness?”2920
And again, there are commandments contained in the Gospel which admit of no doubt whether
they are to be observed according to the letter or not; e.g., that which says, “But I say
unto you, Whoever is angry with his brother,”2921 and so on. And again, “But I say unto
you, Swear not at all.”2922 “And in the writings of the apostle the literal sense is to be
retained: “Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be
patient towards all men;”2923 although it is possible for those ambitious of a deeper
meaning to retain the profundities of the wisdom of God, without setting aside the
commandment in its literal meaning.2924 The careful (reader), however, will be in
doubt2925 as to cer­tain points, being unable to show without long investigation whether
this history so deemed literally occurred or not, and whether the literal meaning of this
law is to be observed or not. And therefore the exact reader must, in obedience to the
Saviour’s injunction to “search the Scriptures,”2926 carefully ascertain in how far the
literal meaning is true, and in how far im­possible; and so far as he can, trace out, by
means of similar statements, the mean­ing everywhere scattered through Scripture of that
which cannot be understood in a literal signification.

20. Since, therefore, as will be clear to those who read, the connection taken literally
is impossible, while the sense pre­ferred2927 is not impossible, but even the true one, it
must be our object to grasp the whole meaning, which connects the account of what is
literally impossible in an intelligible manner with what is not only not impossible, but
also historically true, and which is allegorically understood, in respect of its not
having literally occurred.2928 For, with respect to holy Scripture, our opinion is that
the whole of it has a “spir­itual,” but not the whole a “bodily” meaning, because the
bodily meaning is in many places proved to be impossible. And therefore great attention
must be bestowed by the cautious reader on the divine books, as being divine writings; the
manner of understanding which ap­pears to us to be as follows:—The Scrip­tures relate that
God chose a certain nation upon the earth, which they call by several names. For the whole
of this nation is termed Israel, and also Jacob. And when it was divided in the times of
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the ten tribes related as being subject to him were called
Israel; and the remaining two, along with the tribe of Levi, being ruled over by the
de­scendants of David, were named Judah. And the whole of the territory which the people
of this nation inhabited, being given them by God, receives the name of Judah, the
metropolis of which is Jerusalem,—a metropolis, namely, of numerous cities, the names of
which lie scattered about in many other passages (of Scripture), but are enumerated
together in the book of Joshua the son of Nun.2929

21. Such, then, being the state of the case, the apostle, elevating our power of
discernment (above the letter), says some­where, “Behold Israel after the flesh,”2930 as
if there were an Israel “according to the Spirit. And in another place he says, “For they
who are the children of the flesh are not the children of God; nor are “they all Israel
who are of Israel;”2931 nor is “he a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that ‘circumcision’
which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one ‘inwardly; and circumcision is
that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the let­ter.”2932 For if the judgment
respecting the “Jew inwardly” be adopted, we must understand that, as there is a “bodily”
race of Jews, so also is there a race of “Jews inwardly,” the soul having acquired this
nobility for certain mysterious reasons. Moreover, there are many prophecies which predict
regarding Israel and Judah what is about to befall them. And do not such promises as are
written concerning them, in respect of their being mean in expres­sion, and manifesting no
elevation (of thought), nor anything worthy of the prom­ise of God, need a mystical
interpretation? And if the “spiritual” promises are an­nounced by visible signs, then they
to whom the promises are made are not “cor­poreal.

And not to linger over the point of the Jew who is a Jew “inwardly,” nor over that of the
Israelite according to the “inner man”—these statements being sufficient for those who are
not devoid of understanding—we return to our subject, and say that Jacob is the father of
the twelve patriarchs, and they of the rulers of the people; and these, again, of the
other Israelites. Do not, then, the “corporeal” Israelites refer their descent to the
rulers of the people, and the rulers of the people to the patriarchs, and the patriarchs
to Jacob, and those still higher up; while are not the “spiritual” Israelites, of whom the
“corporeal” Israelites were the type, sprung from the families, and the families from the
tribes, and the tribes from some one individual whose descent is not of a “corporeal” but
of a better kind,—he, too, being born of Isaac, and he of Abraham,—all going back to Adam,
whom the apostle declares to be Christ? For every beginning of those families which have
rela­tion to God as to the Father of all, took its commencement lower down with Christ,
who is next to the God and Father of all,2933 being thus the Father of every soul, as Adam
is the father of all men.

And if Eve also is intended by the apostle to refer to the Church, it is not surprising
that Cain, who was born of Eve, and all after him, whose descent goes back to Eve, should
be types of the Church, inasmuch as in a pre-eminent sense they are all descended from the
Church. 22. Now, if the statements made to us regarding Israel, and its tribes and its
fam­ilies, are calculated to impress us, when the Saviour says, “I was not sent but to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel,”2934 we do not understand the expression as the
Ebionites do, who are poor in under­standing (deriving their name from the poverty of
their intellect—“Ebion” sig­nifying “poor” in Hebrew), so as to sup­pose that the Saviour
came specially to the “carnal” Israelites; for “they who are the children of the flesh are
not the children of God.”2935 Again, the apostle teaches regarding Jerusalem as follows:
“The Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”2936 And in another
Epistle: “But ye are come unto mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, to the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the gen­eral assembly and
to the Church of the first-born which are written in heaven.”2937 If, then, Israel is
among the race of souls,2938 and if there is in heaven a city of Jerusalem, it follows
that the cities of Israel have for their metropolis the heavenly Jeru­salem, and it
consequently is the metrop­olis of all Judea. Whatever, therefore, is predicted of
Jerusalem, and spoken of it, if we listen to the words of Paul as those of God, and of one
who utters wisdom, we must understand the Scriptures as speaking of the heavenly city, and
of the whole ter­ritory included within the cities of the holy land.

For perhaps it is to these cities that the Saviour refers us, when to those who have
gained credit by having managed their “pounds” well, He assigns the presi­dency over five
or ten cities. If, therefore, the prophecies relating to Judea, and Jeru­salem, and
Israel, and Judah, and Jacob, not being understood by us in a “carnal” sense, indicate
some such mysteries (as already mentioned), it will follow also that the predictions
concerning Egypt and the Egyptians, Babylon and the Babylonians, Tyre and the Tyrians,
Sidon and the Sidonians, or the other nations, are spoken not only of these “bodily”
Egyptians, and Babylonians, and Tyrians, and Sidonians, but also of their “spiritual”
(counterparts). For if there be “spiritual” Israelites, it follows that there are also
“spiritual” Egyptians and Babylonians. For what is related in Ezekiel concerning Pharaoh
king of Egypt does not at all apply to the case of a certain man who ruled or was said to
rule over Egypt, as will be evident to those who give it careful consideration. Similarly,
what is said about the ruler of Tyre cannot be understood of a certain man who ruled over
Tyre. And what is said in many places, and especially in Isaiah, of Nebu­chadnezzar,
cannot be explained of that individual. For the man Nebuchadnezzar neither fell from
heaven, nor was he the morning star, nor did he arise upon the earth in the morning.

Nor would any man of understanding interpret what is said in Ezekiel about Egypt—viz.,
that in forty years it should be laid desolate, so that the footstep of man should not be
found there­on, and that the ravages of war should be so great that the blood should run
through­out the whole of it, and rise to the knees—of that Egypt which is situated beside
the Ethiopians whose bodies are blackened by the sun. 23. And perhaps as those here, dying
according to the death common to all, are, in consequence of the deeds done here, so
arranged as to obtain different places according to the proportion of their sins, if they
should be deemed worthy of the place called Hades;2939 so those there dying, so to speak,
descend into this Hades, being judged deserving of different abodes—better or
worse—throughout all this space of earth, and (of being de­scended) from parents of
different kinds,2940 so that an Israelite may sometimes fall among Scythians, and an
Egyptian de­scend into Judea. And yet the Saviour came to gather together the lost sheep
of the house of Israel; but many of the Isra­elites not having yielded to His teaching,
those from the Gentiles were called.…And these points, as we suppose, have been concealed
in the histories. For “the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hid in a field; the which
when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath,
and buyeth that field.”2941 Let us notice, then, whether the apparent and superficial and
obvious meaning of Scripture does not resemble a field filled with plants of every kind,
while the things lying in it, and not visible to all, but buried, as it were, under the
plants that are seen, are the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge;

which the Spirit through Isaiah2942 calls dark and invisible and concealed, God alone
being able to break the brazen gates that conceal them, and to burst the iron bars that
are upon the gates, in order that all the statements in the book of Genesis may be
discovered which refer to the various genuine kinds, and seeds, as it were, of souls,
which stand nearly related to Israel, or at a distance from it; and the descent into Egypt
of the seventy souls, that they may there be­come as the “stars of heaven in multi­tude.
But since not all who are of them are the light of the world—“for not all who are of
Israel are Israel”2943—they be­come from seventy souls as the “sand that is beside the
sea-shore innumerable.” τῇ ἐναργείᾳ τῶν βλεπομένων. οὐδὲ τῶν διδασκάλων πλεοναζόντων. τῇ
διὰ ᾽Ιησοῦ θεοσεβεία. μεῖζον ἤ κατὰ ἄνθρωπον το πρᾶγμα εἶναι. χρησμούς. Matt. x. 18. Cf.
Matt. vii. 22, 23. σωτήρια δόγματα. προεφητεύθη ὁ Χριστός. ἐκ τῶν μηρῶν. ἐπιδημήσῃ. οὔκ
ἔτι βασιλεῖς ᾽Ιουδαίαν ἐχρημάτισαν. Cf. Hos. iii. 4. Quoted from the Septuagint. Termed by
Rufinus “Patriarch.” Deut. xxxii. Deut. xxxii. 21. Cf. 1 Cor. i. 26–28. Ps. xlv. 1, 2. Cf.
Ps. lxxii. 7. Ps. lxxii. 8. ἐτεκε καὶ ἐν γαστρὶ ἔσχε, καὶ ἔτεκεν υἱόν. Cf. Isa. viii. 8,
9. Cf. Mic. v. 2 with Matt. ii. 6. Cf. Dan. ix. 25. Cf. Job xl. and xli. τὸ μέγα κῆτος.
Cf. Luke x. 19. ὡς ἐν ἐπιτομ*. διὰ τοῦτο τῆς ἀπὸ τῶν ἐθνῶν ἐκλογῆς κεκρατηκότα. ἴχνος
ἐνθουσιασμοῦ. τὸ ὑπὲρ ἄνθρωπον τῶν νοημάτων. ὁ τεχνικὸς λόγος. Σφόδρα τοῦ πρὸς τί καὶ
ἕνεκα τίνος εὑρισκομένου τοῖς τούτων ἐπιμελομένοις, περὶ τὰς ὁρμὰς, καὶ τὰς φαντασίας, καὶ
φύσεις τῶν ζώων, καὶ τὰς κατασκευὰς τῶν σωμάτων.

χρεοκοπεῖται. ἐν εὐτελεῖ καὶ εὐκαταφρονήτῳ λέξει. καθημαξευμέναι. 1 Cor. ii. 4. τῆς
στοιχειώσεως. ἐντυπωθήσεται. χρόνοις αἰωνίοις. ὡς ἐν ἐπιδρομῇ. τὰ ἅγια ἀναγνώσματα. πῶς
δεῖ ἐφοδεύειν. οἱ ἰδιῶται τῶν ἐκ τῆς περιτομῆς. αἰσθητῶς. Cf. Zech. ix. 10. Cf. Isa. vii.
15. Cf. Isa. xi. 6, 7. παρὰ τὸ δέον. Cf. Jer. xv. 14. Cf. Ex. xx. 5. Cf. 1 Sam. xv. 11.
Cf. Isa. xlv. 7. Cf. Amos iii. 6. Cf. Mic. i. 12. Cf. 1 Sam. xvi. 14; xviii. 10.
ἰδιωτικῶν. ἐπιπνοίας. κανόνος. τύπους εἶναι τὰ γεγραμμένα. 1 Cor. ii. 12, 13, and 16 ad
fin. Μυρίων ὅσων κἀκεῖ, ὡς δἰ ὀπῆς, μεγίστων καὶ πλείστων νοημάτων οὐ βραχεῖαν ἀφορμὴν
παρεχόντων. ἀπόῤῥητα. παντελῆ μυστήρια. Luke xi. 52. The Septuagint: Καὶ σὺ δὲ ἀπόγραψαι
αὐτὰ σεαυτῷ τρισσῶς, εἰς βσυλὴν καὶ γνῶσιν ἐπὶ τὸ πλάτος τῆς καρδίας σου · διδάκω οὖν σε
ἀληθῆ λόγον, καὶ γνῶσιν ἀληθῆ ὑπακούειν, τοῦ ἀποκρίνεσθαί σε λόγους ἀληθείας τοῖς
προβαλλομένοις σοι. The Vulgate reads: Ecce, descripsi eam tibi tripliciter, in
cogitationibus et scientia, ut ostenderem tibi firmitatem et eloquia veritatis, respondere
ex his illis, qui miserunt te.

Cf. note 4, ut supra. 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7. παρανόμῳ νυμφίῳ. τῶν κάτω νοημάτων. πεπολιωμένοις.
Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 9 and Deut. xxv. 4. Cf. 1 Cor. ix. 9, 10. Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 6, 7, 8. 1 Cor. x.
11. 1 Cor. x. 4. Cf. Ex. xxv. 40 and Heb. viii. 5. ἀλληγορούμενα. Col. ii. 16. Heb. viii.
5. ὡς θεῖον ἄνδρα. Rom. xi. 4; cf. 1 Kings xix. 18. [3 Kings according to the Septuagint
and Vulgate enumeration. S.] τινὰς ἀπὸ τοῦ θεῖου γένους, i.e., Israelites. περὶ τῶν
αἰσθητῶν δημιουργημάτων. γλαφυρόν. αὐτόθεν. ὑπὸ τῆς λέξεως ἑλκόμενοι τὸ ἀγωγὸν ἄκρατον
ἐχούσης. ἐν τῇ διηγήσει τῆς περὶ τῶν νοητῶν ἀκολουθίας. κατὰ τὸ σῶμα. Οὐδὲ τούτων πάντη
ἄκρατον τὴν ἱστορίαν τῶν προσυφασμένων κατὰ τὸ σωματικὸν ἐχόντων, μὴ γεγενημένων · οὐδὲ
τὴν νομοθεσίαν καὶ τὰς ἐντολὰς πάντως τὸ εὔλογον ἐμφαίνοντα . One ms. reads γεγενημένην,
referring to ἱστορίαν, on which one editor remarks, “Hic et in sequentibus imploro fidem
codicum!”

διὰ δοκούσης ιστορίας καὶ οὐ σωματικῶς γεγενημένης. κατὰ την λέξιν. ὅσον ἐπὶ τῷ καθ᾽
ἑαυτοὺς τηρεῖσθαι. Gen. xvii. 14. Ex. xvi. 29. ψυχρὰς παραδόσεις. τόπον ἑκάστῳ εἶναι
δισχιλίους πήχεις. Εἰς ἀπεραντολογίαν ἐληλύθασι. Luke x. 4. εἰ μὴ ἄρα πεπονθώς τι παρὰ
φύσιν τυγχάνοι. 1 Cor. vii. 18. εἰκῆ. καὶ τῇ κατὰ τὸ ῥητὸν χρησίμων νομοθεσίᾳ. γέγονεν.
κατὰ τὸ αἰσθητόν. Cf. Gen. xlviii. 22 and Josh. xxiv. 32. Cf. Ex. xx. 12 and Eph. vi. 2,
3. χωρις πάσης ἀναγωγῆς. Cf. Ex. xx. 13–16. [Matt. v. 22.] Matt. v. 34. 1 Thess. v. 14. Εἰ
και παρὰ τοῖς φιλοτιμοτέροις δύναται σώζειν ἕκαστον αὐτῶν, μετὰ τοῦ μὴ ἀθετεῖσθαι τὴν κατὰ
τὸ ῥητὸν ἑντολην, βάθη Θεοῦ σοφίας. περιελκυσθήσεται. John v. 39. ὁπροηγούμενος. ῞Ολον τὸν
νοῦν φιλοτιμητέον καταλαμβάνειν, συνείροντα τὸν περὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν λέξιν ἀδυνάτων λόγον
νοητῶς τοῖς οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἀδυνάτοις, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἀληθέσι κατὰ τὴν ἱστορίαν, συναλληγορουμένοις
τοῖς ὅσον ἐπὶ τῇ λέξει, μὴ γεγενημένοις.

ἐν ᾽Ιησοῦ τῷ τοῦ Ναυῆ. 1 Cor. x. 18. Rom. ix. 6, 8. Rom. ii. 28, 29. Πᾶσα γὰρ ἀρχὴ πατριῶν
τῶν ὡς πρὸς τὸν τῶν ὅλων Θεὸν, κατωτέρω ἀπὸ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ἤρξατο τοῦ μετὰ τὸν τῶν ὅλων Θεὸν
καὶ πατέρα. Matt. xv. 24. Rom. ix. 8. [See Dr. Burton’s Inquiry into the Heresies of the
Apostolic Age (Bampton Lectures), pp. 184, 185, 498, 499. S.] Gal. iv. 26. Heb. xii. 22,
23. ἐν ψυχῶν γένει. τοῦ καλουμένου χωρίου ᾅδου. καὶ παρὰ τοισδε, ἤ τοῖσδε τοῖς πατράσι.
Matt. xiii. 44. Cf. Isa. xlv. 3. Rom. ix. 6.

Sections 24–37 translated from the Latin

24. This descent of the holy fathers into Egypt will appear as granted to this world by
the providence of God for the illumination of others, and for the instruction of the human
race, that so by this means the souls of others might be assisted in the work of
enlightenment. For to them was first granted the privilege of converse with God, because
theirs is the only race which is said to see God; this being the meaning, by
interpretation, of the word “Israel.”2944 And now it follows that, agreeably to this view,
ought the statement to be accepted and explained that Egypt was scourged with ten plagues,
to allow the people of God to depart, or the account of what was done with the people in
the wilderness, or of the building of the tabernacle by means of contributions from all
the people, or of the wearing of the priestly robes, or of the vessels of the public
service, because, as it is written, they truly contain within them the “shadow and form of
heavenly things. For Paul openly says of them, that “they serve unto the example and
shadow of heavenly things.”2945 There are, moreover, contained in this same law the
precepts and institutions, according to which men are to live in the holy land.
Threatenings also are held out as impending over those who shall transgress the law;

different kinds of purifications are moreover prescribed for those who required
purification, as being persons who were liable to frequent pollution, that by means of
these they may arrive at last at that one purification after which no further pollution is
permitted. The very people are numbered, though not all; for the souls of children are not
yet old enough to be numbered according to the divine command: nor are those souls who
cannot become the head of another, but are themselves subordinated to others as to a head,
who are called “women,” who certainly are not included in that numbering which is enjoined
by God; but they alone are numbered who are called “men,” by which it might be shown that
the women could not be counted separately,2946 but were included in those called men.
Those, however, especially belong to the sacred number, who are prepared to go forth to
the battles of the Israelites, and are able to fight against those public and private
enemies2947 whom the Father subjects to the Son, who sits on His right hand that He may
destroy all principality and power, and by means of these bands of His soldiery, who,
being engaged in a warfare for God, do not entangle themselves in secular business, He may
overturn the Kingdom of His adversary; by whom the shields of faith are borne, and the
weapons of wisdom brandished; among whom also the helmet of hope and salvation gleams
forth, and the breastplate of brightness fortifies the breast that is filled with God.

Such soldiers appear to me to be indicated, and to be prepared for wars of this kind, in
those persons who in the sacred books are ordered by God’s command to be numbered. But of
these, by far the more perfect and distinguished are shown to be those of whom the very
hairs of the head are said to be numbered. Such, indeed, as were punished for their sins,
whose bodies fell in the wilderness, appear to possess a resemblance to those who had made
indeed no little progress, but who could not at all, for various reasons, attain to the
end of perfection; because they are reported either to have murmured, or to have
worshipped idols, or to have committed fornication, or to have done some evil work which
the mind ought not even to conceive. I do not consider the following even to be without
some mystical meaning,2948 viz., that certain (of the Israelites), possessing many flocks
and animals, take possession by anticipation of a country adapted for pasture and the
feeding of cattle, which was the very first that the right hand of the Hebrews had secured
in war.2949 For, making a request of Moses to receive this region, they are divided off by
the waters of the Jordan, and set apart from any possession in the holy land.

And this Jordan, according to the form of heavenly things, may appear to water and
irrigate thirsty souls, and the senses that are adjacent to it.2950 In connection with
which, even this statement does not appear superfluous, that Moses indeed hears from God
what is described in the book of Leviticus, while in Deuteronomy it is the people that are
the auditors of Moses, and who learn from him what they could not hear from God. For as
Deuteronomy is called, as it were, the second law, which to some will appear to convey
this signification, that when the first law which was given through Moses had come to an
end, so a second legislation seems to have been enacted, which was specially transmitted
by Moses to his successor Joshua, who is certainly believed to embody a type2951 of our
Saviour, by whose second law—that is, the precepts of the Gospel—all things are brought to
perfection.

25. We have to see, however, whether this deeper meaning may not perhaps be indicated,
viz., that as in Deuteronomy the legislation is made known with greater clearness and
distinctness than in those books which were first written, so also by that advent of the
Saviour which He accomplished in His state of humiliation, when He assumed the form of a
servant, that more celebrated and renowned second advent in the glory of His Father may
not be pointed out, and in it the types of Deuteronomy may be fulfilled, when in the
kingdom of heaven all the saints shall live according to the laws of the everlasting
Gospel; and as in His coming now He fulfilled that law which has a shadow of good things
to come, so also by that (future) glorious advent will be fulfilled and brought to
perfection the shadows of the present advent. For thus spake the prophet regarding it:
“The breath of our countenance, Christ the Lord, to whom we said, that under Thy shadow we
shall live among the nations;”2952 at the time, viz., when He will more worthily transfer
all the saints from a temporal to an everlasting Gospel, according to the designation,
employed by John in the Apocalypse, of “an everlasting Gospel.”2953

26. But let it be sufficient for us in all these matters to adapt our understanding to the
rule of religion, and so to think of the words of the Holy Spirit as not to deem the
language the ornate composition of feeble human eloquence, but to hold, according to the
scriptural statement, that “all the glory of the King is within,”2954 and that the
treasure of divine meaning is enclosed within the frail vessel of the common letter. And
if any curious reader were still to ask an explanation of individual points, let him come
and hear, along with ourselves, how the Apostle Paul, seeking to penetrate by help of the
Holy Spirit, who searches even the “deep things” of God, into the depths of divine wisdom
and knowledge, and yet, unable to reach the end, so to speak, and to come to a thorough
knowledge, exclaims in despair and amazement, “Oh the depth of the riches of the knowledge
and wisdom of God!”2955 Now, that it was from despair of attaining a perfect understanding
that he uttered this exclamation, listen to his own words: “How unsearchable are God’s
judgments! and His ways, how past finding out!”2956 For he did not say that God’s
judgments were difficult to discover, but that they were altogether inscrutable; nor that
it was (simply) difficult to trace out His ways, but that they were altogether past
finding out.

For however far a man may advance in his investigations, and how great soever the progress
that he may make by unremitting study, assisted even by the grace of God, and with his
mind enlightened, he will not be able to attain to the end of those things which are the
object of his inquiries. Nor can any created mind deem it possible in any way to attain a
full comprehension (of things); but after having discovered certain of the objects of its
research, it sees again others which have still to be sought out. And even if it should
succeed in mastering these, it will see again many others succeeding them which must form
the subject of investigation. And on this account, therefore, Solomon, the wisest of men,
beholding by his wisdom the nature of things, says, “I said, I will become wise; and
wisdom herself was made far from me, far further than it was; and a profound depth, who
shall find?”2957 Isaiah also, knowing that the beginnings of things could not be
discovered by a mortal nature, and not even by those natures which, although more divine
than human, were nevertheless themselves created or formed; knowing then, that by none of
these could either the beginning or the end be discovered, says, “Tell the former things
which have been, and we know that ye are gods;

or announce what are the last things, and then we shall see that ye are gods.”2958 For my
Hebrew teacher also used thus to teach, that as the beginning or end of all things could
be comprehended by no one, save only our Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, so under
the form of a vision Isaiah spake of two seraphim alone, who with two wings cover the
countenance of God, and with two His feet, and with two do fly, calling to each other
alternately, and saying, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Sabaoth; the whole earth is
full of Thy glory.”2959 That the seraphim alone have both their wings over the face of
God, and over His feet, we venture to declare as meaning that neither the hosts of holy
angels, nor the “holy seats,” nor the “dominions,” nor the “principalities,” nor the
“powers,” can fully understand the beginning of all things, and the limits of the
universe. But we are to understand that those “saints” whom the Spirit has enrolled, and
the “virtues,” approach very closely to those very beginnings, and attain to a height
which the others cannot reach;

and yet whatever it be that these “virtues” have learned through revelation from the Son
of God and from the Holy Spirit—and they will certainly be able to learn very much, and
those of higher rank much more than those of a lower—nevertheless it is impossible for
them to comprehend all things, according to the statement, “The most part of the works of
God are hid.”2960 And therefore also it is to be desired that every one, according to his
strength, should ever stretch out to those things that are before, “forgetting the things
that are behind,” both to better works and to a clearer apprehension and understanding,
through Jesus Christ our Saviour, to whom be glory for ever! 27. Let every one, then, who
cares for truth, be little concerned about words and language, seeing that in every nation
there prevails a different usage of speech; but let him rather direct his attention to the
meaning conveyed by the words, than to the nature of the words that convey the meaning,
especially in matters of such importance and difficulty: as, e.g., when it is an object of
investigation whether there is any “substance” in which neither colour, nor form, nor
touch, nor magnitude is to be understood as existing visible to the mind alone, which any
one names as he pleases; for the Greeks call such ἀσώματον, i.e., “incorporeal,” while
holy Scripture declares it to be “invisible,” for Paul calls Christ the “image of the
invisible God,” and says again, that by Christ were created all things “visible and
invisible. And by this it is declared that there are, among created things, certain
“substances” that are, according to their peculiar nature, invisible. But although these
are not themselves “corporeal,” they nevertheless make use of bodies, while they are
themselves better than any bodily substances. But that “substance” of the Trinity which is
the beginning and cause of all things, “from which are all things, and through which are
all things, and in which are all things,” cannot be believed to be either a body or in a
body, but is altogether incorporeal.

And now let it suffice to have spoken briefly on these points (although in a digression,
caused by the nature of the subject), in order to show that there are certain things, the
meaning of which cannot be unfolded at all by any words of human language, but which are
made known more through simple apprehension than by any properties of words. And under
this rule must be brought also the understanding of the sacred Scripture, in order that
its statements may be judged not according to the worthlessness of the letter, but
according to the divinity of the Holy Spirit, by whose inspiration they were caused to be
written.

Summary (of Doctrine) Regarding the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and the Other
Topics Discussed in the Preceding Pages.

28. It is now time, after the rapid consideration which to the best of our ability we have
given to the topics discussed, to recapitulate, by way of summing up what we have said in
different places, the individual points, and first of all to restate our conclusions
regarding the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Seeing God the Father is invisible
and inseparable from the Son, the Son is not generated from Him by “prolation,” as some
suppose. For if the Son be a “prolation” of the Father (the term “prolation” being used to
signify such a generation as that of animals or men usually is), then, of necessity, both
He who “prolated” and He who was “prolated” are corporeal. For we do not say, as the
heretics suppose, that some part of the substance of God was converted into the Son, or
that the Son was procreated by the Father out of things non-existent,2961 i.e., beyond His
own substance, so that there once was a time when He did not exist; but, putting away all
corporeal conceptions, we say that the Word and Wisdom was begotten out of the invisible
and incorporeal without any corporeal feeling, as if it were an act of the will proceeding
from the understanding. Nor, seeing He is called the Son of (His) love, will it appear
absurd if in this way He be called the Son of (His) will. Nay, John also indicates that
“God is Light,”2962 and Paul also declares that the Son is the splendour of everlasting
light.2963 As light, accordingly, could never exist without splendour, so neither can the
Son be understood to exist without the Father; for He is called the “express image of His
person,”2964 and the Word and Wisdom. How, then, can it be asserted that there once was a
time when He was not the Son?

For that is nothing else than to say that there was once a time when He was not the Truth,
nor the Wisdom, nor the Life, although in all these He is judged to be the perfect essence
of God the Father; for these things cannot be severed from Him, or even be separated from
His essence. And although these qualities are said to be many in understanding,2965 yet in
their nature and essence they are one, and in them is the fulness of divinity. Now this
expression which we employ—“that there never was a time when He did not exist”—is to be
understood with an allowance. For these very words “when” or “never” have a meaning that
relates to time, whereas the statements made regarding Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are to
be understood as transcending all time, all ages, and all eternity. For it is the Trinity
alone which exceeds the comprehension not only of temporal but even of eternal
intelligence; while other things which are not included in it2966 are to be measured by
times and ages. This Son of God, then, in respect of the Word being God, which was in the
beginning with God, no one will logically suppose to be contained in any place; nor yet in
respect of His being “Wisdom,” or “Truth,” or the “Life,” or “Righteousness,” or
“Sanctification,” or “Redemption:

for all these properties do not require space to be able to act or to operate, but each
one of them is to be understood as meaning those individuals who participate in His virtue
and working. 29. Now, if any one were to say that, through those who are partakers of the
“Word” of God, or of His “Wisdom,” or His “Truth,” or His “Life,” the Word and Wisdom
itself appeared to be contained in a place, we should have to say to him in answer, that
there is no doubt that Christ, in respect of being the “Word” or “Wisdom,” or all other
things, was in Paul, and that he therefore said, “Do you seek a proof of Christ speaking
in me?”2967 and again, “I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”2968 Seeing, then, He
was in Paul, who will doubt that He was in a similar manner in Peter and in John, and in
each one of the saints; and not only in those who are upon the earth, but in those also
who are in heaven? For it is absurd to say that Christ was in Peter and in Paul, but not
in Michael the archangel, nor in Gabriel. And from this it is distinctly shown that the
divinity of the Son of God was not shut up in some place; otherwise it would have been in
it only, and not in another. But since, in conformity with the majesty of its incorporeal
nature, it is confined to no place; so, again, it cannot be understood to be wanting in
any.

But this is understood to be the sole difference, that although He is in different
individuals as we have said—as Peter, or Paul, or Michael, or Gabriel—He is not in a
similar way in all beings whatever. For He is more fully and clearly, and, so to speak,
more openly in archangels than in other holy men.2969 And this is evident from the
statement, that when all who are saints have arrived at the summit of perfection, they are
said to be made like, or equal to, the angels, agreeably to the declaration in the
Gospels.2970 Whence it is clear that Christ is in each individual in as great a degree as
the amount of his deserts allows.2971 30. Having, then, briefly restated these points
regarding the nature of the Trinity, it follows that we notice shortly this statement
also, that “by the Son” are said to be created “all things that are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or
principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him; and He is before
all, and all things consist by Him, who is the Head.”2972 In conformity with which John
also in his Gospel says: “All things were created by Him; and without Him was not anything
made.”2973 And David, intimating that the mystery of the entire Trinity was (concerned) in
the creation of all things, says: “By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all
the host of them by the Spirit of His mouth.”2974

After these points we shall appropriately remind (the reader) of the bodily advent and
incarnation of the only-begotten Son of God, with respect to whom we are not to suppose
that all the majesty of His divinity is confined within the limits of His slender body, so
that all the “word” of God, and His “wisdom,” and “essential truth,” and “life,” was
either rent asunder from the Father, or restrained and confined within the narrowness of
His bodily person, and is not to be considered to have operated anywhere besides; but the
cautious acknowledgment of a religious man ought to be between the two, so that it ought
neither to be believed that anything of divinity was wanting in Christ, nor that any
separation at all was made from the essence of the Father, which is everywhere. For some
such meaning seems to be indicated by John the Baptist, when he said to the multitude in
the bodily absence of Jesus, “There standeth one among you whom ye know not: He it is who
cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.”2975 For it
certainly could not be said of Him, who was absent, so far as His bodily presence is
concerned, that He was standing in the midst of those among whom the Son of God was not
bodily present.

31. Let no one, however, suppose that by this we affirm that some portion of the divinity
of the Son of God was in Christ, and that the remaining portion was elsewhere or
everywhere, which may be the opinion of those who are ignorant of the nature of an
incorporeal and invisible essence. For it is impossible to speak of the parts of an
incorporeal being, or to make any division of them; but He is in all things, and through
all things, and above all things, in the manner in which we have spoken above, i.e., in
the manner in which He is understood to be either “wisdom,” or the “word,” or the “life,”
or the “truth,” by which method of understanding all confinement of a local kind is
undoubtedly excluded. The Son of God, then, desiring for the salvation of the human race
to appear unto men, and to sojourn among them, assumed not only a human body, as some
suppose, but also a soul resembling our souls indeed in nature, but in will and power2976
resembling Himself, and such as might unfailingly accomplish all the desires and
arrangements of the “word” and “wisdom. Now, that He had a soul,2977 is most clearly shown
by the Saviour in the Gospels, when He said, “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it
down of myself.

I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.”2978 And again, “My
soul is sorrowful even unto death.”2979 And again, “Now is my soul troubled.”2980 For the
“Word” of God is not to be understood to be a “sorrowful and troubled” soul, because with
the authority of divinity He says, “I have power to lay down my life. Nor yet do we assert
that the Son of God was in that soul as he was in the soul of Paul or Peter and the other
saints, in whom Christ is believed to speak as He does in Paul. But regarding all these we
are to hold, as Scripture declares, “No one is clean from filthiness, not even if his life
lasted but a single day.”2981 But this soul which was in Jesus, before it knew the evil,
selected the good; and because He loved righteousness, and hated iniquity, therefore God
“anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows.”2982 He is anointed, then, with
the oil of gladness when He is united to the “word” of God in a stainless union, and by
this means alone of all souls was incapable of sin, because it was capable of (receiving)
well and fully the Son of God; and therefore also it is one with Him, and is named by His
titles, and is called Jesus Christ, by whom all things are said to be made.

Of which soul, seeing it had received into itself the whole wisdom of God, and the truth,
and the life, I think that the apostle also said this: “Our life is hidden with Christ in
God; but when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in
glory.”2983 For what other Christ can be here understood, who is said to be hidden in God,
and who is afterwards to appear, except Him who is related to have been anointed with the
oil of gladness, i.e., to have been filled with God essentially,2984 in whom he is now
said to be hidden? For on this account is Christ proposed as an example to all believers,
because as He always, even before he knew evil at all, selected the good, and loved
righteousness, and hated iniquity, and therefore God anointed Him with the oil of
gladness; so also ought each one, after a lapse or sin, to cleanse himself from his
stains, making Him his example, and, taking Him as the guide of his journey, enter upon
the steep way of virtue, that so perchance by this means, as far as possible we may, by
imitating Him, be made partakers of the divine nature, according to the words of
Scripture: “He that saith that he believeth in Christ, ought so to walk, as He also
walked.”2985

This “word,” then, and this “wisdom,” by the imitation of which we are said to be either
wise or rational (beings), becomes “all things to all men, that it may gain all;” and
because it is made weak, it is therefore said of it, “Though He was crucified through
weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God.”2986 Finally, to the Corinthians who were
weak, Paul declares that he “knew nothing, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”2987 32.
Some, indeed, would have the following language of the apostle applied to the soul itself,
as soon as it had assumed flesh from Mary,2988 viz., “Who, being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but divested Himself (of His glory)2989
taking upon Himself the form of a servant;”2990 since He undoubtedly restored it to the
form of God by means of better examples and training, and recalled it to that fulness of
which He had divested Himself.

As now by participation in the Son of God one is adopted as a son,2991 and by
participating in that wisdom which is in God is rendered wise, so also by participation in
the Holy Spirit is a man rendered holy and spiritual. For it is one and the same thing to
have a share in the Holy Spirit, which is (the Spirit) of the Father and the Son, since
the nature of the Trinity is one and incorporeal. And what we have said regarding the
participation of the soul is to be understood of angels and heavenly powers in a similar
way as of souls, because every rational creature needs a participation in the Trinity.
Respecting also the plan of this visible world—seeing one of the most important questions
usually raised is as to the manner of its existence—we have spoken to the best of our
ability in the preceding pages, for the sake of those who are accustomed to seek the
grounds of their belief in our religion, and also for those who stir against us heretical
questions, and who are accustomed to bandy about2992 the word “matter,” which they have
not yet been able to understand; of which subject I now deem it necessary briefly to
remind (the reader).

33. And, in the first place, it is to be noted that we have nowhere found in the canonical
Scriptures,2993 up to the present time, the word “matter” used for that substance which is
said to underlie bodies. For in the expression of Isaiah, “And he shall devour ὕλη,” i.e.,
matter, “like hay,”2994 when speaking of those who were appointed to undergo their
punishments, the word “matter” was used instead of “sins. And if this word “matter” should
happen to occur in any other passage, it will never be found, in my opinion, to have the
signification of which we are now in quest, unless perhaps in the book which is called the
Wisdom of Solomon, a work which is certainly not esteemed authoritative by all.2995 In
that book, however, we find written as follows: “For thy almighty hand, that made the
world out of shapeless matter, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears
and fierce lions.”2996 Very many, indeed, are of opinion that the matter of which things
are made is itself signified in the language used by Moses in the beginning of Genesis:
“In the beginning God made heaven and earth; and the earth was invisible, and not
arranged:”2997 for by the words “invisible and not arranged” Moses would seem to mean
nothing else than shapeless matter. But if this be truly matter, it is clear then that the
original elements of bodies2998 are not incapable of change.

For those who posited “atoms”—either those particles which are incapable of subdivision,
or those which are subdivided into equal parts—or any one element, as the principles of
bodily things, could not posit the word “matter” in the proper sense of the term among the
first principles of things. For if they will have it that matter underlies every body—a
substance convertible or changeable, or divisible in all its parts—they will not, as is
proper, assert that it exists without qualities. And with them we agree, for we altogether
deny that matter ought to be spoken of as “unbegotten” or “uncreated,” agreeably to our
former statements, when we pointed out that from water, and earth, and air or heat,
different kinds of fruits were produced by different kinds of trees; or when we showed
that fire, and air, and water, and earth were alternately converted into each other, and
that one element was resolved into another by a kind of mutual consanguinity; and also
when we proved that from the food either of men or animals the substance of the flesh was
derived, or that the moisture of the natural seed was converted into solid flesh and
bones;—all which go to prove that the substance of the body is changeable, and may pass
from one quality into all others.

34. Nevertheless we must not forget that a substance never exists without a quality, and
that it is by an act of the understanding alone that this (substance) which underlies
bodies, and which is capable of quality, is discovered to be matter. Some indeed, in their
desire to investigate these subjects more profoundly, have ventured to assert that bodily
nature2999 is nothing else than qualities. For if hardness and softness, heat and cold,
moisture and aridity, be qualities; and if, when these or other (qualities) of this sort
be cut away, nothing else is understood to remain, then all things will appear to be
“qualities. And therefore also those persons who make these assertions have endeavoured to
maintain, that since all who say that matter was uncreated will admit that qualities were
created by God, it may be in this way shown that even according to them matter was not
uncreated; since qualities constitute everything, and these are declared by all without
contradiction to have been made by God. Those, again, who would make out that qualities
are superimposed from without upon a certain underlying matter, make use of illustrations
of this kind: e.g., Paul undoubtedly is either silent, or speaks, or watches, or sleeps,
or maintains a certain attitude of body; for he is either in a sitting, or standing, or
recumbent position. For these are “accidents” belonging to men, without which they are
almost never found. And yet our conception of man does not lay down any of these things as
a definition of him;

but we so understand and regard him by their means, that we do not at all take into
account the reason of his (particular) condition either in watching, or in sleeping, or in
speaking, or in keeping silence, or in any other action that must necessarily happen to
men.3000 If any one, then, can regard Paul as being without all these things which are
capable of happening, he will in the same way also be able to understand this underlying
(substance) without qualities. When, then, our mind puts away all qualities from its
conception, and gazes, so to speak, upon the underlying element alone, and keeps its
attention closely upon it, without any reference to the softness or hardness, or heat or
cold, or humidity or aridity of the substance, then by means of this somewhat simulated
process of thought3001 it will appear to behold matter clear from qualities of every kind.

35. But some one will perhaps inquire whether we can obtain out of Scripture any grounds
for such an understanding of the subject. Now I think some such view is indicated in the
Psalms, when the prophet says, “Mine eyes have seen thine imperfection;”3002 by which the
mind of the prophet, examining with keener glance the first principles of things, and
separating in thought and imagination only between matter and its qualities, perceived the
imperfection of God, which certainly is understood to be perfected by the addition of
qualities. Enoch also, in his book, speaks as follows: “I have walked on even to
imperfection;”3003 which expression I consider may be understood in a similar manner,
viz., that the mind of the prophet proceeded in its scrutiny and investigation of all
visible things, until it arrived at that first beginning in which it beheld imperfect
matter (existing) without “qualities. For it is written in the same book of Enoch, “I
beheld the whole of matter;”3004 which is so understood as if he had said: “I have clearly
seen all the divisions of matter which are broken up from one into each individual species
either of men, or animals, or of the sky, or of the sun, or of all other things in this
world. After these points, now, we proved to the best of our power in the preceding pages
that all things which exist were made by God, and that there was nothing which was not
made, save the nature of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit;

and that God, who is by nature good, desiring to have those upon whom He might confer
benefits, and who might rejoice in receiving His benefits, created creatures worthy (of
this), i.e., who were capable of receiving Him in a worthy manner, who, He says, are also
begotten by Him as his sons. He made all things, moreover, by number and measure. For
there is nothing before God without either limit or measure. For by His power He
comprehends all things, and He Himself is comprehended by the strength of no created
thing, because that nature is known to itself alone. For the Father alone knoweth the Son,
and the Son alone knoweth the Father, and the Holy Spirit alone searcheth even the deep
things of God. All created things, therefore, i.e., either the number of rational beings
or the measure of bodily matter, are distinguished by Him as being within a certain number
or measurement; since, as it was necessary for an intellectual nature to employ bodies,
and this nature is shown to be changeable and convertible by the very condition of its
being created (for what did not exist, but began to exist, is said by this very
circumstance to be of mutable nature), it can have neither goodness nor wickedness as an
essential, but only as an accidental attribute of its being.

Seeing, then, as we have said, that rational nature was mutable and changeable, so that it
made use of a different bodily covering of this or that sort of quality, according to its
merits, it was necessary, as God foreknew there would be diversities in souls or spiritual
powers, that He should create also a bodily nature the qualities of which might be changed
at the will of the Creator into all that was required. And this bodily nature must last as
long as those things which require it as a covering: for there will be always rational
natures which need a bodily covering; and there will therefore always be a bodily nature
whose coverings must necessarily be used by rational creatures, unless some one be able to
demonstrate by arguments that a rational nature can live without a body. But how
difficult—nay, how almost impossible—this is for our understanding, we have shown in the
preceding pages, in our discussion of the individual topics.

36. It will not, I consider, be opposed to the nature of our undertaking, if we restate
with all possible brevity our opinions on the immortality of rational natures. Every one
who participates in anything, is unquestionably of one essence and nature with him who is
partaker of the same thing. For example, as all eyes participate in the light, so
accordingly all eyes which partake of the light are of one nature; but although every eye
partakes of the light, yet, inasmuch as one sees more clearly, and another more obscurely,
every eye does not equally share in the light. And again, all hearing receives voice or
sound, and therefore all hearing is of one nature; but each one hears more rapidly or more
slowly, according as the quality of his hearing is clear and sound. Let us pass now from
these sensuous illustrations to the consideration of intellectual things. Every mind which
partakes of intellectual light ought undoubtedly to be of one nature with every mind which
partakes in a similar manner of intellectual light. If the heavenly virtues, then, partake
of intellectual light, i.e., of divine nature, because they participate in wisdom and
holiness, and if human souls, have partaken of the same light and wisdom, and thus are
mutually of one nature and of one essence,—then, since the heavenly virtues are
incorruptible and immortal, the essence of the human soul will also be immortal and
incorruptible.

And not only so, but because the nature of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, whose
intellectual light alone all created things have a share, is incorruptible and eternal, it
is altogether consistent and necessary that every substance which partakes of that eternal
nature should last for ever, and be incorruptible and eternal, so that the eternity of
divine goodness may be understood also in this respect, that they who obtain its benefits
are also eternal. But as, in the instances referred to, a diversity in the participation
of the light was observed, when the glance of the beholder was described as being duller
or more acute, so also a diversity is to be noted in the participation of Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, varying with the degree of zeal or capacity of mind. If such were not the
case,3005 we have to consider whether it would not seem to be an act of impiety to say
that the mind which is capable of (receiving) God should admit of a destruction of its
essence;3006 as if the very fact that it is able to feel and understand God could not
suffice for its perpetual existence, especially since, if even through neglect the mind
fall away from a pure and complete reception of God, it nevertheless contains within it
certain seeds of restoration and renewal to a better understanding, seeing the “inner,”
which is also called the “rational” man, is renewed after “the image and likeness of God,
who created him.

And therefore the prophet says, “All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto
the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.”3007 37. If any
one, indeed, venture to ascribe essential corruption to Him who was made after the image
and likeness of God, then, in my opinion, this impious charge extends even to the Son of
God Himself, for He is called in Scripture the image of God.3008 Or he who holds this
opinion would certainly impugn the authority of Scripture, which says that man was made in
the image of God; and in him are manifestly to be discovered traces of the divine image,
not by any appearance of the bodily frame, which is corruptible, but by mental wisdom, by
justice, moderation, virtue, wisdom, discipline; in fine, by the whole band of virtues,
which are innate in the essence of God, and which may enter into man by diligence and
imitation of God; as the Lord also intimates in the Gospel, when He says, “Be ye therefore
merciful, as your Father also is merciful;”3009 and, “Be ye perfect, even as your Father
also is perfect.”3010 From which it is clearly shown that all these virtues are
perpetually in God, and that they can never approach to or depart from Him, whereas by men
they are acquired only slowly, and one by one. And hence also by these means they seem to
have a kind of relationship with God;

and since God knows all things, and none of things intellectual in themselves can elude
His notice3011 (for God the Father alone, and His only-begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit,
not only possess a knowledge of those things which they have created, but also of
themselves), a rational understanding also, advancing from small things to great, and from
things visible to things invisible, may attain to a more perfect knowledge. For it is
placed in the body, and advances from sensible things themselves, which are corporeal, to
things that are intellectual. But lest our statement that things intellectual are not
cognisable by the senses should appear unbecoming, we shall employ the instance of
Solomon, who says, “You will find also a divine sense;”3012 by which he shows that those
things which are intellectual are to be sought out not by means of a bodily sense, but by
a certain other which he calls “divine. And with this sense must we look on each of those
rational beings which we have enumerated above; and with this sense are to be understood
those words which we speak, and those statements to be weighed which we commit to writing.
For the divine nature knows even those thoughts which we revolve within us in silence. And
on those matters of which we have spoken, or on the others which follow from them,
according to the rule above laid down, are our opinions to be formed.

Cf. Gen. xxxii. 28–30. Heb. viii. 5. Extrinsecus. Hostes inimicosque. Ne illud quidem
sacramento aliquo vacuum puto. Quem primum omnium Israelitici belli dextra defenderat.
Rigare et inundare animas sitientes, et sensus adjacentes sibi. Formam. Lam. iv. 20. Cf.
Rev. xiv. 6. Omnis gloria regis intrinsecus est. Heb., Sept., and Vulgate all read,
“daughter of the king.” Probably the omission of “filiæ” in the text may be due to an
error of the copyists. [Cf. Ps. xlv. 13.] Rom. xi. 33. Rom. xi. 33. [Eccles. vii. 23, 24.]
The Septuagint reads: Εἶπα, Σοφισθήσομαι · καὶ αὕτη ἐμακρύνθη ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ, μακρὰν ὑπέρ ὃ ἦν,
καὶ βαθὺ βάθος, τίς εὑρήσει αὐτό; the Vulgate translates this literally. Cf. Isa. xli. 22,
23. Isa. vi. 3. Cf. Ecclus. xvi. 21. Ex nullis substantibus. 1 John i. 5. Cf. Heb. i. 3.
Cf. Heb. i. 3. Quæ quidem quamvis intellectu multa esse dicantur. Quæ sunt extra
Trinitatem.

Cf. 2 Cor. xiii. 3. Gal. ii. 20. Quam in aliis sanctis viris. “Aliis” is found in the
mss., but is wanting in many editions. Cf. Matt. xxii. 30 and Luke xx. 36. Unde constat in
singulis quibusque tantum effici Christum, quantum ratio indulserit meritorum. Cf. Col. i.
16–18. John i. 3. Ps. xxxiii. 6. Cf. John i. 26, 27. Proposito vero et virtute similem
sibi. Animam. John x. 18. Matt. xxvi. 38. John xii. 27. Cf. Job xv. 14. Ps. xlv. 7. Cf.
Col. iii. 3, 4. Substantialiter. Cf. 1 John ii. 6. 2 Cor. xiii. 4. 1 Cor. ii. 2. De Maria
corpus assumsit. Semet ipsum exinanivit. Phil. ii. 6, 7. In filium adoptatur. Ventilare.
In Scripturis canonicis. Isa. x. 17, καὶ φάγεται ώσεὶ χόρτον τὴν ὕλην, Sept. The Vulgate
follows the Masoretic text. [Elucidation VI]. Wisd. xi. 17. Gen. i. 2, “invisibilis et
incomposita;” “inanis et vacua,” Vulg.

Initia corporum. Naturam corpoream. Nec tamen sensus noster manifeste de eo aliquid horum
definit, sed ita eum per hæc intelligimus, vel consideramus, ut non omnino rationem status
ejus comprehendamus, vel in eo, quod vigilat, vel in eo, quod dormit, aut in quo loquitur,
vel tacet, et si qua alia sunt, quæ accidere necesse est hominibus. Tunc simulatâ
quodammodo cogitatione. Ps. cxxxix. 16, τὸ ἀκατέργαστόν μου εἴδοσαν οἱ ὀφθαλμοί σου,
Sept.; “Imperfectum meum viderunt oculi tui,” Vulg. (same as in the text.) ךךינֶיע“ וּארָ
ימִלְגָּ—“Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect,” Auth. Vers. Cf. Gesenius
and Fürst, s.v., סלן. Ambulavi usque ad imperfectum; cf. Book of Enoch, chap. xvii.
Universas materias perspexi; cf. Book of Enoch, chap. xvii. [On this apocryphal book, see
the learned remarks of Dr. Pusey in his reply to Canon Farrar, What is of Faith as to
Everlasting Punishment; pp. 52–59. London, 1881.] Alioquin. Substantialem interitum.

Ps. xxii. 27. Cf. Col. i. 15 and 2 Cor. iv. 4. Luke vi. 36. Matt. v. 48. Nihil eum rerum
intellectualium ex se lateat. Cf. Prov. ii. 5, ἐπίγνωσιν Θεοῦ εὑρήσεις (Sept.), Scientiam
Dei invenies (Vulg.). אצָמְתִּ סיהִׁלאֱ תעַרַּ.


DE PRINCIPIIS
=============

DE PRINCIPIIS continued

PREFACE OF ORIGEN

Preface.

1. All who believe and are assured that grace and truth were obtained through Jesus
Christ, and who know Christ to be the truth, agreeably to His own declaration, "I am the
truth," derive the knowledge which incites men to a good and happy life from no other
source than from the very words and teaching of Christ. And by the words of Christ we do
not mean those only which He spake when He became man and tabernacled in the flesh; for
before that time, Christ, the Word of God, was in Moses and the prophets. For without the
Word of God, how could they have been able to prophesy of Christ? And were it not our
purpose to confine the present treatise within the limits of all attainable brevity, it
would not be difficult to show, in proof of this statement, out of the Holy Scriptures,
how Moses or the prophets both spake and performed all they did through being filled with
the Spirit of Christ. And therefore I think it sufficient to quote this one testimony of
Paul from the Epistle to the Hebrews, in which he says: "By faith Moses, when he was come
to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the Egyptians."
Moreover, that after His ascension into heaven He spake in His apostles, is shown by Paul
in these words: "Or do you seek a proof of Christ who speaketh in me? "

2. Since many, however, of those who profess to believe in Christ differ from each other,
not only in small and trifling matters, but also on subjects of the highest importance,
as, e.g., regarding God, or the Lord Jesus Christ, or the Holy Spirit; and not only
regarding these, but also regarding others which are created existences, viz., the powers
and the holy virtues; it seems on that account necessary first of all to fix a definite
limit and to lay down an unmistakable rule regarding each one of these, and then to pass
to the investigation of other points. For as we ceased to seek for truth (notwithstanding
the professions of many among Greeks and Barbarians to make it known) among all who
claimed it for erroneous opinions, after we had come to believe that Christ was the Son of
God, and were persuaded that we must learn it from Himself; so, seeing there are many who
think they hold the opinions of Christ, and yet some of these think differently from their
predecessors, yet as the teaching of the Church, transmitted in orderly succession from
the apostles, and remaining in the Churches to the present day, is still preserved, that
alone is to be accepted as truth which differs in no respect from ecclesiastical and
apostolical tradition.

3. Now it ought to be known that the holy apostles, in preaching the faith of Christ,
delivered themselves with the utmost clearness on certain points which they believed to be
necessary to every one, even to those who seemed somewhat dull in the investigation of
divine knowledge; leaving, however, the grounds of their statements to be examined into by
those who should deserve the excellent gifts of the Spirit, and who, especially by means
of the Holy Spirit Himself, should obtain the gift of language, of wisdom, and of
knowledge: while on other subjects they merely stated the fact that things were so,
keeping silence as to the manner or origin of their existence; clearly in order that the
more zealous of their successors, who should be lovers of wisdom, might have a subject of
exercise on which to display the fruit of their talents,-those persons, I mean, who should
prepare themselves to be fit and worthy receivers of wisdom.

4. The particular points clearly delivered in the teaching of the apostles are as follow:-
First, That there is one God, who created and arranged all things, and who, when nothing
existed, called all things into being-God from the first creation and foundation of the
world-the God of all just men, of Adam, Abel, Seth, Enos, Enoch, Noe, Sere, Abraham,
Isaac, Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Moses, and the prophets; and that this God in the
last days, as He had announced beforehand by His prophets, sent our Lord Jesus Christ to
call in the first place Israel to Himself, and in the second place the Gentiles, after the
unfaithfulness of the people of Israel. This just and good God, the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, Himself gave the law and the prophets, and the Gospels, being also the God
of the apostles and of the Old and New Testaments.

Secondly, That Jesus Christ Himself, who came (into the world), was born of the Father
before all creatures; that, after He had been the servant of the Father in the creation of
all things-"For by Him were all things made" -He in the last times, divesting Himself (of
His glory), became a man, and was incarnate although God, and while made a man remained
the God which He was; that He assumed a body like to our own, differing in this respect
only, that it was born of a virgin and of the Holy Spirit: that this Jesus Christ was
truly born, and did truly suffer, and did not endure this death common (to man) in
appearance only, but did truly die; that He did truly rise from the dead; and that after
His resurrection He conversed with His disciples, and was taken up (into heaven). Then,
Thirdly, the apostles related that the Holy Spirit was associated in honour and dignity
with the Father and the Son. But in His case it is not clearly distinguished whether He is
to be regarded as born or innate, or also as a Son of God or not: for these are points
which have to be inquired into out of sacred Scripture according to the best of our
ability, and which demand careful investigation. And that this Spirit inspired each one of
the saints, whether prophets or apostles; and that there was not one Spirit in the men of
the old dispensation, and another in those who were inspired at the advent of Christ, is
most clearly taught throughout the Churches.

5. After these points, also, the apostolic teaching is that the soul, having a substance
and life of its own, shall, after its departure from the world, be rewarded according to
its deserts, being destined to obtain either an inheritance of eternal life and
blessedness, if its actions shall have procured this for it, or to be delivered up to
eternal fire and punishments, if the guilt of its crimes shall have brought it down to
this: and also, that there is to be a time of resurrection from the dead, when this body,
which now "is sown in corruption, shall rise in incorruption," and that which "is sown in
dishonour will rise in glory. This also is clearly defined in the teaching of the Church,
that every rational soul is possessed of free-will and volition; that it has a straggle to
maintain with the devil and his angels, and opposing influences, because they strive to
burden it with sins; but if we live rightly and wisely, we should endeavour to shake
ourselves free of a burden of that kind. From which it follows, also, that we understand
ourselves not to be subject to necessity, so as to be compelled by all means, even against
our will, to do either good or evil. For if we are our own masters, some influences
perhaps may impel us to sin, and others help us to salvation;

we are not forced, however, by any necessity either to act rightly or wrongly, which those
persons think is the case who say that the courses and movements of the stars are the
cause of human actions, not only of those which take place beyond the influence of the
freedom of the will, but also of those which are placed within our own power. But with
respect to the soul, whether it is derived from the seed by a process of traducianism, so
that the reason or substance of it may be considered as placed in the seminal particles of
the body themselves, or whether it has any other beginning; and this beginning, itself,
whether it be by birth or not, or whether bestowed upon the body from without or no, is
not distinguished with sufficient clearness in the teaching of the Church. 6. Regarding
the devil and his angels, and the opposing influences, the teaching of the Church has laid
down that these beings exist indeed; but what they are, or how they exist, it has not
explained with sufficient clearness. This opinion, however, is held by most, that the
devil was an angel, and that, having become an apostate, he induced as many of the angels
as possible to fall away with himself, and these up to the present time are called his
angels. 7. This also is a part of the Church's teaching, that the world was made and took
its beginning at a certain time, and is to be destroyed on account of its wickedness. But
what existed before this world, or what will exist after it, has not become certainly
known to the many, for there is no clear statement regarding it in the teaching of the
Church.

8. Then, finally, that the Scriptures were written by the Spirit of God, and have a
meaning, not such only as is apparent at first sight, but also another, which escapes the
notice of most. For those (words) which are written are the forms of certain mysteries,
and the images of divine things. Respecting which there is one opinion throughout the
whole Church, that the whole law is indeed spiritual; but that the spiritual meaning which
the law conveys is not known to all, but to those only on whom the grace of the Holy
Spirit is bestowed in the word of wisdom and knowledge. The term a0sw/maton, i.e.,
incorporeal, is disused and unknown, not only in many other writings, but also in our own
Scriptures. And if any one should quote it to us out of the little treatise entitled The
Doctrine of Peter, in which the Saviour seems to say to His disciples, "I am not an
incorporeal demon," I have to reply, in the first place, that that work is not included
among ecclesiastical books; for we can show that it was not composed either by Peter or by
any other person inspired by the Spirit of God. But even if the point were to be conceded,
the word a0sw/maton there does not convey the same meaning as is intended by Greek and
Gentile authors when incorporeal nature is discussed by philosophers. For in the little
treatise referred to he used the phrase "incorporeal demon" to denote that that form or
outline of demoniacal body, whatever it is, does not resemble this gross and visible body
of ours; but, agreeably to the intention of the author of the treatise, it must be
understood to mean that He had not such a body as demons have, which is naturally fine,
and thin as if formed of air (and for this reason is either considered or called by many
incorporeal), but that He had a solid and palpable body. Now, according to human custom,
everything which is not of that nature is called by the simple or ignorant incorporeal; as
if one were to say that the air which we breathe was incorporeal, because it is not a body
of such a nature as can be grasped and held, or can offer resistance to pressure.

9. We shall inquire, however, whether the thing which Greek philosophers call a0sw/maton,
or "incorporeal," is found in holy Scripture under another name. For it is also to be a
subject of investigation how God himself is to be understood,-whether as corporeal, and
formed according to some shape, or of a different nature from bodies,-a point which is not
clearly indicated in our teaching. And the same inquiries have to be made regarding Christ
and the Holy Spirit, as well as respecting every soul, and everything possessed of a
rational nature. 10. This also is a part of the teaching of the Church, that there are
certain angels of God, and certain good influences, which are His servants in
accomplishing the salvation of men. When these, however, were created, or of what nature
they are, or how they exist, is not clearly stated. Regarding the sun, moon, and stars,
whether they are living beings or without life, there is no distinct deliverance.

Every one, therefore, must make use of elements and foundations of this sort, according to
the precept, "Enlighten yourselves with the light of knowledge," if he would desire to
form a connected series and body of truths agreeably to the reason of all these things,
that by dear and necessary statements he may ascertain the truth regarding each individual
topic, and form, as we have said, one body of doctrine, by means of illustrations and
arguments,-either those which he has discovered in holy Scripture, or which he has deduced
by closely tracing out the consequences and following a correct method.

PROLOGUE OF RUFINUS

1 I Know that very many of the brethren, induced by their thirst for a knowledge of the
Scriptures, have requested some distinguished men, well versed in Greek learning, to
translate Origen into Latin, and so make him accessible to Roman readers. Among these,
when our brother and colleague had, at the earnest entreaty of Bishop Damasus, translated
two of the Homilies on the Song of Songs out of Greek into Latin, he prefixed so elegant
and noble a preface to that work, as to inspire every one with a most eager desire to read
and study Origen, saying that the expression, "The King hath brought me into his chamber,"
was appropriate to his feelings, and declaring that while Origen in his other works
surpassed all writers, he in the Song of Songs surpassed even himself. He promises,
indeed, in that very preface, that he will present the books on the Song of Songs, and
numerous others of the works of Origen, in a Latin translation, to Roman readers. But he,
finding greater pleasure in compositions of his own, pursues an end that is attended with
greater fame, viz., in being the author rather than the translator of works. Accordingly
we enter upon the undertaking, which was thus begun and approved of by him, although we
cannot compose in a style of elegance equal to that of a man of such distinguished
eloquence;

2 and therefore I am afraid lest, through my fault, the result should follow, that that
man, whom he deservedly esteems as the second teacher of knowledge and wisdom in the
Church after the apostles, should, through the poverty of my language, appear far inferior
to what he is. And this consideration, which frequently recurred to my mind, kept me
silent, and prevented me from yielding to the numerous entreaties of my brethren, until
your influence, my very faithful brother Macarius, which is so great, rendered it
impossible for my unskilfulness any longer to offer resistance. And therefore, that I
might not find you too grievous an exactor, I gave way, even contrary to my resolution; on
the condition and arrangement, how ever, that in my translation I should follow as far as
possible the rule observed by my predecessors, and especially by that distinguished man
whom I have mentioned above, who, after translating into Latin more than seventy of those
treatises of Origen which are styled Homilies and a considerable number also of his
writings on the apostles, in which a good many "stumbling-blocks "are found in the
original Greek, so smoothed and corrected them in his translation, that a Latin reader
would meet with nothing which could appear discordant with our belief. His example,
therefore, we follow, to the best of our ability;

3 if not with equal power of eloquence, yet at least with the same strictness of rule,
taking care not to reproduce those expressions occurring in the works of Origen which are
inconsistent with and opposed to each other. The cause of these variations we have
explained more freely in the Apologeticus, which Pamphilus wrote in defence of the works
of Origen, where we added a brief tract, in which we showed, I think, by unmistakeable
proofs, that his books had been corrupted in numerous places by heretics and malevolent
persons, and especially those books of which you now require me to undertake the
translation, i.e., the books which may be entitled De Principiis or De Principatibus, and
which are indeed in other respects full of obscurities and difficulties. For he there
discusses those subjects with respect to which philosophers, after spending all their
lives upon them, have been unable to discover anything. But here our author strove, as
much as in him lay, to turn to the service of religion the belief in a Creator, and the
rational nature of created beings, which the latter had degraded to purposes of
wickedness.

4 If, therefore, we have found anywhere in his writings, any statement opposed to that
view, which elsewhere in his works he had himself piously laid down regarding the Trinity,
we have either omitted it, as being corrupt, and not the composition of Origen, or we have
brought it forward agreeably to the rule which we frequently find affirmed by himself If,
indeed, in his desire to pass rapidly on, he has, as speaking to persons of skill and
knowledge, sometimes expressed himself obscurely, we have, in order that the passage might
be clearer, added what we had read more fully stated on the same subject in his other
works, keeping explanation in view, but adding nothing of our own, but simply restoring to
him what was his, although occurring in other portions of his writings. 5 These remarks,
therefore, by way of admonition, I have made in the preface, lest slanderous individuals
perhaps should think that they had a second time discovered matter of accusation. But let
perverse and disputatious men have a care what they are about. For we have in the meantime
undertaken this heavy labour, if God should aid your prayers, not to shut the mouths of
slanderers (which is impossible, although God perhaps will do it), but to afford material
to those who desire to advance in the knowledge of these things. And, verily, in the
presence of God the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, I adjure and beseech
every one, who may either transcribe or read these books, by his belief in the kingdom to
come, by the mystery of the resurrection from the dead, and by that everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels, that, as he would not possess for an eternal
inheritance that place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, and where their fire
is not quenched and their worm dieth not, he add nothing to Scripture, and take nothing
away from it, and make no insertion or alteration, but that he compare his transcript with
the copies from which he made it, and make the emendations and distinctions according to
the letter, and not have his manuscript incorrect or indistinct, lest the difficulty of
ascertaining the sense, from the indistinctness of the copy, should cause greater
difficulties to the readers.


ON PRAYER
=========

ON PRAYER Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 185–253

Teacher and biblical scholar of Alexandria and Caesarea.

INTRODUCTION

[Translated by William A. Curtis]

I. INTRODUCTION

1 Things in themselves so supremely great, so far above man, so utterly above our
perishable nature, as to be impossible for the race of rational mortals to grasp, as the
will of God became possible in the immeasurable abundance of the Divine grace which
streams forth from God upon men, through Jesus Christ the minister of His unsurpassable
grace toward us, and through the cooperant Spirit. Thus, though it is a standing
impossibility for human nature to acquire Wisdom, by which all things have been
established—for all things, according to David, God made in wisdom—from being impossible
it becomes possible through our Lord Jesus Christ, who was made for us wisdom from God and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. For what or who is man that he shall know
the counsel of God, or who shall conceive what that Lord willeth? Since the thoughts of
mortals are weakling and our purposes are prone to fail; for the body that is corruptible
weighs down soul, and mind with its store of thought is burdened by it's earthly
tabernacle; and things on earth we forecast with difficulty, but things in heaven whoever
yet traced out? Who would not say that it is impossible for man to trace out things in
heaven? Yet this impossible thing, by the surpassing grace of God, becomes possible; for
he who was caught up unto a third heaven traced out things in the three heavens through
having heard unutterable utterances which it was not permitted for man to speak. Who can
say that it is possible for the mind of the Lord to be known by man?

2 But this, too, God graciously gives through Christ who said to His disciples: "No longer
do I call you servants, because the servant knows not what his lord's will is, but I have
called you friends, because all the things that I have heard from my Father I have made
known to you; so that through Christ there is made known to them the will of one who, when
He teaches them the will of the Lord, has no desire to be their lord any longer but
instead becomes a friend to those whose lord he was before." Moreover, as no one knows the
things of man save the Spirit of man that is in him, so also no one knows the things of
God save the Spirit of God. Now if no one knows the things of God save the Spirit of God,
it is impossible that a man should know the things of God. But mark how this too becomes
possible: but we, he says, have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit which
is from God, that we may know the things graciously given to us by God, and these also we
speak not in words taught of human wisdom but in those taught of the Spirit. But I think,
right pious and industrious Ambrosius, and right discreet and manful Tatiana, from whom I
avow that womanly weakness has disappeared as truly as it had from Sarah of old, you are
wondering to what purpose all this has been said in preface about things impossible for
man becoming possible by the grace of God, when the subject prescribed for our discourse
is Prayer.

3 The fact is, I believe it to be itself one of those things which, judged by our
weakness, are impossible, clearly to set forth with accuracy and reverence a complete
account of prayer, and in particular of how prayer ought to be offered, what ought to be
said to God in prayer, which seasons are more, which less, suitable for prayer . . . The
very apostle who by reason of the abundance of the revelations is anxious that no one
should account to him more than he sees or hears from him, confesses that he knows not how
to pray as he ought, for what we ought to pray, he says, we know not how to as we ought.
It is necessary not merely to pray but also to pray as we ought and to pray what we ought.
For even though we are enabled to understand what we ought to pray, that is not adequate
if we do not add to it the right manner also.

4 On the other hand what is the use of the right manner to us if we do not know to pray
for what we ought? Of these two things the one, I mean the 'what we ought' of prayer, is
the language of the prayer, while the 'as we ought' is the disposition of him who prays.
Thus the former is illustrated by "Ask for the great things and the little shall be added
unto you," and "Ask for the heavenly things and the earthly shall be added unto you," and
"Pray for them that abuse you," and "Entreat therefore the Lord of the harvest that He
send out workers unto his harvest," and "Pray that you enter not into temptation," and
"Pray that your flight be not in winter or on a Sabbath," and "In praying babble not" and
the like passages: the latter by "I desire therefore that men pray in ever place lifting
up holy hands without anger and questioning, and in like manner that women array
themselves decently in simplicity, with modesty and discretion, not in or gold or pearls
or costly raiments, but, as becomes women of pious profession, through good works.
Instructive too, for prayer 'as we ought' is the passage:

5 "If then you art offering your gift at the altar and there think you that your brother
hath aught against you, leave there your gift before the altar, and go back—first be
reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift;" for what greater gift can
be sent up to God from a rational creature than fragrant words of prayer that is offered
from a conscience devoid of taint from Sin? Similarly instructive is "Deprive not one
another, save by agreement for a season that you may give yourselves to prayer and may be
together at another time again, in order that Satan may not have occasion to exalt over
you by reason of your incontinence. For prayer 'as we ought' is restrained unless the
marriage mysteries which claim our silence be consummated with more of solemnity and
deliberation and less of passion, the 'agreement' referred to in the passage obliterating
the discord of passion, and destroying incontinence, and preventing Satan's malicious
exultation. Yet again instructive for prayer 'as we ought' is the passage: "If you are
standing at prayer, forgive aught that you have against any man;" and also the passage in
Paul "Any man who prays or preaches with covered head dishonours his head, and any woman
who prays or preaches with unveiled head dishonors her head" is descriptive of the right
manner of prayer.

6 Paul knows all these sayings, and could cite, with subtle statement in each case,
manifold more from law and prophets and gospel fulfillment, but in the moderation, yes,
and in the truthfulness of his nature, and because he sees how much, after all of them, is
lacking to knowledge of the right way to pray what he ought, he says "but what we ought to
pray we know not how to as we ought," and adds thereto the source from which a man's
deficiency is made up if though ignorant he has rendered himself worthy to have the
deficiency made up within him: "The Spirit himself more than intercedes with God in sighs
unspeakable and He that searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because His
intercession on behalf of saints is according to God." Thus the Spirit who cries "Abba
Father" in the hearts of the blessed, knowing with solicitude that their sighing in this
tabernacle can but weigh down the already fallen or transgressors, "more than intercedes
with God in sighs unspeakable," for the great love and sympathy He feels for men taking
our sighs upon himself; and, by virtue of the wisdom that resides in Him, beholding our
Soul humbled 'unto dust' and shut within the body 'of humiliation,' He employs no common
sighs when He more than intercedes with God but unspeakable ones akin to the unutterable
words which a man may not speak. Not content to intercede with God, this Spirit
intensifies His intercession, "more than intercedes," for those who more than conquer, as
I believe such as Paul was, who says "Nay in all these we more than conquer."

7 He simply "intercedes," I think, not for those who more than conquer, nor again for
those who are conquered, but for those who conquer. Akin to the saying "what we ought to
pray we know not how to as we ought, but the Spirit more than intercedes with God in sighs
unspeakable," is the passage "I will pray with the Spirit, and I will pray with the
understanding also: I will sing with the spirit; and I will sing with the understanding
also." For even our understanding is unable to pray unless the spirit leads it in prayer
within hearing of it as it were, anymore than it can sing or hymn, with rhythmic cadence
and in unison, with true measure and in harmony, the Father in Christ, unless the Spirit
who searches all things even the depth of God first praise and hymn Him whose depth He has
searched and, as He had the power, comprehended. I think it must have been the awakened
consciousness of human weakness falling short of prayer in the right way, above all
realized as he listened to great words of intimate knowledge falling from the Savior's
lips in prayer to the Father, that moved one of the disciples of Jesus to say to the Lord
when He ceased praying, "Lord, teach us to pray, even as John also taught his disciples."
The whole train of language is as follows: "And it came to pass, as He was at prayer in a
certain place, that one of His disciples said to Him when He ceased "Lord, teach us to
pray even as John also taught his disciples."

8 For is it conceivable that a man who had been brought up under instruction in the law
and hearing of the words of the prophets and was no stranger to the synagogue had no
knowledge whatsoever of prayer until he saw the Lord praying in a certain place? It is
absurd to pretend that he was one who did pray after the Jewish practice but saw that he
needed fuller knowledge as to the place in reference to prayer. What was it, too, in
reference to prayer that John used to teach the disciples who came to him for baptism from
Jerusalem and all Judea and the country round about, but certain things of which, as one
who was greater than a prophet, he had vision in reference to prayer, which I believe he
would not deliver to all who were baptized but privately to those who were disciples with
a view to baptism?

9 Such are the prayers, which are really spiritual because the spirit was praying in the
heart of the saints, recorded in scripture, and they are full of unutterably wonderful
declarations. In the first book of Kings there is the prayer of Hannah, partially, because
the whole of it was not committed to writing since she was 'speaking in her heart' when
she perservered in prayer before the Lord; and in Psalms, the seventeenth psalm is
entitled "A prayer of David," and the ninetieth "A prayer of Moses, man of God," and the
hundred and second "A prayer of a poor man at a time he is weary and pours forth his
supplication before the Lord." These are prayers which, because truly prayers made and
spoken with the spirit, are also full of the declarations of the wisdom of God, so that
one may say of the truths they proclaim "Who is wise that he shall understand them? And
understanding, then he shall fully know them." Since therefore it is so great an
undertaking to write about prayer, in order to think and speak worthily of so great a
subject, we need the special illumination of the Father, and the teaching of the first
born Word himself, and the inward working of the Spirit, I pray as a man—for I by no means
attribute to myself any capacity for prayer—that I may obtain the Spirit of prayer before
I discourse upon it, and I entreat that a discourse full and spiritual may be granted to
us and that the prayers recorded in the Gospels may be elucidated.

10 So let us now begin our discourse on Prayer.

II. SCRIPTURAL USES OF THE GENERAL WORDS FOR PRAYER

1 So far as I have observed, the first instance of the term prayer that I find is when
Jacob, a fugitive from his brother Esau's wrath, was on his way to Mesopotamia at the
suggestion of Isaac and Rebecca. The passage runs: And Jacob vowed a vow (prayed a
prayer), saying—If the Lord God will be with me, and guard me in this way that I am going,
and give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, and bring me back in safety to my father's
house, then shall the Lord be my God and this stone which I have set up as a pillar shall
be for me God's house, and of all that you will give me I will give you tithe. It should
also to be remarked that the term prayer is in many places is different from prayer as we
speak of it—as when applied in the case of one who professes that he will do certain
things in exchange for obtaining certain other things from God. The expression prayer is,
however, employed in our usual sense [in early texts]. Thus in Exodus after the scourge of
frogs, the second in order of the ten, "Pharaoh called for Moses and Aaron and said to
them: Pray unto the Lord for me that He withdraw the frogs from me and from my people; and
I will send the people forth that they may sacrifice to the Lord."

2 And if, because Pharaoh's word is aw-thar' anyone should be sceptical as to aw-thar'
meaning here prayer as well as vow, he should observe what follows: "Moses said to
Pharaoh, 'Kindly tell me when I am to pray (aw-thar') for you and for your officials and
for your people, that the frogs may be removed from you and your houses and be left only
in the Nile.'" In the case of the fleas, the third scourge, I have observed that neither
does Pharaoh entreat that prayer be made nor does Moses pray. In the case of the flies,
the fourth, he says: Pray therefore unto the Lord for me. Then Moses also said: I will go
out from you and pray unto God and the flies shall go away from Pharaoh and his servants
and his people tomorrow. And shortly after: So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed unto
God. Again in the case of the fifth and the sixth scourge neither did Pharaoh entreat that
prayer should be made nor did Moses pray, but in the case of the seventh Pharaoh sent and
called for Moses and Aaron and said to them: I have sinned this time; the Lord is
righteous, I and my people are impious. Therefore pray unto the Lord that there be an end
of thunder and hail and fire. And shortly after: Moses went out from Pharaoh outside the
city, and stretched forth his hands unto the Lord and there was an end to the thunder. Why
is it not as in the foregoing cases?

3 And he prayed, but he stretched forth his hands unto the Lord. That is a question to be
considered more conveniently elsewhere. In the case of the eighth scourge, however,
Pharaoh says . . . and pray (aw-thar') to the LORD your God that at the least he remove
this deadly thing from me." So Moses went out from Pharaoh and prayed (aw-thar') unto God.
We said that the term prayer (aw-thar') is, as in Jacob's case, in many places employed in
a sense other than the customary. In Leviticus for instance: The Lord spoke to Moses
saying: Speak to the children of Israel; and you shall say unto them: Whoever vows (naw-
dar') a vow (neh'-der), setting a price upon his soul to the Lord, his price, if a male
from twenty to sixty years, shall be fifty didrachims of silver, sanctuary standard. And
in Numbers: And the Lord spoke to Moses saying: Speak to the Children of Israel; and you
shall say unto them: Man or woman, whoever vows (naw-dar') a great vow of consecration to
the Lord, shall be consecrate from wine and strong drink—and so on of the so-called
Nazarite; then, shortly after: and shall hallow his head in that day in which he was
hallowed to the Lord for the days of the vow.

4 And again shortly after: This is the law for him that has vowed when he shall have
fulfilled the days of his vow . . . ; and again shortly after: And after that, he that has
vowed will drink wine. This is the law for him that has vowed, whoever has vowed his
votive gift to the Lord, apart from what his hand may find by virtue of his vow which he
has vowed according to the law of consecration. And towards the end of Numbers: And Moses
spoke to the rulers of the tribes of the Children of Israel saying, This is the thing
which the Lord has decreed: A man who has vowed a vow to the Lord or sworn an oath or
entered a bond, on his soul shall not desecrate his word: all that has gone out of his
mouth shall he do. And if a woman has vowed a vow to the Lord or entered a bond in the
house of her father in her youth, and her father has heard her vows and her bonds that she
entered into against her soul, and her father has let them pass in silence, all her vows
shall stand, and her bonds that she entered into against her soul shall remain: after
which he lays down sundry other laws for such a woman. In this sense it is written in
Proverbs: [I have a peace offering: today I pay my vows; and a foolish son is a father's
shame: unhallowed are vows from a harlot's hire; and] it is a snare to a man to hallow
hastily anything of his own: for after vowing comes repenting.

5 And in Ecclesiastes: Better not vow than vow without paying; and in the Acts of the
Apostles: There are among us four men of their own accord under a vow. I thought it not
out of place first to distinguish the meaning of prayer (aw-thar') in its two senses, and
similarly of prayer (neh'-der), for the latter turn in addition to its common and
customary general usage, is also employed, in the sense which we are accustomed to attach
to vow in what is told of Hannah in the first book of Samuel: Now Eli the priest was
sitting on a seat at the doorway of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of
soul and prayed (paw-lal') unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed (naw-dar') a vow
(neh'-der) and said: O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the humiliation of your
bondwoman and remember me and forget not your bondwoman and will give to your bondwoman
male seed, then will I give him in gift to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor
shall come upon his head. And yet in this instance, one may, not without plausibility,
with special regard to the words "she prayed (paw-lal') unto the Lord," "and she vowed a
vow," Ask whether, as she has done both of two things, that is "prayed unto the Lord" "and
vowed a vow," the word prayed ( paw-lal') on the one hand is not employed in our customary
signification of prayer (aw-thar'), and "vowed a vow" on the other hand in the sense in
which it is employed in Leviticus and Numbers.

6 For "I will give him in gift to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall
come upon his head" is strictly not a prayer but such a vow as Jephthah also vowed in the
passage; and Jephthah vowed a vow to the Lord and said: If you will indeed deliver the
children of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whoever comes out of the doors of my
house to meet me on my return in peace from the Children of Ammon shall be the Lord's and
I will offer him up as a burnt offering.

III. OBJECTIONS TO PRAYER

1 If then I must next, as you have urged, set forth in the first place the arguments of
those who told that nothing is accomplished as a result of prayers and therefore allege
that prayer is superfluous, I shall not hesitate to do that also according to my
ability—the term prayer being now used in its more common and general sense. In such
disrepute indeed is the view and to such a degree has it failed to obtain champions of
distinction that, among those who admit a Providence and set a God over the universe, not
a soul can be found who does not believe in prayer. The opinion (sentiment) belongs either
to utter atheists who deny the existence of God, or assume a God, as far as the name goes,
but deprive Him of providence. Already, it must be said, the adverse inworking, with
intent to wrap the most impious of opinions around the name of Christ and around the
teaching of the Son of God, has made some converts on the needlessness of prayer—a
sentiment which find champions in those who by every means do away with outward forms,
eschewing baptism and eucharist alike, misrepresenting the Scriptures as not actually
meaning this that we call prayer but as teaching something quite different from it.

2 Those who reject prayers, while, that is to say, setting a God over the universe and
affirming Providence—for it is not my present task to consider the statements of those who
by every means do away with a God or Providence—might reason as follows: God knows all
things before they come to be. There is nothing that upon its entrance into existence is
then first known by Him as previously unknown. What need to send up prayer to One who,
even before we pray, knows what things we have need of? For the heavenly Father knows what
things we have need of before we ask Him. It is reasonable to believe that as Father and
Artificer of the universe who loves all things that are and abhors nothing that He has
made, quite apart from prayer He safely manages the affairs of each like a father who
champions his infant children without awaiting their entreaty when they are either utterly
incapable of asking or through ignorance often desirous of getting the opposite of what is
to their profit and advantage. We men come further short of God even than the merest
children of the intelligence of their parents. And in all likelihood the things that are
to be are not only foreknown but prearranged by God, and nothing takes place contrary to
His prearrangement. Were anyone to pray for sunrise he would be thought a simpleton for
entreating through prayer for the occurrence of what was to take place quite apart from
his prayer: In like manner a man would be a fool to believe that his prayer was
responsible for the occurrence of what was to take place in any case even had he never
prayed.

3 And again, as it is the height of madness to imagine that, because one suffers
discomfort and fever under the sun at Summer Solstice, the Sun is through prayer to be
transferred to the Springtime Zodiac, in order that one may have the benefit of temperate
air, so it would be the height of infatuation to imagine that by reason of prayer one
would not experience the misfortunes that meet the race of men by necessity. Moreover, if
it be true that sinners are estranged from birth and the righteous man has been set apart
from his mother's womb, and if, while as yet they are unborn and have done neither good
nor evil, it is said the elder shall serve the younger, that the elective purpose of God
may stand based not on works but on the Caller, it is in vain that we entreat for
forgiveness of sins or to receive a spirit of strength to the end that, Christ empowering
us, we may have strength for all things.

4 If we are sinners, we are estranged from birth: if on the other hand we were set apart
from our mother's womb, the best of things will come our way even though we do not pray.
It is prophesied before his birth that Jacob shall be over Esau and that his brother shall
serve him: what has prayer to do with that? Of what impiety is Esau guilty that he is
hated before his birth? To what purpose does Moses pray, as is found in the ninetieth
psalm, if God is his refuge since before the mountains were settled and the earth and
world were formed. Besides, of all that are to be saved, it is recorded in the Epistle to
Ephesians that the Father elected them in Him, in Christ, before the world's foundation,
that they should be holy and blameless before Him, preordaining them unto adoption as His
sons through Christ.

5 Either, therefore, a man is elect, of the number of those who are so since before the
world's foundation, and can by no means fall from his election in which case he has
therefore no need of prayer; or he is not elect nor yet preordained, in which case he
prays in vain, since, though he should pray ten thousand times, he will not be listened
to. For whom God foreknew, them He also preordained to conformity with the image of His
Son's glory; and whom He preordained, them He also called; and whom He called, them He
also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. Why is Josiah distressed,
or why has he anxiety as to whether or not he will be listened to in prayer, when, many
generations before, he was prophesied by name and his future action not only foreknown but
foretold in the hearing of many. To what purpose, too, does Judas pray with the result
that even his prayer turned to sin, when from David's times it is pre-announced that he
will lose his overseership, another receiving it in his stead.

6 It is self-evidently absurd, God being unchangeable and having pre-comprehended all
things and adhering to His prearrangements, to pray in the belief that through prayer one
will change His purpose, or, as though He had not already prearranged but awaited each
individual's prayer, to make intercession that He may arrange what suits the supplicant by
reason of his prayer, there and then appointing what He approves as reasonable though He
has previously not contemplated it. At this point the propositions you formulated in your
letter to me may be set down word for word thus: Firstly, if God is foreknower of the
future and it must come to pass, prayer is vain. Secondly, if all things come to pass by
virtue of God's will, and His decrees are fixed, and nothing that He wills can be changed,
prayer is vain. Towards a solution of the difficulties which benumb the instinct of
prayer, the following, as I believe, helpful considerations may be advanced.

IV. ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS: MAN'S FREEWILL AND GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE

1 Of objects that move, some have the cause of motion outside them. Such are objects which
are lifeless and in passive motion simply by force of condition, and those which are moved
by force of nature and of life in the same manner and not like things which move
occasionally, for stones and stocks that have been quarried or cut off from growth, being
in passive motion simply by force of condition, have the cause of motion outside them.
Such too are dead bodies of animals and movable parts of plants, which change position
under compulsion and not as animals and plants themselves change their position but in the
same manner as stones and stocks cut off from growth—although even these may be said to
move in respect that, all bodies in decay being in flux, they possess the motion
inherently attendant upon decay. Besides these a second class of moving objects are those
which move by force of their internal nature or life, which are said by those who use
terms in their stricter sense to move of themselves.

2 A third kind of movement is that in animals, which is termed spontaneous movement,
whereas, in my opinion, the movement of rational beings is independent movement. If we
withdraw from an animal spontaneous movement, it cannot be any longer conceived as even an
animal; it will be like either a plant moving by mere force of nature or a stone borne
along by some force external to it: Whenever an object follows its own peculiar movement,
since that is what we have termed independent movement, it must needs be rational.
Thinkers therefore who will have it that nothing is in our power, will necessarily assent
to a most foolish statement, firstly that we are not animals, and secondly that neither
are we rational beings, but that, what we are believed to do, we may be said to do by
force as it were of some external cause of motion and in no sense moving ourselves.

3 Let anyone, moreover, with special regard to his own feelings, see whether without shame
he can deny that it is himself that wills, eats, walks, gives assent to and accepts
certain opinions, dissents from others as false. There are certain opinions to which a man
cannot possibly assent though he puts them with innumerable refinements of argument and
with plausible reasoning: and similarly it is impossible to assent to any view of human
affairs in which our free will is in no sense preserved. Who assents to the view that
nothing is comprehensible, or lives as in complete suspense of judgement: Who that has
received a sense perception of a domestic misdeed, forebears to reprove the servant? And
who is there that does not censure a son who fails to pay the duty owed to parents, or
does not blame and find fault with an adulteress as having committed a shameful act? Truth
forces and compels us, in spite of innumerable refinements, to impulsive praise and blame,
on the basis of our retention of free will with the responsibility in which it involves
us.

4 If our free will is in truth preserved with innumerable inclinations towards virtue or
vice, towards either duty or its opposite, its future must like other things have been
known by God, before coming to pass, from the world's creation and foundation; and in all
things prearranged by God in accordance with what He has seen of each act of our free
wills. He has with due regard to each movement of our free wills prearranged what also is
at once to occur in His providence and to take place according to the train of future
events. God's foreknowledge is not the cause of all future events including those that are
to have their efficient cause in our freewill guided by impulse. Even though we should
suppose God ignorant of the future, we shall not on that account be incapacitated for
effecting this and willing that. Rather it ensues from His foreknowledge that our
individual free wills receive adjustment to suit the universal arrangement needful for the
constitution of the world. If, therefore, our individual free wills have been known by
Him, and if in His providence He has on that account been careful to make due arrangement
for each one, it is reasonable to believe that He has also pre-comprehended what a
particular man is to pray in that faith, what his disposition, and what his desire.

5 That being so, in His arrangement it will accordingly have been ordained somewhat after
this wise: This man I will hear for the sake of the prayer that he will pray, because he
will pray wisely: but that man I will not hear, either because he will be unworthy of
being heard, or because his prayer will be for things neither profitable for the suppliant
to receive nor becoming me to bestow: and in the case of this prayer, of some particular
person, let us say, I will not hear him, but in the case of that I will. Should the fact
of God's unerring foreknowledge of the future disquiet anyone by suggesting that things
have been necessarily determined, we must tell him that it is a real part of God's fixed
knowledge that a particular man will not with any fixed certainty choose the better or so
desire the worse as to become incapable of a change for his good. And again I will do this
for this man when he prays, as becomes me seeing that he will pray without reproach and
will not be negligent in prayer: upon that man who will pray for a certain amount, I will
bestow this abundantly in excess of his asking or thinking, for it becomes me to surpass
him in well doing and to furnish more than he has been capable of asking.

6 To this other man of a particular character I will send this angel as minister, to
cooperate from a certain time in his salvation and to be with him for a certain period: to
that other, who will be a better man than he, that angel of higher rank than his. From
this man who, after having devoted himself to the higher views will gradually relax and
fall back upon the more material, I will withdraw this superior cooperator, upon whose
withdrawal that duly inferior power, having found an opportunity to get at his slackness,
will set upon him and when he has given himself up in readiness to sin, will incite him to
these particular sins. So we may imagine the Prearranger of All saying: 7 Amos will beget
Josiah, who will not emulate his father's faults but will find his way leading on to
virtue, and will by aid of these companions be noble and good, so that he will tear down
the evilly erected altar of Jeroboam. I also know that Judas, in the sojourn of my son
among the race of men, will at the first be noble and good but later turn aside and fall
away to human sins so that he will rightly suffer thus for them. This foreknowledge, it
may be in regard to all things, certainly in regard to Judas and other mysteries, exists
in the Son of God also, who in His discernment of the evolution of the future has seen
Judas and the sins to be committed by him, so that, even before Judas came into existence,
He in His comprehension has said through David the words beginning "O God, keep you not
silence at my praise."—Knowing as I do the future and what an influence Paul will have in
the cause of religion, ere yet I set me to begin creation and found the world I will make
choice of him: I will commit him from the moment of his birth to these powers that
cooperate in men's salvation.

8 I will set him apart from his mother's womb. I will permit him at the first to fall in
youth into an ignorant zeal and in the avowed cause of religion to persecute believers in
my Christ and to keep the garments of them that stone my servant and witness Stephen, so
that later at the close of his youthful wilfulness he may be given a fresh start and
change for the best and yet not boast before me but may say: "I am not fit to be called an
apostle, because I persecuted the church of God," and realizing the kindness that he will
receive from me after his faults committed in youth in the avowed cause of religion may
declare "It is by God's grace that I am what I am"; and, being restrained by conscience by
reason of the deeds he wrought while still young against Christ, he will not be
excessively elated by the exceeding abundance of the revelations which in kindness I shall
show him.

9 To the objection in reference to prayer for the rising of the Sun we may reply as
follows. The Sun also possesses a certain free will, since he with the moon joins in
praising God, for "Praise Him, Sun and Moon" it says: as also manifestly the moon and all
the stars conformably, for it says "Praise Him all the stars and light." As, therefore, we
have said that God has employed the free will of individual beings on earth for the
service of beings on earth in arranging them aright, so we may suppose that He has
employed the free will, fixed and certain and steadfast and wise as it is, of sun, moon
and stars in arranging the whole world of heaven with the course and movement of the stars
in harmony with the whole. If I do not pray in vain for what concerns any other freewill,
much more shall I pray for what concerns the freewill of the stars which tread in heaven
their world-conserving measures. It may indeed be said of beings on earth that certain
appearances in our surroundings call out now our instability, now our better inclination
to act or speak in certain ways: but in the case of beings in heaven what appearances can
interpose to oust and remove from the course that benefit the world beings which have each
a life so adjusted by Reason independently of them, and which enjoy so ethereal and
supremely pure a frame?

V. ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS: CONDITIONS NECESSARY TO PRAYER

1 With a view to impel men to pray and to turn them from neglect of prayer, we may not
unreasonably further use an illustration such as this. Just as, apart from woman and apart
from recourse to the function requisite for procreation, man cannot procreate, so one may
not obtain certain things without prayer in a certain manner, with a certain disposition,
with a certain faith, after a certain antecedent mode of life. Thus we are not to babble
or ask for little things or pray for earthly things or enter upon prayer with anger and
with thoughts disturbed. Nor again is it possible to think of giving oneself to prayer
apart from purification. Nor again is forgiveness of sins possible to the supplicant
unless from the heart he forgives his brother who has done wrong and entreats him to
obtain his pardon. That benefit accrues to him who prays rightly or according to his
ability strives to do so, follows, I consider, in many ways: It is, first of all, surely
in every sense a spiritual advantage to him who is intent upon prayer, in the very
composure of prayer to present himself to God and in His presence to speak to Him with a
vivid sense that he looks on and is present. For just as certain mental images and
particular recollections connected with the objects recollected may sully the thoughts
suggested by certain other images, in the same way we may believe that it is advantageous
to remember God as the object of our faith—the One who discerns the movements within the
inner sanctuary of the soul as it disposes itself to please the Examiner of Hearts and
Inquisitor of Reins as One who is present and beholds and penetrates into every mind.

2 Even though further benefit than this be supposed to accrue to him who has composed his
thoughts for prayer, no ordinary gain is to be conceived as gotten by one who has devoutly
disposed himself in the season of prayer. When this is regularly practiced, how many sins
it keeps us from, and how many achievements it brings us to, is known only to those who
have given themselves up with some degree of constancy to prayer. For if the recollection
and recontemplation of a man who has found fame and benefit in wisdom incites us to
evaluate him and sometimes restrains our lower impulses, how much more does the
recollection of God the Father of All, along with prayer to Him, become advantageous to
those who are persuaded that they stand before and speak to a present and hearing God! 3
What I have said may be established from the divine scriptures in the following way. He
who prays must lift up holy hands, forgiving everyone who has wronged him, with the
passion of anger banished from his soul and in wrath with none. And again, to prevent his
mind from being made turbid by irrelevant thoughts, he must while at prayer forget for the
time everything outside prayer—surely a state of supreme blessedness! As Paul teaches in
the first Epistle to Timothy when he says: "I desire therefore that men pray in every
place lifting up holy hands without anger and disputations. And further, a woman ought,
most of all at prayer, to preserve simplicity and decency in soul and body, above all and
especially while she prays reverencing God and expelling from her intellect every wanton
womanish recollection, arrayed not in chaplets and gold or pearls or costly raiment, but
in the things in which it becomes a woman of pious profession to be arrayed, (and I marvel
that anyone should hesitate, were it on the strength of such a condition alone, to
pronounce her blessed who has thus presented herself for prayer) as Paul has taught in the
same Epistle when he says, "in like manner that women array themselves decently in
simplicity with modesty and discretion, not in chaplets and gold or pearls or costly
raiment, but, as becomes woman of pious profession, through good works." (1Tim.2:9)

4 And besides, the prophet David speaks of much else that the saint possesses in prayer.
We may, not irreverently, cite these passages as showing that, even if this alone be
considered, the attitude and preparation for prayer of one who has offered himself to God
is of the highest benefit. He says: "Unto you have I lifted mine eyes, who dwellest in
heaven and unto you have I lifted my soul, O God." For when the eyes of thought are lifted
up from dwelling on earthly things and being filled with the imagination of material
objects, and are elevated to such a height as to look beyond begotten things and to be
engaged solely in contemplation of God and in solemn converse with Him becoming to the
Hearer. Surely those eyes themselves have already got the highest advantage in reflecting
the glory of the Lord with face unveiled and being transformed into the same image from
glory to glory, for they then partake of a certain divine perception shown by the words:
"the light of your face, O Lord, hath been signalized upon us." (Ps.4:6) And indeed the
soul being lifted up, and parting from body to follow spirit, and not only following the
spirit but also merging in it, as is shown by the words "Unto you have I lifted my soul,"
is surely already putting off its existence as soul and becoming spiritual. And if
forgiveness is a very high accomplishment, so high as according to the prophet Jeremiah to
embrace a summary of the whole law, for he says, "I laid not those commands upon your
fathers as they were gone forth from Egypt, but this command I laid:

5 Let each man not be unforgiving to his neighbor in his heart," and if in entering upon
prayer with unforgiveness left behind us we keep the Savior's command, "If you're standing
at prayer forgive aught that you have against any man." (Mk.11:25) It is plain that those
who stand in that temper to pray have already received the best of possessions.

VI. ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS: HE WHO PRAYS PRAYS NOT ALONE

1 So far, I have said that, even on the supposition that nothing else is going to follow
our prayer, we receive the best of gains when we have come to perceive the right way to
pray and when we achieve it. But it is certain that he who thus prays, having previously
cast aside all discontent with Providence, will, if intent to mark the inworking of the
Hearer, in the very act hear the response "Here am I." The above condition is expressed in
the words "If you withdraw your bonds and protests and murmuring utterance," for he that
is content with what comes to pass becomes free from every bond, and does not protest
against God for ordaining what He wills for our discipline, and does not even in the
secrecy of his thoughts murmur inaudibly; for they who murmur thus, not daring to abuse
Providence roundly for what occurs with voice and soul but desiring as it were to escape
the observation even of the Lord of All in their discontent, are like bad domestics who
rail, but not openly, against their masters' orders.

2 And I think the same thing is meant in the passage in Job: "In all these ocurrences Job
sinned not with his lips in the sight of God"; and it is just this that the saying in
Deuteronomy enjoins must not happen, when it says: "Take heed lest a secret utterance be
ever in your heart to break the law, saying the seventh year draws nigh" and so on. So
then he who prays thus, becomes, as already so greatly benefited, more fit to mingle with
the Spirit of the Lord that fills the whole world and fills all the earth and the heaven
and says by the prophet: "'Do not I fill the heaven and the earth?' says the Lord." And
further, through the afore mentioned purification as well as through prayer, he will enjoy
the good office of the Word of God, who is standing in the midst even of those who do not
know Him and who fails the prayer of none, to pray to the Father along with Him for whom
He mediates. For the Son of God is high priest of our offerings and our pleader with the
Father. He prays for those who pray, and pleads along with those who plead. He will not,
however, consent to pray, as for his intimates, on behalf of those who do not with some
constancy pray through Him, nor will he be Pleader with the Father, as for men already His
own, on behalf of those who do not obey His teaching to the effect that they ought at all
times to pray and not lose heart.

3 For it says, "He spoke a parable to the end that they ought at all times to pray and not
lose heart. 'There was a certain judge in a certain city,'" and so on; and earlier he said
unto them, "Who of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight and shall
say to him: Friend, lend me three loaves since a friend of mine has come to me after a
journey and I have naught to set before him"; and a little later, "I tell you, even though
he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, he will yet because of his being
unabashed get up and give him as many as he wants." And who that believes the guileless
lips of Jesus can but be stirred to unhesitating prayer when He says, "Ask and it shall be
given you for everyone that asks receives," since the kind Father gives to those who have
received the spirit of adoption from the Father, the living bread when we ask Him, not the
stone which the adversary would have become food for Jesus and His disciples, and since
The Father gives the good gift in rain from heaven to those that ask him.

4 But these pray along with those who genuinely pray—not only the high priest but also the
angels who "rejoice in heaven over one repenting sinner more than over ninety-nine
righteous that need not repentance," and also the souls of the saints already at rest. Two
instances make this plain. The first is where Raphael offers their service to God for
Tobit and Sarah. After both had prayed, the scripture says, "The prayer of both was heard
before the presence of the great Raphael and he was sent to heal them both," and Raphael
himself, when explaining his angelic commission at God's command to help them, says: "Even
now when you prayed, and Sarah your daughter-in-law, I brought the memorial of your prayer
before the Holy One," and shortly after, "I am Raphael, one of the Seven angels who
present the prayers of saints and enter in before the glory of the Holy One. Thus,
according to Raphael's account at least, prayer with fasting and almsgiving and
righteousness is a good thing.

5 The second instance is in the Books of the Maccabees where Jeremiah appears in exceeding
"white haired glory" so that a wondrous and most majestic authority was about him, and
stretches forth his right hand and delivers to Judas a golden sword, and there witnesses
to him another saint already at rest saying, "This is he who prays much for the people and
the sacred city, God's prophet Jeremiah." For it is absurd when knowledge, though
manifested to the worthy through a mirror and in a riddle for the present, is then
revealed face to face not to think that the like is true of all other excellences as well,
that they who prepare in this life beforehand are made strictly perfect then. Now one of
these excellences in the strictest sense according to the divine word is love for one's
neighbor, and this accordingly we are compelled to think of as possessed in a far higher
degree by saints already at rest than by those who are in human weakness and wrestle on
along with the weaker. It is not only here that "if one member suffers, all the members
suffer with it and if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it" in the
experience of those who love their brethren, for it beseems the love also of those who are
beyond the present life to say "I have anxiety for all the churches:

6 Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble and I do not burn?" Especially
when Christ avows that according as such one of the saints may be weak, He is weak in like
manner, and in prison and naked and a stranger and hungry and athirst. For who that reads
the gospel is ignorant that Christ, in taking on himself whatever befalls believers,
counts their sufferings His own? And if angels of God came to Jesus and ministered to Him,
and if we are not to think of the ministry of the angels to Jesus as having been limited
to the brief space of His bodily sojourn among men while He was still in the midst of
believers not as one that reclined at table but as one that ministered, how many angels, I
wonder, must now be ministering to Jesus when He would "bring together the Children of
Israel one by one" and gather them from the dispersion, saving those who fear God and call
upon Him, and must be cooperating more than the apostles in the increase and enlargement
of the church! Thus in John certain angels are spoken of in the Apocalypse as actually
presiding over the churches.

7 Not in vain do angels of God ascend and descend unto the Son of Man, beheld of eyes that
have been enlightened with the light of knowledge. In the very season of prayer,
accordingly, being reminded by the suppliant of his needs, they satisfy them as they have
ability by virtue of their general commission. To further the acceptance of our view we
may make use of some such image as the following in support of this argument. Suppose that
a righteously minded physician is at the side of a sick man praying for health, with
knowledge of the right mode of treatment for the disease about which the man is offering
prayer. It is manifest that he will be moved to heal the suppliant, surmising, it may well
be not idly, that God has had this very action in mind in answer to the prayer of the
suppliant for release from the disease. Or suppose that a man of considerable means, who
is generous, hears the prayer of a poor man offering intercession to God for his wants. It
is plain that he, too, will fulfil the objects of the poor man's prayer, becoming a
minister of the fatherly counsel of Him who at the season of the prayer had brought
together him who was to pray and him who was able to supply and by virtue of the rightness
of his principles, incapable of overlooking one who has made that particular request.

8 As therefore we are not to believe that these events are fortuitous, when they take
place because He who has numbered all the hairs of the head of saints, has aptly brought
together at the season of the prayer the hearer who is to be minister of His benefaction
to the suppliant and the man who has made his request in faith; so we may surmise that the
presence of the angels who exercise oversight and ministry for God is sometimes brought
into conjunction with a particular suppliant in order that they may join in breathing his
petitions. Nay more, beholding ever the face of the Father in heaven and looking on the
Godhead of our Creator, the angel of each man, even of "little ones" within the church,
both prays with us, and acts with us where possible, for the objects of our prayer.

VII. ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS: THE TRUE PLACE OF PRAYER IN MAN'S LIFE

1 Again I believe the words of the prayer of the saints to be full of power above all when
praying "with the spirit," they pray "also with the understanding," which is like a light
rising from the suppliant's mind and proceeding from his lips to gradually weaken by the
power of God the mental venom injected by the adverse powers into the intellect of such as
neglect prayer and fail to keep that saying of Paul's in accordance with the exhortations
of Jesus, "Pray without ceasing." For it is as if a dart from the suppliant's soul, sped
by knowledge and reason or by faith, proceeds from the saint and wounds to their
destruction and dissolution the spirits adverse to God and desirous of casting round us
the bonds of sin. Now, since the performance of actions enjoined by virtue or by the
commandments is also a constituent part of prayer, he prays without ceasing who combines
prayer with right actions, and becoming actions with prayer. For the saying "pray without
ceasing" can only be accepted by us as a possibility if we may speak of the whole life of
a saint as one great continuous prayer.

2 Of such prayer what is usually termed prayer is indeed a part, and ought to be performed
at least three times each day, as is plain from the account of Daniel who, in spite of the
grave danger that impended, prayed three times daily. Peter furnishes an instance of the
middle prayer of the three when he goes up to the housetop about the sixth hour to pray on
that occasion on which he also saw the vessel which descended from heaven let down by four
corners. The first is spoken of by David: "In the morning shall you hear my prayer: in the
morning will I present myself to you and keep watch." The last is indicated in the words:
"the lifting up of my hands in evening sacrifice." Indeed we shall not rightly speak even
the season of night without such prayer as David refers to when he says "at midnight I
arose to make acknowledgment to you for your righteous judgments" and as Paul exemplifies
when, as it is said in the Acts of the Apostles, along with Silas he offers prayer and
praise to God "about midnight" in Phillipi so that the prisoners also heard them.

VIII. ANSWER TO OBJECTIONS: SIGNAL INSTANCES OF PRAYER

1 If Jesus prays and does not pray in vain, if He obtains His requests through prayer and
it may be would not have received them without prayer, who of us is to neglect prayer?
Mark tells us that "in the morning long before daybreak he arose and went out and departed
to a lonely place and there prayed." Luke says: "And it came to pass, as He was at prayer
in a certain place, that one of His disciples said to Him when He ceased, . . . and
elsewhere: And He passed the night in prayer to God." John records a prayer of Him in the
words: "These things spoke Jesus, and lifting up His eyes unto heaven He said, 'Father the
hour is come; glorify your Son that your Son may also glorify you.'" And the Lord's
saying, "I knew that you hear me always," recorded in the same writer shows that it is
because He is always praying that He is always heard.

2 What need is there to tell the tale of those who, through right prayer, have obtained
the greatest of things from God, when it is open to everyone to select any number of them
for himself from the Scriptures? Hannah did service to the birth of Samuel, who is
numbered along with Moses, because though barren she prayed in faith unto the Lord.
Hezekiah, who while still childless learned from Isaiah that he was about to die, is
included in the Savior's genealogy because he prayed. When the people were already on the
point of perishing under a single decree as the result of Haman's conspiracy, it was the
heard prayer with fasting of Mordecai and Esther that added to the Mosaic festivals and
gave rise to the Mordecaic day of rejoicing for the people. It was, moreover, after
offering holy prayer that Judith with God's help overcame Holophernes, and thus a single
woman of the Hebrews wrought shame upon the house of Nebuchadnezzar. It was on being heard
that Ananiah and Azariah and Mishael became worthy to receive a hissing rain and wind
which kept the flame of the fire from taking effect. Through Daniel's prayers the lions in
the Babylonians' pit were muzzled.

3 Even Jonah, because he did not despair of being heard from the belly of the monster that
had swallowed him, was able to quit the monster's belly and complete his interrupted
prophet's mission to the Ninevites. And further, how many things could each of us recount
should he choose to recall with gratitude the benefits conferred upon him and to offer
praise to God for them! Souls that have long been barren but have become conscious of
their intellects' sterility and the barrenness of their mind, through persevering prayer
have conceived of the Holy Spirit and given birth to thoughts and words of salvation full
of contemplated truth. How many of our foes have been dispersed, when often countless
thousands in the adverse host were wearing us down with intent to sweep us away from the
divine faith, and we rejoiced, when their appeal was to chariots and horses but ours to
the name of the Lord, to see that in truth deceptive is a horse for safety! Many a time
indeed does he whose trust is in praise to God—for Judith means praise—cut his way through
guileful and persuasive speech, that chief commander of the adversary who brings numbers
even of reputed believers to their knees.

4 What need is there to go on to tell of all who many a time have fallen among temptations
hard to overcome, whose burn was sharper than any flame, and have suffered naught under
them but emerged from them in every way unscathed, without so much of scathe as the
slightest odor of the hostile fire; or again of all the brutes exasperated against us, in
the form of wicked spirits or cruel men, that we have encountered and often muzzled by our
prayers, so that they were impotent to fasten their fangs in our members which had become
those of Christ. Often in each saint's experience has the Lord dashed together the teeth
of lions, and they were brought to nothing, as water flowing by. We know that often
fugitives from God's commands who have been swallowed by death, which at the first
prevailed against them, have been saved by reason of repentance from so great an evil,
because they did not despair of being able to be saved though already overpowered in the
belly of death: for death prevailed and swallowed, and again God took away every tear from
every face. What I have said after my enumeration of persons who have been benefited
through prayer, I consider to have been most necessary to my purpose of turning aspirants
after the spiritual life in Christ from prayer for little earthly things, and urging
readers of this writing towards the mystical things of which the above mentioned were
types.

5 For it is always and wholly prayer for the spiritual, mystical things which we have
instanced, that is practised by him who does not war according to the flesh but with the
Spirit mortifies the body's actions, preference being given to the things suggested by
analogy and study over the benefaction apparently indicated by the language of scripture
as having accrued to those who had prayed. For in ourselves also we are to strive, hearing
the spiritual law with spiritual ears, that barrenness or sterility may not arise, but
that we may like Hannah and Hezekiah be heard, being freed from barrenness or sterility,
and like Mordecai and Esther and Judith be delivered from plotting enemies—in our case the
spiritual powers of evil. Inasmuch as Egypt is an iron furnace and also a symbol of every
earthly place, let every one who has escaped from the wickedness of the life of men
without having been scorched by sin or having had his heart like an oven full of fire,
give thanks no less than the men who experienced rain amid fire.

6 Let him, too, who has been heard when he has prayed and said "Deliver not to the brutes
a soul that makes acknowledgment to you," and who has suffered naught from asp and
basilisk because through Christ he has trod on them, and who has trampled lion and snake
and enjoyed the good authority bestowed by Jesus to walk over serpents and scorpions and
upon the whole power of the enemy, without having been injured by any of them, give thanks
more than Daniel as having been delivered from brutes more terrible and harmful. Let him,
moreover, who has learned by experience what manner of monster that which swallowed Jonah
typified, perceiving that it is of such that Job has spoken, "May He curse it that curses
that day, He that is to worst the great monster," if he should ever come by reason of any
disobedience to be in the belly of the monster, pray in penitence, and he shall come out
thence; and if, after coming out, he abides in obedience to the commands of God, he shall
be able according to the kindness of the Spirit to be a prophet to perishing Ninevites of
today and to become a means to their salvation, without discontent with the kindness of
God or desire that He should abide in severity towards penitents.

7 The very highest thing that Samuel is said to have done through prayer is spiritually
possible of achievement today by every genuine dependant upon God who has become worthy to
be heard. It is written: "And now do but stand and see this great thing which the Lord
does under you eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord and He will
give thunders and rain." And then shortly after it says "and Samuel called upon the Lord,
and the Lord gave thunders and rain in that day." To every saint who is genuinely in
discipleship to Jesus it is said by the Lord, "Lift up your eyes and behold how the fields
are white already unto harvest. He that harvests receives wages and gathers fruit unto
life eternal." In this time of harvest the Lord does a great thing under the eyes of those
who hear the prophets; for when he that is adorned by the Spirit calls upon the Lord, God
gives from heaven thunders and rain that waters the Soul, in order that he who was before
in vice may deeply fear the Lord and the minister of God's benefaction whose claim to
reverence and veneration has been attested through the hearing of his prayers. Elijah
indeed by a divine word opened the heavens after they had been shut to the impious three
years and six months, a thing which anyone may accomplish at any time when through prayer
he receives the Soul's rain, if he be one who has hitherto been deprived of it because of
sin.

IX. THE CONTENT OF PRAYER: ITS FOUR MOODS

1 After thus interpreting the benefactions which have accrued to saints through their
prayers, let us turn our attention to the words "ask for the great things and the little
shall be added unto you: and ask for the heavenly things and the earthly shall be added
unto you." All symbolical and typical things may be described as little and earthly in
comparison with the true and the spiritual. And, I believe, the divine Word, in urging us
on to imitate the prayers of the saints, speaks of the heavenly and great things set forth
through those concerned with the earthly and little, in order that we may make our
requests according to the reality of which their achievements were typical. He says in
effect: Do you who would be spiritual ask for the heavenly and great, in order that
obtaining in them heavenly things you may inherit a kingdom of heaven, and as obtaining
great things you may enjoy the greatest blessings, while as for the earthly and little
that you require by reason of your bodily necessities, your Father will supply them to you
in due measure.

2 In the first Epistle to Timothy the Apostle has employed four terms corresponding to
four things in close relation to the subject of devotion and prayer. It will therefore be
of service to cite his language and see whether we can satisfactorily determine the strict
meaning of each of the four. He says, "I exhort therefore first of all that requests,
prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made on behalf of all men," and so on. Request I
take to be that form of prayer which a man in some need offers with supplication for its
attainment; prayer, that which a man offers in the loftier sense for higher things with
ascription of glory; intercession, the addressing of claim to God by a man who possesses a
certain fuller confidence; thanksgiving, the prayerful acknowledgment of the attainment of
blessings from God, he who returns the acknowledgment being impressed by the greatness, or
what seems to the recipient the greatness, of the benefactions conferred. Of the first,
examples are found in Gabriel's speech to Zachariah who, it is likely, had prayed for the
birth of John: "Fear not, Zachariah, because your request hath been heard and your wife
Elizabeth shall beget you a Son and you shall call his name John;" in the account in
Exodus of the making of the Calf: "And Moses made request before the Lord God, and said:
To what purpose, Lord, art you in anger wroth with your people whom you hast brought out
of the land of Egypt in great might?"

3 In Deuteronomy: "And I made request before the Lord a second time even as also the
former time forty days and forty nights bread I ate not and water I drank not for all your
sins that you sinned;" and in Esther: "Mordecai made request of God, recalling all the
works of the Lord, and said; Lord, Lord, King Almighty," and Esther herself "made request
of the Lord God of Israel and said: Lord our King . . . " Of the second, examples are
found in Daniel: "And Azariah drew himself up and prayed thus, and opening his mouth amid
the fire said . . . ;" and in Tobit: "And with anguish I prayed saying, 'Righteous art
you, O Lord, and all your works; all your ways are mercy and truth, and judgment true and
righteous dost you judge forever.'" Since however, the circumcised have marked the passage
in Daniel spurious as not standing in the Hebrew, and dispute the Book of Tobit as not
within the Testament, I shall cite Hannah's case from the first book of Kings.

4 "And she prayed unto the Lord, and wept exceedingly, and vowed a vow, and said, 'O Lord
of Hosts, if you will indeed have regard unto the humiliation of your bondmaid,'" and so
on; and in Habakkuk: "A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, set to song. O Lord, I have
hearkened to your voice and was afraid; I did mark your works and was in ecstasy. In the
midst of two living beings you shall be known; as the years draw nigh you shall be fully
known;" a prayer which eminently illustrates what I said in defining prayer that it is
offered with ascription of glory by the suppliant. And in Jonah also, Jonah prayed unto
the Lord his God from the belly of the monster, and said, "I cried in my affliction unto
the Lord my God, and he heard me. You heard my wail from the belly of death, my cry; you
flung me away into the depths of the heart of the sea, and streams encircled me."

5 Of the third, we have an example in the Apostle where he with good reason employs prayer
in our case, but intercession in that of the Spirit as excelling us and having confidence
in approaching Him with whom He intercedes; for as to what we are to pray, he says, "as we
ought we know not, but the Spirit Himself more than intercedes with God in sighs
unspeakable, and He that searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because His
intercession on behalf of saints is according to God;" for the Spirit more than
intercedes, and intercedes, whereas we pray. What Joshua said concerning the sun's making
a stand over against Gabaoth is, I think, also intercession: Then spake Joshua to the LORD
in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, "Here
spoke Joshua to the Lord in the day when God delivered up the Amorites before the children
of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and
thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon;" and in Judges, it is, I think, in intercession that
Samson said, "Let my soul die together with the aliens" when he leaned in might and the
house fell upon the princes and upon all the people in it. Even though it is not
explicitly said that Joshua and Samson interceded but that they said, their language seems
to be intercession, which, if we accept the terms in their strict sense, is in our opinion
distinct from prayer.

6 Of thanksgiving an example is our Lord's utterance when He says: "I make acknowledgment
to you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you did hide these things from the wise
and understanding and reveal them to infants;" for I make acknowledgment is equivalent to
I give thanks.

X. THE RECIPIENT OF PRAYER IN ITS FOUR MOODS

1 Now request and intercession and thanksgiving, it is not out of place to offer even to
men—the two latter, intercession and thanksgiving, not only to saintly men but also to
others. But request to saints alone, should some Paul or Peter appear, to benefit us by
making us worthy to obtain the authority which has been given to them to forgive sins—with
this addition indeed that, even should a man not be a saint and we have wronged him, we
are permitted our becoming conscious of our sin against him to make request even of such,
that he extend pardon to us who have wronged him. Yet if we are offer thanksgiving to men
who are saints, how much more should we give thanks to Christ, who has under the Father's
will conferred so many benefactions upon us? Yes and intercede with Him as did Stephen
when he said, "Lord, set not this sin against them." In imitation of the father of the
lunatic we shall say, "I request, Lord, have mercy" either on my son, or myself, or as the
case may be. But if we accept prayer in its full meaning, we may not ever pray to any
begotten being, not even to Christ himself, but only to the God and Father of All to whom
our Savior both prayed himself, as we have already instanced, and teaches us to pray.

2 For when He has heard one say. "Teach you us to pray," He does not teach men to pray to
Himself but to the Father saying, "Our Father in heaven," and so on. For if, as is shown
elsewhere, the Son is other than the Father in being and essence, prayer is to be made
either to the Son and not the Father or to both or to the Father alone. That prayer to the
Son and not the Father is most out of place and only to be suggested in defiance of
manifest truth, one and all will admit. In prayer to both it is plain that we should have
to offer our claims in plural form, and in our prayers say, "Grant you both, Bless you
both, Supply you both, Save you both," or the like, which is self-evidently wrong and also
incapable of being shown by anyone to stand in the scriptures as spoken by any.

3 It remains, accordingly, to pray to God alone, the Father of All, not however apart from
the High Priest who has been appointed by the Father with swearing of an oath, according
to the words He hath sworn and shall not repent, "You art a priest forever after the order
of Melchizedek." In thanksgiving to God, therefore, during their prayers, saints
acknowledge His favors through Christ Jesus. Just as the man who is scrupulous about
prayer ought not to pray to one who himself prays but to the Father upon whom our Lord
Jesus has taught us to call in our prayers, so we are not to offer any prayer to the
Father apart from Him. He clearly sets this forth himself when He says, "Verily, verily, I
tell you, whatsoever you may ask of my Father He shall give you in my house. Until but now
you have not asked aught in my name. Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be
fulfilled."

4 He did not say, "Ask of me," nor yet simply "Ask of the father," but "Whatsoever you may
ask of the Father, He will give you in my name." For until Jesus taught this, no one had
asked of the Father in the name of the Son. True was the saying of Jesus, "Until but now
you have not asked aught in my name"; and true also the words, "Ask and you shall receive,
that your joy may be fulfilled." Should anyone, however who believes that prayer ought to
be made to Christ himself, confused by the sense of the expression make obeisance,
confront us with that acknowledged reference to Christ in Deuteronomy, "Let all God's
angels make obeisance to Him," we may reply to him that the church, called Jerusalem by
the prophet, is also said to have obeisance made to her by kings and queens who become her
foster sires and nurses, in the words, "Behold, I lift up my hand upon the nations, and
upon the isles will I lift up my sign: and they shall bring your sons in their bosom and
your daughters they shall lift up on their shoulders; and kings shall be your foster
sires, their queens they nurses: to the face of the earth shall they make obeisance to
you, and the dust of your feet shall they lick: and you shall know that I am the Lord and
shall not be ashamed."

5 And how does it not accord with Him who said, "Why callest you me good? None is good
save One—God the Father" to suppose that He would say, "Why pray you to me? To the Father
alone ought you to pray, to whom I also pray, as indeed you learn from the holy
Scriptures. For you ought not to pray to one who has been appointed high priest for you by
the Father and has received it from the Father to be advocate, but through a high priest
and advocate able to sympathize with your weaknesses, having been tried in all points like
you but, by reason of the Father's free gift to me, tried without sin. Learn you therefore
how great a free gift you have received from my Father in having received through
regeneration in me the Spirit of adoption, that you may be called sons of God and my
brethren. For you have read my utterance spoken through David to the Father concerning
you, 'I will proclaim your name to my brethren; in the midst of the church will I sing
hymns to you.' It is not reasonable that those who have been counted worthy of one common
Father should pray to a brother.To the Father alone ought you, with me and through me, to
send up prayer."

6 So then hearing Jesus speak to such effect, let us pray to God through Him, all with one
accord and without division concerning the manner of prayer. Are we not indeed divided if
we pray some to the Father, others to the Son—those who pray to the Son, whether with the
Father or without the Father, committing a crude error in all simplicity for lack of
discrimination and examination? Let us therefore pray as to God, intercede as with a
Father, request as of a Lord, give thanks as to God and Father and Lord, though in no way
as to a servant's lord; for the Father may reasonably be considered Lord not only of the
Son but also of those who through Him are become sons also, though, just as He is not God
of dead but of living men, so He is not Lord of baseborn servants but of such as at the
first are ennobled by means of fear because they are as infants, but serve thereafter
according to love in a service more blessed than that which is in fear. For within the
soul itself, visible to the Seer of Hearts alone, these are distinctive characters of
servants and sons of God.

XI. THE OBJECTS OF PRAYER

1 Everyone who asks for the earthly and little things from God disregards Him who has
enjoined the asking of heavenly and great things. God is incapable of bestowing anything
either earthly or little. Should anyone suggest instances to the contrary in which the
material things bestowed upon the saints in the past as a result of prayer, and indeed the
express language of the Gospel when it teaches that the earthly and the little are to be
added unto us, we may reply to him as follows. When someone bestows upon us a particular
material object, we should not say that the person has bestowed upon us the shadow of the
object, for it is unintentional to present two things, object and shadow. The giver's
intention is to give a material object; our receipt of its shadow is a consequence of the
gift. In like manner if, with mind grown nobler, we have discerned the gifts that are
principally given to us by God, we shall most properly describe as consequences of the
great and heavenly spiritual gifts of grace the material things which are given to each of
the saints for his good or in proportion to his faith or according as the Giver wills, and
wisely does He will, even though we are unable to describe a cause and reason worthy of
the Giver for each of His gifts.

2 Greater fruit had been borne by Hannah's soul in being turned from sterility than was
her body in conceiving Samuel. Diviner had been the offspring begotten by Hezekiah's mind
than that which was begotten of the material seed of his body. Higher had been the
deliverances of Esther and Morecai and the people from spiritual plots than was that from
Haman and his conspirators. Mightier was the prince that sought to ruin her soul, whose
power Judith had cut through than he whom she met in Holophermes. Who would not
acknowledge that in the spiritual blessing which comes home to all the saints and which
Isaac spoke of to Jacob, "God give you of the rain of heaven," a higher rain had fallen to
Ananiah and those with him than the material rain that overcame Nebuchadnezzar's flame?
Greater had been the muzzling of the unseen lions by the prophet Daniel so that they were
unable to work anything against his soul, than that of the visible lions to which all of
us who read the passage have understood it to refer.

3 And who as a saint, becoming a fit recipient of the holy spirit, had ever, like Jonah,
escaped the belly of a monster that swallowed every fugitive from God and which has been
defeated by Jesus our Savior? It need not cause surprise if, to keep the metaphor, the
corresponding shadow is not given to all who receive objects capable of making shadows,
while to some a shadow is what is given. Students of questions relating to sundials and of
the relation of shadows to the illuminating body clearly observe what is the case with
bodies generally, that at a particular time some projectors are shadowless, others are
short shadowed, others are more or less long-shadowed. It is therefore not astonishing
that, as the Giver's plan is to bestow the principal things in accordance with certain
unutterable and mystic guiding principles and suitable to the recipients and occasions,
when the principal objects are being given there should sometimes go with them no shadows
at all for the recipients. At other times shadows are but few; at other times shadows
which are smaller in comparison accompany different objects.

4 As the presence or absence of the shadow of bodies neither pleases nor pains the man
whose object of search is solar beams, he possesses his chief necessity in being illumined
or freed from shadow or in having more or less of shadow as the case may be. If the
spiritual things are ours, and we are being illumined by God for complete possession of
true blessings, we shall not quibble over a matter so paltry as concerns the shadow. For
material and physical things count as fleeting feeble shadow, in no way comparable to the
saving holy gifts of the God of All. What comparison is there between material riches and
the riches that are in every word and all wisdom? Who in his senses would compare health
of flesh and bone with health of mind, strength of soul, and consistency of thought—things
which, if kept in measure by God's word, make bodily sufferings a paltry scratch, and even
slighter if we can grasp it.

5 He that has discerned the meaning of the beauty of the bride whom the bridegroom Word of
God loves, a soul blooming with more than heavenly and more than mundane beauty, will be
ashamed to dignify with the same name of beauty the physical beauty of woman or child or
man. For of beauty in the strict sense flesh is not capable, being deformity throughout.
For all flesh is as grass, and the glory thereof, which is manifest in the so called
beauty of women and children, is according to the prophet's language compared to a flower,
"All people are grass, their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers,
the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever." Again,
who that has perceived the nobility of the sons of God shall any longer give the name of
nobility to what passes as such among men? After contemplating Christ's kingship over
kings, how shall the mind not dispel all kingship upon earth? When the human mind, so far
as capable while still bound to a body, has once beheld as clearly as may be an army of
angels, and among them chief-commanders of the Lord's hosts, and archangels and thrones
and lordships and principalities and more than heavenly authorities, and has come to
understand that it can obtain from the Father their equivalent, how shall it not despise
those things which though frailer than shadow are the admiration of the foolish, even if
they should all be given to it, as most shadowy and in comparison insignificant, and look
beyond in order not to fall short of obtaining the true principalities and diviner
authorities?

6 We should therefore pray for the principal and truly great and heavenly things, and as
for those concerned with the shadows accompanying the principal, commit them to the God
who knows before we ask Him what things, by reason if our perishable body, we have need.


ON PRAYER
=========

ON PRAYER continued

XII. THE LORD'S PRAYER: THE PREFACE IN MATTHEW

1 What I have said, according to my capacity to receive the grace which has been given by
God through His Christ, and as I trust in the Holy Spirit also—whether it be so you will
judge when you read it—may suffice by way of examination of the general subject of prayer.
I shall now proceed to the next task, to consider how full of meaning is the prayer
outlined by the Lord. It is first of all to be observed that to most people Matthew and
Luke might seem to have recorded the same prayer sketched as a pattern for right prayer.
Matthew's words run thus: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And
forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us to the
time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

2 But Luke's run as follows: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us
each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone
indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial. To those who suppose it to be
the same prayer we may reply that the utterances, though they certainly resemble one
another, also appear to differ, as I shall set forth in investigating them. In the second
place it is not possible that the same prayer should be said on the mountain where "When
Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came
to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying"—for it is in the course of the
recital of the Beatitudes and the subsequent injunctions that it is found recorded in
Matthew. It also have been said, "He was praying in a certain place, and after he had
finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his
disciples."

3 It is surely impossible that the same words should be described as having been spoken in
the course of continuous utterance without any question to precede them and as being
announced in response to a disciple's request. One might, however, say the prayers are
equivalent and were spoken as one. On the one occasion in continuous discourse, on the
other in response to the request of a different disciple who in all likelihood was not
present when He spoke the form in Matthew or had not mastered what had earlier been
spoken. But perhaps it is better that the prayers be regarded as different, with certain
portions in common. In Mark, though I have searched there also in case the record of an
equivalent should escape me, I have not found so much as a vestige of a prayer contained.
I have already said that before praying one must first be composed and disposed in a
particular manner. Let us therefore glance at the words preceding the prayer contained in
Matthew, which were uttered by our Savior. They are as follows: And whenever you pray, do
not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the
street corners, so that they may be seen by others.

4 Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your
room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees
in secret will reward you. When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the
Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be
like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then in this way:
Our Savior often appears as inveighing against the love of glory as a deadly passion, just
as He has done in this place where He dissuades us from the practice of actors at the
season of prayer, for it is a practice of actors rather to plume themselves in piety
before men rather than to have communion with God. Remembering then the words, "How can
you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes
from the one who alone is God?" we ought to despise all glory with men even though it be
thought honorably gained and to seek the strict and true glory which is from Him alone who
glorifies the deserving in a manner becoming to Himself and exceeding the desert of the
person glorified. The very act which would in itself be thought honorable and is thought
praiseworthy is polluted when we do it to be glorified by men or to appear to men, and on
that account it is attended by no recompense from God. Unerring as the whole of Jesus'
language is, it becomes even more so when it is spoken with His accustomed oath.

5 Of those who for human glory seem to do good to their neighbor, or pray in synagogues
and at broadway corners, he says. "Truly I tell you, they have received their reward." For
as the rich man according to Luke had good things in his human life, being no longer
capable of obtaining them after the present life because he had had them, so he that has
his reward, as having sown not "unto the spirit" but "unto the flesh" shall "reap
corruption" but shall not "reap eternal life" in his giving or in his prayers. It is
sowing unto the flesh when one does alms, with trumpeting before him, in synagogues and
thoroughfares to be glorified by men, or likes to pray standing in synagogues and at
broadway corners to appear to men and thought a pious and a holy person among the
onlookers. Indeed every wayfarer along the broad and spacious way leading to destruction
without rightness or straightness but crooked and cornered throughout, (for the straight
line is broken in it to the utmost), is standing no less than he who prays at broadway
corners, not in one but through his love of pleasure in a number of streets in which
beings who as men are perishing because they have fallen away from their divinity, are to
be found glorifying and pronouncing blessed those whom they have thought to act piously.

6 There are always many who are rather pleasure-loving than God-loving in their seeming
prayer who debauch prayer amid banqueting and carousing, standing in truth at the broadway
corners and praying. For everyone who has made pleasure his rule of life has in his
passion for the spacious fallen out of the narrow straitened way of Jesus Christ that is
without a single bend and has no corner at all. There is a certain difference between
Church and Synagogue. The church in the strict sense is without "a spot or wrinkle or
anything of the kind," is holy and blameless. Into it enters neither child of harlot, nor
eunuch or emasenlate, nor yet Egyptian or Edomite unless sons born to them in the third
generation enables them with difficulty to join the church, nor Moabite and Ammonite,
unless the tenth generation is complete and the aeon passed. The Synagogue on the other
hand may be built by a centurion, as was the case in times preceding the sojourn of Jesus
when as yet witness had not yet been borne that the man possessed faith such as the Son of
God did not find even in Israel. Now he who likes to pray in synagogues is not far from
broadway corners. But it is not so with the saint, for he loves, not likes to pray, in
churches, not broadway corners, in the straightness of the narrow straitened way, not to
appear to men, but to present himself before the Lord God, a male in the sense that he
observes the acceptable year of the Lord and keeps the commandment which says, "Thrice in
the year shall every male present himself before the Lord God."

7 We are to attend to the word "appear" carefully, since no appearance is a good inasmuch
as it only seems to exist and not in truth, and misleads the senses and expresses nothing
exactly and truly. As actors of plays in theatres are not what they profess nor are really
what the mask they wear makes them look like, so too all who appear to assume the outward
sensible form of goodness and are not righteous but actors of righteousness, acting
moreover in a theatre of their own—namely synagogues and broadway corners. But he that is
no actor but has cast off all that is alien to him and sets himself to please in that
theatre which is inconceivably greater than any which has been mentioned, enters into his
own storeroom to the riches therein treasured up, and shuts up after him his treasury of
wisdom and knowledge. Never turning his glance outwards or doting on things outside,
having shut up every door of the senses that he may not be drawn away by sensations or
have their sensible presentation stealing into his mind, prays to the Father who does not
shun or desert a place so secret but dwells in it, the Only Begotten also being present
with Him. For He says "I and the Father will come unto him and make abode with him." And
plainly, if we do pray thus, we shall be interceding not only with a God but also with a
Father who is righteous, who does not desert us as His children but is present in our
secret place and watches it and increases the contents of the storeroom if we shut up its
door.

8 When we pray let us not babble but use godly speech. We babble when, without scrutiny of
ourselves or of the devotional words we are sending up, we speak of the corrupt in deed or
word or thought, things which are mean and reprehensible and alien to the
incorruptibleness of the Lord. He, then, that babbles in prayer is in a synagogic
disposition worse than any yet described and in a harder way than those who are at
broadway corners, preserving not as much as a vestige even of acting in goodness. For
according to the passage in the Gospel only heathen babble, being quite insensible of
great or heavenly petitions and therefore sending up every prayer for the material and the
external. To a babbling heathen, then, is he like who asks for things below from the Lord
who dwells in heaven and above the heights of the heavens.

9 He who is wordy also seems to be a babbler and he who babbles to be wordy. There is no
unity in matter and in bodily substances, but every such supposed unity is split up and
divided and disintegrated into many units to the loss of its union. Good is one; many are
the base. Truth is one; many are the false. True righteousness is one; many are the states
that act it as a part. God's wisdom is one; many are the wisdoms of this age and of the
rulers of this age which come to nought. The word of God is one, but many are the words
alien to God. Therefore no one shall escape Sin as the result of wordiness, and no one who
thinks to be heard as the result of wordiness can be heard. For this reason we ought not
to make our prayers like heathen babbling or wordiness or other practice after the
likeness of the serpent, for the God of saints, being a Father, knows of what things His
children have need, since such things are worthy of Fatherly knowledge.

10 He who knows not God knows not the things of God also—knows not the things of which he
has need, for the things of which he thinks he has need are mistaken. But he who has
contemplated the better and diviner things of which he is in need shall obtain the objects
of his contemplation which are known by God and which have been known by the Father even
before asking. After these remarks upon the preface to the prayer in the Gospel according
to Matthew, let us now proceed to consider what the prayer sets forth.

XIII. THE LORD'S PRAYER—OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN

1 Our Father in Heaven. It deserves a somewhat careful observation of the so-called Old
Testament to discover whether it is possible to find anywhere in it a prayer of one who
addresses God as Father. For though I have made examination to the best of my ability, I
have up to the present failed to find one. I do not say that God is not spoken of as
Father or that accounted believers in God are not called sons of God, but that I have not
yet found in prayer that confidence in calling God Father which the Savior has proclaimed.
That God is spoken of as Father and those who have waited on God's word as sons, may be
seen in many places, as in Deuteronomy, "You have forsaken God your parent and forgotten
God your nourisher," and again, "Is He not your Father himself that got you and made you
and created you?" and again, "Sons who have not faith in them." And in Isaiah, "I have
nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me"; and in Malachi, "A
son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is my honor?
and if I be a master, where is my fear?" So then, even though God is termed Father and
their Sons who have been begotten by reason of their faith in Him, yet sure and
unchangeable sonship is not to be seen in the ancient people.

2 The very passages I have cited since the subjection of those so-called sons, since
according to the apostle "the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a
servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time
appointed of the father." But the fullness of time is in the sojourn of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when they who desire receive adoption as sons, as Paul teaches in the words, "For
you did not receive a spirit of slavery unto fear, but you received a spirit of adoption
as sons, wherein we cry 'Abba Father'"; and as it is in the Gospel according to John, "To
as many as received Him He gave authority to become children of God if believers on His
name"; and it is by reason of this Spirit of adoption as sons, we learn in the Catholic
Epistle of John regarding the begotten of God, that "Everyone that is begotten of God does
no sin because His seed abides in him, and he cannot sin because he is begotten of God."

3 And yet if we think of the meaning of the words which are written in Luke, "When you
pray say: Father . . . ," we shall hesitate to address this expression to Him unless we
have become genuine sons in case, in addition to our other sins, we should also become
liable to a charge of impiety. My meaning is as follows. In the first Epistle to
Corinthians Paul says, "No one can say 'Jesus is Lord' save in a holy spirit, and no one
that speaks in God's spirit says 'cursed be Jesus' calling the same thing a holy spirit
and God's spirit." What is meant by speaking in a holy spirit of Jesus as Lord is not
quite clear, as countless actors and numbers of heterodox people, and at times even demons
conquered by the power in the name, utter the expression. No one therefore will venture to
declare that anyone of these calls Jesus 'Lord' in a holy spirit. For the same reason,
indeed, they could not be shown to call Jesus Lord at all, since they alone call Jesus
Lord who express it from inward disposition in service to the word of God and in
proclaiming no other Lord than Him in all their conduct. And if it be such who say Jesus
is Lord, it may be that everyone who sins, in that he curses the divine Word through his
transgression, has through his actions called out, "Cursed be Jesus."

4 And accordingly, as the one type of man says "Jesus is Lord," and the man of opposite
disposition "Cursed be Jesus," "so everyone that hath been begotten of God and does not
sin" because he is partaker of God's seed which turns him from all sin, says through his
conduct "Our Father in Heaven," the spirit himself witnessing with their spirit that they
are children of God and heirs to Him and joint heirs with Christ, since as suffering with
Him they reasonably hope with Him also to be glorified. But in order that theirs may be no
one-sided utterance of the words "Our Father," in addition to their actions they have a
heart—a fountain and source of good actions—believing unto righteousness, in harmony with
which their mouth makes acknowledgment unto salvation. So then their every act and word
and thought, formed by the only begotten word in accord with Him, imitates the image of
the invisible God and has come to be "in accordance with the image of the Creator" who
makes "the sun to rise upon evil men and good and rains upon righteous and unrighteous,"
that there may be in them the image of the heavenly One who is himself also an image of
God. Saints, therefore, as an image of an Image himself, a son, receive the impress of
Sonship, becoming conformed not only to the glorified body of Christ but also to Him who
is in that body, and they become conformed to Him who is in a glorified body through being
transformed by the renewing of their mind.

5 And if such men through out the whole of life voice the words "Our Father in the
Heavens," plainly he that does sin, as John says in the Catholic Epistle, "is of the devil
because the devil sins from the beginning" and just as God's seed abiding in the begotten
of God produces inability to sin in him who is formed in accordance with the only begotten
Word, so the devil's seed is in everyone that does sin, to the extent in which it is
present within the soul—not suffering its possessor to have power to prosper. But since
"for this end was the Son of God manifested that He might undo the actions of the devil,"
it is possible, through the undoing of the actions of the devil by the sojourn of the Word
of God within our Soul, for the evil seed implanted in us to be utterly removed and for us
to become children of God.

6 Let us, therefore, not think that it is words we are taught to say in any appointed
season of prayer. On the contrary, if we understand our former consideration of prayer
without ceasing, let our whole life of prayer without ceasing speak the words "Our Father
in the Heavens," having its commonwealth in no wise on earth but in every way in heaven,
which is God's throne because of the foundation of the kingdom of God in all who wear the
image of the Heavenly One and therefore become heavenly. When the Father of saints is said
to be in the heavens, we are not to suppose that He is circumscribed by material form and
dwells in heaven. Since, in that case, as contained God will be formed to be less than the
heavens because they contain Him, whereas the ineffable might of His godhead demands our
belief that all things are contained and held together by Him. And, in general, passages
which taken literally are thought by the simpler order of minds to assert that God is in
space are to be otherwise taken in a sense more becoming to great spiritual concepts of
God.

7 Such are those passages in the Gospel according to John: Before the feast of the
Passover, Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He should pass from this world to the
Father, as He had loved His own who were in the world, loved them to the end; and shortly
after: knowing that the Father had given all into His hands, and that He had come forth
from God and was returning to God; and later: you heard that I said to you: I return and
come unto you. If you loved me you would have rejoiced that I go to the Father; and again
later; Now I return to Him that sent me and none of you asks me: Where do you return? If
these things are to be taken spacially, so also plainly is: Jesus answered and said to
them, "If any one love me he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we shall
come unto him and make abode with him." But surely the words do not imply a spacial
transition of the Father and the Son to the lover of the word of Jesus and are therefore
not to be taken spacially.

8 On the contrary, the Word of God, in condescension for us and, in regard to His proper
desert, in humiliation while among men, is said to pass from this world unto the Father so
that we also may behold Him perfectly there in reversion to His proper fullness from the
emptiness among us whereby He emptied himself—where we also, enjoying His guidance, shall
be filled and freed from all emptiness. To such an end the Word of God well may leave the
world and depart to Him that sent Him, and go to the Father! And as for that passage near
the end of the Gospel according to John, "Cling not to me, for I am not yet gone up unto
my Father," let us seek to conceive it in the more mystical sense: Let ours be the more
reverent conception of the ascension of the Son to the Father with sanctified insight, an
ascension rather of soul than of body. I think it right to have linked these
considerations to the clause Our Father in the Heavens for the sake of doing away with a
low conception of God held by those who think that He is in heaven spacially, and of
preventing anyone from saying God is in material space since it follows that He also is
physical, which leads to opinions most impious\—to belief that He is divisible and
material and corruptible. For every material thing is divisible and corruptible.

9 Or else let them tell us, not on the strength of vague sensation but with a claim to
clear understanding, how it can be of any other than a material nature. Since, then, in
writings before Christ's bodily sojourn there are also many statements which seem to say
that God is in physical space, it appears to me to be not out of place to cite a few of
them also for the sake of doing away with any doubt in those who, because they know no
better, confine God, who is over all, within small and scanty space on their own scale.
First, in Genesis it says Adam and Eve heard the sound of the lord God walking at evening
in the garden, and both Adam and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God amid the wood
of the Garden. I shall put the question to those who not only refuse to enter into the
treasures of the passage but do not so much as knock at all at its door, whether they are
able to imagine the Lord God, who fills the heaven and the earth, who as they themselves
suppose in the more physical sense uses heaven as throne and the earth as a footstool for
His feet, as contained by so scanty a space in comparison with the whole heaven and the
earth that a garden which they suppose to be material is not filled by God but so far
exceeds Him in greatness as to hold Him even when walking while a sound from the tread of
His feet is heard? Absurder still on their interpretation is the hiding of Adam and Eve,
in fear of God by reason of their transgression, from before God amid the wood of the
Garden.

10 For it is not even said that they merely desired to hide but that they actually hid
themselves. And how is it in their view that God inquires of Adam saying: Where are you? I
have discussed these matters at greater length in my examination of the contents of
Genesis, yet here, too—in order not to pass by so grave a subject in complete silence—it
will suffice if I recall what is said by God in Deuteronomy: I will dwell in them and walk
in them. For as is His walk in saints such is His walk in the Garden also, since everyone
that sins hides from God and shuns His oversight and renounces his confidence with Him. So
it was that Cain also went out from before God and dwelt in the land of Nod over against
Eden. In the same way, therefore, as He dwells in saints. So also does He dwell in heaven
(that is, in every saint who wears the image of the Heavenly One, or Christ, in whom all
who are being saved are luminaries and stars of heaven, or else because saints are in
heaven) according to the saying: Unto you who dwells in heaven have I lifted up my eyes.
And yet the passage in Ecclesiastes: Be not in haste to utter speech before God, because
God is in heaven above, and you on Earth below, means to show the interval which separates
those who are in the body of humiliation from Him who is with the angels and holy powers
who are being exalted by the help of the Word also and with Christ himself. For it is not
unreasonable that He should be strictly at the Father's throne, allegorically called
heaven, while His church, termed Earth, is a footstool at His feet.

11 I have cited a few Old Testament utterances, thought to represent God in space, for the
sake of urging the reader by every means within the power given me to accept the divine
scripture in the higher and more spiritual sense whenever it seems to teach that God is in
space. And it was fitting that these considerations should be linked to the clause Our
Father in the Heavens inasmuch as it distinguishes the essence of God from all created
beings. For it is upon such as do not share in that essence that a certain glory of God
and a power from Him, an outflow of the deity, comes.

XIV. HALLOWED BE THY NAME

1 Hallowed be Thy name. Although this may represent either that the object of prayer has
not yet come to pass, or after its attainment, that it is not permanent in which case the
request is for its retention; the language in this instance makes it plain that it is with
the implication that the name of the Father has not yet been hallowed, that we are
bidden—according to Matthew and Luke, that is—to say "Hallowed be Thy Name." Then how, one
might say, should a man request the hallowing of God's name as though not hallowed? Let us
understand what the Father's name, and what the hallowing of it, means. A name is a
summary designation descriptive of the peculiar character of the thing named. Thus the
Apostle Paul has a certain peculiar character, partly of soul which is accordingly of a
certain kind, partly of intellect which is accordingly contemplative of certain things,
and partly of body which is accordingly of a certain kind. It is the peculiar in these
characteristics, the unique combination—for there is not another being identical with
Paul—that is indicated by means of the appellation Paul. In the case of men, however,
whose peculiar characteristics are changed, their names also by a sound usage are changed
according to scripture.

2 When the character of Abram was transformed, he was called Abraham; when that of Simon
he was named Peter, and when that of Saul the persecutor of Jesus, he was designated Paul.
But in the case of God, inasmuch as He is himself ever unchangeable and unalterable, the
proper name which even He may be said to bear is ever one, that mentioned in Exodus, "He
that is," or the like. Since therefore, though we all have some notion of God, conceiving
of Him in various ways, but not all of what He is, for few and, be it said, fewer than few
are they who comprehend His compete holiness—we are with good reason taught to attain to a
holy conception of Him in order that we may see His holiness as creator, provider, judge,
elector, abandoner, acceptor, rejector, rewarder and punisher of each according to his
desert. For it is in such and similar terms that God's peculiar character may be said to
be sketched which I take to be the meaning of the expression, God's name according to the
scriptures in Exodus: Thou shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain; in
Deuteronomy: Be my utterance awaited as rain: as dew let my words descend, as showers upon
herbage and as moisture upon grass: for I have called on the Lord's name; and in Psalms:
They shall remember your name in every generation.

3 It is he who associates the thought of God with wrong things that takes the name of the
Lord God in vain, and he who is able to utter rain that cooperates with his hearers in the
fruit bearing of their souls, and who addresses words of exhortation that are like dew,
and who in the edifying torrent of his words turns upon his listeners showers most helpful
or moisture most efficacious is able to do so because he has perceived his need of God as
the accomplisher and calls in the real supplier of those things; and everyone who
penetrates the very things of God recalls to mind rather than learns the mysteries of
piety even when he seems to be told them by another or thinks that he discovers them. And
as the suppliant ought at this point to reflect that his asking is for the hallowing of
God's name, so in Psalms it is said Let us Exalt His name together, the patriarch
enjoining attainment to the true and exalted knowledge of God's peculiar nature with all
harmony, in the same mind, and in the same will.

4 It is exalting the name of God together when, after one has participated in an outflow
of deity in having been sustained by God and having overcome his enemies so that they are
unable to rejoice over his fall, he exalts the power of God in which he has participated,
as is shown in the twenty-ninth psalm by the words: I will exalt you, O Lord, for you have
sustained me and not made my enemies to rejoice over me. A man exalts God when he has
consecrated to Him a house within himself, since the superscription of the Psalm also runs
thus: A Psalm of singing for the consecration of the House of David. It is further to be
observed regarding the clause Hallowed be your Name and its successors in imperative form,
that the translators also continually made use of imperatives instead of ablatives, as in
the Psalms: Speechless let the guileful lips be, that speak lawlessness against the
righteous instead of 'may they be' and Let the creditor search out all his possessions:
Let him possess no helper, concerning Judas in the one hundred and eighth; for the whole
Psalm is a petition concerning Judas that certain things may befall him.

5 But Tatian, failing to perceive that let there be does not always signify the ablative
but is occasionally also imperative, has most impiously supposed that God said Let there
be light in prayer rather than in command that the light should be; since, as he puts it
in his godless thought, God was in darkness. In reply to him it may be asked, how is he
going to take the other sayings? Let the Earth grow grass, and Let the water below heaven
be gathered together, and Let the waters bring forth creeping things with living souls,
and Let the earth bring forth a living soul. Is it for the sake of standing upon firm
ground that He prays that the water below heaven be gathered together into one meeting
place, or for the sake of partaking of the things that grow from the earth that He prays
Let the Earth grow . . . ?

6 What manner of need, to match His need of light; has He of creatures of water, air, and
land that He should pray for them also? If even on Tatian's view it is absurd to think of
Him as praying for these things which occur in imperative expressions, may the same not be
said of Let be there light—that it is an imperative and not an ablative expression? I
thought that, in view of the fact that prayer is expressed in imperative forms, some
reference was necessary to his perversion for the sake of those—I myself have met with
cases who have been misled into accepting his impious teaching.

XV. THY KINGDOM COME

1 Thy Kingdom Come. According to the word of our Lord and Savior, the Kingdom of God does
not come observably, nor shall men say 'Lo it is here', or 'Lo is it there', but the
Kingdom of God is within us; for the utterance is exceedingly near in our mouth and in our
heart. It is therefore plain that he who prays for the coming of the kingdom of God prays
with good reason for rising and fruit bearing and perfecting of God's kingdom within him.
For every saint is ruled over by God and obeys the Spiritual laws of God, and conducts
himself like a well-ordered city; and the Father is present with him, and Christ rules
together with the Father in the perfected Soul, according to the saying that I mentioned
shortly before: We will come unto him and make abode with him. By God's kingdom I
understand the blessed condition of the mind and the settled order of wise reflection; by
Christ's kingdom the issue of words of salvation to their hearers and the practice of acts
of righteousness and the other excellences; for the son of God is word and righteousness.

2 But every sinner is tyrannized by the ruler of this world, since every sinner is in
conformity with the present evil world, and does not yield himself to Him who gave Himself
for us sinners that He might release us from the present evil world and release us
according to the will of God our Father, as it is expressed in the Epistle to Galatians.
And he who, by reason of deliberate sin is tyrannized by the ruler of this world, is also
ruled over by sin: wherefore we are bidden by Paul to be no longer subject to sin that
would rule over us, and we are enjoined in these words, Let sin therefore not rule in our
mortal body that we should obey its lusts. But in reference to both clauses Hallowed Be
Thy Name and Thy Kingdom Come, it may be urged that, if the suppliant prays them with a
view to being heard and ever is heard, plainly his will be an instance, answering to what
has just been said, of the name of God being hallowed and of the rise of the Kingdom of
God, in which event how shall he any longer with propriety pray for things already present
as though they not present, saying Hallowed be Thy Name: Thy Kingdom Come:?—And in that
case it will sometimes be proper not to say Hallowed Be Thy Name: Thy Kingdom Come.

3 To this it may be replied that just as he who prays to obtain a word of knowledge and a
word of wisdom will with propriety pray for them continually with the prospect of
continually receiving fuller contemplations of wisdom and knowledge through being heard,
although his knowledge of such things as he may be able in the present to receive is
partial, whereas the perfect that annuls the partial shall then be manifested when the
mind confronts its objects face to face without sensation—so perfection in our individual
hallowing of the name of God and in the rise of His kingdom within us is not possible
unless there also come perfection of knowledge and wisdom and it may be the other
excellences. We are wayfaring toward perfection if we forget the things behind, pressing
on toward those before us. The kingdom of God within us will therefore be consummated in
us as we advance without ceasing, when, the saying in the Apostle is fulfilled, that
Christ, His enemies all made subject to Him, shall deliver the kingdom to God the Father
that God may be All in All. For this reason let us pray without ceasing with a disposition
made divine by the Word, and say to our Father in heaven: Hallowed Be Thy Name: Thy
Kingdom Come. Of the kingdom of God it is further to be said by way of distinction that as
righteousness has no partnership with lawlessness and light no community with darkness and
Christ no argument with Belial, so a kingdom of sin is incompatible with the Kingdom of
God.

4 If, accordingly we would be ruled over by God, by no means let sin rule in our mortal
body nor let us obey its commands when it calls our soul forth to the works of the flesh
that are alien to God, but let us mortify our members that are on earth and bear the
fruits of the Spirit that the Lord may walk in us as in a spiritual garden, ruling alone
over us with His Christ seated within us on the right of the Spiritual power that we pray
to receive, sitting until all His enemies within us become a footstool for His feet and
every rule and authority and power be undone from us. These things may come to pass in the
case of each of us, and death the last energy be undone, so that Christ may say within us
also O death, where is your sting? O grave! Where is your victory? Even now, therefore,
let our corruptible put on the holiness and incorruptibleness that consists in chastity
and purity, and our mortal, death undone, wrap itself in the paternal immortality, so
that, being ruled over by God, we may even now live amid the blessings of regeneration and
resurrection.

XVI. THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH ALSO AS IN HEAVEN

1 Thy Will be done on Earth also as in Heaven. After the clause Thy Kingdom come Luke has
passed over these words in silence and placed the clause Give us daily our Needful Bread.
Let us therefore examine next in succession the words I have placed first as set down in
Matthew alone. As suppliants who are still on earth, believing that the will of God is
done in heaven among all the household of the heavens, let us pray that the will of God
may be done by us also who are on earth in like manner with them, as will come to pass
when we do nothing contrary to His will. And when the will of God as it is in heaven has
been accomplished by us also who are on earth, we shall inherit a kingdom of heaven as
having, alike with them, worn the image of the Heavenly One, while those who come after us
on earth are praying to become in turn like us who have come to be in heaven.

2 So far as Matthew alone is concerned the words on Earth also as in Heaven can be taken
in common, so that what we are enjoined to say in prayer would run thus: Hallowed be Thy
Name on Earth also as in Heaven: Thy Kingdom come on Earth also as in Heaven: Thy Will be
done on Earth also as in Heaven. For alike the name of God has been hallowed among those
who are in heaven, and the kingdom of God is risen in them, and the will of God has been
done in their midst—things indeed which are all unrealized by us but which can be acquired
by us through rendering ourselves worthy to obtain God's hearing in reference to them all.
The words Thy Will be done on Earth also as in Heaven may raise the question how has the
will of God been done in Heaven where the spiritual forces of evil are, by reason of which
the sword of God shall drink deep even in heaven? If we pray thus that the will of God be
done on Earth just as it is being done in heaven may we not thoughtlessly be praying that
the very opposite may abide on earth where such things already come from heaven since much
that is bad on earth is due to the overcoming spiritual forces of evil which are in the
heavenly places?

3 Anyone who allegorizes heaven and asserts that it is Christ, and Earth the church—what
throne so worthy of the Father as Christ? What footstool of the feet of God as the
Church?—will easily solve the question by replying that everyone in the church ought to
pray to receive the paternal will in such wise as Christ has done, who came to do the will
of His Father and accomplished if completely. For it is possible by being joined to Him to
become one spirit with Him and therefore receptive of the will to the end that, as it has
been accomplished in heaven, so it may be accomplished on earth also; for he that is
joined to the Lord, according to Paul, is one spirit. And I believe that one who carefully
considers it will find this an interpretation not to be despised. But someone may dispute
it by citing what is said to the eleven disciples by the Lord after the resurrection at
the close of the this gospel: There hath been given to me all authority on earth also as
in heaven. That is, having authority over the things that are in heaven, He says that He
has also received it over those on earth:

4 Whereas those that are in heaven have already been illumined by the Word, it is at the
consummation of the world that those on earth are also, in imitation of those over which
the Savior received authority, brought to a successful issue by reason of the authority
given to the Son of God: accordingly His will is to receive those who are disciples under
Him as in a sense cooperants through their prayers to the Father in order that, in like
manner with the things in heaven that are subject to Truth and Word, He may lead the
things on Earth, restored by reason of the authority which He has received on earth also
as in heaven, to an end fraught with bliss for the objects of His authority. On the other
hand one who would take heaven to be the Savior and Earth the church, asserting that it is
the firstborn of all creation, on whom the Father reposes as on a throne, that is heaven,
would find that it is the man whom He put on after having been fitted for such power
because He had humbled himself and having been obedient till death, who says after the
resurrection There hath been given to me all authority on Earth also as in heaven—the man
in the Savior having received His authority over the things in heaven, as the proper
possessions of the Only-begotten, in order to be in communion with Him, mingling in His
divinity and becoming one with Him.

5 But if this second thought does not yet solve the difficulty as to how the will of God
can be in heaven when the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places wrestle against
those who are on earth, it will be possible to solve the question from this
consideration—It is not by virtue of place but of principle that one who is still on earth
but has a commonwealth in heaven and lays up treasure in heaven and has his heart in
heaven and wears the image of the Heavenly One, is no longer of the earth nor of the world
below but of heaven and of the heavenly world that is better than this. So, too, the
spiritual forces of evil which still dwell in the heavenly places but have their
commonwealth on earth and plot against men the means whereby they wrestle against mankind,
and lay up treasure on Earth, and wear an image of the Earthly One who the beginning of
the Lord's fashioning made to be mocked by the angels, are not heavenly nor by reason of
their vicious disposition do they dwell in the heavens. Accordingly when it is said: Thy
will be done on Earth also as in Heaven, we are not to reckon those beings as in heaven at
all, because through pride they have fallen along with Him who fell from heaven like a
thunderbolt.

6 And it may well be that our Savior, in saying that we ought to pray that the Father's
will may be done on Earth also as in heaven, does not by any means order prayer for things
spacially on earth that they may be made like things spacially in heaven, but His will in
enjoining prayer is that all things on earth, that is things inferior and conformed to the
earthly, be made like the better which have their commonwealth in heaven, which have all
become heaven. For he that sins, wherever he may be, is earth, and will turn into the like
somehow, unless he repents, whereas he that does the will of God and does not disobey the
spiritual laws of salvation is heaven. Whether therefore we are still earth because of
sin, let us pray that the will of God may extend restoringly to us also as it has already
reached those who have become or are heaven before us: or if we are already accounted not
earth but heaven by God, let our request be that, in like manner with heaven, on earth
also, in inferior things I mean, the will of God may be fulfilled unto what I may term
earth's heaven-making, so that there shall be no longer earth but all things become
heaven.

7 For if, on this interpretation, the will of God be done on earth also as in heaven,
earth will not remain earth, just as to make my meaning clearer with another
illustration—if the will of God be done in the case of the wanton as it has been with the
temperate, the wanton will be temperate, or if it should be in the case of the unrighteous
as it has been with the righteous, the unrighteous will be righteous. If, therefore, the
will of God be done on earth also as it has been in heaven, we shall all be heaven; for
though flesh that helps not; and blood that is akin to it, are unable to inherit God's
kingdom, they may be said to inherit it if they be changed from flesh and earth and clay
and blood to the heavenly essence.

XVII. GIVE US TODAY OUR NEEDFUL BREAD

1 Give us today our Needful Bread, or as Luke has it, Give us daily our Needful Bread.
Seeing that some suppose that it is meant that we should pray for material bread, their
erroneous opinion deserves to be done away with and the truth about the needful bread set
forth, in the following manner. We may put the question to them—how can it be that He, who
says that heavenly and great things ought to be asked for as if, on their view, He has
forgotten His teaching now enjoins the offering of intercession to the Father for an
earthly and little thing, since neither is the bread which is assimilated into our flesh a
heavenly thing nor is it asking a great thing to request it? For my part I shall follow
the Teacher's own teaching as to the bread and cite the passages in detail. To men who
have come to Capernaum to seek Him He says, in the Gospel according to John, Verily,
verily, I tell you you seek me not because you saw signs but because you ate of the loaves
of bread and were filled . . . for he that has eaten and been filled with the loaves of
bread which have been blessed by Jesus seeks the more to grasp the Son of God more closely
and hastens toward Him.

2 Wherefore He will enjoin: Work not for the food that perishes but for the food that
abides unto life eternal which the Son of Man shall give you. And when, upon that, they
who had heard inquired and said: What are we to do that we may work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said to them: This is the work of God that you believe on him whom He
has sent. As it is written in Psalms, God sent His Word and healed them, that is the
diseased, and believers in that Word work the works of God which are food that abides unto
life eternal. And my Father, He says, gives you the true bread from heaven, for the bread
of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world. It is true bread
that nourishes the true man who is made in God's image, and he that has been nourished by
it also becomes in the Creator's likeness. What is more nourishing to the soul than Word,
or what more precious to the mind of him that is capable of receiving it than the Wisdom
of God?

3 What is more congenial to the rational nature than Truth? Should it be urged in
objection to this view that He would not in that case teach men to ask for needful bread
as if something other than Himself, it is to be noted that He also discourses in the
Gospel according to John sometimes as if it were other than Himself but at other times as
if He is Himself the Bread. The former in the sense of the words: Moses hath given you the
bread from heaven yet not the true bread, but my Father gives you the true bread from
heaven. In the latter sense, to those who had said to Him Ever give us this bread, He
says: I am the bread of life: he that comes unto me shall not hunger, and he that believes
on me shall not thirst; and shortly after: I am the living bread that is come down from
heaven: if anyone eat of this bread he shall live unto eternity: yea and the bread which I
shall give is my flesh which I shall give for the sake of the life of the world.

4 Now since all manner of nourishment is spoken of as bread according to Scripture as is
clear from the fact that it is recorded of Moses that he ate not bread and drank not water
forty days, and since the nourishing Word is manifold and various, not all being capable
of nourishment by the solidity and strength of the divine teachings, He is therefore
pleased to offer strenuous nourishment befitting men more perfect, where He says: The
bread which I shall give is my flesh which I shall give for the sake of the life of the
world: and shortly after: Except you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drinks His blood,
you have not life in yourselves. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood hath life
eternal, and I will raise him up in the last day. for my flesh is true food and my blood
is true drink. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me and I in him.As the
living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so also he that eats me—he too
shall live because of me. This is the true food, Christ's flesh, which being Word has
become flesh, as it is said And the Word became flesh. When we eat and drink the Word He
tabernacles in us.

5 When He is assimilated the words are fulfilled: We beheld His glory. This is the bread
that is come down from heaven. Not as the fathers ate and died, he that eats this bread
shall live unto eternity. Discoursing to infant Corinthians who walk in the way of man
Paul says: I gave you milk to drink, not meat, for you were not yet able. Nay even now you
are not yet able, for you are still of the flesh; and in the Epistle to Hebrews: And you
are become in need of milk, not of solid nourishment. For any one who partakes of milk is
devoid of moral reason, for he is infant. But solid nourishment is for mature men who by
force of use have their senses trained to discriminate good and evil. In my opinion the
words: One man hath faith to eat anything, but he that is weak eats vegetables are also in
his intention meant to refer not to material forms of nourishment but to the words of God
that nourish the soul: Of these the man most faithful and mature is able to partake of
any, he being denoted in the words One man hath faith to eat anything, whereas the weaker
and more immature is content with simpler teachings that do not quite produce full
strength in him, reference being intended to him in the words But he that is weak eats
vegetables.

6 There is also in Solomon a saying in the Proverbs which I think teaches that the man who
by reason of simplicity is incapable of the stronger and greater sentiments is better,
short of false thought, than the man who, though more ready and keener and of greater
insight into things, fails to penetrate the principle of peace and harmony in all.
Solomon's passage runs as follows: Better is hospitality of vegetables served with
friendship and grace than a fatted calf with enmity. Many a time do we accept untutored
simpler entertainment, accompanied by good conscience, as guests at the table of those who
are unable to furnish us with more, with greater satisfaction than any elevation of words
upreared against the knowledge of God and proclaiming with ample plausibility a sentiment
alien to the Father of our Lord Jesus who has given the law and the prophets. In order,
therefore, that we may neither fall sick of soul for lack of nourishment nor die to God
because of famine of the Lord's word, let us in obedience to the teaching of our Savior,
with righter faith and life, ask the Father for the living bread which is the same as the
needful bread.

7 Let us now consider what the word epiousion, needful, means. First of all it should be
known that the word epiousion is not found in any Greek writer whether in philosophy or in
common usage, but seems to have been formed by the evangelists. At least Matthew and Luke,
in having given it to the world, concur in using it in identical form. The same thing has
been done by translators from Hebrew in other instances also; for what Greek ever used the
expression enotizou or akoutisthete instead of eistaota dexai or akousai poice se. Exactly
like the expression epiousion, needful, is one found in Moses' writings, spoken by God: Ye
shall be my periousios—peculiar people. Either word seems to me to be a compund of
ousia—essence—the former signifying the bread that contributes to the essence, the latter
denoting the people that has to do with the essence and is associated with it. As for
ousia, essence, in the strict sense, by those who assert the priority of the substance of
immaterial things, it is ranked with immaterial things which are in possession of
permanent being and neither receive addition nor suffer subtraction. For addition and
subtraction are characteristic of material things in reference to which growth and decay
take place owing to their being in a state of flux, in need of imported support and
nourishment.

8 If the import exceeds the waste in a period growth takes place, if it is less,
diminuation; and if, as in conceivable, there are things receiving no import at all, they
are in what I may term unmitigated diminuation. Those on the other hand who hold the
substance of immaterial things to be posterior and that of material things to be prior,
define essence in these terms: It is the primary matter of existing things out of which
they are or the matter of bodily things out of which they are; or that of terms out of
which they are; or the primary unqualified substance or presubstance of existing things;
or that which admits of all transformations and modifications though itself as such
inherently incapable of modification; or that which undergoes all modification and
transformation. On their view essence is inherently unqualified and inarticulate as such.
It is even indeterminate in magnitude, but it is involved in all quality as a kind of
ready ground for it. By qualities they mean distinctively like the actualities and the
activities in which movements and articulations of the essence have come to be, and they
say that the essence as such has no part in these inherently though it is always
incidentally inseparable from some of them and equally receptive of all the agent's
actualizations however it may act and transform. (For it the force associated with the
essence, pervading all that would be responsible for all quality and the particular
dispositions involving it.)

9 And they say that it is throughout transformable and throughout divisible, and that any
essence can coalesce with any other, all being a unity not withstanding. What I have said
in this discussion of essence raised by the expressions the needful bread and the peculiar
people has been to distinguish the meanings of essence. And since we have already seen
that it is spiritual bread for which we ought to ask, we must needs understand the essence
to be akin to the bread, so that just as material bread on assimilation into the body of
the nourished passes into its essence, so the living bread which is come down from heaven
being assimilated into the mind and soul may impart its own power to him who has lent
himself to nourishment from it, and so become the needful bread for which we ask. And
again, in like manner, as the nourished attains strength varying according to the
character of the nourishment whether solid and fit for athletes or of the nature of milk
and vegetables, so it follows that when the word of God is given either as milk as befits
children, or as vegetables as suits invalids, or as flesh as is proper for combatants,
each of the nourished acquires this or that power or nature according to the word to which
he has lent himself.

10 Moreover, there is a kind of reputed nourishment which is in reality harmful, a second
that is productive of disease, and another that cannot even be assimilated, and all of
these may be transferred by analogy to varieties of reputedly nourishing teachings.
Needful, therefore, is the bread which corresponds most closely to our rational nature and
is akin to our very essence, which invests the soul at once with well being and with
strength, and, since the Word of God is immortal, imparts to its eater its own
immortality. It is just this needful bread that seems to me to be otherwise termed in
Scripture a tree of life, he who stretches forth his hand to which and takes of it shall
live unto eternity. And under a third name this tree is termed wisdom of God in Solomon's
words: She is a tree of life to all that take hold upon her and to those that lean upon
her as upon the Lord she is safe. And since the angels also are nourished by God's wisdom
receiving power for the accomplishment of their proper works from their contemplation in
truth with wisdom, it is said in Psalms that the angels also are nourished, men of God
designated Hebrews holding communion with the angels and, as it were, even becoming
messfellows with them.

11 Such is the meaning of the saying:Bread of angels hath man eaten. Far from us be such
poverty of mind as to suppose that it is of some material bread, such as is recorded to
have come down from heaven upon those who had quitted Egypt, that the angels continually
partake and are nourished, as though it was actually in this that the Hebrews had
communion with the angels, God's ministering spirits. And while we are considering the
needful bread and the tree of life and the wisdom of God and the common nourishment of
saintly men and angels, it is not untimely to refer to the three men recorded in Genesis
who were entertained by Abraham and partook of three measures of fine flour of wheat
kneaded into ember-cakes, and to observe that this may perhaps simply be told in a
figurative sense. It would show that saints are able upon occasion to impart spiritual and
rational nourishment not only to men but also to divine powers, either for their benefit
or for the exhibition of their most nourishing acquisitions, the angels being cheered and
nourished in such display and becoming the readier to cooperate in every way and
henceforth to conspire in the apprehension of fuller and greater things by the man who has
cheered and so to say nourished them with his store of nourishing teachings already
acquired.

12 No wonder that a man may nourish angels when even Christ avows himself to stand before
the door and knock in order that He may enter into him that opens to Him and sup with him
on his fare, thereafter Himself in turn to impart His own to him who first according to
his individual power has entertained the Son of God. So then the partaker of the needful
bread, having his heart confirmed, becomes a son of God whereas he that has portion in the
serpent is none other than a spiritual Ethiopian and himself in turn changes into a snake
by reason of the serpent's toils so that, even should he express a desire for baptism, he
is reproached by the Word and hears it said: Snakes, offspring of vipers, who hath
prompted you to flee from the coming wrath? And David speaks of the serpent body being fed
on by Ethiopians: Thou has shattered the heads of the serpents in the water, you hast
crushed the serpent's head, you hast given him to be food for the Ethiopian peoples. If it
is not absurd to suppose that, since the Son of God and also the Adversary are of
essential substances, either of them may become nourishment to this soul or that, why need
we hesitate in the case of all powers, better and worse, including human beings, to
believe that each one of us may derive nourishment from any of them?

13 As Peter was about to commune with the centurion Cornelius and those who met together
with him in Caesarea, and thereafter to impart the words of God to the Gentiles also, he
saw, the vessel let down from heaven by four corners, in which were all manner of
quadrupeds and reptiles and beasts of the earth, whereupon he was also bidden rise up and
stay and eat, and after he had said in deprecation: Thou knowest that nothing common or
unclean hath ever entered my mouth, he was commanded to call no man common or unclean
because what God had made clean ought not to be made common by Peter; in the words of the
passage, what things God hath made clean make not you common. Accordingly the clean and
unclean food distinguished according to the law of Moses in terms of various animals bear
an analogy to the differing characters of rational beings and teaches that some are
nourishing for us but others the reverse until God has cleansed and made all, or those
from every race, nourishing. But while that is indeed so and while there is such diversity
among foods, the needful bread, for which we ought to pray in order to be counted worthy
of it, and, being nourished by the Word that was God with God in the beginning to be made
divine God, is one and transcends all the foods mentioned.

14 But it will be said that the word epiousion, needful, is formed from epienai, to go on,
so that we are bidden to ask for the bread proper to the coming age, in order that God may
take it in advance and bestow it on us now. Thus what was to be given as it were tomorrow
would be given us today, today being taken to mean the present age, tomorrow the coming.
Since, however, as far as I can judge, the preceding interpretation is better, let us go
on to consider the added reference to today in Matthew or the expression daily written in
Luke. To call the whole present age today is a usage frequent in the Scriptures, as in the
passages: He is father of the Moabites until today, and He is father of the Ammonites
until today, and this account has been reported among Jews until today, and in the Psalms,
Today if you hear His voice harden not your hearts. In Joshua, this is expressed very
clearly: Turn not away from the Lord in the days of today. And if today means the whole
present age, yesterday is probably the bygone age. That I have understood to be its
meaning in Psalms and in Paul in the Epistle to Hebrews.

15 In Psalms it is thus: A thousand years are in thine eyes as a yesterday that had
passed—whatever the much talked of millennium means, it is likened to yesterday as opposed
to today; and in the apostle it is written, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today
and unto the ages. No wonder that the whole of an age counts with God as the space of a
single day with us, aye and less as I think. We may also consider whether the accounts of
feasts or assemblies recorded in terms of days or months or seasons or years have
symbolical references to ages. For if the law contains a shadow of coming things, its many
Sabbaths must be a shadow of many days and its moons come round in the course of intervals
of time, completed by some manner of a moon's conjunction with some sun. And if a first
month and tenth till fourteenth day and a feast of unleavened bread from fourteenth till
twenty-first contain a shadow of coming things, who is wise and to such a degree God's
friend as to have vision of the first among many months and its tenth day and so on? What
need I say of that feast of seven weeks of days, and of that seventh month whose new moon
is a day of trumpets and on whose tenth day falls a day of atonement, which are known to
God alone who has enacted them? Who has to such a degree received the mind of Christ as to
interpret those seventh years of freedom for Hebrew domestic slaves and of remission of
debts and of cessation from tillage of the holy land?

16 And over and above the feast of every seven years there is yet another year, the so-
called Jubilee, clearly to imagine whose nature even partially, or the true laws to be
fulfilled in it, is for no one save Him who has contemplated the Father's counsel in
reference to the order in all the ages according to His unsearchable judgments and His
univestigable ways. In trying to reconcile two apostolic passages it has often occurred to
me to raise the question how there can be consummation of ages at which Jesus has been
manifested once for all unto abolition of sins if there are going to be ages following
after this. The Apostles' passages are as follows: In the Epistle to Hebrews, but now at a
consummation of the ages He hath been manifested once for all unto abolition of sins
through His sacrifice; but in the Epistle to Ephesians, in order that He may show forth,
in the years following, the exceeding riches of His Grace in kindness toward us.

17 Well, in conjecture as to matters so great, I believe that, just as the year's
consummation is it's last month after which arises another month's beginning, so probably
the present age is a consummation of numerous ages completing as it were a year of ages,
and after it certain coming ages will arise whose beginning is the coming age, and in
those coming ages God shall show forth the riches of His Grace in kindness, when the
greatest sinner, who for having spoken ill against the Holy Spirit is held fast by his sin
throughout the present age and the coming one from beginning to end, shall after that, I
know not how, receive a dispensation. When a man has had vision of these things and has
given thought to a week of ages with intent to contemplate a kind of holy sabbath—keeping
and a month of ages to see God's holy new moon, and a year of ages to survey the feasts of
the year when every male must appear before the Lord God, and the corresponding years of
so many ages to discern the seventh holy year, and seven weekly years of ages to sing a
hymn to the Enactor of Laws so great, how can he after such consideration cavil over what
is the merest fraction of an hour in the day of such an age, instead of doing everything
to become, through his preparation here, worthy of obtaining the needful bread and to
receive it while it is today and daily, what daily means being already clear from the
foregoing explanations.

18 For he who prays today to God, who is from infiniti to infiniti, not only for today but
also in a sense for that which is daily shall be enabled to receive from Him who hath
power to bestow exceedingly above what we ask or think even things—to use extreme
language—which transcend those that eye hath not seen and ear hath not heard and that have
not gone up into the heart of man. These considerations seem to me to have been very
necessary for the understanding of both the expressions today and daily when we are
praying that the needful bread be given us from His Father.

XVIII. AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS

1 And forgive us our Debts as we also have forgiven our Debtors, or as Luke has it, And
forgive us our Sins, for we also ourselves forgive everyone in Debt to us. Concerning
debts the Apostle also says: Pay your debts to all—to whom you owe tribute, tribute, to
whom fear, fear, to whom taxes, taxes, to whom honor, honor: owe no man anything save
mutual love. We owe therefore in having certain duties not only in giving but also in kind
speech and corresponding actions, and indeed we owe a certain disposition towards one
another. Owing these things, we either pay them through discharging the commands of the
divine law, or failing to pay them, in contempt of the salutary word, we remain in debt.
The like reflection applies to debts toward brothers, to those who in the religious sense
have been born again with us in Christ, as well as to those who have a common mother or
father with us.

2 We also have a certain debt toward fellow citizens, and another toward all men in
common, in particular toward guests and toward men at the age of fatherhood, and another
toward such as it is right that we should honor as sons or as brothers. He, therefore, who
does not do what is a debt to be discharged to brothers remains a debtor for what he has
not done. So, too, should we fail in what falls, at the prompting of the charitable spirit
of wisdom, to human beings also at our hands, our indebtedness becomes the greater.
Indeed, we also have debt in personal concerns—to use the body in a certain way, so as not
to wear out the flesh of the body through love of pleasure, and on the other hand to treat
the soul with a certain care, and to take forethought for the keenness of the mind, and
for our speech that it be without sting and helpful and not trifling. Whenever we fail to
perform what we owe, even to ourselves, the heavier does our debt become.

3 Besides all these, being above all a creation and formation of God, we owe it to
preserve a certain disposition towards Him with love that is from a whole heart and from a
whole strength and from a whole mind, and if we fail to achieve this we remain God's
debtors, sinning against the Lord. And who in that case shall pray for us? For if a man
sinning sin against a man, then shall they pray for him: but if he sin against the Lord,
who shall pray for him? as Eli says in the first book of Kings. Moreover, we are debtors
to Christ who bought us with His own blood, just as every house slave is also debtor to
his purchaser for the sum of money given for him. We have also a certain indebtedness to
the Holy Spirit: we are paying it when we do not grieve Him in whom we were sealed unto a
day of redemption, and when, without grieving Him, we bear the fruits demanded of us, He
being present with us and quickening our soul.

4 And even though we do not know precisely which is our individual angel that looks upon
the face of the Father in heaven, it is at least manifest to each of us upon reflection
that we are debtors to him also for certain things. And inasmuch as we are in a world
theater both of angels and of men, one must know that as the performer in a theater owes
it to say or do certain things in sight of the spectators, and if he fails to perform this
is punished as having insulted the whole theater, so we, too, owe to the whole world, to
all the angels and the race of men alike, those things which, if we have the will, we
shall learn of wisdom. Apart from those more general debts, there is a certain
indebtedness to a widow who is being provided for by the church, a second to a deacon,
another to an elder, while that to a bishop is heaviest of all—being demanded by the
Savior of the whole church and avenged if not paid. As already said, the Apostle mentions
a certain common debt between husband and wife, when he says: Let the husband pay his
indebtedness to the wife and wife likewise to the husband, and continues Deprive not one
another.

5 But what need is there, when readers of this writing select their own examples from the
record, for me to speak of all the things we owe which we either fail to pay and so come
to be restrained or else pay and come to be free? Suffice it to say that it is impossible
while in this life to be without debt at any hour of night or day. In owing, a man either
pays or else withholds the indebtedness. He may either pay or withhold in this life. Some
indeed owe no man anything; others pay off most and owe little; others pay little and owe
more; and a man may conceivably pay nothing and owe everything. And besides, he who pays
all so as to owe nothing may at sometimes effect his object if he prays for forgiveness
for previous indebtedness, inasmuch as such forgiveness may reasonably be thought
obtainable by one who has for sometime made it his ambition to reach the position of
having no obligation unpaid and thus owing nothing. Our very activities in transgression
leave their impression within our mind and become the indictment against us on which we
shall be brought to trial when, as it were, the books that have been indicted by us all
shall be brought forth, in the time when we shall all stand before the judgment seat of
Christ that each may receive what he has earned through the body according to his conduct
whether good or bad.

6 It is also in reference to such indebtedness that it is said in the Proverbs: Give not
yourself in certainty to your shame, for if the man shall not have ability to pay, they
shall take your bed that is under you. But if we owe to so many, it is certain that men
owe to us also. Some owe to us as to human beings, others as to fellow citizens, others as
to fathers, some as to sons, yet others as wives to husbands or as friends to friends.
Whenever, accordingly, any of our very numerous debtors have behaved too remiss in the
matter of payment of there dues to us, our more charitable course will be to bear them no
grudge and to remember our own indebtedness and how often we have failed to discharge them
not only towards men but also towards God himself. Remembering what as debtors we have not
paid but withheld during the time which it was our duty to have done this or that for our
neighbor had run by, we shall be gentler toward those who have fallen in debt to us in
turn and have not paid their indebtedness, especially if we do not forget our
transgressions against the Divine and the unrighteousness we have spoken against the
Height either in ignorance of the truth or else in displeasure at the misfortunes that
have befallen us.

7 But if we refuse to become gentler towards those who have fallen in debt to us, our
experience will be that of him who did not remit the hundred shillings to his fellow
servant and of whom, according to the parable set down in the gospel, though already
pardoned, the master exacts in severity what had already been remitted, saying to him:
Wicked servant and slothful, was it not right for you to pity your fellow servant as I
also pitied you? Cast him into prison until he pay all that is owed. And the Lord
continues: So shall the heavenly Father do to you also if you forgive not each his brother
from your hearts. It is however on profession of penitence that we are to forgive those
who have sinned against us, even though our debtor often does so; for He says: If your
brother sin against you seven times a day and seven times turn and say, "I repent," you
shall forgive him. It is not we who are harsh towards the impenitent, but they who are
wicked to themselves, for he that spurns instruction hates himself. Yet even in such cases
we should seek in every way that healing arise within him who is so completely perverted
as not even to be conscious of his own ills but to be drunken with a drunkenness more
fatal than from wine, from the darkening of evil.

8 When Luke says Forgive us our Sins he means the same as Matthew, since sins are
constituted when we owe and do not pay, though he does not appear to lend support to him
who would forgive only penitent debtors when he says that it is enacted by the Savior that
we ought in prayer to add: for we ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us. And it
would seem that we have all authority to forgive the sins that have been committed against
us as is clear from both clauses: as we also have forgiven our debtors; and for we
ourselves also forgive everyone in debt to us. But it is when a man is inspired by Jesus
as were the apostles, when he can be known from his fruits to have received the Spirit
that is Holy and to have become spiritual through being led by the Spirit after the manner
of a Son of God unto every reasonable duty, that he forgives whatsoever God has forgiven
and holds those sins that are irremediable, and as the prophets served God in speaking not
their own message but that of the divine Will, so he too serves the God who alone has
authority to forgive.

9 In the Gospel according to John the language referring to the forgiveness exercised by
the apostles runs thus: Receive the Holy Spirit: whosoever's sins you forgive, they are
forgiven unto them: whosoever's you hold, they are held. Anyone taking these words without
discrimination might blame the apostles for not forgiving all men in order that all might
be forgiven but holding the sins of some so that they are held with God also on their
account. It is helpful to take an example from the Law with a view to understand God's
forgiveness of sins through men. Legal priests are prohibited from offering sacrifice for
certain sins in order that the persons for whom the sacrifices are made may have their
misdeeds forgiven; and though the priest has authority to make offerings for certain
involuntary or willful misdeeds, he of course does not presume to offer a sacrifice for
sin in cases of adultery or willful murder or any other more serious offence.

10 So, too, the apostles, and those who have become like apostles, being priests according
to the Great High Priest and having received knowledge of the service of God, know under
the Spirit's teaching for which sins, and when, and how they ought to offer sacrifices,
and recognize for which they ought not to do so. Thus Eli the priest, knowing that his
sons Hophni and Phineahas are sinners, with a sense of his inability to cooperate with
them for forgiveness of sins, confesses his despair of such a result in his words: If a
man sins against a man, then shall they pray for him, but if he sin against the Lord, who
shall pray for him? I know not how it is, but there are some who have taken upon
themselves what is beyond priestly dignity, perhaps through utter lack of accurate
priestly knowledge, and are proud of their ability to pardon even acts of idolatry and to
forgive acts of adultery and fornication, claiming that even sin unto death is absolved
through their prayer for those who have dared to commit such.

11 They do not read the words: There is sin unto death; not for it do I say that a man
should ask. Nor should we omit to mention the resolute Job's offering of sacrifice for his
sons, with the words: Perhaps my sons have had evil thoughts in their minds toward God.
Though the sinful thoughts are doubtful and at worst have not reached the lips, he offers
his sacrifice for them.


ON PRAYER
=========

ON PRAYER continued

XIX. AND BRING US NOT INTO TEMPTATION BUT DELIVER US FROM EVIL

1 And bring us not into Temptation but deliver us from Evil. In Luke the words but deliver
us from Evil are omitted. Assuming that the Savior does not command us to pray for the
impossible, it appears to me to deserve consideration in what sense we are bidden to pray
not to enter into temptation when all human life on earth is a test. In that on earth we
are beset by the flesh which wars against the spirit and whose intent is emnity to God as
it is by no means capable of being subject to the law of God, we are in temptation. That
all human life on earth is a trial we have learned from Job in the words: Is not the life
of men on earth a trial, and the same thing is made plain from the seventeenth psalm in
the words: In you will I be delivered from trial. Paul, too, writing to the Corinthians
says that God bestows not freedom from temptation but freedom from temptation beyond one's
power.

2 More than human temptation has not possessed you, and God is to be trusted not to let
you be tempted beyond your power but to make the temptation be accompanied by the outlet
of power to endure it. Whether our wrestling is with the flesh that lusts or wars against
the spirit, or with the soul of all flesh—in other words the ruling faculty, called the
heart, of the body in which it resides—as is the wrestling of those who are tempted with
human temptations, or, as advanced and maturer athletes, who no longer wrestle with blood
and flesh nor are reviewed in the human temptations which they have already trampled down,
our struggles are with the principalities and authorities and world-rulers of His darkness
and the Spiritual forces of evil, we have no release from temptation. In what sense then
does the Savior bid us pray not to enter into temptation, when God in some sense tempts
all men? Think you, says Judith, not only to the elders of that day but also to all
readers of her writing, of all that He did with Abraham and all His temptations of Isaac
and all that befell Jacob in Mesopotamia of Syria while he shepherded the flocks of Laban,
his mother's brother. For it is not that whereas He tested them by fire for the proving of
their hearts, the Lord who, for their admonishment, scourges those who approach Him, now
wreaks vengeance upon us.

3 And David declares as a general truth concerning all righteous men that Many are the
afflictions of the righteous, while in the acts the Apostle says: because it is through
many afflictions that we must enter into the kingdom of God. And if we failed to
understand what escapes most men in reference to prayer that we enter not into temptation,
we would at this point say that the apostles were not heard in their prayers since
throughout their whole time they endured countless sufferings: in toils more abundantly,
in blows more abundantly, in prisons above measure, in deaths often, while Paul in
particular: five times received forty stripes save one at the hands of Jews, thrice was
beaten with rods, once was stoned, thrice was shipwrecked, passed a night and a day in the
deep, a man in every way afflicted, in straits, persecuted, cast down, confessing: Until
the present hour we have hungered, thirsted, gone naked, been buffeted, lacked rest,
toiled at work with our own hands. Reviled, we have blessed; persecuted, we have borne up;
slandered, we have exhorted.

4 When the apostles have failed in prayer, we might ask what hope there is for any of
their inferiors to obtain God's hearing when one prays? One ignorant of the true meaning
of the Savior's command will have reason to suppose that the words in the twenty-fifth
psalm, Test me, O Lord, and try me; assay my reins and my heart with fire, are in
opposition to our Lord's teaching about prayer. And when has anyone ever believed that
those of whom he had complete knowledge were free of temptations? And what time can be
conceived during which a man could be lighthearted as though he did not struggle to avoid
sinning? Is a man poor? Let him beware lest one day he steal and forswear by the name of
God. Again, is he rich? Let him not be lighthearted, for he may become completely false
and say in exaltation, "Who sees me?" Even Paul, for all his riches, in all manner of
discourse and in all manner of knowledge, is not released from the danger of sinning on
their account through excessive exaltation, but needs a stake of Satan to buffet him in
order that he may not be excessively exalted. Even though a man may have a comparatively
good conscience and fly up in alarm from things evil, let him read what is said in the
second book of the Chronicles of Hezekiah, who is said to have fallen from the elevation
of his heart.

5 And if, because I have not dwelt on the case of the poor, someone is lighthearted—as
though poverty involved no temptation—he must know that the Plotter plots to cast down the
needy and the poor, especially since according to Solomon, the needy endure no threats.
And what need is there to tell how many, because of their material riches which they had
failed to manage rightly, have found a place in punishment along with the rich man in the
Gospel? And how many, because they bore poverty ignobly, with behavior more servile and
base than was seemly in Saints, have fallen away from their heavenly hope? Even they who
are midway between these extremes of riches and poverty are not by any means released from
sinning according to their possession, moderate though it be. Again, one who is in bodily
health and well being imagines that by virtue of his mere health and well being he is
outside of all temptation. And yet, whose sin it is, apart from those in well being and in
health, to corrupt the temple of God, no one will venture to say because the meaning of
the passage is clear to everyone. And who in sickness has escaped the incitements to
corrupt the temple of God, having leisure at such time and readily admitting thoughts of
unclean things, not to speak of all the others things beside these which trouble him
unless he guards his heart with all vigilance?

6 Many a man, overcome by troubles and incapable of bearing sickness manfully, has been
shown to be suffering at the time from sickness rather of the soul than of the body, and
many another, ashamed to bear the name of Christ nobly, has, through shunning disrepute,
fallen into eternal shame. Again, a man may think that he has respite from temptation when
he is in honor among men. Yet is not the Lord's saying, They have their reward from men,
proclaimed to those who are elated over their popularity? Do not the words strike dismay:
How can you have come to believe, when you have received glory from one another, and seek
not the glory which is from God alone? And what need is there for me to recount the crimes
done in pride by the reputed noble, and the fawning submission of the so-called low born
towards the reputed noble by reason of their ignorance, a submission which separates from
God men who are devoid of genuine friendliness but feign that fairest of human
possessions—love. The whole life of man on earth is therefore a trial, as has already been
said. Let us for that reason pray for deliverance from trial not through being exempt from
it—that is an utter impossibility for beings on earth—but through not succumbing under it.

7 It is when a man succumbs in the moment of tempting, I take it, that he enters into
temptation, being held in its nets. Into those nets the Savior entered for the sake of
those who had already been caught in them, and in the words of the Song of Songs, looking
out through the meshwork makes answer to those who have been already caught by them and
have entered into temptation, and says to those who form His bride: Arise, my dear one, my
fair one, my dove. To bring home the fact that every time is one of temptation on earth, I
will add that even he who meditates upon the law of God day and night and makes a practice
of carrying out the saying, A righteous man's mouth shall meditate on wisdom, has no
release from being tempted. How many in their devotion to the examination of the divine
Scriptures have, through misunderstanding the messages contained in Law and Prophets,
devoted themselves to godless and impious or to foolish and ridiculous opinions?

8 What need is there for me to answer, when there are countless examples of such mistakes
among those who do not seem to be open to the charge of righteousness in their reading?
The same fate has also overtaken many in their reading of the Apostles and Gospels
inasmuch as, through their own lack of discernment, they fashion in imagination a Son or a
Father other than the One divinely conceived and truly recognized by Holy Writ. For one
who fails to have true thoughts of God or His Christ has fallen away from the true God and
from His Only Begotten, and his worship of the imaginary Father and Son, fashioned by his
lack of discernment, is no real worship. Such is his fate through having failed to
recognize the temptation present in the reading of Holy Writ to arm himself and take a
stand as for a struggle already upon him.

9 We ought therefore to pray, not that we be not tempted—that is impossible—but that we be
not encompassed by temptation, the fate of those who are open to it and are overcome. Now
since, outside of the Lord's Prayer, it is written Pray that you enter not into
temptation, the force of which may perhaps be clear from what has already been said,
whereas in the Lord's prayer we ought to say to God our Father, Bring us not into
Temptation, it is worth seeing in what sense we ought to think of God as leading one who
does not pray or is not heard into temptation. If entering into temptation means being
overcome, it is manifestly out of the question to think that God leads anyone into
temptation as though He delivered him to be overcome. The same difficulty awaits one no
matter in what sense one may interpret the words Pray that you enter not into temptation,
for if it is an evil to fall into temptation, which we pray may not be our fate, must it
not be out of place to think of the Good God, who is incapable of bearing evil fruits, as
encompassing anyone with evils? It is of service to cite in this connection what Paul has
said in the Epistle to Romans—thus: Claiming to be wise they became foolish and changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of
winged and four footed and creeping things. Wherefore God delivered them in the lusts of
their hearts unto uncleanness to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves; and
shortly after:

10 Therefore God delivered them unto passions of dishonor: for both their females changed
the natural use into the unnatural, and the males likewise setting aside the natural use
of the female, were consumed . . . and so on. And again shortly after: And as they proved
not to have God in full knowledge, God delivered them unto a reprobate mind to do the
unseemly. We may simply confront dividers of the Godhead with all these passages and put
these questions to them since they hold that the good Father of Our Lord is distinct from
the God of the law. Is it the good God who leads into temptation one who fails in prayer?
Is it the Father of the Lord who delivers in the lusts of their hearts those who have
already done some sin unto uncleanness to the dishonoring of their bodies among
themselves? Is it He who, as they themselves say, is free from judging and punishing, who
delivers unto passions of dishonor and unto a reprobate mind to do the unseemly men who
would not have fallen into the lusts of their hearts had they not been delivered to them
by God, who would not have succumbed to passions of dishonor had they not been delivered
to them by God, and who would not have lapsed into a reprobate mind but for the fact that
the so condemned had been delivered to it by God.

11 I am well aware that these passages will trouble such thinkers exceedingly. Indeed they
have fashioned in imagination a God other than the Maker of heaven and earth, because they
find many such passages in the Law and the Prophets and have been offended by the author
of such utterances as not good. But I on my part, for the sake of that question, raised in
connection with the words Bring us not into Temptation, which led to my citation of the
apostle's words also, must now consider whether I in turn find a solution of apparent
contradictions worth considering. Well, it is my belief that God rules over each rational
soul, having regard to its everlasting life, in such a way that it is always in possession
of free will and is itself responsible alike for being, in the better way, in progress
towards the perfection of goodness, or otherwise for descending as the result of
heedlessness to this or that degree of aggravation of vice.

12 Accordingly, since a swift and somewhat short cure gives rise in some men to a contempt
for the disease into which they have fallen, with the possible result of their incurring
it a second time, He will in such other cases with good reason allow the vice to increase
to a certain extent, suffering it even to be aggravated in them to the verge of
incurableness, in order that they may be sated through long continuance in the evil and
through surfeit of the sin for which they lust, and may be brought to a sense of their
injury, and, having learned to hate what formerly they welcomed, may be enabled when cured
to enjoy more steadfastly the health which their cure has brought to their souls. So it
was that the mixed throng among the Children of Israel, once fell into lust. 13 Sitting
down they and the Children of Israel cried out saying, "Who will give us flesh to eat? We
remember the fish we used to eat freely in Egypt, and the cucumbers and melons and leeks
and onions and garlic, but now is our soul parched; our eyes are on nothing save the
manna." Then, shortly after, it is said: And Moses heard them crying in their tribes; each
was at his door. And again shortly after the Lord says to Moses: And you shall say to the
people, "Sanctify yourselves for the morrow, and eat flesh, because you have cried before
the Lord saying, 'Who will give us flesh to eat, because it was well with us in Egypt,'
and the Lord shall give you flesh to eat. So eat flesh! Eat it not one nor two nor five
days, not ten nor twenty days; for a month of days eat till it issue from your nostrils,
and it shall make you ill, because you have disobeyed the Lord who is among you, and have
cried before Him, 'Wherefore have we left Egypt?'" Let us therefore see whether the
narrative I have laid before you as a parallel is of help towards a solution of the
apparent contradiction in the clause Bring us not into temptation and in the words of the
apostle. Having fallen into lust, the mixed throng among the Children of Israel cried and
the Children of Israel with them.

14 Plainly so long as they were without the objects of their lust, they were not able to
be sated with them or cease their passion. In fact, it was the will of the benevolent and
good God, in giving them the object of their lust, not to give it in such a way that any
lust should be left in them. For that reason He tells them to eat the flesh not one
day—for had they partaken of the flesh a short time their passion would have remained in
their soul which would have been kindled and set ablaze by it—nor does He give them the
object of their lust for two days. It being His will to make it excessive for them, He
utters what is, to one who can understand, a threat rather than a promise of their
apparent gratification, saying, "Neither shall you pass five days eating the flesh nor
twofold those, nor yet twofold those again, but eat flesh for a whole mouth, until such
time as your imagined good shall issue from your nostrils with choleric affection, and
with it your culpable and base lust for it. So shall I set you free from all further lust
of living, that when you have come out in such condition you may be pure from lust and may
remember all the troubles through which you were set free from it.

15 Thus you shall be enabled either not to fall into it again, or, should that ever happen
through forgetfulness during the long lapse of time of your sufferings on account of lust,
if you take no heed to yourselves and not appropriate the Word that completely frees you
from every passion, if you fall into evil and at a later time, through having come to lust
again for creation, require a second time to obtain the objects of your lust—in hatred of
that object revert again to the good and heavenly nourishment through despising that which
you longed for the most." The like fate, accordingly, will overtake those who have changed
the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of
winged and four-footed and creeping things, and who are forsaken of God and thereby
delivered in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness to the dishonoring of their bodies
as men who have brought down to soulless insensible matter the name of Him who has
bestowed upon all sentient rational beings not only sense but even rational sense, and to
some indeed a complete and excellent sense and intelligence. Such men are reasonably
delivered to passion of dishonor by the God whom they have forsaken, being forsaken by Him
in return, receiving the requital of error through which they came to love the itch for
pleasure.

16 For it is more of a requital of their error for them to be delivered to passions of
dishonor than to be cleansed by the fire of Wisdom and to have each of their debts exacted
from them in prison to the last farthing. For in being delivered to passions of dishonor
which are not only natural but many of the unnatural, they are debased and hardened by the
flesh and become as though they had no soul or intelligence any longer but were flesh
entirely, whereas in fire and prison they receive not requital of their error but
benefaction for the cleansing of the evil contracted in their error, along with salutary
sufferings attendant in the pleasure-loving and are thereby set free from all stain and
blood in whose defilement and pollution they had to their own undoing been unable even to
think of being saved. So their God shall wash away the stain of the sons and daughters of
Zion and shall cleanse away the blood from their midst with a spirit of judgment and a
spirit of burning: for He comes in as the fire of a furnace and as soap, washing and
cleansing those who are in need of such remedies because it has not been their clear
desire to have knowledge of God. After being delivered to these remedies they will of
their own accord hate the reprobate mind, for it is God's will that a man acquire goodness
not as under necessity but of his own accord. Some, it may well be, will have had
difficulty in perceiving the baseness of evil as the result of long familiarity with it,
but then turning away from it as falsely taken to be good.

17 Consider too, whether God's reason for hardening the heart of Pharaoh also is that he
may, because hardened, be unable to say, as in fact he did, "The Lord is righteous, but I
and my people are impious." Rather it is that he needs more and more to be hardened and to
undergo certain sufferings, in order that he may not, as the result of a too speedy end to
the hardening, despise hardening as an evil and frequently again deserve to be hardened.
18 If their nets are not wrongfully stretched for birds, according to the statement in the
Proverbs, but God rightly leads men into the snare, as one has said, You led us into the
snare, and if not even a sparrow, cheapest of birds, falls into the snare without the
counsel of the Father, its fall into the snare being due to the failure to use aright its
control of its wings given to it to soar, let us pray to do nothing to deserve being
brought into temptation by the righteous judgment of God, as in the case with everyone who
is delivered by God in the lusts of his own heart unto uncleanness, or delivered unto
passions of dishonor, or as not having proved to have God in full knowledge, is delivered
unto a reprobate mind to do the unseemly. The use of temptation is somewhat as follows.
Through temptations the content of our soul, which is a secret to all except God,
ourselves included, becomes manifest, in order that it may no longer be a secret to us
what manner of men we are but that we may have fuller knowledge of ourselves and realize,
if we choose, our own evils and be thankful for the blessings manifested to us through
temptations. That the temptations which befall us take place for the revealing of our true
nature or the discerning of what is hidden in our heart, is set forth by the Lord's saying
in Job and by the scripture in Deuteronomy, which runs thus: Think you that I have uttered
speech to you for any reason other than that you may be revealed as righteous?

19 And in Deuteronomy: He afflicted you and starved you and gave you manna to eat, and He
led you about in the wilderness where biting serpents and scorpions and thirst are, that
the things in your heart might be discerned. And if we desire references to plain history,
it is matter of knowledge that Eve's readiness to be deceived and unsoundness of thought
did not originate when in disobedience to God she hearkened to the serpent, but had
already been betrayed, the reason for the serpent's having engaged her being that with its
peculiar wisdom it had perceived her weakness. Nor was it the beginning of evil in Cain
where he slew his brother, for already the heart-knowing God had little regard for Cain
and his sacrifices. It was simply that his wickedness became manifest when he took Abel's
life. Had Noah not drunk of the wine that he cultivated and become intoxicated and
uncovered himself, neither Ham's indiscretion and irreverence towards his father nor his
brother's reverence and modesty towards their parent would have been revealed.

20 Though Esau's plot against Jacob seemed to have provided an excuse for his being
deprived of the blessing, his soul even before that had roots of fornication and
profanity. And we should never have known of the splendor of Joseph's self-control,
prepared as he was against falling a victim to any lust, had his master's wife not fallen
in love with him. Let us therefore, in the intervals between the succession of
temptations, make a stand against the impending trial, and prepare ourselves for all
possible contingencies—in order that, come what may, we may not be convicted of
unreadiness but may be shown to have braced ourselves with the utmost care. For when we
have carried out all our part, the deficiency caused by human weakness will be filled up
by God who cooperates for good in all things with those who love Him, and whose future
growth has been foreseen according to His unerring knowledge.

21 In the words Bring us not into Temptation Luke seems to me to have virtually taught
Deliver us from Evil also. In any case it is natural that the Lord should have addressed
the briefer form to the disciple as he had already been helped, but the more explicit to
the many who were in need of clearer teaching. God delivers us from Evil, not when the
enemy does not engage us at all in conflict through any of his own wiles or those of the
ministers of his will, but when we make a manful stand against contingencies and are
victorious. In that sense I have also taken the words: Many are the afflictions of the
righteous: and He delivers them from them all. For God delivers us from afflictions not
when afflictions are no more—and surely Paul's expression in everything afflicted implies
that affliction had never yet ceased—but when, by God's help, under affliction we are not
straitened.

22 According to a usage native to Hebrews, 'affliction' denotes misfortune that happens
without reference to a human will, whereas 'straitening' refers to the will overcome by
affliction and surrendered to it: hence Paul well says: in everything afflicted but not
impoverished. And I consider the words in Psalms In affliction you set me at large to be
similar, for by 'setting at large' is meant the joyousness and cheerfulness of temper
which comes to us from God in the season of misfortune through the cooperation and
presence of God's encouraging and saving Word. We are accordingly to understand
deliverance from evil in the same way. God delivered Job, not through the Devil's failure
to receive authority to beset him with certain temptations—for he did receive it—but
through his own avoidance of sin in the sight of God amidst all that befell him and
through the exhibition of his righteousness. Thus he who had said: Does Job revere God for
nothing? Have you not fenced about with a circle his goods without and his goods within
the house and the goods of all who are his, and blessed his work and made his flocks and
herds to abound on the earth? But send forth your hand, and touch all that he has, and
surely he will curse you to your face, was put to shame as having thereby spoken falsely
against Job, for he, after all his suffering, did not, as the Adversary said, curse God to
His face, but even when delivered to the tempter he continued steadfastly blessing God,
reproving his wife for saying Speak you some word against God and die, and rebuking her in
the words: As one of the senseless women have you spoken.

23 If we have accepted the good from the Lord's hand, shall we not endure the evil? And a
second time concerning Job the Devil said to the Lord: Skin for skin; all that the man has
he will pay for his soul. Nay but send forth your hand and touch his bones and his flesh,
and surely he will curse you to your face. But he is overcome by the champion of virtue
and shown to be a liar, for Job inspite of the severest sufferings stood firm committing
no sin with his lips in the sight of God. Two falls did Job wrestle and conquer, but no
third such struggle did he undergo, for the threefold wrestling had to be reserved for the
Savior, as it is recorded in the three Gospels, when the Savior known in human form thrice
conquered the Enemy. In order therefore to ask of God intelligently that we enter not into
temptation and that we be delivered from Evil, let us consider these things and
investigate them in our own minds more carefully. Through hearkening unto God let us
become worthy to be heard by Him, and let our entreaty be that when tempted we may not be
brought to death, and that when assailed by flaming darts of evil, we may not be set on
fire by them.

24 All whose hearts are (as one of the Twelve Prophets says, as an ember-pan) are set on
fire by them, but not so they who with the shield of faith quench all the flaming darts
aimed at them by the Evil One, since they have within themselves rivers of water springing
up into life eternal which do not let the fire of the Evil One prevail but readily undo it
with the flood of their inspired and saving thought that is impressed by contemplation of
the truth upon the soul of him whose study is to be spiritual.

XX. FORMALITIES OF PRAYER: CONCLUSION

1 I think it not out of place to add, by way of completing my task in reference to prayer,
a somewhat elementary discussion of such matters as the disposition and the posture that
is right for one who prays, the place where one ought to pray, the direction towards which
one ought except in any special circumstances to look, and the time suitable and marked
out for prayer. The seat of disposition is to be found in the soul, that of the posture in
the body. Thus Paul, as we observed above, suggests the disposition in speaking of the
duty of praying without anger and disputation and the posture in the words lifting up holy
hands, which he seems to me to have taken from the Psalms where it stands thus—the lifting
up of my hands as evening sacrifice; as to the place I desire therefore that men pray in
every place, and as to the direction in the Wisdom of Solomon: that it might be known that
it is right to go before the sun to give thanks to you and to intercede with you towards
the dawn of light.

2 Accordingly it seems to me that one who is about to enter upon prayer ought first to
have paused awhile and prepared himself to engage in prayer throughout more earnestly and
intently, to have cast aside every distraction and confusion of thought, to have bethought
him to the best of his ability of the greatness of Him whom he is approaching and of the
impiety of approaching Him frivolously and carelessly and, as it were, in contempt, and to
have put away everything alien. He ought thus to enter upon prayer with his soul, as it
were, extended before his hands, and his mind intent on God before his eyes, and his
intellect raised from earth and set toward the Lord of All before his body stands. Let him
put away all resentment against any real or imagined injurer in proportion to his desire
for God not to bear resentment against himself in turn for his injuries and sins against
many of his neighbors or any wrong deeds whatsoever upon his conscience.

3 Of all the innumerable dispositions of the body that, accompanied by outstretching of
the hands and upraising of the eyes, standing is preferred—inasmuch as one thereby wears
in the body also the image of the devotional characteristics that become the soul. I say
that these things ought to be observed by preference except in any special circumstances,
for in special circumstances, by reason of some serious foot disease one may upon occasion
quite properly pray sitting, or by reason of fevers or similar illnesses, lying, and
indeed owing to circumstances, if, let us say, we are on a voyage or if our business does
not permit us to retire to pay our debt of prayer, we may pray without any outward sign of
doing so. Moreover, one must know that kneeling is necessary when he is about to arraign
his personal sins against God with supplication for their healing and forgiveness, because
it is a symbol of submission and subjection. For Paul says; For this cause I bow my knees
unto the Father from whom is all fatherhood named in heaven and on earth. It may be termed
spiritual kneeling, because of the submission and self-humiliation of every being to God
in the name of Jesus, that the apostle appears to indicate in the words: that in the name
of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth.

4 It should not be supposed that beings in heaven have bodies so fashioned as actually to
possess knees, since their bodies have been described possibly as spherical in form by
those who have discussed these matters more minutely. He who refuses to admit this will
also, unless he outrages reason, admit the uses of each of the members in order that
nothing fashioned for them by God may be in vain. One falls into error on either hand,
whether he shall assert that bodily members have been brought into being by God for them
in vain and not for their proper work, or shall say that the internal organs, the
intestine included, perform their proper uses even in heavenly beings. Exceedingly foolish
will it be to think that it is only their surface, as with statues, that is human in form
and nothing further underneath. This much discussion will suffice, then, of kneeling and
of seeing that: in the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and on earth and under
the earth. To the same effect, it is written by the prophet: To me every knee shall bow.
In regard to place, it should be known that every place is rendered fit for prayer by one
who prays rightly, for in every place sacrifice is offered to me . . . says the Lord, and
I desire therefore that men pray in every place.

5 But to secure the performance of one's prayers in peace without distraction, the rule is
for every man to make choice, if possible, of what I may term the most solemn spot in his
house before he prays, considering in addition to his general examination of it, whether
any violation of law or right has not been done in the place in which he is praying, so as
to have made not only himself but also the place of his personal prayer of such a nature
that the regard of God has fled from it. And in reference to this matter of place, lengthy
consideration leads me to say what may seem to be harsh, but what, if one inquires into it
carefully, may possibly not invite contempt, namely that it is a question whether it is
reverent and pure to intercede with God in the place of that union which is not unlawful
but is conceded by the Apostle's word by way of indulgence not injunction. For if it is
not possible to give oneself to prayer as one ought without devoting oneself to it by
agreement for a season, the matter of the place also may possibly deserve to be considered
if possible.

6 Yet there is a certain helpful charm in a place of prayer being the spot in which
believers meet together. Also it may well be that the assemblies of believers also are
attended by angelic powers, by the powers of our Lord and Savior himself, and indeed by
the spirits of saints, including those already fallen asleep, certainly of those still in
life, though just how is not easy to say. In reference to angels we may reason thus: If an
angel of the Lord shall encamp round about those that fear Him and shall deliver them, and
if Jacob's words are true, not only of himself but to all who have devoted themselves to
God, when we understand him to say the angel who delivers me from all evil . . . it is
natural to infer that, when a number of men are genuinely met for Christ's glory, that
angel of each man—who is round about each of those that fear—will encamp with the man with
whose guardianship and stewardship he has been entrusted, so that when saints assemble
together there is a twofold church, the one of men the other of angels.

7 And although it is only the prayer of Tobit, and after him of Sarah who later became his
daughter-in-law owing to her marriage to Tobias, that Raphael says he has offered up as a
memorial, what happens when several are linked in one mind and conviction and are formed
into one body in Christ? In reference to the presence of the power of the Lord with the
church Paul says: you being gathered together with my spirit and with the power of the
Lord Jesus, implying that the Lord Jesus' power is not only with the Ephesians but also
with the Corinthians. And if Paul, while still wearing the body, believed that he assisted
in Corinth with his spirit, we need not abandon the belief that the blessed departed in
spirit also, perhaps more than one who is in the body, make their way likewise into the
churches. For that reason we ought not to despise prayer in churches, recognizing that it
possesses a special virtue for him who genuinely joins in.

8 And just as Jesus' power and the spirit of Paul and similar men, and the angels of the
Lord who encamp round about each of the saints, are associated and join with those who
genuinely assemble themselves together, so we may conjecture that if any man be unworthy
of a holy angel and give himself up through sin and transgressions in contempt of God to a
devil's angel, he will perhaps, in the event of those like him being few, not long escape
that providence of those angels which oversee the church by the authority of the divine
will and will bring the misdeeds of such persons to general knowledge; whereas if such
persons become numerous and meet as mere human societies with business of the more
material sort, they will not be overseen. That is shown in Isaiah when the Lord says:
neither if you shall come to appear before me; for I will turn away my eyes from you, and
even if you multiply your supplication I will not pay attention.

9 For in place of the already mentioned twofold company of saintly men and blessed angels
there may, on the other hand, be a twofold association of impious men and evil angels. Of
such a congregation it might be said alike by holy angels and by pious men: I sat not down
with the council of vanity, and with transgressors I will not enter in; I hated the church
of evildoers and with the impious I will not sit down. I think that it was also for such a
reason that the people in Jerusalem and the whole of Judea, having come to be in a state
of great sinfulness, became subject to their enemies through the abandonment by God and
the overshielding angels and the saving work of saintly men—having become people who have
abandoned the Law. For whole gatherings are at times thus abandoned to fall into
temptation in order that even that which they seem to have may be taken away from them.
Like the fig tree that was cursed and taken away from the roots because it had not given
fruit to the hungering Jesus, they wither and lose any little amount they once had of
lively power according to faith.

10 So much for what seem to me to have been necessary observations in considering the
place of prayer and in setting forth its special virtue in respect to place in the case of
the meetings of saintly men who come together reverently in churches. A few words may now
be added in reference to the direction in which one ought to look in prayer. Of the four
directions, the North, South, East, and West, who would not at once admit that the East
clearly indicates the duty of praying with the face turned towards it with the symbolic
suggestion that the soul is looking upon the dawn of the true light? Should anyone,
however, prefer to direct his intercessions according to the aperture of the house,
whichever way the doors of the house may face, saying that the sight of heaven appeals to
one with a certain attraction greater than the view of the wall, and the eastward part of
the house having no opening, we may say to him that since it is by human arrangement that
houses are open in this or that direction but by nature that the East is preferred to all
the other directions, the natural is to be set before the artificial. Besides, on that
view why should one who wished to pray when in the open country pray to the East in
preference to the West? If, in the one case it is reasonable to prefer the East, why
should the same not be done in every case? Enough on that subject.

11 I have still to treat the topics of prayer, and therewith I purpose to bring this
treatise to an end. Four topics which I have found scattered throughout the Scriptures
appear to me to deserve mention, and according to these everyone should organize their
prayer. The topics are as follows: In the beginning and opening of prayer, glory is to be
ascribed according to one's ability to God, through Christ who is to be glorified with
Him, and in the Holy Spirit who is to be proclaimed with Him. Thereafter, one should put
thanksgivings: common thanksgivings—into which he introduces benefits conferred upon men
in general—and thanksgivings for things which he has personally received from God. After
thanksgiving it appears to me that one ought to become a powerful accuser of one's own
sins before God and ask first for healing with a view to being released from the habit
which brings on sin, and secondly for forgiveness for past actions. After confession it
appears to me that one ought to append as a fourth element the asking for the great and
heavenly things, both personal and general, on behalf of one's nearest and dearest. And
last of all, one should bring prayer to an end ascribing glory to God through Jesus Christ
in the Holy Spirit. As I already said, I have found these points scattered throughout the
scriptures.

12 The element of glorious ascription occurs in these words in the one hundred and third
psalm:—O Lord, my God, how exceedingly you are magnified. You have put on praise and
majesty, who are He that wraps himself in light as in a mantel, who stretches out the
heaven like a curtain, who roofs His upper chambers with waters, who makes clouds His
chariot, who walks on wings of winds, who makes winds His angels and flaming fire His
ministers, who lays the foundations of the earth for its safety—it shall not swerve for
ever and ever; the deep is a mantle of His vestment; on the mountains shall waters stand;
from your rebuke shall they flee; from the sound of your thunder shall they shrink in
fear. Indeed most of the psalm contains ascription of glory to the Father. But anyone may
select numerous passages for himself and see how broadly the element of glorious
ascription is scattered. Of thanksgiving, this may be set forth as an example. It is found
in the second book of Kings, and is uttered by David, after promises made through Nathan
to David, in astonishment at the bounties of God and in thanksgiving for them. It runs:
Who am I, O Lord my Lord, and what is my house, that you have loved me to this extent? I
am exceeding small in your sight, my Lord, and yet you have spoken on behalf of the house
of your servant for a long time to come. Such is the way of man, O Lord my Lord, and what
shall David go on to say more to you? Even now you know your servant, O Lord. For your
servant have you wrought and according to your heart have you wrought all this greatness
to make it known to your servant that he should magnify you, O Lord my Lord.

13 Of confessions we have an example in: From all my transgressions deliver me. And
elsewhere: My wounds have stunk and been corrupt because of my folly. I have been wretched
and bowed down utterly; all the day have I gone with sullen face. Of petitions we have an
example in the twenty-seventh psalm: Draw me not away with sinners, and destroy me not
with workers of unrighteousness, and the like. And it is right as one began with
ascription of glory, to bring one's prayers to an end in ascription of glory, singing and
glorifying the Father of all through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit—to whom be glory unto
eternity. Thus, Ambrosius and Tatiana, studious and genuine brethren in piety, according
to my ability I have struggled through my treatment of the subject of prayer and of the
prayer in the Gospels together with its preface in Matthew. But if you press on to the
things in front and forget those behind and pray for me in my undertaking, I do not
despair of being enabled to receive from God the Giver a fuller and more divine capacity
for all these matters, and with it to discuss the same subject again in a nobler, loftier,
and clearer way. Meanwhile, however, you will peruse this with indulgence.

14 This text was reformatted by Roger Pearse, 2008. Originally uploaded to the web by
("http://tedn.hypermart.net/index.htm") Nottingham Publishing.

PREFACE

1 This is a mysterious item which I found on the internet. The translator is given as
William A. Curtis, who appears to have been a Scottish divine in Glasgow in the early 20th
century. But the originator seems to be a Theodore J. Nottingham, who says that he
obtained it from a certain Dr Charles Ashanin, who in turn obtained it from Curtis'
papers. Nottingham wrote to Harry Plantinga at CCEL, offering the item thus in January
2001: I would like to ask that you add a link to a very rare translation that has come
into my possession and which is posted free on the Internet. Translated from the original
Greek by a reknown (sic) Scottish scholar at the turn of the century, the manuscript of
"Origen on Prayer" was passed on to my spiritual mentor, a Church Historian from the
former Yugoslavia, who recently passed on. On behalf of his fifty year effort to publish
this material, I have placed it, newly edited and updated, at this site:
"http://tedn.hypermart.net/origen.htm". Please share it with persons interested in the
great master.

2 The item is widely available now online. In case it vanishes, I have placed it here.
This text was written by Roger Pearse, 2017.


PHILOCALIA
==========

PHILOCALIA Origen of Alexandria

c. AD 185–253

Teacher and biblical scholar of Alexandria and Caesarea.

INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL

THE PHILOCALIA OF ORIGEN

1 Printed by MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, FOR T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH. LONDON: SIMPKIN,
MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT, AND CO. LIMITED. NEW YORK : CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.

THE PHILOCALIA OF ORIGEN

2 A COMPILATION OF SELECTED PASSAGES FROM ORIGEN'S WORKS MADE BY ST. GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS
AND ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH BY THE REV. GEORGE LEWIS M.A., OF
BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD M.A., UNIVERSITY OF LONDON RECTOR OF ICOMB, GLOUCESTERSHIRE LATE.
VICAR OF DODDERHILL, DROITWICH Author of "A Life of Joseph Hall, Bishop of Exeter and
Norwich," "An Oxford Parish Priest" : Translator of S. Basil's "De Spiritu Sancto," S.
Jerome's "Dogmatic Treatises," etc. EDINBURGH : T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET 1911 TO MY
CHEERY COMPANIONS C. M. L. AND A. V. T.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

3 THE translation here undertaken is, by kind permission, from the Revised Text
(Cambridge, University Press, 1893) of Dr. Armitage Robinson, then Norrisian Professor of
Divinity, subsequently Dean of Westminster, now Dean of Wells, who thus describes the
original: "The Philocalia of Origen is a compilation of selected passages from Origen's
works made by SS. Gregory and Basil. The wholesale destruction of his writings which
followed upon the warfare waged against his opinions shortly after his death, has caused a
special value to attach to the Philocalia as preserving to us in the original much of
Origen's work which would otherwise have been entirely lost, or would have survived only
in the translations of Rufinus. Moreover, even his great and comparatively popular work
against Celsus depends for its text solely on a manuscript of the thirteen century, so
that we have a cause for gratitude in the preservation of a large part of it in the
Philocalia. But apart from its textual importance, this collection deserves attention as
forming an excellent introduction to the study of Origen. Much of his best thought is here
presented to us, arranged under various important heads; and we are guided to the
appreciation of his theological standpoint by two of the strongest intellects of the
century after his own."

4 Bishop Westcott's account of "the great teacher of Alexandria----of him whose proper
name is said to mean the Son of light, and whose labours earned for him the title of
Adamantine" may perhaps be of service to the reader. "The fortunes of Origen during his
lifetime aptly prefigured the fate of his writings. His zeal was accounted infatuation,
and his learning turned to a reproach. Though he was known to have reclaimed the
wandering, and to have refuted the malicious, yet he was driven from the service of the
Church in the very city where he had preached Christ on the steps of the temple of
Serapis, and strengthened his father to endure the terrors of martyrdom. Though countless
doctors, priests, and confessors proceeded from his school, he was himself arraigned as a
heretic and convicted; though he was the friend and teacher of Saints, his salvation was
questioned and denied. For many centuries he was condemned almost universally by the
Western Church, in consequence of the adverse judgment of Jerome. In later times Picus of
Mirandola ventured to maintain the cause of the great Father: the thesis was suppressed,
but the author remained uncensured: indeed, a pious lady was said to have received a
revelation not long before, which seemed to assure her of the forgiveness of Samson,
Solomon, and Origen. This hope, however, in the case of the last was admitted apparently
by few; and Baronius expresses his surprise that any doubt of his condemnation could be
raised after the sentence of Anastasius.

5 If we find in Origen's own words about Holy Scripture a deep and solid foundation of
truth constructed with earnestness and wisdom,----unaptly crowned, it may be, with the
fantastic structures of a warm and hasty imagination,----it is possible that we may be led
to regard his other labours with charity, if not with gratitude, and to remember that his
errors refer to questions which had not in his time been decided by the authority of the
Church." 6 For the suggestion that a translation of the Philocalia might be found useful I
am indebted to the present Bishop of Gloucester (Dr. Gibson), who in making the suggestion
did not, of course, in the least guarantee the fitness of the translator for the work.
While I have availed myself of any printed matter I could find, and most gratefully
acknowledge my obligations, I have refrained almost entirely from consulting my friends,
not from any feeling of sufficiency, but from a dread that I might make them partakers in
my literary sins. The one or two instances in which I have begged assistance are mentioned
in the notes. In translating an author so difficult as Origen, I can hardly hope to escape
criticism at many points. The translator will most cordially welcome anything that may
tend to improve his work. GEORGE LEWIS. ICOMB RECTORY, 21st June 1911.

THE PHILOCALIA OF ORIGEN

7 (Explanatory Note in the Greek) THE volume which we now offer to our readers contains a
selection of scriptural problems and their solutions compiled by the divines Basil and
Gregory from the learned labours of Origen. It is said to have been sent by the latter,
Gregory the theologian, to Theodorus, who was then Bishop of Tyana, as is shown by the
letter addressed to him, which runs thus:---- The festival, and your letter, and what is
better, your anticipation of the season, and readiness to allow us to keep the festival
beforehand. These are the gifts of your piety. In return we give the best we have, our
prayers. But that you may have some memorial from us, and at the same time from Basil, we
have sent you a small volume of the choice thoughts of Origen, containing extracts of
passages which may be of service to scholars. Pray accept it, and let us see that with the
aid of industry and the Spirit you have found it useful.

PREFACE TO THE GREEK EDITION

8 THE present volume contains a selection of scriptural problems and their solutions from
various laborious treatises of Origen. Some say that the book, and also the division of it
into chapters as they are arranged, and the titles were the work of the learned divines,
Basil and Gregory, and that it was sent by Gregory the theologian, in a folding tablet to
Theodore of holy memory, who was then Bishop of Tyana. And this is what was intended to be
shown in the preface of the very ancient codex from which we have made the transcript. But
how do they establish the fact? By the letter, so they say, which was written to the
aforesaid Theodore, and sent with the tablet. Now we acknowledge the letter to have been
written by him who was called the theologian, and on the other hand, we find many things
in the collected passages which are inconsistent with sound doctrine; we had therefore
good reason, inasmuch as we followed the word of truth, for our resolve to prefix this
preface, and thus enable readers to easily detect the secret villainy of Origen's
champions.

9 We have not the least doubt that the letter was written by the theologian, particularly
as it is found, precisely as we have it, in all copies of his letters, and nobody disputes
it. And if we frankly admit this, we consequently accept the second statement, viz. that
the compilation was made by the learned editors from the works of Origen----a compilation,
of course, of useful and profitable passages, as it is concisely expressed in the
theologian's letter of which we have just spoken. For it was what we should expect, that
those spiritual bees would gather the choicest honey from various flowers to make up one
pure honey-comb, whereof, as Solomon, the wise collector of Proverbs says, kings and
private persons taste and are sweetened, and are helped in gaining perfect health. We
believe, accordingly, that those famous Fathers did compile such portions as have no taint
of heretical bitterness, but certainly not all, without distinction, that we find in the
following chapters; much of it we reject as conflicting with the inspired teaching of the
Fathers.

10 For, we would ask, was there ever a time when Basil and Gregory, those invincible
champions of our religion, were content to hold their peace if any one profanely
maintained the Son of God or the Holy Spirit to be a created being? We need not say how
they treasured such doctrines, or how profitable they deemed them to scholars. Were they
not in the thick of every fight against the blasphemy of Arius and Eunomius and their
associates? Did they not give such an account of pre-existence, and final restoration, and
similar doctrines, as suited ancient legend and was adapted to the Grecian mind? What need
to mention the details? The time would fail to tell what laborious service they rendered
in the interests of orthodoxy. Nearly the whole of their life was spent in showing the
All-holy and Self-existent Trinity to be equal in honour and glory, and in the same true
sense Co-eternal and Co-essential. They fed Christ's sheep in the green pasture of the
holy doctrines, speaking to them in the familiar voice and pure tones of the truth. But in
the work under consideration you may find everything just the reverse. For all the
absurdities we have enumerated, and others besides, are sown broadcast, and of the
chapters, the twenty-second is by the bare title, we maintain, proved to be spurious and
illegitimate.

11 It follows that if we were to make the Holy Fathers responsible for the selection of
all these absurdities, we should of necessity be giving to error that assent which is due
to truth. And consider how absurd this would be; for we shall be charging the guardians of
righteousness with our own perversity. But God forbid! Would any man of ordinary critical
judgment allow that those famous champions of our religion in their selections were
accustomed to mingle the chaff with the wheat? At the same time we may very well allow
that some heretical tenets may be called "wheat"; for, as Cyril with his ripe wisdom tells
us, "We ought not to cleprecatingly shun all that the heretics say, inasmuch as they
confess many things which we also confess. Basil and Gregory, then, surely were not the
persons who mixed the wheat and the chaff for us. Impossible! But certain of those who
pervert the ways of the Lord, in their eagerness for the impious subtleties which Origen
borrowed from the Greeks, imitated the devil who outwitted their teacher, and, in the case
before us, mixed the chaff with our wheat, just as the devil in days of old scattered the
tares in the Master's field. For the wheat is ours; ours, too, wherever they may be found,
are the orthodox doctrines.

12 And the inspired preachers of those doctrines, with their superlatively wise teaching,
using the fan of their critical ability given them from above, and thereby sifting the
wheat from the chaff, brought the wheat into the fair garner of the Church, but have
delivered the chaff to unquenchable fire----and that in spite of Origen. 13 So, then,
taking all this into account, although we admit the letter to be genuine, and have no
doubt that the compilation was made by the two saints, and give good heed to their
orthodox teaching, which shines more brightly than the sun, we shall maintain that we were
justified in the further inference we drew on our own responsibility. What we mean is
this. Certain persons, as has been said, mad upon the heterodox views of Origen, taking
advantage of the holy Gregory's letter, have undoubtedly had the audacity to pollute the
whole of the compilation with profane insertions, apparently supposing that the more
simple-minded readers might be found, as holy Basil somewhere says, mixing the poison with
the honey. To prevent this we have done our best to show readers clearly where the poison
is. Accordingly, after giving the most careful attention to the thorough exposition of all
the chapters in the following list, and after applying the best tests we could, we have
marked the spurious and illegitimate passages in the margin as "heretical," "faulty"; and
have thus branded them in their several places.

14 The letter of holy Gregory the Divine to Theodore, Bishop of Tyana. [See above.] The
contents of the book: a selection of passages from the words of the impious Origen. [Here
follow the titles of the chapters.]

CONTENTS

15 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE v EXPLANATORY NOTE IN THE GREEK ix PREFACE TO THE GREEK EDITION xi
TEXT I. Of the Inspiration of the Divine Scripture 1 II. That the Divine Scripture is
closed up and sealed 30 III. Why the Inspired Books are Twenty-two in Number 34 IV. Of the
Solecisms and Poor Style of Scripture 35 V. What is "much speaking," and what are the
"many books"? The whole Inspired Scripture is One Book 36 VI. The whole Divine Scripture
is One Instrument of God, perfect and fitted for its Work 42 VII. Of the special
"character" of the Persons of Divine Scripture 44 VIII That we need not attempt to correct
the Solecisms of Scripture, etc 45 IX. Scripture uses the same Terms in different
Significations. 47 X. Stumbling-blocks in Holy Scripture 51 XI. On Heretical
Interpretation of Holy Scripture 53 XII. We ought not to despair in reading the Scriptures
if we find Difficulties in them 54

16 XIII. Philosophy in relation to Holy Scripture 57 XIV. The Use of Logic in the Study of
Scripture 60 XV. A Reply to the Objection that the Truths of Christianity have been better
expressed by the Greeks. Our Lord's Body, etc. 62 XVI. On the Divisions among Christians
77 XVII. May we give Heathen Titles to the Supreme God? 81 XVIII. The "simplicity"of
Christian Faith, etc. 86 XIX. Faith in Christ commendable and accordant with the original
Moral Notions of Mankind. How Jesus being God could have a Mortal Body 109 XX. Man and the
Irrational Creatures 113 XXI. Free Will 137 XXII. The Dispersion of Mankind, and the
Confusion of Tongues .163 XXIII. Fate, Astrology, etc 173 XXIV. Matter is not Uncreated,
or the Cause of Evil 197 XXV. God's Foreknowledge, Predestination, etc. 208 XXVI.
Scripture Blessings. What things are really "Good" and "Evil" 214 XXVII. The Hardening of
Pharaoh's Heart 224

17 [Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the end]


PHILOCALIA
==========

PHILOCALIA continued

THE PHILOCALIA OF ORIGEN

I. Of the Inspiration of the Divine Scripture II. That the Divine Scripture is closed up
and sealed III. Why the Inspired Books are Twenty-two in Number IV. Of the Solecisms and
Poor Style of Scripture V. What is "much speaking," and what are the "many books"? The
whole Inspired Scripture is One Book VI. The whole Divine Scripture is One Instrument of
God, perfect and fitted for its Work VII. Of the special "character" of the Persons of
Divine Scripture VIII That we need not attempt to correct the Solecisms of Scripture, etc
IX. Scripture uses the same Terms in different Significations. X. Stumbling-blocks in Holy
Scripture XI. On Heretical Interpretation of Holy Scripture XII. We ought not to despair
in reading the Scriptures if we find Difficulties in them XIII. Philosophy in relation to
Holy Scripture XIV. The Use of Logic in the Study of Scripture XV. A Reply to the
Objection that the Truths of Christianity have been better expressed by the Greeks. Our
Lord's Body, etc.

XVI. On the Divisions among Christians XVII. May we give Heathen Titles to the Supreme
God? XVIII. The "simplicity"of Christian Faith, etc. XIX. Faith in Christ commendable and
accordant with the original Moral Notions of Mankind. How Jesus being God could have a
Mortal Body XX. Man and the Irrational Creatures XXI. Free Will XXII. The Dispersion of
Mankind, and the Confusion of Tongues XXIII. Fate, Astrology, etc XXIV. Matter is not
Uncreated, or the Cause of Evil XXV. God's Foreknowledge, Predestination, etc XXVI.
Scripture Blessings. What things are really "Good" and "Evil" XXVII. The Hardening of
Pharaoh's Heart

THE PHILOCALIA OF ORIGEN

CHAP. I. ----Of the inspiration of the Divine Scripture; how it is to be read and
understood; why it is obscure; and what is the reason of the obscurity in it, and of what
is impossible in some cases, or unreasonable, when it is taken literally. From the work on
"Principles" and various other works of Origen. The following analysis of Origen's scheme
of interpretation may be useful to the reader:---- Interpretation | |
----------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | |
Literal (Body) Moral (Soul) Mystical (Spirit) | | -------------------------
------------------------- | | | | Actual Fictitious Allegory. Anagoge. History. History.
Prefiguring the Typifying the Invented by the Holy Spirit history of Christ things of a
higher to convey moral and mystical and His Church. world in which truths which earthly
things everything of this could not sufficiently typify. earth has its antitype. In the
law some things were literally to be observed; others were in the letter impossible or
absurd, but were intended to convey moral and mystical teaching.

1. Inasmuch as when we investigate matters of such importance we are not content with
common notions and such light as is given by the things that are seen, we strengthen our
position by the additional evidence of the Scriptures, which we believe to be Divine, viz.
both that which is called the Old Testament and that which is called the New, and
endeavour with the help of reason to confirm our faith. But as we have never yet discussed
the Scriptures on the side of their Divine inspiration, let us bring together a few brief
remarks concerning them, by way of showing upon what grounds we regard them as Divine. And
before we proceed to make use of the text of the Scriptures and of what is revealed in
them, a few particulars must be given concerning Moses and Jesus Christ----the lawgiver of
the Hebrews, and the Author of the saving doctrines of Christianity. For of all the
numerous lawgivers that have arisen among Greeks and Barbarians, we recall no one who
could induce other nations to eagerly accept his tenets; and although the professors of
philosophic truth made elaborate efforts to establish their doctrine on a seeming basis of
reason, not one of them succeeded in introducing into different nations the truth which he
supported, or in influencing considerable numbers of one nation.

And yet the lawgivers would have liked, if it had been possible, to bind the good laws, as
they appeared to be, on the whole human race, and the teachers would desire that what they
imagined to be truth should be spread throughout the world. Conscious, however, that they
would not succeed if they invited men of different languages and of many nationalities to
observe the law they promulgated, and accept the instruction they gave, they did not even
attempt this at first, for they shrewdly suspected that the attempt would end in failure.
But in every land, Greek and Barbarian, throughout the world, countless adherents of our
faith may be found who have abandoned their ancestral customs and familiar gods, to become
zealous observers of the law of Moses and eager disciples of Jesus Christ; and this in
spite of the fact that they who submit to the law of Moses are hated by the worshippers of
images, and they who accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ are not only hated but are in peril
of death.

2. And if we realise in how very short a time, notwithstanding the plots laid against the
professors of Christianity, whereby some perished and others lost their possessions, the
Word, though the number of the preachers was not great, has been everywhere preached
throughout the world, so that Greeks and Barbarians, wise and foolish, submit themselves
to the fear of God through Jesus, if, I say, we realise this, we shall not hesitate to say
that there is something superhuman in the result. For Jesus taught with all authority and
persuasiveness that the Word would prevail, so that one may reasonably regard His
utterances as prophetic.1 For instance, "Before governors and kings shall ye be brought
for my sake, for a testimony to them and to the Gentiles."2 And, "Many will say to me in
that day, Lord, Lord, did we not eat in thy name, and drink in thy name? And I will say to
them, depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you."3 It was perhaps reasonable
to think that He spoke these things at random, and that they were not true; but when the
things spoken with such authority came to pass, it is manifest that God really took our
nature upon Him and delivered doctrines of salvation to men.

3. Need I add how it was foretold that the promised princes should depart from Judah,4 and
rulers from between his thighs, at the coming of Messiah for whom it is reserved, viz. the
kingdom, and at the advent of the Expectation of the Gentiles? For it is surely clear from
history and from what we see to-day, that from the times of Jesus there have been none who
called themselves kings of the Jews; for everything whereon the Jews prided themselves, I
mean the arrangements of the temple and the altar, the performance of the service, and the
vestments of the high priest, has been abolished. For the prophecy was fulfilled which
says, "The children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and
without sacrifice, and without altar, and without priesthood,5 and without Urim and
Thummim." 6 And we turn the foregoing passage against our opponents, who, perplexed by
what Jacob in Genesis says to Judah, allege that the Ethnarch sprung from the family of
Judah, is the "governor of the people," and that his seed shall not fail until the coming
of Messiah of which they dream. For if "the children of Israel shall abide many days
without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without
priesthood, and without Urim and Thummin"; and from the time when the temple was destroyed
there has been no sacrifice, nor altar, nor priesthood, it is clear that a prince has
failed from Judah, and a ruler from between his thighs. And since the prophecy says, "A
prince shall not fail from Judah, nor a ruler from between his thighs, until the things
reserved for him shall come,"7 it is clear that He has come to whom the things reserved
belong, viz. the Expectation of the Gentiles. And this is proved by the multitude of the
Gentiles who have believed on God through Christ.

4. The Song in Deuteronomy also contains a prophecy of the future election of the foolish
Gentiles on account of the sins of God's former people, and this has come to pass through
Jesus only. "For they," so the words stand, "have moved me to jealousy with that which is
not God: they have provoked me to anger with their idols. And I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people: I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation." 8
We can very clearly understand how they who bore the name of Hebrews and provoked God to
jealousy with that which is not God, and provoked Him to anger with their idols, were
themselves provoked to jealousy and moved to anger with those which were not a people, the
foolish people, whom God chose through the coming of Christ and through His disciples. "We
see, then, our calling, that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many
noble are called: but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to
shame them that are wise; and God chose the base things and things that are despised, and
the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that were before: and
that Israel after the flesh may not boast before God."9 For when the Apostle uses the word
"flesh" he means "Israel."

5. But what are we to say about the prophecies in the Psalms concerning Christ? Is there
not a "song" entitled "For the Beloved"? 10 The Beloved's tongue is called "the pen of a
ready writer"; He is fairer than the children of men, for grace is poured into His lips. A
proof of the grace poured into His lips is the fact that though the whole period of His
teaching was so short (He taught for something like a year and a few months), the world
has been filled with His doctrine and with the religion which He brought. For "in his days
righteousness hath sprung up, and abundance of peace to last to the end," 11 for this
lasting to the end is the meaning of the phrase "the moon shall be no more"; and "He shall
have perpetual dominion from sea to sea, and from the rivers unto the ends of the earth.
And a sign is given to the house of David; for the Virgin did bear; she both conceived and
bore a son, and His name is Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.12 The
prophecy is fulfilled, as the same prophet says: "God is with us; be wise ye nations, and
submit; ye that are mighty submit."13 We of the Gentiles who have been led captive by the
grace of His Word have been conquered and have submitted. But even the place of His birth
was foretold: "For thou Bethlehem, land of Judah, art in no wise least among the princes
of Judah;

for out of thee shall come forth a governor, which shall be shepherd of my people
Israel."14 And the seventy weeks wore fulfilled, as Daniel shows,15 when Christ the
"governor" came. And, according to Job,16 He came who subdued the great sea-monster, and
has given authority to His true disciples to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over
all the power of the enemy, being in no wise hurt by them.17 Let a man observe how the
Apostles who were sent by Jesus to proclaim the Gospel went everywhere, and he cannot help
seeing their superhuman daring in obedience to the Divine command. And if we inquire how
it was that men when they heard new doctrines and strange words welcomed the Apostles, and
in spite of their desire to plot against them were overcome by a certain Divine power
guarding the speakers, we shall not disbelieve even if we are told that the Apostles did
work miracles, God bearing witness to their words both by signs and wonders and by
manifold powers.18

6. But in thus briefly summarising the proofs for the Godhead of Jesus, and making use of
the words of the prophets concerning Him, we are at the same time proving the inspiration
of the Scriptures which prophesy of Him, and are showing that those writings which
proclaim His coming and teaching were delivered with all power and authority; and we say
that if they have prevailed over the election from the Gentiles, it is because they were
inspired. But we must say that the divinity of the prophetic utterances, and the spiritual
meaning of the law of Moses, shone forth by the dwelling of Jesus on earth. For there
could be no clear proofs of the inspiration of the ancient Scriptures before the coming of
Christ. But the coming of Jesus brought men who might suspect that the law and the
prophets were not Divine to the plain avowal that they were written with help from heaven.
And the careful and attentive reader of the words of the prophets, if his zeal be kindled
ever so little by reading them, will through his own experience be persuaded that what we
believe to be the words of God are not human compositions. And the light also of the law
of Moses, though it had been hidden by a veil, shone forth when Jesus came;19 for the veil
was taken away and the good things foreshadowed in the Scriptures were gradually revealed.

7. It would be a big undertaking to now recount the most ancient prophecies, so that in
amazement at their Divine character, the doubter may with full conviction and concentrated
purpose submit himself with all his soul to the words of God. If, however, the superhuman
element in the Scriptures does not everywhere appear to strike the uninstructed, no
wonder; for in the working of the Divine Providence throughout the whole World some things
are very clearly seen to be providential, while others are so hidden as to seem to leave
room for doubt as to whether God with His ineffable skill and power does order the
universe. For the evidence of design in Providence is not so clear in things of earth as
it is in the sun and moon and stars; and it is not so clear in the changes and chances of
human affairs as it is in the souls and bodies of animals, certainly when the why and
wherefore of their instincts, impressions, natures, and bodily structure have been
ascertained by experts in these branches of knowledge. But as the doctrine of Providence
is not destroyed by our ignorance in some particulars, when we have once for all admitted
it, so neither is the Divine character of Scripture upon the whole impaired, because our
weakness cannot in each phrase approach the hidden glory of the truths concealed in poor
and contemptible language.

For we have a treasure in earthly vessels,20 that the exceeding greatness of the power of
God may shine forth, and may not be thought to come from us men. For if the hackneyed
methods of demonstration common among men, which we find on our library shelves,21 had
prevailed over men, our faith would with good reason have been supposed to stand in the
wisdom of men, and not in the power of God;22 but as things are, if a man will lift up his
eyes, it will be evident that the Word and the preaching have influenced the multitude not
by persuasive words of wisdom, but by demonstration of the Spirit and of power. Wherefore,
seeing that a heavenly power, or a power even from, above the heavens, urges us to worship
the Creator only, let us, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ,23 that is, leaving
elementary instruction, endeavour to press on unto perfection, that the wisdom spoken to
the perfect may be spoken also to us.24 For He Who has this wisdom promises to speak it
among the perfect, a wisdom other than the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of the
ruler of this world, which is brought to nought. And this wisdom shall be plainly stamped
on us, according to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through
times eternal, but now is manifested, by the Scriptures of the prophets 25 and the
appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,26 to Whom be the glory for ever. Amen.

8. Now that we have, as it were, just glanced at the inspiration of the Divine Scriptures,
we must pass on to the way to read and understand them; for very many mistakes have been
made, because the right method of examining the holy texts has not been discovered by the
greater number of readers. Hardhearted and unlearned readers belonging to the Circumcision
have not believed on our Saviour, because it is their habit to follow the bare letter of
the prophecies concerning Him, and they do not see Him with their bodily eyes proclaiming
liberty to the captives,27 nor building what they think the true city of God,28 nor
cutting off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem,29 nor eating butter
and honey, and before He knoweth or preferreth evil choosing the good.30 They still
suppose that prophecy declares that the four-footed animal, the wolf, shall feed with the
lamb, and the leopard lie down with the kid; and the calf, and the bull, and the lion feed
together, and that a little child shall lead them; and that the cow and the bear shall be
pastured together, their young ones being reared together, and that the lion shall eat
straw like the ox.31 Because they saw nothing like this when He Whom we believe to be
Christ dwelt on the earth, they did not receive Jesus, but crucified Him, maintaining that
He had no right to call Himself Christ.

And heretics when they read the words, "A fire is kindled in mine anger";32 and, "I am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, upon the third and
fourth generation";33 and, "It repenteth me that I have anointed Saul to be king";34 and,
"I am God that maketh peace and create evil";35 and in another place, "Shall evil befall a
city, and the Lord hath not done it";36 or again, "Evil is come down from the Lord unto
the gates of Jerusalem";37 and, "An evil spirit from the Lord plagued Saul";38 and
countless similar passages: when they read these, I say, they will not venture to deny the
Divine origin of the Scriptures, but believing them to have come from the Demiurge,39 Whom
the Jews worship, and holding that the Demiurge is imperfect and lacking in goodness, they
suppose our Saviour while He dwelt on earth to have proclaimed a more perfect God, Whom,
from different motives, they affirm not to be the Demiurge. And having thus once for all
revolted from the Demiurge, Who is the only God uncreate, they have given themselves up to
vain imaginations, inventing for themselves various theories, so as to account for the
origin of things that are seen, and for the origin of others not seen, and all this is the
offspring of their own fancy.

And yet, as a matter of fact, the less sophisticated of those who in their self-confidence
have left the Church allow no God greater than the Demiurge, and so far they are right;
but their conception of Him is such as would discredit an extremely cruel and unjust man.
9. Now the only reason why all these of whom I have spoken entertain false and impious
opinions, or ignorant views respecting God, appears to be that the Scripture on the
spiritual side is not understood, but is taken in the bare literal sense. For the sake,
therefore, of those readers who are persuaded that the sacred books are not human
compositions, but that they were written and have come to us by inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, according to the will of the Father of All through Jesus Christ, we must point out
what appear to be the right methods, while we keep to the rule of the heavenly Church of
Jesus Christ in succession to the Apostles. And that there are certain mystic
dispensations revealed through the Divine Scriptures has been believed by all who have
studied the Word, even the simplest readers; but what these dispensations are, fair-minded
and modest men confess they do not know. Anyway, supposing a man to be perplexed about the
intercourse of Lot with his daughters,40 or the two wives of Abraham,41 or Jacob's
marrying two sisters, and the handmaidens who had children by him,42 these readers will
say that here we have mysteries which we do not understand. But suppose the passage to be
about the building of the tabernacle,43 feeling sure that the narrative is typical, they
will endeavour to give each detail, as best they can, a spiritual meaning. So far as their
conviction goes that the tabernacle is a type of something, they are not far wrong;

but when on the strength of this they attempt in a way worthy of Scripture to define the
particular thing of which the tabernacle is a type, they sometimes fail. And every
ordinary story of marriage, or childbearing, or war, or any historical occurrences which
would generally be regarded as such, they pronounce to be typical. But when they come to
particulars, it sometimes happens, partly because they are not thoroughly familiar with
the subject, partly because they are too precipitate, partly because, even if a man is
well trained and deliberate, the things are extremely difficult to investigate, that
certain points are not quite cleared up. 10. And why speak of the prophecies, which we ail
know to be full of enigmas and dark sayings? And, coming to the Gospels, if we are to find
their exact sense, inasmuch as that sense is the mind of Christ, there is need of the
grace given to him who said, "We have the mind of Christ, that we may know the things
freely given to us by God; which things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom
teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth." 44 And who, again, can read the things revealed
to John without astonishment at the ineffable mysteries therein concealed, mysteries,
plainly enough, though a man does not understand what is written? As for the letters of
the Apostles, could any critic find them clear and easily intelligible, seeing they
contain countless things of the greatest importance and thronging thoughts, seen as
through a lattice,45 and by no means easy of access? Wherefore, seeing that this is the
case, and that vast numbers go wrong, it is somewhat dangerous when we read to lightly
declare that one understands what requires that key of knowledge which was with the
lawyers. And I wish they who will not allow that men had the truth before Christ came
would tell us what our Lord Jesus Christ means by saying that the key of knowledge was in
the keeping of the lawyers, for, according to our opponents, the lawyers had no books
containing the secrets of knowledge, and complete mysteries. The precise words are these:
"Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in
yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." 46

11. The right way, then, to read the Scriptures and extract their meaning, so far as we
have been able to discover from examining the oracles themselves, appears to be as
follows:----Solomon in the Proverbs gives a rule respecting the Divine doctrines of
Scripture to this effect: "Do thou thrice record them with counsel and knowledge that thou
mayest answer with words of truth to those who try thee with hard questions." 47 A man
ought then in three ways to record in his own soul the purposes of the Holy Scriptures;
that the simple may be edified by, as it were, the flesh of Scripture (for thus we
designate the primary sense), the more advanced by its soul, and the perfect by the
spiritual law, which has a shadow of the good things to come. For the perfect man
resembles those of whom the Apostle speaks: "Howbeit we speak wisdom among the perfect;
yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, which are coming to
nought: but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath been hidden,
which God foreordained before the worlds unto our glory,48 from the spiritual law which
hath a shadow of the good things to come.49 As man consists of body, soul, and spirit, so
too does Scripture which has been granted by God for the salvation of men.

And thus we explain that passage in The Shepherd,----a book which some treat with
contempt, ----in which Hermas is commanded to write two books, and then read to the elders
of the Church what he has learned from the Spirit.50 "Thou shalt write two books, and give
one to Clement and one to Grapte. And Grapte shall admonish the widows and orphans,
Clement shall send to the cities abroad, and thou shalt read to the elders of the Church.
Grapte, who admonishes the widows and orphans, is the bare letter of Scripture; it
admonishes those readers whose souls are in the stage of childhood, and who cannot yet
call God their Father, and are therefore styled "orphans"; it moreover admonishes souls,51
no longer consorting with the unlawful bridegroom, but remaining in a widowed state
because not yet worthy of the true Bridegroom. Clement, the reader who has got beyond the
letter, is said to send what is said to the cities abroad, that is to say, the souls which
have escaped from the bodily desires and lower aims. And next the writing is forsaken, and
the disciple himself of the Spirit is bidden "read" to the wise and hoary-headed elders of
the whole Church of God with the living voice.

12. But inasmuch as some Scriptures have not the "corporeal," 52 as we shall presently
show, in such cases we must seek only the "soul" and the "spirit." For instance, this may
explain why the six waterpots of stone said to be set after the Jews' manner of purifying,
as we read in the Gospel according to John,53 contain two or three firkins apiece: the
Word darkly hinting at those who were inwardly Jews, of whom the Apostle speaks 54----that
these, forsooth, are cleansed through the word of Scripture, that Word sometimes
containing two firkins, that is, if we may so say, the "soul" and "spirit" of the Word:
sometimes three; for some Scriptures have besides these two also the "corporeal" part with
its power of edification. As for the number, the six waterpots may reasonably refer to
those who are being purified in the world, which was made in six days, six being a perfect
number.55

13. That we may profit by the primary sense of Scripture, even if we go no further, is
evident from the multitudes of true and simple-minded believers. Let us, however, take
what Paul says in the first Epistle to the Corinthians as an example of the higher "soul"
interpretation. "It is written," he says, "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth
out the corn." 56 Then, going on to explain this law, he adds, "Is it for the oxen that
God careth, or saith he it altogether for our sake? Yea, for our sake it was written:
because he that ploweth ought to plow in hope, and he that thresheth, to thresh in hope of
partaking. And, indeed, very many passages so interpreted as to suit the great body of
believers, and edifying for those who have no ear for better things, have more or less the
same stamp. But spiritual interpretation is for one who is able to show the nature of the
heavenly things,57 of which the Jews after the flesh served the copy and shadow, and what
the good things to come are of which the law is a shadow. And in general, according to the
apostolic command, we must everywhere seek wisdom in a mystery, "even the wisdom which
hath been hidden, which God foreordained before the world unto the glory of the righteous;

which none of the rulers of this world knoweth." 58 The same Apostle, referring to certain
incidents in Exodus and Numbers, somewhere says, "These things happened unto them by way
of figure: and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages are
come";59 and he hints at the things of which they were figures, saying, "For they drank of
a spiritual Rock that followed them: and the Rock was Christ." 60 And in the sketch of the
tabernacle which he gives in another epistle he quotes the words, "Thou shalt make all
things according to the pattern which was shewed thee in the Mount." 61 Again, in the
Epistle to the Galatians, as it were reproaching those who think they read the law though
they do not understand it, and giving his judgment that as many as think there are no
allegories in what is written, do not understand, he goes on to say, "Tell me ye that
desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? 62 For it is written, that Abraham had
two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid
is born after the flesh, but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. Which
things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants," and so on. We must
carefully note exactly what he says: "Ye that desire to be under the law": not "Ye that
are under the law"; and, "Do you not hear the law?":

the hearing in his judgment being the understanding and knowing. And also in the Epistle
to the Colossians, where he epitomises the meaning of the whole giving of the law, he
says, "Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of a feast day
or a new moon or a sabbath day: which are a shadow of the things to come." 63 Further, in
the Epistle to the Hebrews, arguing concerning those of the Circumcision, he writes thus:
"Who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things." 64 This will probably
suffice to remove all doubts respecting the five books, called the Books of Moses, from
the minds of those who really believe the Apostle to be a Divine 65 man; but they may wish
to learn whether the rest of the history is also figurative. Now we must carefully note
that the passage in Romans from the third Book of Kings, "I have left for myself seven
thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal," 66 was taken by Paul as applying to the
Israelites according to the election,67 for that not only have the Gentiles benefited by
the coming of Christ, but also some of the holy 68 race.

14. This being so, we must outline what seems to us the peculiarities involved in
understanding the Scriptures. And what we have to show first is that the aim of the
Spirit, Who, by the providence of God through the Word, Who in the beginning was with God,
enlightens the ministers of the truth, the Prophets and Apostles, was chiefly directed to
the unspeakable mysteries connected with men,----and by men I mean embodied souls, so that
any one who is capable of instruction, if he will search the Scriptures, and will
earnestly endeavour to fathom their depths, may be a partaker in all the decrees of His
counsel. And as regards souls, inasmuch as without the rich and wise truth concerning God
they cannot possibly reach perfection, things relating to God and to His only-begotten Son
must be placed in the front rank, viz. His nature, in what sense He is Son of God, and for
what reasons He humbled Himself and took upon Him our flesh and perfect manhood; further,
how He works, for whom, and under what conditions. And, of necessity, if we want to know
about kindred beings, and the other rational creatures, both those more Divine than
humankind and those also who have fallen from bliss, and the causes of their fall, this
should be introduced into Divine revelation; and, similarly, if we have to discuss the
differences in souls, and how the differences have arisen; or inquire what we mean when we
talk of the "world," and ask how it came into existence. We have to learn, moreover, the
origin of the great and terrible wickedness on earth, and whether it is found only on
earth, or elsewhere as well.

15. Now, while the Spirit Who illumines the souls of the holy ministers of the truth had
these and similar purposes in view, it was, secondly, His aim, for the sake of those who
cannot bear the labour of investigating such mysteries, to conceal the foregoing doctrines
in narrative form conveying an account of the visible works of creation, and of man's
creation, and of the descendants of the first man until they become numerous; and in other
histories which relate the doings of righteous men, and the sins which they occasionally
committed inasmuch as they were men, as also the wicked, licentious, overbearing behaviour
of lawless and godless men. And, very strange though it may seem, by the history of wars
and victors and vanquished, some of the ineffable mysteries are declared to those who have
the ability to investigate these matters. And, still more marvellous, through the written
law, the laws of the Truth are foretold; and all these subjects are linked together by the
Divine wisdom with a power truly worthy of the wisdom of God. For it was the Spirit's
purpose to make even the vesture of things spiritual, I mean the "corporeal" part of the
Scriptures, many ways not unprofitable, but capable of benefiting the majority of readers
according to their capacity.

16. If the use of the Law had been everywhere made perfectly clear, and strict historical
sequence had been preserved, we should not have believed that the Scriptures could be
understood in any other than the obvious sense.69 The Word of God therefore arranged for
certain stumbling-blocks and offences and impossibilities to be embedded in the Law and
the historical portion, so that we may not be drawn hither and thither by the mere
attractiveness of the style, and thus either forsake the doctrinal part because we receive
no instruction worthy of God, or cleave to the letter and learn nothing more Divine. And
this we ought to know, that the chief purpose being to show the spiritual connection both
in past occurrences and in things to be done, wherever the Word found historical events
capable of adaptation to these mystic truths, He made use of them, but concealed the
deeper sense from the many; but where in setting forth the sequence of things spiritual
there was no actual event related for the sake of the more mystic meaning, Scripture
interweaves the imaginative with the historical, sometimes introducing what is utterly
impossible, sometimes what is possible but never occurred. Sometimes it is only a few
words, not literally true, which have been inserted; sometimes the insertions are of
greater length. And we must this way understand even the giving of the Law, for therein we
may frequently discover the immediate use, adapted to the times when the Law was given;
sometimes, however, no good reason appears.

And elsewhere we have even impossible commands, for readers of greater ability and those
who have more of the spirit of inquiry; so that, applying themselves to the labour of
investigating the things written, they may have a fitting conviction of the necessity of
looking therein for a meaning worthy of God. And not only did the Spirit thus deal with
the Scriptures before the coming of Christ, but, inasmuch as He is the same Spirit, and
proceedeth from the One God, He has done the same with the Gospels and the writings of the
Apostles; for not even they are purely historical, incidents which never occurred being
interwoven in the "corporeal" sense; nor in the Law and the Commandments does the Spirit
make the reasonableness altogether clear. 17. Anyway, will any man of sense suppose that
there was a first day, and a second, and a third, evening and morning, without sun and
moon and stars? 70 and the first, as it were, even without a heaven? And who is so silly
as to imagine that God, like a husbandman, planted a garden in Eden eastward, and put in
it a tree of life,71 which could be seen and felt, so that whoever tasted of the fruit
with his bodily teeth received the gift of life, and further that any one as he masticated
the fruit of this tree partook of good and evil? And if God is also said to walk in the
garden in the evening, and Adam to hide himself under the tree,72 I do not suppose that
any one will doubt that these passages by means of seeming history, though the incidents
never occurred, figuratively reveal certain mysteries. Moreover, Cain's comning out from
the presence of God,73 if we give heed, is a distinct inducement to inquire what is meant
by "the presence of God," and by a man's "coming out from" it. Why say more? They who are
not quite blind can collect countless similar instances of things recorded as actual
occurrences, though not literally true. Why, even the Gospels abound in incidents of the
same kind.

We read of the Devil taking Jesus into a lofty mountain, that from thence he might shew
Him the kingdoms of the whole world and their glory.74 Who but a careless reader of these
things would not condemn the supposition that with the bodily eye, which required a lofty
height if the parts down below at the foot were to be seen, Jesus beheld the kingdoms of
Persia, Scythia, India, and Parthia, and the glory of their rulers among men? And,
similarly, the careful student may observe countless other instances in the Gospels, and
may thus be convinced that with the historical events, literally true, different ones are
interwoven which never occurred. 18. And if we come also to the Mosaic code, many of the
laws, so far as regards their bare observance, seem unreasonable, and others impossible.
The prohibition of kites,75 for instance, as food is unreasonable, for no one in the
direst famines would be driven to this creature. Children eight days old if not
circumcised are ordered to be cut off from their people. If an express enactment
respecting those children was indispensable, it is their fathers who should be ordered to
be put to death; whereas the Scripture says, "Every uncircumcised male, who shall not be
circumcised on the eighth day, shall be cut off from his people." 76 If you wish to see
some impossible enactments, let us consider that the goat-stag is a fabulous creature. And
yet Moses commands us to offer it as a clean animal;77 on the other hand, there is no
instance of the griffin having been tamed by man, but the lawgiver, nevertheless, forbids
it to be eaten. If we closely examine the famous ordinance of the Sabbath, "Ye shall sit
every man in his house: let no man go out of his place on the seventh day,"78 we shall see
that it cannot be literally kept; for no living creature can sit the whole day without
stirring from his seat.

And therefore in some cases they of the Circumcision, and as many as desire no more light
than that of the mere letter, do not go to the root of things, and, for example, search
for the meaning of what is said about the goat-stag, the griffin, and the kite; while in
other cases they sophistically trifle with the words, and confront you with frigid
traditions; as regards the Sabbath, for instance, they maintain that every man's "place"
is 2000 cubits. Others, among them Dositheus the Samaritan, condemning such an
interpretation, think the person is to remain until the evening in the posture in which he
was found on the Sabbath day. Nor can the command to carry no burden on the Sabbath be
observed; 79 and the Jewish teachers have accordingly gone very great lengths, pretending
that a sandal of one kind is a "burden," but not a sandal of another kind, the one being
nailed, the other without nails; and, the same way, what is carried upon one shoulder is a
"burden," but by no means what is carried upon both.

19. If we similarly investigate the Gospels, what could be more unreasonable than the
command which simple readers think the Saviour gave to His Apostles, "Salute no man by the
way." 80 Again, what is said about the smiting on the right cheek is incredible;81 for
when a man strikes, if he acts naturally, he strikes the left cheek with his right hand.
And we cannot take literally the passage in the Gospel in which the right eye is said to
cause one to stumble.82 For even granting the possibility of sight making any one to
stumble, why, when the two eyes see, should we put the blame on the right eye. Would any
man when he condemns himself for looking on a woman to lust after her, put the blame on
the right eye only, and cast it from him? Again, the Apostle lays down the law thus: "Was
any man called being circumcised? let him not become uncircumcised?" 83 Any one may see
that the Apostle has something in view other than the literal context; for, in the first
place, such an insertion when he is giving precepts concerning marriage and purity must
appear unmeaning. And, in the second place, who will say that, in order to escape from the
disgrace mostly connected with circumcision, a man does wrong in endeavouring, if he can,
to become un-circumcised.

20. We have said all this for the sake of showing that the aim of the Divine power which
gives us the sacred Scriptures, is not to select such things only as are presented in a
literal sense, for sometimes the things selected taken literally are not true, but are
even unreasonable and impossible; and further, that certain things are woven into the web
of actual history and of the Law, which in its literal sense has its uses. But that no one
may suppose us to make a sweeping statement and maintain that no history is real,84
because some is unreal; and that no part of the Law is to be literally observed, because a
particular enactment in its wording happens to be unreasonable or impossible; or that what
is recorded of the Saviour is true only in a spiritual sense; or that we are not to keep
any law or commandments of His: that we may not incur such an imputation, we must add that
we are quite convinced of the historical truth of certain passages; for instance, that
Abraham was buried in the double cave in Hebron,85 as also Isaac and Jacob, and one wife
of each of these; and that Sichem was given to Joseph for his portion,86 and that
Jerusalem is the capital of Judea, wherein God's temple was built by Solomon, and
countless other statements. For those things which are true historically are many more
than those connected with them which contain merely a spiritual sense.

Again, take the commandment, "Honour thy father and thy mother that it may be well with
thee." 87 Would not any one allow its usefulness apart from any anagogical 88
interpretation, and support its observance, seeing that even the Apostle Paul uses the
express words? And what are we to say about the commands, "Thou shalt not kill," "Thou
shalt not commit adultery," "Thou shalt not steal," "Thou shalt not bear false witness?"
89 Further, there are commands in the Gospel about which there is no doubt as to whether
they are to be literally observed or not; for instance, that which says, "But I say to
you, whosoever shall be angry with his brother," 90 and so on; and, "But I say to you,
Swear not at all." 91 And we must keep to the letter of the Apostle's words, "Admonish the
disorderly, encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be long-suffering towards
all";92 though among more eager students it is possible to treasure every detail as the
deep wisdom of God, without rejecting the literal meaning of the command.

21. Still, there are places where the careful reader will be distracted because he cannot
without much labour decide whether he is dealing with history in the ordinary sense, or
not, and whether a given commandment is to be literally observed, or not. The reader must
therefore, following the Saviour's injunction to search the Scriptures,93 carefully
examine where the literal meaning is true, and where it cannot possibly be so; and he
must, to the best of his ability, by comparing parallel passages scattered up and down
Scripture, trace out the prevalent sense of what is literally impossible. Since, then, as
will be clear to readers, the literal connection is impossible, while the main connection
is not impossible but even true, we must strive to grasp the general sense which
intelligibly connects things literally impossible with such things as are not only not
impossible, but are historically true, and capable of allegorical interpretation, no less
than those which never literally occurred. For, regarding the whole of Divine Scripture,
we hold that every portion has the spiritual meaning, but not every portion the
"corporeal"; for the "corporeal" meaning is often proved to be impossible. The cautious
reader must therefore very carefully bear in mind that the Divine books are Divine
writings, and that there appears to be a peculiar way of understanding them, which I will
now describe.

22. The inspired words relate that God chose out a certain nation upon earth, which they
call by several names. The whole nation is called Israel, and also Jacob. But after the
division in the time of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the ten tribes under him were called
Israel, and the other two with the tribe of Levi, governed by kings of the seed of David,
were known as Judah. And the whole country inhabited by the nation, and given to them by
God, is called Judea; and of this Jerusalem was the metropolis, or mother city, that is to
say, of numerous cities, the names of which dispersed in many parts of Scripture are
included in one list in the Book of Joshua the son of Nun. This being so, the Apostle,
raising our thoughts higher, somewhere says, "Behold Israel after the flesh,"94 implying
that there is an Israel after the Spirit. And elsewhere he says, "It is not the children
of the flesh that are children of God: nor are they all Israel which are of Israel.95 Nor
is he a Jew which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the
flesh;

but he is a Jew which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, not in the letter." 96 For if the judgment of the Jew depends on the inward state,
we must understand that as there is a bodily race of Jews, so there is a race of those who
are Jews inwardly, and that there are secret reasons for souls having this noble lineage.
There are, moreover, many prophecies concerning Israel and Judah which relate the things
that should befall them. Now, let me ask, do not such great prophecies written on their
behalf, inasmuch as in the literal sense they are trivial and exhibit none of the lofty
dignity of a promise made by God, require a mystical interpretation? And if the promises
are spiritual, though expressed by means of things sensible, they also to whom the
promises are given are not "corporeal."

23. And, not to spend more time over the argument concerning the Jew that is one inwardly
and the Israelite in the inner man, enough having been said for any but unintelligent
readers, we return to our subject, and say. that Jacob was the father of the twelve
patriarchs, they the progenitors of the rulers of the people, and these again the
ancestors of the rest of Israel. So, then, the "corporeal" Israelites are traced up to the
rulers of the people, and the rulers to the patriarchs, and the patriarchs to Jacob and
those still farther back; but as for the spiritual Israelites, of whom the "corporeal"
were the type, do they not spring from the "hundreds," the "hundreds" from the tribes, and
the tribes from one man who had no such "corporeal" descent, but the better, he too being
born of Isaac, and he of Abraham, all going back to Adam, who, as the Apostle says, is
Christ? For all families in their relation to the God of All had their beginning lower
down in Christ, Who being next to the God and Father of All, is thus the Father of every
soul as Adam is the father of all men. And if Eve has been made by Paul to represent the
Church, it is no wonder that Cain, who was born of Eve, and all after him who trace their
descent from Eve, should be types of the Church, inasmuch as in a special sense they
sprang from the Church.

24. If we are impressed by what has been said about Israel and the tribes and the
hundreds, when the Saviour tells us that He was not sent save unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel,97 we do not take the words in the same sense as the Ebionites with their
poverty of understanding (their poverty of intellect gives them their name, for "Ebion" is
the Hebrew for "poor "), and suppose that Christ came chiefly to Israel after the flesh;
for "it is not the children of the flesh that are children of God." 98 Again, the Apostle
gives similar teaching concerning Jerusalem when he tells us that "the Jerusalem which is
above is free, which is our mother." 99 And in another epistle he says, "But ye are come
unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to
innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the first-born who are
enrolled in heaven." 100 If, then, Israel is a race of souls, and there is a city,
Jerusalem in heaven, it follows that the cities of Israel, and, consequently, all Judea,
have for their metropolis the heavenly Jerusalem. Accordingly, whatever is foretold or
said respecting Jerusalem, if we listen to God as God, and hear Him speaking from the
depths of His wisdom,101 we must understand that the Scriptures refer to the heavenly
city, and the whole country containing the cities of the holy land. It may be that these
are the cities to which the Saviour leads us 102 up when He gives the command of ten or
five cities to those who satisfactorily dealt with the pounds.

25. If, then, the prophecies respecting Judea and Jerusalem, and Israel and Judah and
Jacob, inasmuch as we do not take them in the fleshly sense, suggest some such mysteries
as the foregoing, it should follow that the prophecies concerning Egypt and the Egyptians,
Babylon and the Babylonians, Tyre and the Tyriaus, Sidon and the Sidonians, or any other
nations, are not prophecies merely of the corporeal Egyptians,103 Babylonians, Tyrians,
and Sidonians. For if there are "spiritual" Israelites, it follows that there are
"spiritual" Egyptians and Babylonians. What the Prophet Ezekiel says cannot at all be made
to suit Pharaoh, King of Egypt, a past or future human ruler of the country, as will be
evident to close observers. Similarly, what is said about the ruler of Tyre cannot be
understood of some future human ruler of Tyre. And the many passages relating to
Nabuchadnosor, particularly in Isaiah, how can we possibly take them to refer to the man
of that name? For the man Nabuchadnosor did not fall from heaven,104 nor was he Lucifer,
nor did he rise early on the earth. And the sayings in Ezekiel concerning Egypt, to the
effect that it would be desolate for forty years,105 so that the foot of man should not be
found there, and that war should be so fiercely waged at some time or other that
throughout the whole land blood should reach to the knees, what sensible person will
understand them of Egypt that borders on the Ethiopians with their sunburnt bodies?

26. Perhaps, as they who leave the earth when they die the death of all men are dealt with
in such a way that according to the deeds done in the body, if judged worthy of the place
called Hades, they are assigned to different places in proportion to their sins: so they,
if I may so speak, who die there, descend to this earthly Hades, being judged worthy of
the different habitations, better or worse, throughout the world, and to have parents of
different nationalities; so that an Israelite may perhaps fall among Scythians, and an
Egyptian descend into Judea. But the Saviour came to gather together the lost sheep of the
house of Israel;106 and as many of Israel did not submit to His teaching, the Gentiles
also are being called. 27. These mysteries are, as we think, concealed in the histories.
For "the kingdom of heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found,
and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field."107
Let us consider then whether the obvious in Scripture, its superficial and easy meaning,
is not like a field covered with all sorts of growths; while the secret things, not seen
by all, but as it were buried beneath the things that are seen, are the hidden treasures
of wisdom and knowledge:108 which the Spirit by the mouth of Esaias calls "dark,"
"invisible," "concealed." They must be found out, though God alone can break in pieces the
gates of brass which hide them, and shatter the iron bars upon the doors; so that all the
statements in Genesis concerning different real varieties of souls, and as it were seeds
of souls, more or less remote from Israel, may be discovered; as also what is meant by the
seventy souls going down into Egypt,109 that there they may become as the stars of heaven
for multitude. But since not all their descendants are the light of the world,110 for
"they are not all Israel that are of Israel," 111 the seventy become even as it were sand
by the sea shore that cannot be numbered.

From the 39th Homily on Jeremiah. 28. And as all the gifts of God are vastly greater than
the mortal substance, so also the true word of wisdom concerning all these, being with God
Who caused all these things to be written, for the Father of the Word so willed, would be
found in the soul which with all earnestness and with full consent has been thoroughly
purified from human weakness in the apprehension of that wisdom. But if a man rashly
enters on the subject, and is not aware of the mystery of the wisdom of God and of the
Word Who was in the beginning with God and was Himself God, and that if we are to seek and
find these things we must follow the instructions of the Word Who was also God, and
conform to His wisdom, he must of necessity fall into fables and frivolous conceits and
inventions of his own, for he exposes himself to danger for his impiety. We must therefore
remember the admonition in Ecclesiastes to such readers: "Let not thine heart be hasty to
utter anything before God; for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy
words be few." 112 And it is fitting to believe that not a single tittle of the sacred
Scriptures is without something of the wisdom of God; for He Who gave me a mere man the
command, "Thou shalt not appear before me empty," 113 how much more will He not speak
anything "empty.

When the Prophets speak, it is after receiving of His fulness; 114 and so everything
breathes what comes of His fulness; and there is nothing in Prophecy, or Law, or Gospel,
or Apostle, which is not of His fulness. And just because it is of His fulness, it
breathes His fulness to those who have eyes to see the things of that fulness, and ears to
hear the things of that fulness, and a faculty to perceive the sweet odour of the things
of that fulness. But if in reading the Scripture thou shouldest sometime stumble at a
meaning which is a fair stone of stumbling and rock of offence,115 blame thyself. Do not
despair of finding meanings in the stone of stumbling and rock of offence, so that the
saying may be fulfilled, "He that believeth shall not be ashamed." 116 First believe, and
thou shalt find beneath what is counted a stumbling-block much gain in godliness.

From the Commentary on the 50th Psalm, in the allegorical treatment of the early portion
of the history of Uriah. 29. If the partly allegorical treatment of the history appears to
any one forced, and therefore not to relieve the difficulties, we have obviously been
speaking to no purpose, and we must look for some other suitable interpretation; unless,
perchance, some reader by further labour may discover a way of putting everything right,
explaining 117 both the murder of the man and his evident kindliness, inasmuch as he was
unwilling to go to his house and rest, when the people were in camp and struggling against
the enemy. But I do not know how they who shun the allegorical interpretation, and think
the narrative was written for its own sake, will reconcile themselves to the will of the
Holy Spirit, Who thought such things deserving of record as justify the charge not only of
licentiousness, but also of savagery and inhumanity being brought against David; for he
dared to commit a crime against Uriah which would be extraordinary even in the case of a
man of average morality. I should, however, say that as the judgments of God are great and
cannot be expressed,118 and seem to be causes of the erring of unnurtured souls, so also
His Scriptures are great and full of meanings, secret, spiritual, and hard to understand.
They, too, cannot be expressed, and appear to cause the unnurtured souls of heretics to
err by inconsiderately and rashly accusing God on account of the Scriptures which they do
not understand, and by therefore falling into the error of inventing another God.

The safe course is to wait for the interpretation of an explainer of the Word, and of the
wisdom hidden in a mystery,119 which none of the rulers of this world knoweth, according
to the revelation of the mystery which hath been kept in silence through times eternal,120
but now is manifested to the Apostles and those like them, both through the writings of
the Prophets, and by the appearing to them of our Saviour the Word Who in the beginning
was with God.121 From the 5th Homily on Leviticus, near the beginning. 30. Not perceiving
the difference between visible and spiritual Judaism, that is, between the Judaism which
is outward and the Judaism which is inward,122 godless and impious heresies forsook
Judaism and the God Who gave our Scriptures and the whole Law, and invented a different
God besides Him Who gave the Law and the Prophets, besides the Maker of heaven and earth.
The fact is not so, however; but He Who gave the Law also gave the Gospel, He Who made
things visible also made things invisible. And things visible are akin to things
invisible; in such wise akin that the invisible things of God since the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made.123 The things of
the Law and the Prophets which are seen are akin to the things of the Law and the Prophets
which are not seen but are intelligible.124 Seeing, then, that the Scripture itself
consists as it were of a body which is seen, and a soul therein apprehended by the reason,
and a spirit, that which corresponds to the copies and shadow of heavenly things,125 let
us call upon Him Who created Scripture with a body, soul, and spirit, the body for those
who were before us, the soul for us, and the spirit for those who in the coming age shall
inherit eternal life, and are destined to reach the heavenly, archetypal things contained
in the Law; and then let us search, not for the letter, but for the soul of what we are
considering. Then, if we are able, we will ascend also to the spirit, corresponding to the
principles involved in the sacrifices of which we read.

CHAP. II. ----That the Divine Scripture is closed up and sealed. From the Commentary on
the 1st Psalm.

1. The Divine words say that the Divine Scriptures have been closed up and sealed with the
key of David, and perhaps with the seal which is described as "the stamp of a seal, a
hallowed offering to the Lord" 126----that is, with the power of God, Who gave the
Scriptures, the seal being the emblem of power. Now John interprets the closing up and
sealing in the Apocalypse, when he says:127 "And to the angel of the church in
Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the
key of David, he that openeth, and none shall shut, and that shutteth, and none openeth: I
know thy works: behold I have set before thee a door opened, which none can shut." And a
little farther on:128 "And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book
written within and without, close sealed with seven seals. And I saw another, a strong
angel, proclaiming with a great voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the
seals thereof? And no one in the heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, was able to
open the book, or to look thereon. And I wept because no one was found worthy to open the
book, or to look thereon: and one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion
that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and the
seven seals thereof."

2. As regards the sealing up only, Esaias thus speaks:129 "And all these sayings shall be
to you as the words of this book which is sealed, which men deliver to One that is
learned, saying, Read this: and he saith, I cannot read it, for it is sealed: and the book
shall be delivered into the hands of a man that is not learned, saying, Read this: and he
saith, I am not learned." For we must consider these things to be spoken not only of the
Apocalypse of John and Esaias, but also of all Divine Scripture, which is beyond question
full of riddles, and parables, and dark sayings, and various other obscurities, hard to be
understood by men, whose ears can catch no more than the faint echoes of the Divine words.
This was what the Saviour wished to teach us when He said, inasmuch as the key was with
the Scribes and Pharisees who did not strive to find the way to open the Scriptures, "Woe
unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and
them that were entering in ye hindered." 130

Then, after topics of a different kind, Origen proceeds:---- 3. Now that we are going to
begin our interpretation of the Psalms, let us preface our remarks with a very pleasing
tradition respecting all Divine Scripture in general, which has been handed down to us by
the Jew. That great scholar used to say that inspired Scripture taken as a whole was on
account of its obscurity like many locked-up rooms in one house. Before each room he
supposed a key to be placed, but not the one belonging to it; and that the keys were so
dispersed all round the rooms, not fitting the locks of the several rooms before which
they were placed. It would be a troublesome piece of work to discover the keys to suit the
rooms they were meant for. It was, he said, just so with the understanding of the
Scriptures, because they are so obscure; the only way to begin to understand them was, he
said, by means of other passages containing the explanation dispersed throughout them. The
Apostle, I think, suggested such a way of coming to a knowlege of the Divine words when He
said, "Which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the
Spirit teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual." 131

Much farther on, comparing the blessings addressed to individuals with those addressed to
more than one,132 he says:---- 4. If the words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried
in a furnace, approved of the whole earth, purified seven times; 133 it is just as true
that the Holy Spirit has dictated them, through the ministers of the Word,134 with the
most scrupulous accuracy, lest the parallel meaning which the wisdom of God had constantly
in view over the whole range of inspired Scripture, even to the mere letter, should escape
us. And perhaps this is why the Saviour says, "One jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
away from the law, till all things be accomplished." 135 For if we study Creation we see
that the Divine skill is shown not only in heaven, in the sun, moon, and stars, being
everywhere evidenced in those bodies, but also upon earth no less in commoner matter: so
that the bodies of the smallest living creatures are not scornfully treated by the
Creator, much less the souls existing in them, each having some peculiar gift, something
to ensure the safety of the irrational creature. And as for plants, neither are they
overlooked, for the Creator is immanent in every one, as regards roots, and leaves,
appropriate fruits, and varying qualities. So, too, we conceive of all that has been
recorded by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, believing that the sacred foreknowledge 136
has through the Scriptures supplied superhuman wisdom to the race of man, having, so to
speak, sown the seeds of saving truths, traces of the wisdom of God, in every letter as
far as possible.

5. In truth, any one who has once accepted these Scriptures as coming from the Creator of
the world, must be convinced that whatever difficulties confront those who investigate the
story of creation, similar difficulties will also be found in the study of the Scriptures.
There are, I say, in creation as well as in Scripture, certain problems which we men solve
with difficulty, or even not at all; and we must not therefore blame the Maker of the
universe because, say, we cannot discover why basilisks and other venomous creatures were
created. In the contemplation of Nature it is an act of piety if a man who is conscious of
human weakness, and recognises the impossibility of understanding the principles of the
Divine skill, though pondered with all diligence, will ascribe to God the knowledge of
these things. He will hereafter, should we be deemed worthy, reveal to us all the
mysteries which now engage our reverent attention. Similarly, we should see that the
Divine Scriptures also contain many mysteries of which it is hard for us to give an
account. Anyway, let those who, after forsaking the Creator of the world and betaking
themselves to a god of their own invention, make these professions, solve the difficulties
we put before them; or, at least, after such strange impiety, let them see how they can
with a good conscience uphold their speculations on the matters under investigation and
the problems presented to them. For if the problems no less remain, though our opponents
have forsaken the Godhead, would it not be far greater piety to be content with our
conception of God, the Creator being contemplated through the works of creation, and to
refrain from uttering godless and unholy opinions respecting so great a God?

CHAP. III. ---- Why the inspired books are twenty-two 137 in number. From the same volume
on the 1st Psalm.

As we are dealing with numbers, and every number has among real existences a certain
significance, of which the Creator of the universe made full use as well in the general
scheme as in the arrangement of the details, we must give good heed, and with the help of
the Scriptures trace their meaning, and the meaning of each of them. Nor must we fail to
observe that not without reason the canonical books are twenty-two,138 according to the
Hebrew tradition, the same in number as the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. For as the
twenty-two letters may be regarded as an introduction to the wisdom and the Divine
doctrines given to men in those Characters, so the twenty-two inspired books are an
alphabet of the wisdom of God and an introduction to the knowledge of realities.

CHAP. IV. ----Of the solecisms and poor style of Scripture. From Volume IV. of the
Commentaries on the Gospel according to John, three or four pages from the beginning.

1. A reader who carefully distinguishes language, meaning, and things, on which the
meaning is based, will not stumble at solecistic 139 expressions, if, on examination, he
finds that the things are none the worse for the language in which they are clothed,
particularly as the holy writers confess that their speech was not in persuasive words of
wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.140 Then, after speaking of the
solecisms of the Gospel, he goes on to say:---- 2. Inasmuch as the Apostles were not
unconscious of their errors, nor unaware what the things were which concerned them, they
say they are rude in speech, but not in knowledge:141 for we must believe that the other
Apostles, as well as Paul, would have said so. Then there is the passage, "But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God,
and not from ourselves";142 which we interpret of the treasure elsewhere described as the
treasure of knowledge and hidden wisdom,143 and we take the "earthen vessels" in the sense
of the ordinary, and, in Greek estimation, contemptible diction of the Scriptures, wherein
the exceeding greatness of the power of God is really seen. For the mysteries of the truth
and the force of what was said, in spite of the ordinary language, were strong enough to
reach the ends of the earth, and bring into subjection to the word of Christ, not only the
foolish things of the world, but sometimes also its wise ones.144 For we see what our
calling is: not that it has no one wise after the flesh, but not many wise after the
flesh. Nay more, Paul says that in proclaiming the Gospel 145 he owes the delivery of the
Word not only to Barbarians but also to the Greeks, and not only to the foolish, who more
easily give their assent, but also to the wise;

for he was by God made sufficient to be a minister of the new covenant,146 and to use the
demonstration of the Spirit and of power,147 so that the assent of believers may not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. For had the Scripture been embellished with
elegance of style and diction, like the masterpieces of Greek literature, one might
perhaps have supposed that it was not the truth which got hold of men, but that the clear
sequence of thought and the beauty of the language won the souls of the hearers, and
caught them with guile.

CHAP. V. ---- What is "much speaking," and what are the "many books"? The whole inspired
Scripture is one book. From the Introduction to Volume V. of the Commentaries on John.

I. Since you are not content to have taken up your present work as God's task-master over
me,148 and expect me even when away to devote myself mainly to you and to my duty towards
you, I in turn, if I decline the labour, and shun the danger to which they are exposed at
God's hands who give themselves up to writing on Divine subjects, might find support in
Scripture for refusing to "make many books." For Solomon says in Ecclesiastes, "My son,
beware of making many books: there is no end: and much study is a weariness of the flesh."
149 If the words before us had not a hidden meaning which we do not even yet clearly
understand, we should have expressly broken the commandment through not being on our guard
against "making many books." Then, after saying that he had written four full volumes on a
few passages of the Gospel, he proceeds thus:----

2. As far as the words go there are two possible meanings of the precept, "My son, beware
of making many books"; firstly, that one ought not to have many books: secondly, that one
ought not to compose many books; and if the first is not permissible, the second is
certainly not; though if the second is permissible, the first is not certainly so; 150
either way the lesson appears to be that we ought not to make too many books. And, keeping
to what has now occurred to me, I might send you the passage which I have quoted, as my
apology: I might make the most of the fact that the saints have never had leisure for
composing many books, and, accordingly, cease to compose any more to be sent to you, as we
agreed. You would perhaps be so struck by what I said that you would let me have my way.
But since a man should investigate Scripture with a good conscience, and not hastily claim
to understand the meaning because he grasps the literal sense, I cannot bear to offer an
unreal apology, which you might turn against me if I were to break our agreement. First,
then, seeing that history seems to support what Solomon says, inasmuch as no saint has
published numerous volumes and expressed his thoughts in many books, something must be
said about this. And he who chides me for going on composing more books will tell me that
the famous Moses left only five.

Then, after enumerating Prophets and Apostles, and showing how each of them wrote but a
little, or not even that, he continues:---- 3. Again, though I have said all this, my head
swims, and I turn dizzy at the thought that in obeying you I may have disobeyed God and
not imitated the saints. I trust I shall not do wrong, if in my heartfelt affection for
you, and earnest desire in nothing to give you pain, I plead my own cause and base my
defence on these grounds. First of all, we adduced the words of Ecclesiastes, "My son,
beware of making many books." 151 Side by side with this I place the saying of the same
Solomon in the Proverbs, "In the multitude of words thou shalt not escape sin, but if thou
refrain thy lips thou wilt be discreet," 152 and I ask if the mere speaking many words is
much speaking, even if a man speak many holy and saving words. If this be so, and he who
discusses many profitable things indulges in a "multitude of words," Solomon himself did
not escape the sin, for "he spake three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand
and five. And he spake of trees, from the cedar that is in Lebanon, even unto the hyssop
that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping
things, and of fishes." 153 How can teaching be effective without many words of the
simpler kind? Wisdom herself tells the perishing, "I prolonged my words unto you, and ye
did not regard." 154 And Paul appears to have continued preaching from morn until
midnight, until Eutychus borne down with deep sleep fell down and alarmed the audience,
who thought he was dead.155

4. Well, then, if it be true that "in a multitude of words thou wilt not escape sin"; and
if it be also true that neither Solomon sinned though he spake many words about the above-
mentioned subjects, nor Paul, though he continued teaching until midnight, we must inquire
what "a multitude of words" is, and then pass on to consider the meaning of "the many
books." The whole Word of God, I say, the Word which was in the beginning with God,156 is
not "a multitude of words," for it is not "words "; there is one Word 157 which may be
regarded from many points of view, and each of these meanings is a part of the whole Word.
But as for words other than this Word, which profess to describe or relate anything
whatsoever, though we may believe them to be words respecting truth,----what I am going to
say will sound still more paradoxical, ----not one of them is a word, but each of them
words. For the unit can nowhere be found, nor can harmony and unity, but because they are
torn with mutual conflict their unity has perished; and they are split into many parts,
perhaps infinitely numerous; so that, according to this, we may say that he who utters
anything whatsoever contrary to godliness speaks much, while he who speaks the things of
the truth, even though he speak so exhaustively as to omit nothing, even speaks one word,
and the saints, making the one Word their constant aim, do not fall into the vice of much
speaking. If, then, whether there be or be not "much speaking" depends on the doctrines
and not on the number of the words, see whether we cannot say the whole range of sacred
teaching is one book, and all other teaching many books?

5. But since I must have proof from the Divine Scripture, consider whether my most
striking way of presenting it is not to show that the account of Christ in relation to us
is not contained in one book, if we take the "books" in the ordinary sense. It is
described even in the Pentateuch; but also in each of the Prophets, and in the Psalms,
and, generally, as the Saviour Himself says, in all the Scriptures, to which He refers us,
bidding us "Search the Scriptures, for ye think that in them ye have eternal life: and
these are they which bear witness of me." 158 If, then, He refers us to the Scriptures as
bearing witness of Him, He does not send us to this or that particular portion, but to all
the Scriptures that tell of Him, such as those which in the Psalms He called "the roll of
the book," saying, "In the roll of the book it is written of me." 159 If any one takes the
phrase "in the roll of the book" to mean some one of the books containing the things
concerning Him, I should like him to tell me why he prefers that book to any other. To
justify any one in supposing that the word refers to the Book of the Psalms itself, he
must point out that the words should have been "In this book it is written concerning me.

But the fact is that He says that everything is one roll, because the account of Himself
which has reached us is summed up in one (statement, "I came to do Thy will"). And what,
again, is the meaning of the book being seen by John written in front and on the back,
close sealed:160 which no one could read or loose the seals thereof, except the Lion that
is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, He that hath the key of David,161 He that
openeth and no man shall shut, and no man shall open? It surely is the whole of Scripture
which is indicated by the "book"; written "in front" by reason of the easy, obvious
interpretation: "on the back " because of the more remote and spiritual sense. 6. Besides
this, we must closely observe whether it is any proof of holy truths being one book, and
the opposite of these many, that for the living there is one book from which they who have
become unworthy of it are blotted out, as it is written, "Let them be blotted out of the
book of the living," 162 while for those subject to judgment looks are brought; for Daniel
says, "The judgment was set and the books were opened." 163 To the unity of the Divine
book even Moses testifies when he says, "If thou wilt forgive this people their sin,
forgive them; and if not, blot me out of thy book which thou hast written."164 I take the
passage in Isaiah the same way; for it is not a peculiarity of his prophecy that the words
of the book were sealed, and were not read by him that was not learned because he was not
learned, nor by him that was learned because the book was sealed; but even this is true of
all Scripture, which needs the Word that shut and will open; for "He shall shut and none
shall open," 165 and once He opens no one can any longer associate darkness with His clear
light; and this is why it is said that He shall open and none shut. And the very similar
passage in Ezekiel about the book there spoken of, wherein was written "lamentations and
music and woe.

For every book contains the "woe" of the perishing,166 and "music" for those who are being
saved, and lamentations for those between these extremes. John, too, when he says that he
ate one roll of the book,167 wherein were written things past and things to come, must
have regarded the whole of Scripture as one book, very sweet as a man understands it at
first and feeds upon it, but bitter when it is revealed to the self-consciousness of every
one who has come to know it. To demonstrate this I will add an apostolic saying not
understood by the followers of Marcion, who therefore reject the Gospels; for whereas the
Apostle says, "According to my gospel in Christ Jesus," 168 and does not speak of gospels,
they oppose us, and maintain that if there were several gospels the Apostle would not have
used the word in the singular. They do not understand that as He is one, so the Gospel
written by its many authors is one in effect, and the Gospel truly delivered by four
evangelists is one Gospel.

7. Wherefore, if this has brought us conviction as to what the one book means, and what
the many, I am now not so much concerned for the quantity of the copy as for the quality
of the same, lest I fall into the transgression of the commandment, if I put forth
anything as truth which is contrary to the truth even in a single detail of what is
written; for I shall then prove myself to be a writer of many books. And just now, when,
with a show of knowledge, men who hold false opinions are rising up against the holy
Church of Christ, and publishing book after book which professes to expound the Gospels
and apostolic writings, if we hold our peace, and do not meet them with the true and sound
doctrines, they will prevail over gluttonous souls which, for want of wholesome food, rush
to things forbidden, to utterly unclean and abominable meats. It therefore seems to me to
be necessary, that he who can genuinely plead for the doctrine of the Church and refute
the handlers of knowledge falsely so-called, should withstand the inventions of the
heretics, opposing to them the elevation of the preaching of the Gospel, inasmuch as he is
satisfied with the harmony of doctrines common to the Old Testament and to the New, as
they are respectively called.

At all events, you yourself, when advocates of the good cause were scarce, because you
could not endure an irrational and commonplace faith, in your love for Jesus embraced
opinions which you afterwards, when you had fully exercised the understanding given to
you, condemned and forsook. This I say, according to my light, by way of excuse for men
who can speak and write, and also by way of apology for myself, lest, perhaps, not being
equipped as a man should be who is enabled by God to be a minister of the New
Testament,169 not of the letter, but of the spirit, I too boldly apply myself to
composition.170

CHAP. VI. ----The whole Divine Scripture is one instrument of God, perfect and fitted for
its work. From Volume II. of the Commentaries on the Gospel according to Matthew: "Blessed
are the peacemakers" 171

1. To the man who is both ways a peacemaker, there is no longer anything in the Divine
oracles crooked or perverse,172 for all things are plain to those who understand; and
since to such an one there is nothing crooked or perverse, he sees abundance of peace173
everywhere in Scripture, even in those parts which appear not to agree and to be
contradictory to one another. But there is also a third peacemaker, he, viz. who shows
that what to the eyes of others seems like disagreement in the Scriptures is not really
so, and who proves that harmony and concord exist, whether between the Old and the New, or
the Law and the Prophets, or Gospel and Gospel, or Evangelists and Apostles, or Apostles
and other Apostles. For,174 according to the Preacher,175 all the Scriptures, words of the
wise, are as goads, and as nails well fastened, words which were given from collections
from one shepherd, and there is nothing superfluous in them. And the Word is "one
shepherd" of things relating to the Word, which do indeed sound discordant to those who
have not ears to hear,176 but are in truth most harmonious.

2. For as the different strings of the psaltery or the lyre, each of which gives forth a
note of its own seemingly unlike that of any other, are thought by an unmusical man who
does not understand the theory of harmony to be discordant, because of the difference in
the notes: so they who have not ears to detect the harmony of God in the sacred Scriptures
suppose that the Old Testament is not in harmony with the New, or the Prophets with the
Law, or the Gospels with one another, or an Apostle with the Gospel, or with himself, or
with the other Apostles. But if a reader comes who has been instructed in God's music, a
man who happens to be wise in word and deed, and on that account, it may be, called David,
which being interpreted is "a cunning player," he will produce a note of God's music, for
he will have learned from God's music to keep good time, playing now upon the strings of
the Law, now upon those of the Gospel in harmony with them, now upon those of the
Prophets; and when the harmony of good sense is required he strikes the apostolic strings
tuned to suit the foregoing, and, similarly, apostolic strings in harmony with those of
Evangelists. For he knows that the whole Scripture is the one, perfect, harmonious
instrument of God, blending the different notes, for those who wish to learn, into one
song of salvation, which stops and hinders all the working of an evil spirit, as the music
of David laid to rest the evil spirit in Saul which was vexing him.177 You observe, then,
that there is a third kind of peacemaker, he who keeping close to the Scripture both sees
the peace which pervades it everywhere, and bestows it on those who rightly seek the truth
and are really eager to learn.

CHAP. VII. ----Of the special character of the persons of Divine Scripture. From the small
volume on the Song of Songs, which Origen wrote in his youth.

1. Any one who does not understand the peculiar character 178 of the persons in Scripture,
both as regards the speakers and the persons addressed, must be much perplexed by what he
reads; he will ask who is speaking, who is spoken to, and when does the speaker cease to
speak. For it often happens that the same person is addressed, though a third person
speaks to him; or the person addressed is no longer the same, and a different person takes
up what is said, while the same person speaks. And sometimes both the speaker and the
person addressed are changed; or, further, though both are unchanged, it is not clear that
they are. Need I seek an illustration of each of these statements, seeing that the
prophetical writings abound in such changes? In fact we have here a special, though it may
be unrecognised, cause of the obscurity of Scripture. It is also the way of Scripture to
jump suddenly from one discourse to another.179 The prophets, above all, do this,
obscuring their sense and more or less confusing the reader.

Again, from the 4th Homily 180 on the Acts, "It was needful that the Scripture should be
fulfilled which the Holy Spirit spake before by the mouth of David concerning Judas." 2.
In the Psalm wherein the things concerning Judas are written, one might say that it is not
the Holy Spirit Who speaks, for the words are clearly the Saviour's, "Hold not thy peace,
O God, at my praise: for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful man is
opened upon me," 181 and so on, until we come to "And his office let another take." Now if
it is the Saviour Who says this, what does Peter mean by telling us that "It was needful
that the Scripture should be fulfilled which the Holy Ghost spake before by the mouth of
David?" 182 Perhaps the lesson is something like this. The Holy Ghost employs
personification in the prophets, and if He introduces the person of God, it is not God Who
speaks, but the Holy Ghost speaks as God.183 And if He introduces Christ, it is not Christ
Who speaks, but the Holy Ghost speaks as Christ. So, then, if He brings in the person of a
prophet, or personifies this or that people, or anything whatsoever, it is the Holy Ghost
Who devises all these personifications.

CHAP. VIII. ----That we need not attempt to correct the solecistic phrases of Scripture,
and those which are unintelligible according to the letter, seeing that they contain great
propriety of thought for those who can understand. From the Commentary on Hosea. 1.
Inasmuch as the solecisms 184 in Scripture, if literally taken, often confuse the reader,
so that he suspects the text to be neither correct, nor in accord with propriety of
reason; and this to such an extent, that some persons by way of correction, even venture
to make alterations and substitute another meaning for that of the seemingly inconsistent
passages, I fear something similar may befall the language of the passages before us; we
are therefore bound to see what their hidden meaning is. The Prophet after using the
plural, "They wept and made supplication unto me," 185 and again the plural, showing the
sequel, "In the house of On they found me," proceeds in the singular, "And there he spoke
with him." A reader glancing at the words as they stand might suppose there was an error
in the copy, and therefore write the plural in the last clause, or change the previous
plurals into the singular. For when he reads, "They wept and made supplication unto me,"
and "In the house of On they found me," he would say that the next clause should be,
"There he spake with them," that is, with those who wept and made supplication and found
God in the house of On. But if we consider other passages we shall see that even here we
have no inconsistency.

2. In Genesis God gives a command to Adam, saying, "Of every tree in the garden thou
mayest freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ye shall not eat of
it: for in the day that ye eat thereof ye shall surely die." 186 There, also, God begins
by speaking in the singular, "Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat," but
goes on in the plural, "of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, ye shall not eat of
it: for in the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die." The explanation is that when
God speaks of the commandment which He wished Adam to keep and live, He commands in the
singular, "Of every tree in the garden thou mayest freely eat"; for they who walk in God's
ways and hold fast His commandments, though they be many, yet by reason of their being of
one mind the many are essentially one.187 And, therefore, when a commandment respecting
goodness is given, the singular is used----"Thou mayest freely eat"; but in laying down
the law respecting transgression, God no longer uses the singular, but the plural----"Ye
shall not eat: for in the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die."

3. And so it is with the present passage. When they still weep and make supplication to
God, the plural is used----"They wept and made supplication to me "; but when they find
God, He no longer uses the plural----"There He spake, not with them," but with him. For by
finding God and by hearing His Word, they have already become one. For the individual when
he sins is one of many, severed from God and divided, his unity gone; but the many who
follow the commandments of God are one man; as also the Apostle testifies, saying, "For we
who are many are one bread, one body";188 and again, "There is one God, and One Christ,
and one faith, and one baptism";189 and elsewhere, "For all we are one body in Christ
Jesus";190 and again, "I espoused you all to one husband, that I might present you as a
pure virgin to the Lord."191 And that they are well pleasing to the Lord and one,192 is
shown in the Lord's prayer to His Father for His disciples. "Holy Father," He says, "grant
that as I and Thou are one, so also they may be one in us."193 And also, whenever the
saints are said to be members of one another,194 the only conclusion is that they are one
body. In The Shepherd,195 again, where we read of the building of the tower, a building
composed of many stones, but seeming to be one solid block, what can the meaning of the
Scripture be except the harmony and unity of the many?

CHAP. IX. ---- Why it is that the Divine Scripture often uses the same term in different
significations, even in the same place. From the Epistle to the Romans, Volume IX. on the
words, "What then? Is the law sin?" 196 1. One term, law, may be used, but the scriptural
account of "law" is not everywhere one and the same. A reader must therefore in every
place consider with the utmost care first the literal meaning of the word "law," then the
special significance of it. This is only what we do with most other words; for there are
other instances of equivocal scriptural terms, such as confuse readers who suppose that
because the word is the same the meaning must be the same wherever it is found. Now the
word "law" is intended to serve not everywhere the same purpose, but many purposes; we
will, therefore, passing by the numerous passages requiring careful reasoning because they
suggest an objection which calls for an answer, set forth all such as may effectually
convince anybody that the word "law" has many meanings. As an illustration let us take
what is said in the Epistle to the Galatians. "As many as are of the works of the law are
under a curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one which continueth riot in all things
that are written in the book of the law to do them." 197 It is clear that we have here the
literal law of Moses, enjoining on those under it what they are to do, and forbidding what
they must not do. And we have no less clearly the meaning of the passage in the same
Epistle, "The law was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom
the promise hath been made;

and it was ordained through angels by the hand of a mediator";198 and of another, "So that
the law hath been our tutor to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
But now that faith is come, we are no longer under a tutor. For ye are all sons of God,
through faith in Christ Jesus." 199 And that "law" also denotes the historical writings of
Moses we may gather from the passage in the same epistle ----"Tell me ye that desire to be
under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one
by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after
the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through the promise." 200 2. I know that
even the Psalms are called "law," as is plain from the passage, "That the word may be
fulfilled that is written in their law, They hated me without a cause." 201 Nay more, the
prophecy of Isaiah is called "law" by the Apostle, who tells us, "In the law it is
written, By men of strange tongues, and by the lips of strangers will I speak unto this
people; and not even then will they hear me, saith the Lord";202 and this is in effect
what I found in Aquila's interpretation. The term is also applied to the more mystic and
Divine sense of the law; as, for instance, "We know that the law is spiritual."203 And
besides all this, the Word sown in the soul, evidenced by the moral notions common to
mankind, and in Scripture language "written in the heart," enjoining what we have to do,
forbidding what we must not do, is called "law. This is proved by the following words of
the Apostle: "For when the Gentiles which have no law do by nature the things of the law,
these, having no law, are a law unto themselves;

in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their consciences bearing
witness therewith." 204 For the law written in men's hearts and in Gentiles who by nature
do the things of the law, is no other than the law of common morality by nature written in
our governing part,205 and day by day becoming clearer with the perfecting of reason. This
is the meaning of law in the words,"Sin is not imputed where there is no law," 206 and in
these, "I had not known sin except through the law." 207 For before the Mosaic law was
given sin is found to have been imputed both to Cain and to the sufferers in the Deluge,
and to the people of Sodom as well, and to countless others; and many came to know sin
before the law of Moses was given. And do not be surprised if two meanings of the one word
"law" are discovered in the same place; for we shall find this usage in other parts of
Scripture; for example, "Say not ye, There are yet four months and then cometh the
harvest? Behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields, that they are
white already into harvest."208 The word "harvest" is used twice, the first time of the
"corporeal" 209 harvest, the second time of the spiritual. And you will find a parallel
also in the account of the healing of the man born blind.

The man was literally blind, but the Saviour adds, "For judgment came I into this world,
that they which see not may see; and that they which see may become blind." 210 3. So,
then, it is as true as ever that; "apart from the law, the law of nature, a righteousness
of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." 211 And we
would tell those readers who shrink from admitting the double meaning of "the law," that
if we are to understand the same law to be referred to in both clauses, "But now apart
from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested," and "Being witnessed by the law
and the prophets," we must conclude that if the righteousness hath been manifested apart
from the Law, it is not witnessed by the Law; and if it is witnessed by the Law, it hath
not been manifested apart from the Law. The truth is that the law of nature by no means
witnesses to the righteousness of God manifested by Jesus Christ, for it is inferior to
that righteousness; but the Law of Moses, not the letter, but the spirit, does witness, as
also the Prophets in accordance with the spirit of the law, and as does the spiritual word
in them. The reader of the Divine Scripture must therefore carefully observe that the
Scriptures do not invariably use the same words to denote the same things; and they make
the change sometimes on account of the equivocal sense of a word, sometimes for the sake
of the figurative meaning, and sometimes because the context requires a different nuance
in some places from that which the word has in others.

If we are well on our guard in all this we escape many blunders and false interpretations.
We ought, then, to know that the word "see" 212 does not always denote the same thing,
sometimes being applied to bodily sight, sometimes to our understanding. Speaking
generally, we ought to be aware that inasmuch as the purpose of the Spirit in the
Prophets, and the Word in the Apostles of Christ, is to conceal and not plainly disclose
the thoughts of the Truth, confusion arises again and again through the mere wording, and
no close sequence of thought is preserved; the object being that even the unworthy may not
to the judgment of their own soul discover the things which are thus for their good
concealed from them. And this is often the reason why Scripture, as a whole, appears to
lack orderly arrangement and consecutiveness, particularly, as we said before, the
prophetic and apostolic writings; and in the apostolic writings, the Epistle to the
Romans, wherein the functions of the Law are set forth in different terms, and applied to
different circumstances. The result is that Paul in the composition of the epistle does
not seem to be true to his aim.

CHAP. X. ----Of things in the Divine Scripture which seem to come near to being a
stumbling-block and rock of offence. From the 39th Homily on Jeremiah: "The Lord could not
bear because of the evil of your doings"

1. If at anytime in reading the Scripture you stumble at something which is a fair stone
of stumbling, and rock of offence,213 blame yourself; for you must not despair of finding
in this stone of stumbling and rock of offence thoughts to justify the saying, "He that
believeth shall not be ashamed." 214 First believe, and thou shalt find beneath what is
deemed a stumbling-stone much gain in godliness. For if we really received a commandment
to speak no idle word, because we shall give account of it in the day of judgment;215 and
if we must with all our might endeavour to make every word proceeding out of our mouths a
working word both in ourselves who speak and in those who hear, must we not conclude that
every word spoken through the Prophets was fit for work? and it is no wonder if every word
spoken by the Prophets had a work adapted to it. Nay, I suppose that every letter, no
matter how strange, which is written in the oracles of God, does its work. And there is
not one jot or tittle 216 written in the Scripture, which, when men know how to extract
the virtue does not work its own work.

2. As every herb has its own virtue whether for the healing of the body, or some other
purpose, and it is not given to everybody to know the use of every herb, but certain
persons have acquired the knowledge by the systematic study of botany, so that they may
understand when a particular herb is to be used, and to what part it is to be applied, and
how it is to be prepared, if it is to do the patient good; just so it is in things
spiritual; the saint is a sort of spiritual herbalist, who culls from the sacred
Scriptures every jot and every common letter, discovers the value of what is written and
its use, and finds that there is nothing in the Scriptures superfluous. If you would like
another illustration, every member of our body has been designed by God to do some work.
But it is not for everybody to know the power and use of all the members, even the
meanest, but those physicians who are expert anatomists can tell for what use every part,
even the least, was intended by Providence. Just so, you may regard the Scriptures as a
collection of herbs, or as one perfect body of reason; but if you are neither a scriptural
botanist, nor can dissect the words of the Prophets, you must not suppose that anything
written is superfluous, but blame yourself and not the sacred Scriptures when you fail to
find the point of what is written. All this by way of general preface, though it may be
applied to the whole of Scripture; so that they who will give heed to their reading may
beware of passing over a single letter without examination and inquiry.

CHAP. XI. ----That we must seek the nourishment supplied by all inspired Scripture, and
not turn from the passages troubled by heretics with ill-advised difficulties, nor slight
them; we ought rather to have our share in them without the confusion which attaches to
unbelief. From Volume XX. on Ezekiel. "Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I judge between
sheep and sheep, as well the rams as the he-goats. Seemeth it a small thing unto you to
have fed upon the good pasture, but ye must tread down with your feet the residue of your
pasture? and to have drunk of the clear waters, but ye must foul the residue with your
feet? And as for my sheep they eat that which ye have trodden with your feet, and they
drink that which ye have fouled with your feet? " 217 After giving his views respecting
sheep that are rams, and sheep that are goats, and showing that it is the practice of
Scripture sometimes to class sheep and goats together, he thus proceeds:----

1. Now let us do our best to discover what truths are shadowed out in these words. Every
good pasture, and the pool of clear water, represent, I suppose, the oracles of the sacred
Scriptures as a whole. The next thought is that inasmuch as certain persons approve of
some portions as profitable, and reject others as having no saving power, they may be said
to feed upon the good pasture of the passages they choose, drink the clear water of what
they judge to be the best, and then tread down the residue of the pasture, and foul the
residue of the water with their feet. These, I say, are they who approve the New
Testament, but reject the Old; these are they who maintain that certain parts of the
ancient writings exhibit more of the Divine power and are highly spiritual, and make
others to be deficient in these respects. But the Shepherd calls them His own sheep who do
not disdain what has been trodden by the feet, and who do not despise the water fouled by
the feet, of the blame-worthy sheep, perhaps more correctly named goats and kids; for they
would not be sheep worthy of the rams upon the right hand.

2. For ourselves, then, who profess to be sheep of the Shepherd, let us never be shy at
feeding on those passages which, taken literally, do not look like Scripture, and on
account of their verbal incongruity are trodden down by men who are neither able nor
willing to use the whole pasture. Even supposing that some water has been fouled by their
feet, suppose, I mean, they have mingled with the pure word of the Scripture shameful
unheard-of objections, let us not, because of the confusion they have introduced into the
Word, be deterred from drinking that which has been fouled by their feet. And carefully
observe that they who foul the water and tread down the pasture, are reminded of better
sheep in the words, "And as for my sheep, they eat that which ye have trodden with your
feet, and they drink that which ye have fouled with your feet." 218 Furthermore, let us
never tread down the pasture of the Prophets, nor foul the water of the Law; and while
there are some who err in respect of the Gospel pasture and the apostolic water, so that
they tread down certain portions of the Gospel field and feed on others as on good
pasture, either rejecting the whole apostolic pasture, or approving some parts and
rejecting others, let us feed on the whole of the Gospels and not tread down any part of
them, and while we drink of all the apostolic waters, clear water as far as we can make it
such, let us guard the fountains, and in no wise foul them through unbelief, which is wont
to confuse the minds of men who cannot understand what is said.

CHAP. XII. ----That a man ought not to faint in reading the Divine Scripture if he cannot
comprehend the dark riddles and parables therein. From the 20th Homily on Joshua, the son
of Nun.

1. A hearer greatly profits by such readings as these if he can understand the true
inheritance which Joshua divided by lot to the children of Israel, and if he can both
ascend to the holy land, the true, really good land, and, following the list of names, can
adapt the local descriptions to the varying circumstances of those who receive the
inheritance. But it is difficult to find a man who thus profits, and we therefore wish to
encourage our hearers not to faint as they read. "What the encouragement is which I offer
to him who hears such passages, I must now tell. Charms have a certain natural force; and
any one who comes under the influence of the charm, even if he does not understand it,
gets something from it, according to the nature of the sounds thereof, either to the
injury or to the healing of his body, or his soul. Just so, pray observe, it is with the
giving of names in the Divine Scriptures, only they are stronger than any charm. For there
are certain faculties in us, the best of which are nourished by these "charms," as I may
call them, being akin to them, though we may not perceive that those faculties by
understanding what we are told become more effective in the development of our lives.

For that there are certain invisible departments of our being, and those many in number,
the words of the Psalm will prove, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me
bless his holy name." 219 There is, then, within us a multitude of faculties amongst which
we have been, as it were, souls and bodies, divided by lot; and these are such that if
holy they profit and gather strength at the reading of the Scripture, even though the
understanding be unfruitful; as it is written concerning him who speaketh "in a tongue,"
"My spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful." 220 Please note, then, that
though at times our understanding is unfruitful, the faculties which assist the soul, and
the understanding, and help us all, are nourished with rational nourishment drawn from the
Holy Scriptures, and from these names, and that being nourished they are better able to
assist us. And just as our better faculties, as it were, use the charm and are profited,
and gain strength through Scriptures and names like these, so the opposing faculties of
our inner nature, we may say, are weakened and overcome by God's enchantments, and being
overcome are put to sleep.

2. If any of you have ever seen an asp or some other venomous creature under the spell of
the charmer, I would have you take that as an illustration of the Scripture. If it be read
and not understood, the hearer sometimes grows listless and weary; yet let him believe
that the asps and vipers within him are weakened through the charms of the charmers, that
is to say, by wise Moses, wise Joshua, the wise and holy Prophets. Let us not then weary
when we hear Scriptures which we do not understand; but let it be unto us according to our
faith,221 by which we believe that all Scripture being inspired by God is profitable.222
For as regards these Scriptures, you must admit one of two things: either that they are
not inspired because they are not profitable, as an unbeliever might suppose; or, as a
believer, you must allow that because they are inspired they are profitable. We must,
however, know that we often profit without perceiving it, just as frequently happens when
we diet ourselves to improve our eyesight; we do not, I suppose, while we are eating
perceive that our eyesight is better, but after two or three days, when the food is
assimilated which benefits the eye, we are convinced of the fact by experience; and the
same remark applies to other foods which benefit other parts of the body. Well, then, have
the like faith with regard to Divine Scripture; believe that thy soul is profited by the
mere reading, even though thy understanding does not receive the fruit of profiting by
these passages. Our inner nature is charmed; its better elements are nourished, the worse
weakened and brought to nought.

CHAP. XIII. ---- When and to whom the lessons of philosophy may be profitable, in the
explanation of the sacred Scriptures, with Scripture proof. The letter to Gregory.

1. Greeting in God, from Origen to my good lord and most reverend son,223 Gregory. Natural
ability, as you know, if properly trained, may be of the utmost possible service in
promoting what I may call the "object" of a man's training. You, for instance, have
ability enough to make you an expert in Roman law, or a philosopher in. one of the Greek
schools held in high esteem. I should like you, however, to make Christianity your
"object," and to bring the whole force of your ability to bear upon it, with good effect.
I am therefore very desirous that you should accept such parts even of Greek philosophy as
may serve for the ordinary elementary instruction of our schools, and be a kind of
preparation for Christianity: also those portions of geometry and astronomy likely to be
of use in the interpretation of the sacred Scriptures, so that, what the pupils of the
philosophers say about geometry and music, grammar, rhetoric, and astronomy, viz. that
they are the handmaidens of philosophy, we may say of philosophy itself in relation to
Christianity.

2. Perhaps something of the kind is hinted at in the command from the mouth of God Himself
that the children of Israel be told to ask their neighbours and companions for vessels of
silver and gold,224 and for clothing, so that by spoiling the Egyptians they might find
materials to make the things of which they were told 225 for the Divine service. For out
of the spoils which the children of Israel took from the Egyptians came the contents of
the Holy of Holies, the ark with its cover, and the Cherubim, and the mercy-seat, and the
golden pot wherein was treasured up the manna, the Angels' bread. These things, we may
suppose, were made of the best of the Egyptian gold. From the second best came the
candlestick throughout of solid gold, standing near the inner curtain, and the lamps upon
it, and the golden table upon which was placed the shew-bread, and, between the two, the
golden censer. If there was any third- or fourth-rate gold, the holy vessels were made of
it. And from the Egyptian silver, also, came other things; for it was through sojourning
in Egypt that the children of Israel had abundance of precious material to make things for
the service of God. And out of the clothing of the Egyptians probably came whatever was
required, as the Scripture says,226 in the way of things embroidered or sewn together, the
work of embroiderers with the wisdom of God, different garments being sewed together to
make the veils and the curtains, both the outer and the inner.

3. Why need I digress further to show how useful the things brought from Egypt were to the
children of Israel, things which the Egyptians did not use properly, but the Hebrews
through the wisdom of God turned to godly purposes? The Divine Scripture knows, however,
that some were the worse for the going down of the children of Israel from their own land
into Egypt, and darkly hints that some do lose by sojourning with the Egyptians, that is
to say, by lingering in the learning of the world after being nourished in the law of God
and the Divine worship of Israel. At all events, Hadad the Edomite,227 so long as he was
in the land of Israel, and did not taste the Egyptian bread, made no idols; but when he
ran away from wise Solomon and went down into Egypt, running away one might say from the
wisdom of God, he became Pharaoh's kinsman by marrying Pharaoh's wife's sister, and
begetting a son brought up with Pharaoh's sons. And so it happened that although he
returned into the land of Israel, he returned to divide God's people into two parts, and
make them say over the golden calf, "These be thy Gods, O Israel, which brought thee up
out of the land of Egypt." 228 And, taught by his experience, I beg leave to tell you that
a man is seldom found who takes the useful things of Egypt, leaves that land, and provides
for the service of God; but Hadad the Edomite has many a brother.

These are they who with a certain Greek smartness propagate heretical opinions, and, as it
were, make golden calves in Bethel: which being interpreted is "the house of God. The word
therefore seems to shadow forth the truth, viz. that these men set up their own inventions
in the Scriptures----figuratively called "Bethel"----wherein dwelleth the Word of God. But
the Word says that the other invention was set up in Dan. Now the boundaries of Dan are
farthest off, and near those of the Gentiles, as is clear from the account given in the
Book of Joshua, the son of Nun. So, then, some of these inventions are near the confines
of the Gentiles----inventions, as we have interpreted, of Hadad's brethren. 4. Do you,
then, my lord and my son, chiefly give heed to the reading of the Divine Scriptures; do
give heed. For we need great attention when we read the Divine writings, that we may not
speak or form notions about them rashly. And as you give heed to reading the Divine volume
with a faithful anticipation well pleasing to God, knock at its closed doors and it shall
be opened unto you by the porter, of whom Jesus said, "To him the porter openeth." 229 And
as you give heed to the Divine reading, seek, in the right way and with an unfaltering
faith in God, the meaning of the Divine writings, which is hidden from the many. Be not
content, however, with knocking and seeking; for prayer is the most necessary
qualification for the understanding of Divine things, and the Saviour urged us to this
when He said, not only, Knock and it shall be opened, Seek and ye shall find,230 but also,
Ask and it shall be given unto you. I have ventured thus far in my fatherly love for you;
if I have done well or not in venturing, God and His Christ, and he that partaketh of the
Spirit of God and of the Spirit of Christ, alone can know. Mayest thou be a partaker, and
ever increase the participation, that thou mayest say not only, "We are become partakers
of Christ," 231 but also, "We are become partakers of God."

CHAP. XIV. ----They who wish to rightly understand the Divine Scriptures must of necessity
be acquainted with the logical principles adapted to their use; without these they cannot
conceive the exact meaning of the thoughts expressed, as they should do. From Volume III.
of the Commentaries on Genesis. 1. "God made the two great lights,232 the greater light
for rule 233 of the day, and the lesser light for rule of the night; he made the stars
also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven, to give light upon the earth and to
rule 234 the day and the night." We must, then, inquire whether for rule of the day means
the same as to rule the day, and for rule of the night the same as to rule the night, in
the ordinary acceptation of the words; for Aquila preserved the parallel, making for
authority 235 the equivalent of for rule, and to have authority 236 the equivalent of to
rule. And we are told by those who carefully investigate the meaning of words, where they
deal with the relation of names and predicates, that the things bearing the names
previously exist, and that predicates follow the names. Prudence, for example, they say is
a name with a predicate, and the predicate is to be prudent. Similarly, moderation is a
name, and to be moderate is a predicate; and they say that prudence pre-exists, and that
from prudence is derived the predicate to be prudent. We have made these observations,
though some may think we are going beyond the intention of Scripture, because God Who made
the lights makes the greater for rule of the day and the lesser for rule of the night; but
when He places them in the firmament of the heaven it is no longer for rule of the day and
of the night, but to rule the day and the night. The orderly and systematic arrangement of
the passage, the names coming first and then the predicates, roused our suspicions that
the matter was so understood by the servants of God, and all the more because Aquila, who
strove to interpret most literally, has only distinguished the name from the predicate.

2. If any one doubts the soundness of this reasoning, let him consider whether a problem
in ethics, or physics, or theology, can be properly conceived without accurately finding
the meaning, and without close regard to the clear rules of logic. What absurdity is there
in listening to those who determine the exact meaning of words in different languages, and
in carefully attending to things signified? And we sometimes through ignorance of logic
fall into great errors, because we do not clear up the equivocal senses, ambiguities,
misapplications, literal meanings, and distinctions. Take, for example, the word world.
Through not knowing that it was an equivocal term, men have fallen into the most impious
opinions concerning the Demiurge: men, I mean, who have not cleared up the question in
what sense "the world lieth in the evil one," 237 and have not realised that the "world"
there denotes earthly and human affairs. Supposing the "world" to be literally the complex
whole of heaven and earth and things therein, they exhibit the utmost audacity and impiety
in their conceptions of God; for with all their efforts they cannot show how the sun and
moon and stars, with their wonderful orderly movements, "lie in the evil one.

If, again, we study the passage, "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world," 238 and attempt to show that "world" is here the scene of sin abounding, that is,
the different localities of the earth, they will candidly admit what is said, but from a
spirit of foolish contention they will cling to their detestable errors, which they have
once embraced, simply because they do not understand the equivocal meaning of the word.
If, again, we read that "God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself," 239 they
will no longer, certainly not consistently with their own principles, succeed in showing
that the word denotes the whole world, that is, the contents of the whole world; on their
own showing the word must be examined as being equivocal. And as for detestable
interpretations caused by ambiguity, punctuation,240 and countless other things, a keen
student may find abundant illustrations. But we have digressed thus far in order to show
that even we ourselves, who wish not to err concerning the truth in our understanding, of
the Scriptures, are bound to be familiar with the logical principles involved in the use
of them. Such principles we just now required to discover the difference between the two
expressions with which we began, the lights being said to have been created for rule of
the night, and to rule the day and the night.

CHAP. XV. ----A reply to the Greek philosophers who disparage the poverty of style of the
Divine Scriptures, and allege that the noble truths of Christianity have been better
expressed among the Greeks. They further assert that the body of the Lord was ill-
favoured; with the reason of the different forms of the Word. From the treatise against
Celsus, who wrote against Christians, Volumes VI. and VII. 1. In beginning this sixth
book, we desire, holy Ambrose, to meet the charges brought by Celsus against Christians,
not, as might be supposed, what he has borrowed from philosophy. For he quoted numerous
passages, mainly from Plato, making common property of such portions of the sacred
Scriptures as might mislead even an intelligent reader, alleging that they have been
"better expressed by Greeks, and without the violent expedient of a message supposed to
come from God or from the Son of God." Now we maintain that if the aim of those who
represent the truth is to do as much good as possible to as many as possible, and out of
love for men to win over to the truth, as far as may be, every single man, not only the
quick and ready, but also him that is void of understanding: or, to put it another way,
not Greeks only, nor Barbarians only,----and it is a mark of great humanity if a man is
capable of converting rustics and ignorant folk,----it is obvious that a speaker must
cultivate a style both popular and profitable, and such as will win everybody's ear. And
men who tell us that they say farewell to the ignorant as being no better than slaves, and
to such as have no ear for the close connection of the words and the order of the
incidents, and who therefore pay attention only to hearers who have had a literary and
scientific bringing up, these men reduce the fellowship of the Gospel to very narrow
limits.

2. I have said this in reply to the charge brought against the Scriptures by Celsus and
others on account of their poverty of style, though that seems to vanish in the grandeur
of the composition.241 For our Prophets, and Jesus and His Apostles had the insight to
adopt a mode of delivery which not only conveys the truth, but can win the many, until
they are drawn to be Catechumens and then, every one so far as he can, rise to the
ineffable mysteries contained in the seemingly poor language. And if I may dare say so,
the ornate and polished style of Plato and his imitators benefits only a few, if indeed it
does benefit them; while the style of those who have taught and written less elegantly,
but. nevertheless with a direct and practical aim, keeping in view the wants of the
greater number, has benefited many. At all events, you may see Plato in the hands of those
who are regarded as literary men, but Epictetus is the admiration of the man in the street
and of all who are inclined to improve themselves, for they are conscious of the benefits
to be derived from his writings. We do not say this to disparage Plato, for the great
world of men has found even him useful, but in order to show the meaning of those who
said, "And my speech and my preaching was not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom
of men, but in the power of God." 242

3. For there is a demonstration of the Word, all its own, more Divine than the dialectic
of the Greeks, which the Apostle calls "a demonstration of the Spirit and of power ";243
"of the Spirit," because of the prophecies which are enough to convince the reader,
particularly in things relating to Christ: and "of power," because of the marvellous
powers which one must be prepared to admit, as on many other grounds, so also, inasmuch as
the traces of them are still preserved among those who live according to the intent of the
Word. 4. Further, the Divine Word also asserts that what is said, although it be in itself
true and most persuasive, is not of itself sufficient to reach man's soul, unless a
certain power from God be given to the speaker and grace be shed over his words,244 and
effective speakers cannot have this grace without God's help. At all events, the Prophet
says in the 67th Psalm that "the Lord shall give a word to them that publish the tidings
with great power." 245 Granting, then, that in some cases the Greeks have the same
doctrines as ours, it by no means follows that even the same doctrines avail for winning
souls and disposing them accordingly. Hence it is that the disciples of Jesus, unlearned
and ignorant men as regards Greek philosophy, compassed many nations of the world,
impressing each individual hearer as the Word desired, according to his deserts; for the
hearers profited in proportion as their will inclined to receive the blessing.

5. Well, then, let the wise men of old be explained to those who can understand them. Let
Plato, the son of Aristo, in one of his epistles express his views on the Chief Good, and
let him maintain that the Chief Good is by no means communicable in words, but is acquired
through much intercourse with it, and, kindled as it were from flaming fire,246 suddenly
illuminates the soul. When we hear these things (for we are careful not to incur odium for
anything that is well said, and if the enunciators of the truth are outside the Faith, we
are studious not to vie with them, nor seek to upset sound sense) we admit that they are
well spoken, "for God manifested it unto them," 247 and whatsoever else is good in their
utterances. And this is why we say that they who have true conceptions of God, and do not
lead a godly life worthy of the truth concerning Him, are liable to the chastisements of
sinners. For this is precisely what Paul asserts concerning such men, viz, that "the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who
hold down the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest
in them; for God manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of him since the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made,
even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse;

because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became
vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to
be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the
likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed beasts, and
creeping things." 248 They certainly do "hold down the truth," as our Word also testifies,
who think that "the Chief Good is not communicable in words," 249 and who say that "from
much intercourse with the thing itself and from living with it, it suddenly, lighted as
from flaming fire, illuminates the soul, and straightway nourishes itself." 6. They who
wrote such things concerning the Chief Good nevertheless go down to the Piraeus that they
may offer up a prayer to the goddess Artemis, and because they want to see how the
national festival is kept by the common folk;250 and after so finely discussing the soul
and surveying the conduct of a soul that has lived a good life, they forsake the greatness
of the things which God manifested to them for mean and paltry conceptions, and pay a cock
they owe to Asclepios.251 And although they could imagine the invisible things of God and
the eternal forms of Being from the creation of the world and things that are seen, from
which they rise to intelligible 252 things, and although they have no ignoble vision of
His everlasting power and Godhead, they none the less become vain in their reasonings, and
their heart, inasmuch as it is foolish, is overwhelmed with darkness and ignorance, so far
I mean as concerns the service of God. And we may see men who pride themselves on wisdom
and their knowledge of theology worshipping the likeness of the image of a corruptible man
to show how they honour him; and we sometimes see them descending, like the Egyptians, to
birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things.

And even if "some do seem to have risen above this, they will nevertheless "exchange the
truth of God for a lie, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator." 253
Wherefore, because the wise and learned Greeks err in their religious observances, "God
chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame them that are wise; and
the base things of the world, and the weak things, and the things that are despised, and
the things that are not, that he may bring to nought the things that are; and that truly
no one may glory before God." 254 But our wise men, Moses the most ancient of them all,
and the Prophets who came after him, knowing that the Chief Good is not at all
communicable in words, and believing that God manifests Himself to fit and suitable
persons, were the first to write that God appeared to Abraham, for instance, or to Isaac,
pr to Jacob. But Who He was that appeared, whence He came, and how, and for what object
connected with mankind, they have left for those to investigate who can put themselves
into God's hands as did the saints to whom God appeared, for He was seen, not with their
bodily eyes, but with the pure heart. As our Jesus says, "Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see their God."

7. As for the sudden kindling in the soul of a burning light as it were from flaming fire,
the Word 255 knew this before Plato,256 for, speaking by the prophet, He said, "Light up
for yourselves the light of knowledge." 257 And John, who came long after, tells us that
"What was in the Word was life, and the life was the light of men";258 the true light
which lighteneth every man as he cometh into the real "intelligible" world, and maketh him
a light of the world.259 For this light shone in our hearts to give the illumination of
the gospel of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.260 Wherefore a very ancient
Prophet, who prophesied generations before the rise of the kingdom of Cyrus, for he was
earlier than that monarch by more than fourteen generations, says, "The Lord is my light
and my salvation, whom shall I fear?" 261 and, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and light
unto my paths";262 and, "The light of thy countenance, O Lord, was lifted up as a banner
over us";263 and,"In thy light shall we see light." 264 And, urging us to come to this
light, the Word in Isaiah says, "Shine, shine, Jerusalem;

for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord hath risen upon thee." 265 And this same
Isaiah, prophesying of the coming of Jesus, Who turns men from the worship of idols and
images and demons, says, "To them which sat in the region and shadow of death, to them did
the light spring up." 266 And again, "The people which sat in darkness saw a great light."
267 Observe, then, the difference between Plato's fine saying respecting the Chief Good,
and what is said in the Prophets concerning the light of the blessed; and observe further
that the truth in Plato concerning the Chief Good did not at all help his readers to
attain to pure and undefiled religion; and. what is more, it did not benefit the
philosopher him-self who thus expounded the Chief Good. But the diction of the Divine
Scriptures, poor as it is, has given inspiration to true readers----those who nourish this
light with the oil spoken of in the parable,268 the oil which keeps alight the torches of
the five virgins.

8. Now let us see what he has to say next. "They have," he says, "a precept to the effect
that we are not to avenge ourselves on any one who treats us with insolence and violence.
Even if a man strikes you on the one cheek, you are, according to it, to offer him the
other also. This is an old saw; it was well enough expressed before; the Christians have
revived it in a rougher form. Plato makes Socrates say in his argument with Crito,269
'Then we must do no wrong. Certainly not. Nor when injured injure in return, as the many
imagine; for we must injure no one at all. Clearly not,'" and so on. Our reply to this and
to all those passages which Celsus has made out to be common property, alleging, because
he could not face the truth of them, that the same things have been said by Greek authors,
is something like this. If the doctrine is serviceable and its purpose sound and wise, and
it has been taught the Greeks by Plato or some other philosopher, and the Jews by Moses or
some other Prophet, and Christians in the recorded sayings of Jesus or of one of the
Apostles, we must not suppose that what is held by Jews or Christians is prejudiced by the
fact that the same things have been said by Greeks, particularly if Jewish teaching can be
shown to be older than Grecian. Nor, again, must we suppose that a given statement is by
reason of the beauty of Greek phraseology of necessity better than what is expressed with
less elegance and in simpler terms by Jewish or Christian authors, though we must bear in
mind that the primitive language of the Jews, which the Prophets employed in the books
which they have left us, is perpetuated in the Hebrew, and with a wise regard to the
possibilities of composition in that tongue.

9. If we must, however, show that when the doctrines are the same they are better
expressed by Jewish Prophets or Christian oracles, let us, though the argument may seem
strange, take an illustration in proof of our position from different kinds of food and
their preparation. Suppose some wholesome and nutritious food to be cooked and seasoned a
certain way, and let the partakers of it not be rustics, and the inmates of hovels, and
poor folk who know nothing of such dainties, but only rich people accustomed to live
delicately. And suppose myriads of persons to eat the same food not cooked that way, to
suit the palates of acknowledged epicures, but to suit the tastes of the poor, of rustics,
and the majority of men. Now, if we grant that the epicures alone gain health and strength
from the food prepared one way, and that no ordinary person cares for such food, while
whole multitudes of men thrive on the food cooked the other way, which set of cooks are we
to regard as the greatest public benefactors on account of the wholesome food they
provide? Shall we give the credit to those who cook to suit the learned few, or to those
who cater for the masses? We may concede that whichever way the cooking is done, the food
is equally wholesome and nourishing; humanity itself, however, and the public welfare
teach us that a physician who takes thought for the health of the many, renders a greater
service to the public than he who cares only for the health of the few.

10. If the illustration is understood, let us apply it to the quality of the rational food
of rational creatures. And consider whether Plato and the wise men of the Greeks do not in
their choice dicta resemble physicians who attend only better-class patients, while they
despise the bulk of men. But the Jewish Prophets and the disciples of Jesus, bidding a
long farewell to the embroidery of diction, and, as Scripture terms it, "the wisdom of
men" and "wisdom after the flesh " 270 (hinting at the tongue), would be like the cooks
who take care, the quality of the food remaining the same, to prepare it the most
wholesome way; they have at their command a style which reaches the masses of mankind,
adapts itself to their speech, and does not by its strangeness close men's ears to such
discourses because they are unfamiliar. For if the real object of eating the rational
food, if I may so speak, is to make the eater submissive and meek, must we not think that
the Word which produces multitudes of forbearing and meek hearers, or sets them on the way
to becoming so, is better prepared than that which makes a mere handful, to concede so
much, forbearing and meek?

And if Plato, a Greek, intended to benefit Greek or Syrian adherents by sound doctrine, he
would take care to learn the languages of his future hearers, and, as the Greeks phrase
it, would rather be a "barbarian" to do the Egyptians and Syrians good, than remain a
Greek and be incapable of speaking anything of use to the Egyptians and Syrians. Just so,
the Divine Nature taking thought not only for those who are reputed learned among the
Greeks, but also for the rest of the Greeks, condescended to the ignorance of the majority
of hearers, so that, employing words familiar to them, it might encourage the unlearned
multitude to hearken; for after the first introduction they can easily endeavour to get a
hold on the deeper truths hidden in the Scriptures. For even an ordinary reader soon
discovers that many passages have a deeper signification than appears on the surface, a
signification revealed to devoted students of the Word, and revealed in proportion to the
time they spend upon the Word and to their zeal in putting into practice what they read.

11. So, then, it has been proved that if Jesus did, as Celsus alleges, speak somewhat
roughly when He said, "To him that striketh thee on the one cheek, turn the other also":
271 and, "If any man would go to law with thee, and take away thy coat, let him have thy
cloak also":272 He has by thus speaking expressed and applied the precept to better
purpose than Plato did in the Crito. The unlearned cannot in the least understand it
there, and even they who have received a good school education before attempting the grave
philosophy of Greece, can understand it only with difficulty. And we must further observe
that the true teaching respecting forbearance is not "corrupted" by the poor diction in
which it is conveyed; but even here Celsus slanders the Word when he says, "But as for
those and all other corrupting precepts let the foregoing suffice."

Again in Book VI., in reply to the statement of Celsus that our Lord's body was unsightly,
Origen writes thus:---- 12. After this Celsus says, "Since there was a Divine Spirit in
the body of Jesus, that body would of necessity vary at all events in some respects from
other bodies, in size, or beauty, or strength, or voice; it would have some astonishing or
attractive characteristics. Tor it is impossible that a body having more of the Divine
Nature than other bodies should no way differ from any other; but the body of Jesus was
not at all different; indeed, so they say, it was small, ill-favoured, and ignoble." Now
here again, it is clear that if Celsus wishes to disparage Jesus, he quotes the Scriptures
as if he believed such of them as seem to him to justify the charge; but wherever, in the
same Scriptures, any one might suppose the opposite of what constitutes the charge to be
asserted, Celsus professes not to know it. We admit, then, that there are passages which
speak of the body of Jesus as ill-favoured, but not ignoble, as our opponents maintain;
nor is there clear evidence that it was small. The exact description given by Isaiah in
the prophecy that He would not visit the many in a graceful form, or with surpassing
beauty, runs thus: "Lord who hath believed our report? 273 and to whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed? for he grew up before him as a tender 274 plant, as a root in a dry
ground: he hath no form (nor glory: and we saw him and he had no form) nor comeliness; but
his form was unhonoured,. marred more than the sons of men": Celsus noted all this, for he
thought it would serve him in disparaging Jesus; but he paid no attention to the words of
the 45th Psalm, the Psalm "for the Beloved," how it is said, "Gird thy sword upon thy
thigh, O Mighty One, in thy grace and beauty, and in thy majesty ride on prosperously."275

13. But maybe Celsus had not read the prophecy, or perhaps he had read it but was misled
by interpreters who erroneously hold that it does not refer to Jesus Christ. Well, what
will he make of the Gospel narrative in which we are told that He went up to a high
mountain,276 and was transfigured before His disciples and appeared in glory; when both
Moses and Elias also appeared in glory,277 and spake of His decease which He was about to
accomplish at Jerusalem? Or again, if the Prophet says, "We beheld him, and he had no
form, nor beauty," 278 and so on, Celsus admits that the prophecy may be referred to
Jesus, but it is a blind admission, for he does not see that the, fact of a prophecy
giving particulars of the form of Jesus, many years before His birth, is a strong
confirmation of the truth that Jesus Who seemed to have no "form" was the Son of God. But
if another Prophet says that Jesus had grace and beauty, why will not Celsus allow that
this prophecy refers to Jesus Christ? Further, if it were possible to clearly gather from
the Gospels that our Lord had no form nor beauty, but that His form was without honour,
marred more than the sons of men, one might say that Celsus in his argument followed not
the Prophets but the Evangelists. The fact, however, is that neither the Gospels, nor even
the Apostles, give any intimation that He had no form or beauty; and it is obvious that
Celsus is bound to admit the declaration of prophecy 279 to be a true description of
Christ; and this being so, there is an end to the disparaging statements concerning Jesus.

14. Again, we have the statement that "inasmuch as the body was tenanted by a Divine
Spirit it must have varied at all events in some respects from other bodies, either in
size, or voice, or strength, in astonishing or attractive characteristics." How came
Celsus to overlook the fact that our Lord's body varied according to the capacity of the
observers, and that a useful purpose was served when its appearance was such as was
necessary for each individual? And it is nothing wonderful that matter; by nature mutable
and variable and convertible to every-thing the Creator 280 chooses, and receptive of
every quality the Artificer desires, should sometimes have a quality corresponding to the
description, "He hath neither form nor beauty," and sometimes should be so glorious,
astonishing, and marvellous, that the three Apostles who ascended the Mount with Jesus at
the sight of such wondrous beauty fell upon their faces.281 But we shall be told that
these are fictions, no better than fables, like the rest of the strange stories about
Jesus.

15. Our answer is that to reconstruct almost any historical scene, even if true, so as to
give a vivid impression of what actually occurred, is exceedingly difficult, and sometimes
impossible. Suppose some one to assert that there never was a Trojan war, mainly on the
ground that the impossible story of a certain Achilles being the son of a sea goddess
Thetis and a man Peleus is mixed up with it; or that Sarpedon was the son of Zeus, or
Ascalaphus and Ialmenus sons of Ares; or that Aeneas was Aphrodite's son: how could we
dispose of such an objection? Should we not be very hard pressed to explain the strange
blending of a fiction with the universal belief that there was war between Greeks and
Trojans at Troy? Or let us suppose some one to doubt the story of Oedipus and Jocaste, and
of their sons Eteocles and Polynices, because that a sort of half-woman, the Sphinx, is
mixed up with the story; how should we clear up the difficulty? Well, the prudent reader
of the narratives, who wishes to guard against deception, will use his own judgment as to
what he will allow to be historical, and what he will regard as figurative; he will try to
discover what the writers meant by inventing such stories; and to some things he will
refuse his assent on the ground that they were recorded to gratify certain persons. And
this we have premised, having in view the history of Jesus as a whole contained in the
Gospels; for we do not invite intelligent readers to a bare unreasoning faith, but we wish
to show that future readers will have to exercise prudence, and make careful inquiry, and,
so to speak, penetrate the very heart of the writers, if the exact purport of every
passage is to be discovered.

16. Celsus, in fact, so that he may impeach the Word, appears to believe just as much as
he pleases of what our Scriptures contain; but to avoid acknowledging the manifest
Divinity proclaimed in the same books, he will not believe the Gospels: for any one who
sees what lovers of truth the writers were, must, judging by the way they treat less
important matters, believe them in things more Divine. 17. Now, if they had not been
lovers of the truth, but, as Celsus supposes, had recorded fictions, they would never have
told us of Peter's denial or informed us that the disciples of Jesus were offended. For
though such things did happen, who was there to prove the fact? And, really, these
incidents would probably have been passed over in silence by men who wished to teach
readers of the Gospels to despise death for the sake of confessing Christianity. But, as
the case stands, seeing that the Word will mightily prevail over men, they gave these
particulars, which, strangely enough, were destined not to injure the readers or afford a
pretext for denial.

18. And the Word has a more mystic meaning also, for it shows that the different
appearances 282 of Jesus are related to the nature of the Divine Word,283 which does not
appear the same to the many,284 and to those who can follow Him to the lofty mountain 285
of which we have given an account. For in the eyes of those who are below and are not yet
ready for the ascent, the Word hath neither form nor beauty;286 to such as these its form
is without honour, and marred more than the words "born of men," in the passage before us
figuratively called "sons of men." For we might say that the words of the philosophers,
being "sons of men," look far more beautiful than the Word of God preached to the many,
which even draws attention to the foolishness of the preaching,287 and it is because of
the foolishness of the preaching that men who regard the preaching only, say, "We beheld
it, and it hath neither form nor beauty." But for those who through obeying Him have
received strength to follow Him even when He ascends the lofty mountain, He hath a Diviner
appearance. And a man sees Him thus, if he is a Peter making room for the building of the
Church within him through the Word, gaining such strength of character that no gate of
hell shall prevail against him,288 inasmuch as he has been lifted up through the Word from
the gates of death that he may declare all the praises of God in the gates of the daughter
of Zion;289 and others see it thus also, men who have been born of words with a great
voice, such as have the full tones of spiritual thunder.290

19. And down below the Word has other garments; they are not white, they are not like the
light; if thou shalt ascend to the lofty mountain, thou shalt see His light and His
garments. The garments of the Word are the phrases of the Scripture; the Divine thoughts
are clothed in these expressions. As then down below He looks different, but having
ascended is transfigured, His face beaming like the sun, so it is with His clothing, so it
is with His garments. When thou art below, they do not shine, they are not white; but if
thou ascend, thou shalt see the beauty and the light of the garments, and shalt marvel at
the transfigured face of Jesus. And consider whether the Gospels do not also give us the
same teaching respecting Jesus. The particulars of His generation, His descent from
Abraham and birth of the seed of David according to the flesh, is the Book of the
generation of Jesus Christ; 291 but as for the more Divine and more important things to be
said concerning Him, and proclaimed by Him, John says, "I suppose that even the world
itself would not contain the books that should be written." 292 For we must not, like
some, admit that if the world cannot contain the books that should be written, it is
because of the multitude of the writings, but rather that it is on account of the
greatness of the incidents;

their greatness is not only indescribable, but they cannot be proclaimed by fleshly
tongue, nor be made known in the language and speech of men. This is why Paul, when he is
about to learn things more Divine, leaves our world of earth and is rapt into the third
heaven,293 that he may be able to hear the unutterable words thence proceeding. For we are
told of what was said there and considered to be the Word of God, the Word made flesh,294
and who, as regards being God with God,295 emptied Himself. Wherefore we see the Word of
God 296 on earth, for that He became man, in human guise; for even in the Scriptures the
Word became flesh that He might tabernacle among us.297 But if we incline on the bosom of
the Word made flesh 298 and are able to follow Him when He ascends the lofty mountain, we
shall say, "We saw his glory." 299 Some perhaps who are not like those who lie upon His
bosom and follow Him to the lofty mountain may say, "We saw his glory," but they will not
add "Glory as of an only-begotten from a Father, full of grace and truth": for this
language becomes John and such as are like him. And, according to a loftier
interpretation, they who are able to walk in the footsteps of Jesus as He ascends, and is
transfigured out of sight of earth, shall behold His transfiguration in every scripture;

for instance, when Jesus shows Himself to the many, this is the function of the simpler
diction; but when He ascends a lofty mountain and is transfigured, showing Himself to very
few of the disciples, and to those who have become able to follow Him to the heights
above, this is the work of the highest, sublimest sense, containing oracles of the wisdom
hidden in a mystery, which wisdom "God foreordained before the worlds unto the glory of
his righteous ones." 300 20. But how can Celsus, and the enemies of the Divine Word, and
such as do not investigate Christianity with a love of truth, know the meaning of the
different appearances of Jesus? I refer to the different periods of His life, to anything
He did before the Passion, and whatever happened after His Resurrection from the dead.

CHAP. XVI. ----Concerning those who slander Christianity on account of the heresies in the
Church. Book III. against Celsus.

1. Then, as if he would like to blame the Word for the evils of heresy associated with
Christianity, he reproaches us, saying, "Having grown in numbers and being widely
dispersed, they are further split and divided; every body wants to have his own party. And
again he says, "Being too numerous to keep together, they refute one another; they share,
so to speak, if they do share it, the one name, the only thing that in spite of their
divisions they are ashamed to give up; as for the rest they are all one here, one there.
In reply, we will say that you never find different sects in any department of thought
unless the principle involved is one of grave importance and practical use. Take the
science of Medicine. It is useful and necessary to the human race, and the questions which
arise as to the healing of the body are many. This is why, as is admitted, there are
several sects 301 among the Greeks, and I suppose among Barbarians also, as many as
profess to practise the healing art. Let us take another illustration, Philosophy,
inasmuch as it professes the pursuit of truth and the knowledge of realities, suggests the
proper mode of life, and endeavours to teach things profitable to our race. But the points
in question involve much diversity of opinion, and this is why there arose such an
incredible number of philosophic sects of more or less distinction.

Nay, even Judaism had a pretext for the rise of sects, through the varied interpretation
of the writings of Moses and the words of the Prophets. Similarly, because Christianity
appeared, not only to the low-minded, as Celsus says, but also to many learned Greeks, to
be a matter of grave importance, sects of necessity arose, and not altogether through
factiousness or contentiousness, but because so many even of the literary class were
anxious to understand the meaning of Christianity. In consequence of this, because
scholars differently interpreted what were believed on all sides to be Divine utterances,
sects sprang up bearing the names of thinkers who had a reverent regard for the origin of
the Word, but somehow or other through specious and plausible reasoning were brought into
conflict with one another. But no man of sense would shun the science of Medicine because
of its different sects; nor would a man of proper aims make the many sects of philosophy a
pretext for hating it; and, similarly, we must not condemn the sacred books of Moses and
the Prophets on account of the Jewish sects.

2. If all this hangs together, may we not offer a similar apology for the sects of
Christianity? What Paul says concerning them seems to me truly marvellous: "There must be
also sects among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." 302
For as a man "approved" in the science of Medicine is he who is familiar with the practice
of many different sects, and having fairly considered their claims, has chosen the best;
and as the advanced student of Philosophy who, having an extensive knowledge of his
subject, is familiar with its details, and therefore gives his adhesion to the stronger
reasoning, may be called "approved"; so, I would say, he who carefully examines the sects
of Judaism and Christianity becomes the wisest Christian. But any one who blames the Word
on account of our sects would also blame the teaching of Socrates, because from the study
of that Philosopher many different schools of thought have arisen. Nay, a man might blame
even the doctrines of Plato because Aristotle gave up the study of him and took a line of
his own, a point to which we have already referred. But Celsus seems to me to have become
acquainted with certain sects which do not even share the name of Jesus with us. Rumours
may have reached him of the Ophites and Cainites, or the holders of some other opinion
altogether alien to the teaching of Jesus. But Christian doctrine is not in the least to
be blamed for this.

3. Granting that there are some amongst us Christians who do not allow that our God is the
same as the God of the Jews, it by no means follows that they are to be blamed who prove
from the same Scriptures that one and the same God is God of the Jews and of the
Gentiles;303 Paul plainly shows this, when, after leaving the Jewish religion and
embracing Christianity, he says, "I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure
conscience." 304 Let us grant, too, that there is a third class composed of those who call
some persons psychical 305 and others spiritual (I suppose Celsus means the Valentinians);
but what have we who belong to the Church to do with that? We are the accusers of those
who introduce the doctrine of natures so constituted that they must be saved, or must
perish. Let it further be granted that there are certain persons who also profess to be
Gnostics, like the Epicureans who call themselves Philosophers; our answer is that men who
destroy a belief in Providence could not really be Philosophers, nor can they be
Christians who foist upon us these monstrous fictions so distasteful to the followers of
Jesus.

4. Celsus goes on to say, "And they even say the most shameful things of one another; they
would not make the least concession in the interests of harmony; for they utterly detest
one another." In reply, even in Philosophy, as we have already said, rival sects may be
found, and so it is in Medicine. We, however, following the Word of Jesus, and having made
it our study to think and speak and do whatever He has said, being reviled, bless: being
persecuted, we endure: being defamed, we entreat;306 and we would not say shameful things
of those whose views differ from our own; but we would do all in our power to raise them
to a higher level through persevering loyalty to the Creator alone, and by acting as men
who will one day be judged. But if the heterodox will not be persuaded, we have our rule
for dealing with them. "A man that is heretical after a first and second admonition
refuse, knowing that such a one is perverted and sinneth, being self-condemned." 307 And
again, men who understand the words, "Blessed are the peacemakers," 308 and "Blessed are
the meek," 309 would not utterly detest opponents who debase Christianity.

CHAP. XVII. ----A reply to certain philosophers who say that it makes no difference
whether we call Him Who is God over All by the name Zeus, current among the Greeks, or by
that which is used by Indians, for instance, or. Egyptians. Books I. and V. against
Celsus. 1. Celsus then says, "The goatherds and shepherds acknowledged one god, whether
they call him the Most High, or Adonai, or the God of Heaven, or Sabaoth, or gave him some
local designation to suit their fancy; beyond this they know nothing. And he afterwards
says, "It makes no difference whether we call the Supreme God by the name Zeus, which is
current among the Greeks, or by some Indian name, for instance, or Egyptian name. Now in
answer to this we must remark that here we come upon a deep and mysterious subject, the
nature of names. Shall we say, as Aristotle 310 thinks, that names are arbitrarily given?
or, with the Stoics, that they are natural, the first articulate sounds being imitative of
what the names denote, so that they also acquaint us with certain principles of etymology?
or, as Epicurus 311 teaches, differing herein from the Stoics, are they "natural," in the
sense that primitive men broke into speech which varied according to their circumstances?
If, then, in our leading argument, we are able to show the nature of powerful names, some
of which arc used by the wise men of Egypt, or by the learned Magi of Persia, or by the
philosophic Brahmans of India, or by the Samaneans,312 and so in every nation;

and if we succeed in making out that what is called Magic is not, as the Epicureans and
Aristotelians suppose, incoherent from beginning to end, but, as the experts prove, is a
well-compacted system, with words known to extremely few,----if, I say, we get as far as
this, we shall maintain that the name Sabaoth, and Adonai, and whatever others are by
Hebrew tradition regarded with great reverence, are not applicable to ordinary created
things, but to a mysterious science of things Divine, related to the Creator 313 of the
universe. It follows that these names when uttered in their proper connection, and other
names current in Egyptian of 314 certain demons with particular powers only, and others in
the Persian language of other spiritual beings, and so in every nation, can be applied to
certain purposes. And thus it will be found that the demons to whom have been assigned
different parts of the earth bear names according to the dialect of the place and nation.
Any one, therefore, who has a nobler, even though it be but a slender, conception of these
things, will take care to apply different names to different things, lest he fare no
better than they who erroneously give the name of God to lifeless matter, or degrade the
title "the good" by severing it from the First Cause, or from virtue and honour, and apply
it to blind Plutus, and to the proportions of flesh and blood and bones required for
health and strength, or to what is counted noble birth.

2. And perhaps it is no less dangerous to degrade the name of God, or the title "good," to
improper objects, than it is to change the names of God to suit some secret doctrine, and
apply the names of the better to the worse, and of the worse to the better. I do not dwell
on the fact that when we hear of Zeus it is implied that he was the son of Cronos and
Rhea, and the husband of Rhea, and the brother of Poseidon, and the father of Athene and
Artemis, and that he had intercourse with his daughter Persephone; or that when we hear
Apollo's name, we remember that he was the son of Leto and Zeus, and the brother of
Artemis, and the half-brother of Hermes; not to mention all the other wonderful stories
told us by the wise men whom Celsus approves, who are the authors of these opinions, and
by the ancient theologians of Greece. Is it not unreasonable that Zeus should be his
proper name, and yet that he should not have Cronos for his father and Rhea for his
mother? And we must treat all the other so-called gods the same way. But the charge by no
means attaches to those who, in accordance with some mysterious doctrine, apply the name
Sabaoth, or Adonai, or any of the other names, to the (true) God.

As soon as a man can philosophically explain the mysteries of names, he will make many
discoveries respecting those given to the Angels of God, one of whom is called Michael,
another Gabriel, another Raphael, the names being suitable to the service they render
according to the will of the God of the whole universe. Our Jesus, too, keeps to the same
philosophy of names; for His name has already been clearly proved to drive out countless
demons from souls and bodies, powerfully working in the sufferers from whom the demons
were expelled. And, treating of names, we must further observe that they who are familiar
with the use of charms tell us that if we pronounce the same charm in its own language, it
is possible to effect what the charm professes to do; but that if we change it into
another tongue, no matter what, it may be found feeble and quite ineffective. The power of
producing a certain effect is not therefore to be attributed to the actual meaning of the
charm, but to the qualities and peculiarities of the sounds. We shall therefore on such
lines as these defend the Christians for striving even unto death that they may not call
God by the name Zeus, nor give Him a name in another tongue.

For Christians in their confessions either employ the usual name God, without further
definition, or they add, "The Maker 315 of all things," "The Creator of heaven and earth "
----He Who to benefit mankind sent down such and such wise men, with whose names the name
of God conjoined bestows a certain wonder-working power among men. Much more might be said
on the subject of names as against those who think that the use of them is a matter of
indifference, And if Plato is much admired for saying in Philebus, "My awe, Protarchus, in
naming the gods is considerable," 316 for Philebus, who was arguing with Socrates, said
that the true name of Aphrodite was Pleasure, ought we not much rather to approve the
piety of Christians, inasmuch as there is not one of the names handed down in mythology
which they apply to the Maker of the world?

And in Book V., treating of the same subject, he says: 3. But since Celsus thinks it makes
no difference whether we call the Most High Jupiter, or Zen,317 or Adonoeus, or Sabaoth,
or Amon, as the Egyptians do, or Pappaeus like the Scythians, let us briefly discuss these
points, and remind the reader of what was said above on this great question, when the
language of Celsus invited us to the argument. We repeat, then, that the nature of names
does not, as Aristotle thinks, depend on the arbitrary rules of those who give them. For
the languages of men do not even originate with men, as is clear to those who can give
attention to the nature of charms variously appropriated by the authors of the languages,
according as the languages differ and the names are differently pronounced. We have
already briefly discussed this, and have maintained that though they have a natural power
in a given language, if they are translated into another language they lose the effect
which they had in their own proper expression. And we find that the same peculiarity
applies to man. Suppose some one to be called from birth by a Greek name; if we change the
name into Egyptian, or Roman, or some other language, we could not make him do or suffer
what he would if he were called by his original name. Nor even if we were to translate 318
into Greek a name which was Roman to begin with, could we do what the charm professes to
do if it keeps to the man's first name!

Now, if what we have said respecting human names is true, what ought we to think of names
which are some way or other traced up to the Divine nature? For instance, some new power
is transferred to the Greek from the name Abraham, something is signified by the name
Isaac, and something shown by the title Jacob; and if a man were to call upon or swear by
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, he would produce some
effect, either through the nature of the names or their power, for even demons are
vanquished and become subject to a man who uses this language. But if one were to say,319
"The God of the elect father of the sound," and "the God of laughter," and "the God of the
tripper up," the name thus used is as ineffective as any other ordinary name. Similarly,
if we change the name Israel into Greek or some other language, we shall effect nothing;
but if we keep it as it is, and use it in conjunction with such expressions as the learned
think should be associated with it, there will be some result from the use of such
language according with the professions of those who employ such invocations. And we shall
say the same respecting the name Sabaoth, which is often found in charms, viz. that if we
change the name into "The Lord of Hosts," or "Lord of Armies," or "Almighty" (for the
interpreters take it differently), we shall effect nothing;

but if we keep to its proper pronunciation, we shall, so the learned say, produce some
effect, and the same holds good of Adonai. Now, if neither "Sabaoth" nor "Adonai," when
changed into what they appear to signify in Greek, produces any effect, how much less
could they be efficacious among men who think it makes no difference whether we call the
Supreme God Jupiter, or Zen, or Adonai, or Sabaoth! 5. Well, then, Moses and the prophets
understanding these things and the corresponding mysteries, forbade any one who practised
prayer to the Supreme God alone to take the name of other gods upon his lips, or remember
them in a heart taught to be pure from all foolishness in thought or speech. And this is
why we would rather endure every outrage than confess that Jupiter is God. For we do not
suppose Jupiter and Sabaoth to be the same, nor do we regard Jupiter as at all Divine, but
we think that some demon, friendly neither to man nor to the true God, rejoices in the
name. And even if the Egyptians should offer Amon to us with threats of death, we will die
rather than call Amon God, for the name is probably used in some Egyptian charms which
invoke the demon. The Scythians may say that Pappaeus is "the Supreme God," but we shall
not be persuaded; for though they employ the solemn title of "Supreme God," it is only in
a sense which pleases the demon to whom was allotted the Scythian desert with the Scythian
race and language, not because Pappaeus is a proper name for God. Any one, however, who
gives God His name in the Scythian language, or the Egyptian, or the language in which he
has been brought up, will not commit sin.

6. We do not even like to call the sun Apollo, or the moon Diana; but worshipping the
Creator with a pure worship, and praising His beauteous works, we do not pollute Divine
things even so far as a name goes. We agree with what Plato says in the Philebus; he would
not have Pleasure called a goddess: "So great is my awe, Protarchus, in naming the gods."
320 We, too, really have such awe in naming God and His beauteous works, that we will not
accept any fable even as allegory, which might injure the young. CHAP. XVIII. ----A reply
to those Greek philosophers who profess to know everything, and blame the simple faith of
the man of Christians; and complain that they prefer folly to wisdom in life; moreover,
that no wise or educated man has become a disciple of Jesus; but boatmen and tax-gatherers
of the lowest class, they say, get fools and blockheads, slaves, weak women and children,
to submit themselves to the Gospel. Books I. and III. against Celsus.

1. He next urges us in forming our opinions to make reason our guide and follow it,
because whoever gives his assent in other terms is sure to be misled; and he likens men
who have an unreasoning faith to begging priests of Cybele and to soothsayers, Mithrae and
Sabadians,321 or any other sort one comes upon, phantom 322 envoys of Hecate or some other
demon, or demons. For as among them detestable men are frequently found trading upon the
ignorance of the simple, and leading them any way they choose, so, Celsus says, it is with
Christians. He tells us that certain teachers who will neither give nor receive an account
of what they believe employ the formula, "Don't ask why, but believe," and another, "Thy
faith shall save thee"; and these teachers, he adds, maintain that "worldly wisdom is a
bad thing, and foolishness a good thing. This is our answer. If all men could give up the
active pursuits of life and apply themselves to philosophy, that would be the only course
for any man to take; for in Christianity, not to speak offensively, there will be found no
less inquiry than elsewhere; we have our careful investigation of the articles of the
Faith, and our explanation of the dark sayings of the Prophets, the parables in the
Gospels, and countless other figurative events or enactments.

But if this course is impracticable, whether on account of the stress of life, or because
of human infirmity, for very few are eager to reason, what better plan for benefiting the
many could be devised than that which was delivered by Jesus to the Gentiles? And as
regards the greater number of believers, who have escaped from the deep mire of wickedness
in which they formerly wallowed, which, we ask, is really best----that with unreasoning
faith they should be reformed characters, because they believe that men are punished for
sin and rewarded for good works, or that we should not allow their conversion on the
strength of mere faith, but wait for their deliberate investigation of the reasons for
belief? It is clear that nearly all will be excluded from the benefits which the others
have received through simply believing; the many will continue to lead abandoned lives.
Whatever else then goes to prove that the love towards man which marked the entry of the
Word into human affairs was not undesigned by God, this must be included. A religious man
will not suppose that even a physician of the body, who restores many sick to health,
comes into cities or nations independently of God;. for without God's help nothing comes
to men.

But if the physician who cures the bodies of many sufferers, or partially benefits them,
does not cure without God's help, how much rather is this true of Him who heals the souls
of many, converts them, does them good, attaches them to the Supreme God, and teaches them
in all their doings to make His good pleasure their aim, and to shun whatever is in the
least displeasing to Him in word, or deed, or thought? 2. So then, since our opponents are
for ever talking about our faith, we have to tell them that we allow it on the ground that
it is a good thing for the many, and we confess that we teach those who cannot forsake
everything else and investigate the evidence, to believe even without reasoning; and our
opponents, though they would not confess so much, do the same. Could any man who has been
drawn to Philosophy and has dashed into some philosophic sect, either at random, or
because he has had access to some particular teacher, get thus far any other way than by
believing that sect to be the best? For it is not by waiting to hear the arguments of all
the philosophers and of the different sects, and by learning how some may be upset and
others established, that a man chooses to be a Stoic, or a follower of Plato, or a
Peripatetic, or an Epicurean, or to belong to any other philosophic school; but it is by
an unreasoning impulse, though they will not admit the fact, that they come, for instance,
to forsake the others and adopt Stoicism: rejecting Plato's doctrine as less dignified
than that of the others, or the Peripatetic system because it is more human, and more
readily than others admits the blessings of mankind. And there are some who in their alarm
at the faintest approach to the doctrine of Providence, arguing from what on earth befalls
both bad and good, rashly conclude that there is no Providence, and take the view of
Epicurus and Celsus.

3. Since, then, as reason teaches, we must believe some one who has founded a sect, Greek
or Barbarian, should we not much rather believe the Supreme God, and Him who teaches that
we ought to worship God only, and overlook all else, as either non-existent, or as
existing and worthy of honour, but not of reverence and adoration? As regards these
points, if a man not only believes, but also views them in the light of reason, he will
let it be known what proofs he comes upon, and discovers through thorough inquiry. It is
surely more reasonable, since all things human depend on faith,323 to believe God rather
than them. Does any man go on a voyage, or marry, or beget children, or sow the land,
unless he believes that all will turn out for the best, though the opposite is possible,
and sometimes does happen? In spite of possible disappointment, the belief in a prosperous
issue and that they will realise their wishes, makes all men venture even where there is
uncertainty, and the result may be other than they hope. Now, if in every undertaking
where the result is uncertain the hope and belief in a successful result is the stay of
life, shall not a man with much better reason than if he sailed the sea, or sowed the
land, or married a wife, or engaged in any other human affairs, have this faith, and
believe in the God Who made all these things, and in Him Who, with surpassing wisdom and
Divine magnanimity, ventured to present this doctrine to all mankind, in the face of great
dangers and of what was considered a shameful death, which sufferings He endured for man,
teaching His earliest adherents to boldly traverse the whole world in peril at every step
and with the constant expectation of death, in order to promote the salvation of men?

4. Let the impugner of the faith of Christians tell us by what demonstrative proofs he was
driven to admit the occurrence of numerous conflagrations and deluges, and upon what
grounds he maintains that the last deluge was in the time of Deucalion, and the last
conflagration in the time of Phaethon. If he adduces the dialogues of Plato on these
subjects, we will tell him that we, too, are at liberty to believe that a Divine Spirit
abode in the pure and pious soul of Moses, who soared above all things created and clung
to the Maker of the universe, and gave clearer views of the things of God than Plato or
the Greek and Barbarian philosophers. And if Celsus demands our reasons for such a faith,
let him first give us the grounds of his unproved opinions, and we will at once make good
our position. 5. Celsus is welcome to the teachers of fabulous conflagrations and deluges.
According to him they were the wisest of the Egyptians, and traces of their wisdom may be
seen in the worship of irrational creatures, and in the arguments to show that such a
worship of God, though partly lost and mysterious, is quite reasonable. If the Egyptians
boast of their animal worship and explain the principles of their religion, they are wise;
but if a man, assenting to the Judaic law and acknowledging the lawgiver, refers
everything to the only God, the Maker of the universe, he is accounted by Celsus and his
followers inferior to him who degrades the Godhead to the level not only of rational and
mortal creatures, but of irrational creatures, thus going beyond the fabulous
transmigration of souls, according to which a soul falls from the vaults of heaven and
descends to irrational creatures, not only such as are tamed, but even the most savage.
And if Egyptians tell these mythic tales, they are believed to have been philosophers with
their riddles and mysteries; but if Moses writes histories for a whole nation, and
bequeaths laws to the people, his words are regarded as empty fables, incapable of even an
allegorical interpretation. For this is the opinion of Celsus and the Epicureans.

6. Then, in express terms, Celsus says, "If they will be good enough to answer me, not as
if I were a novice, for I know all about it," and so on. In reply to this claim to know
"all about it," which is an astounding piece of swagger, we must observe that if he had
read the Scriptures, above all, the prophetical writings, which we admit are full of dark
sayings and things obscure to the many, and if he had studied the parables in the Gospels,
and the texts of Scripture containing the Law and the history of the Jewish people, and
the utterances of the Apostles, and, reading with a fair and open mind, had wished to get
at the meaning, he would not have been so bold as to say, "I know all about it. Not even
we who spend ourselves upon these studies would claim to know "all about it," for truth is
dear to us. Not one of us will say "I know all that Epicurus taught," nor will boast that
he knows the whole of Plato; the truth being that there are numerous points as to which
even the expounders of the doctrines are not agreed. Who would be so bold as to say, "I
know all about the Stoic or Peripatetic philosophy "? though it might happen that hearing
some illiterate blockheads, unconscious of their own ignorance, boasting of their
universal knowledge, a man might on the authority of such teachers suppose that he himself
knew everything.

Celsus seems to me to have acted much the same as if a traveller in Egypt (where those who
are familiar with the national literature indulge in many speculations on what are
regarded as Divine institutions, but the unlearned are greatly elated when they hear
certain myths without understanding the principles involved) were to think he was
acquainted with all the wisdom of the Egyptians, though, in fact, he was a disciple of the
ignorant, and never came into touch with any of the priests, nor was taught the mysterious
doctrines of the Egyptians by one of them. And what I have said about the Egyptians, wise
and ignorant, holds good, as we may see, of the Persians. They have their mysteries,
celebrated by the learned on principles of reason, but taken symbolically by the masses
and ordinary people. And the same applies to the Syrians and Indians, and all who have
myths and literature.

7. Celsus, moreover, makes many Christians say, "Wordly wisdom is a bad thing, and
foolishness a good thing. We must therefore observe that he slanders the Word, for he does
not give Paul's exact words, which run thus: "If any man thinketh that he is wise among
you in this world, let him become a fool that he may be wise. For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God." 324 The Apostle does not say without qualification, "Wisdom is
foolishness with God," but "the wisdom of this world" Again, he does not say, "If any man
among you thinketh that he is wise, let him become a fool absolutely," but "let him become
a fool in this world, that he may become wise. Well, then, by "the wisdom of the world" we
mean all false philosophy, which, according to the Scripture, is being brought to nought;
and we call foolishness a good thing, not absolutely, but when a man becomes a fool to
this world. It is the same as if we were to say that a Platonist who believes in the
immortality of the soul and what is said about its transmigration, is foolish in the eyes
of the Stoics who give no quarter to these opinions; or in the eyes of the Peripatetics
who are always talking about the inanities of Plato; or in the eyes of the Epicureans who
charge with superstition those who introduce a Providence and set God over all things.

And, further, that even, according to the Word itself, it is much better to assent to our
doctrines on grounds of reason and wisdom, than on the strength of the bare faith of which
we have spoken; and that, under certain circumstances the Word even intended this, so as
not to leave men altogether unprofitable,325 is shown by Paul, the true disciple of Jesus,
when he says, "For seeing that in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom knew not
God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of the preaching to save them that
believe." 326 This clearly shows that God should have been known in the wisdom of God. And
since this did not come to pass, God, as by a second expedient, was pleased to save
believers, not by foolishness absolutely, but by foolishness so far as related to
preaching. For the preaching of Jesus Christ as crucified is "foolishness of preaching.
Paul is conscious of this when he says, "But we preach Jesus Christ crucified, unto Jews a
stumbling-block, and unto Gentiles foolishness; but unto them that are called, both Jews
and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God."

And towards the end of the same book, Book I., respecting the statement that no wise or
educated man has been a disciple of Jesus, there is the following:---- 8. It is clear to
those who are capable of investigating the history of the Apostles with intelligence and
candour that it was by Divine power they taught Christianity, and succeeded in bringing
men into subjection to the Word of God. For it was not their powerful speaking, or that
they offered the Gospel,327 in accordance with the rules of Greek dialectics or rhetoric,
which won over their hearers. But it seems to me that if Jesus had chosen certain men in
general esteem for their wisdom, who could think and speak so as to please the many, and
had employed them as ministers of the doctrine, He might reasonably have been suspected of
having been preached by a school like the leaders of some philosophical sect; and in that
case the promise that the Word should be Divine would not have been clear, inasmuch as the
Word and the preaching was in persuasive words of that wisdom which is shown in style and
composition;328 and Christian faith, like the faith of the Philosophers of the world in
their doctrines, would have been in the wisdom of men and not in the power of God.

But who, when he sees fishermen and tax-gatherers, men without even the rudiments of
learning (the Gospel so describes them, and Celsus credits them with speaking the truth
about their own ignorance), not only dealing boldly with the Jews as regards the Faith in
Jesus, but also preaching Him in other nations, and with success, would not ask how they
came to have this convincing power? for it is no ordinary power. And who would not say
that by a certain Divine power in His Apostles Jesus fulfilled the promise, "Come ye after
me, and I will make you fishers of men "? 329 It is such a power as this which Paul, as we
have said before, describes when he says, "And my speech and my preaching were not in
persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your
faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 330 For as we read
in the Prophets who foretell the preaching of the Gospel, "The Lord gave a word to those
who bring good tidings with great power,331 the King of the powers of the Beloved," 332 in
order that the prophecy may be fulfilled which says, "His word shall run very swiftly."
333 And in fact we see that "The sound of the apostles of Jesus Christ went out into every
land, and their words unto the end of the world." 334 Thus it is that when men hear the
Word proclaimed with power they are filled with power, and they manifest it both by their
dispositions and their lives, and by contending earnestly for the truth even unto death;
but some speakers are mere windbags even though they profess to believe in God through
Jesus, for not being Divinely enabled they only seem to be subject to the Word of God. I
have already mentioned a saying of our Saviour in the Gospels, but I will none the less
make use of it now, for it is appropriate, by way of showing how our Saviour's
foreknowledge of the preaching of the Gospel is most Divinely manifested, and also how the
Word without teachers prevails over those who yield to the persuasiveness of Divine power:
"The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few.

Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he send forth labourers into the
harvest." 335 9. And whereas Celsus speaks of infamous men, and calls the Apostles of
Jesus villainous tax-gatherers and sailors, we will say respecting this, that in order to
find fault with the Word he appears to believe the Scriptures wherever he chooses; but to
disbelieve the Gospels so that he may not have to accept the manifestations of Deity
proclaimed in those same books; for any one who sees how the writers cling to truth in
describing minor matters cannot help believing them when they treat of things more Divine.
It is indeed written in the Catholic Epistle of Barnabas, from which Celsus probably took
his description of the Apostles as "infamous" and "villainous," that "Jesus Christ chose
for His own apostles those who were notoriously lawless men." 336 And in the Gospel
according to Luke, Peter says to Jesus, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
337 Nay more, Paul (though he afterwards became an Apostle of Jesus) says in his Epistle
to Timothy, "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief." 338 Is there, then, any absurdity in
believing that Jesus, because He wished to show mankind His wondrous skill in healing
souls, chose "infamous" and "villainous" men, and brought them to such a pitch of
excellence, that they were a pattern of the purest life to those who through them were led
to submit to the Gospel of Christ?

10. If we are going to make their past a reproach to men who have changed their lives, it
is time for us to attack Phaedo even though he is now the Philosopher: for, as history
relates, Socrates took him out of a house of ill-fame and interested him in philosophy. We
shall also make the profligacy of Polemon, the successor of Xenocrates, a reproach to
philosophy; whereas we ought to give philosophy credit thus far, that reason when used by
those gifted with persuasive power can rescue from such vices those who had been overcome
by them. The Greeks have one Phaedo, I do not know of another, and one Polemon, who after
a dissolute and utter detestable life changed and became philosophers; while with Jesus
there were not only the Twelve at the time we speak of, but always many more, such as
having become a joyous band of temperate livers, say concerning their former lives: "For
we also were aforetime foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures,
living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our
Saviour, and his love toward men, appeared through the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost which he poured out upon us," 339 we became what we are. For
"God sent forth his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions,"
340 as the prophet taught in the Psalms.

And I would further remark, that Chrysippus in his treatise on the Healing of the
Passions, his object being to check the passions of men's souls, though he does not pledge
himself to the truth of any particular doctrine, endeavours to apply his remedy according
to the principles of the sect to which they belong who have been mastered by their
passions; and he says that if pleasure be the (philosophic) end, we must through pleasure
cure the passions; and even if, according to some, there are three kinds of blessings, we
must none the less, according to this doctrine, similarly rid men from the tyranny of the
passions. But the accusers of Christianity do not see how the passions of multitudes are
calmed, and the surging waves of wickedness laid to rest, nor do they regard the numbers
of those whose savage characters are tamed by means of the Word. And if they find this
public benefit to be a fact, they ought to confess their gratitude to the Word for having
by a new method delivered men from many vices; and they ought to bear witness to it, that
whether it be the truth or not, it has at all events profited mankind.

11. Jesus, teaching His disciples not to be rash, said to them, "When they persecute you
in this city, flee into the next; and if they persecute you in the next, flee again into
another";341 and He not only taught, but was an example of a well-regulated life, in which
dangers are never encountered without an object, unseasonably, or unreasonably. This,
again, Celsus mischievously perverts, and makes his Jew say to Jesus, "You run away to all
sorts of places with your disciples." 12. "What need was there for you while still an
infant to be carried off into Egypt, so that you might not have your throat cut? For it
was not likely that a god should be afraid of death?" and so on. But inasmuch as we
believe Jesus, when He Himself says concerning His Divinity, "I am the way, the truth, and
the life," 342 or anything similar; and as we also believe Him when, referring to His
having a human body, He says,"But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the
truth," 343 we maintain that He was something compound. And inasmuch as it was His purpose
during His sojourn on earth to live the life of a man, it was right that He should not
unseasonably expose Himself to death. So, too, it was necessary that He should be taken
away by His parents who were guided by one of God's angels.

13. Is there any absurdity in supposing that, having once become Man, His human life was
so ordered that He shunned dangers? 344 not that it was otherwise impossible to attain His
object, but because it was fitting to leave room for ways and means in securing His
safety. And it was surely better for the child Jesus to escape from Herod's plot and
sojourn with His parents in Egypt until the death of the conspirator, than for Providence
watching over Jesus to hinder the will of Herod when he purposed to kill the child, or to
associate with Jesus dark Pluto's helm, of which the poets speak, or anything of the kind,
or to smite those who came to destroy Him, as the men of Sodom were smitten.345 If it had
been perfectly clear that some very extraordinary help was given to Him, this would not
have furthered His desire to teach, as a man approved by God, that He had something more
Divine within the visible man, which "something" was properly 346 the Son of God, God the
Word, the power of God and the wisdom of God,347 He that is called Christ. But this is not
the time to discuss the compound nature, and the parts of which Jesus, who became a man,
was composed; that is a separate topic, and, if I may so speak, one suitable for
investigation by believers.

14. And the story of Aristotle has points of resemblance to the slanderous charge against
Jesus and His disciples. When Aristotle saw that a court was going to be got together to
try him for impiety, on account of certain of his philosophical opinions which the
Athenians considered impious, he left Athens and stayed in Chalcis, defending himself to
his friends by saying, "Let us leave Athens, so that we may not give the Athenians any
occasion for incurring the guilt they did over Socrates, and that they may not a second
time sin against Philosophy." 15. And in Book III. of the same treatise against Celsus he
says this:---- Then Celsus goes on to quote what is said against the teaching of Jesus by
a very small number of persons who are considered Christians, not the most intelligent, as
he supposes, but the most ignorant, and tells us "that such rules as these are laid down
by them: Let no educated person come, no one wise, no one prudent; for education, wisdom,
and prudence are with us regarded as bad things. But if any one is unlearned, if any one
is without understanding, or uneducated, or a mere child, let him come boldly. Now the
fact that they confess these persons to be worthy of their God, shows that they wish and
are able to convince none but fools, low-born people, blockheads, slaves, weak women, and
children." This is our reply. When Jesus was teaching self-control He said, "Every one
that looketh upon a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in
his heart." 348 Now, suppose a man saw some few persons, out of so many, who are
considered to be Christians, living undisciplined lives, he would with very good reason
accuse them of living contrary to the teaching of Jesus; but he would be most unreasonable
if he were to charge the Gospel with their offence. Just so, if Christian doctrine 349 as
much as any other is found to invite men to wisdom, they must be blamed who rest satisfied
with their own ignorance, and who say, not what Celsus relates (for though some are
ignorant and unlearned, they do not use such shameless language), but other things which,
though far less important, are nevertheless calculated to turn believers from the practice
of wisdom.

16. That the Word means us to be wise, we may prove even from the old Jewish Scriptures,
which we use as well as the Jews, and no less also from those which were written after
Jesus came, and are believed in the churches to be Divine. In the 50th Psalm David in his
prayer to God is reported to have said, "Thou hast showed me the secret and hidden things
of thy wisdom." 350 And any reader of the Psalms may find the book full of many wise
doctrines. And Solomon, because he asked for wisdom, received it;351 and the proofs of his
wisdom may be seen in his works, which contain much thought in few words, and in which you
may discover many praises of wisdom and many admonitions as to the necessity of embracing
it. Solomon was in fact so wise that "the Queen of Sheba having heard of his name and the
name of the Lord came to prove him with hard questions,352 and she communed with him of
all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not anything
overlooked by the king, which he told her not. And the Queen of Sheba saw all the
understanding of Solomon, and all that belonged to him; and there was no more spirit in
her. And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thee
and of thy understanding.

Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold,
the half was not told me: thy wisdom and riches exceed all the report which I heard.
Again, it is written concerning the same Solomon, "And God gave Solomon wisdom and
understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the
seashore. And Solomon's wisdom excelled the understanding of all the ancients and all the
understanding of Egypt; and he was wiser than all men," 353 and so on. And so desirous is
the Word that there should be wise men among believers, that to exercise the intelligence
of the hearers it has expressed some things .in enigmas, some in what are called dark
sayings, others through parables, and others through difficult questions.354 And one of
the prophets, Hosea, in his concluding words, exclaims, "Who is wise, and he shall
understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them?" 355 Daniel, too, and his
companions in captivity made such progress in all the learning cultivated by the wise men
about the King of Babylon, that they were proved to be ten times better than them all. 356
And in Ezekiel it is said to the Prince of Tyre, who prided himself upon his wisdom,
"Surely thou art not wiser than Daniel? Every secret was not shown thee." 357

17. And if you come to the books written after the time of Jesus, you will find the crowds
of believers who heard the parables regarded as "without," 358 and worthy only of the
popular arguments, but the disciples learning in private the interpretation of the
parables; for Jesus privately expounded everything to His own disciples, thus honouring
those who claimed His wisdom more than He did the crowds. And He promises those who
believe on Him that He will send wise men and scribes, saying, "Behold, I send unto you
wise men and scribes: and some of them shall they kill and crucify." 359 And Paul in his
list of the gifts of God's grace, placed first the word of wisdom, and second, as inferior
to it, the word of knowledge, and third, still lower I suppose, he placed faith.360 And
inasmuch as he honoured the Word above marvellous acts, for this reason he places workings
of miracles and gifts of healing below the gifts of the Word. And in the Acts of the
Apostles Stephen testifies to the great learning of Moses, taking his proofs altogether
from such ancient writings as were not generally known. For he says, "And Moses was
instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." 361 And this is why Moses was suspected in
his miracles; they thought he might work them not because, as he professed, he came from
God, but because of the learning of the Egyptians in which he was skilled, The king,
because he thus suspected him, summoned the enchanters of the Egyptians, and the wise men,
and the sorcerers;362 and they were proved to be as nothing in comparison with the wisdom
in Moses, which surpassed all the wisdom of the Egyptians.

18. But what Paul writes in the first Epistle to the Corinthians, where he addresses them
as Greeks priding themselves on their Grecian wisdom, has probably moved some to think
that the Word does not want the wise. If any one so thinks, let me tell him that as the
Word reflects on bad men, and says that they are not wise in things spiritual, invisible,
and eternal, but because they concern themselves with things of sense only, and make them
all in all, they are wise men of the world: so also, inasmuch as there are many doctrines,
some of which give support to theories of matter and corporeal substances, and allege that
all subsistences to begin with were corporeal, and that there is nothing else beside them,
whether it be called "invisible" or "incorporeal," the Word says that this is wisdom of
the world which is being brought to nought and stultified, and that it is wisdom of this
present life.363 On the other hand, there are doctrines which translate the soul from
earthly affairs to the blessedness of communion with God and to the kingdom which bears
His name, and teaches the soul to despise all things sensible and visible as being
temporal, but to press on to the things invisible and to keep in view the things that are
not seen----and these doctrines the Word says are the wisdom of God.

Paul, with his love of truth, speaking of certain wise men of the Greeks and the truth
they hold, says that, "Knowing God, they glorified him, not as God, neither gave
thanks";364 and he tells us that they had not this knowledge without God's help. "For," he
says, "God manifested it unto them." 365 I suppose he is darkly hinting at those who rise
from things visible to the things intelligible, 366 when he writes that "The invisible
things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through
the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; so that they may be
without excuse: because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave
thanks." 19. Then there is the passage, "For behold your calling, brethren, how that not
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God chose
the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God
chose the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, and the things that
are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: that no flesh should glory
before him." 367 Some have perhaps been moved through this to suppose that no one
educated, or wise, or prudent embraces the Word. We would point out to such an one that
the words are not, "No wise man after the flesh," but "Not many wise men after the flesh.
And it is plain that in the character sketch of those who are called Bishops, when Paul
described what manner of man the bishop ought to be, he gave the teacher his proper place:

for he says the bishop "must be able also to convict the gainsayers, so that he may stop
the mouth of vain talkers and deceivers." 368 And as the Apostle in choosing a man for the
office of a bishop prefers one who is the husband of one wife rather than him who has been
twice married,369 and the blameless man rather than him who has been overtaken in a fault,
and the temperate man rather than the opposite, and the soberminded man rather than him
who is not soberminded, and the orderly man rather than him who is ever so little
disorderly: so he wishes the man specially qualified for the office of a bishop to be apt
to teach, and able to stop the mouths of the gainsayers. How, then, can Celsus with any
show of reason accuse us of saying, "Let no one educated come, no one wise, no one
prudent. By all means let any educated, wise, or prudent man come if he wishes to: but if
a man be ignorant, and unintelligent, and uneducated, and childish, he will be no less
welcome. For the Word promises to heal such if they come, making them all worthy of God.

20. And it is another falsehood that "the teachers of the Divine Word wish to persuade
only silly, ill-bred people, blockheads, and slaves, and weak women, and children," though
the Word calls even those that it may do them good. But it also calls such as are very
different from them, for Christ is the Saviour of all men, specially of them that
believe,370 whether they be men of understanding, or more simple folk, and "He is the
propitiation with the Father for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole
world." 371 After what we have said it is too much to expect us to reply to such questions
as these, which Celsus puts: "Why is it a very bad thing for a man to have been educated,
and to have studied the best arguments, and both to be and seem wise? How does this hinder
a man from knowing God? Can it possibly be anything but a help and a means whereby a man
may more readily reach the truth? A real education is not a bad thing, for education is a
path to virtue; but not even the wise men of Greece will tell us that the holders of
erroneous opinions are to be reckoned among the "educated. According to our Word, a
knowledge of wickedness is not wisdom; and, if I may use the term, there is a knowledge of
wickedness in the holders of false opinions, and in those who have been deceived by
fallacious arguments.

I should therefore say that they are more ignorant than wise. Further, who would not
confess that it is a good thing to have studied the best arguments? Shall we, however,
call any arguments the "best," except those which are true and which urge men to the
pursuit of virtue? Again, it is a good thing to be wise, though not, as Celsus says, to
seem so; and to have been educated, and to have studied the best arguments, and to be a
man of understanding is certainly no hindrance but a help in knowing God. And it is more
fitting for us than for Celsus to say this, particularly if he is proved to be an
Epicurean. 21. Let us see what he says next. "Why, we surely see even the men in the
market-places parading their infamous opinions 372 and collecting a crowd, though they
would never come near a gathering of sensible people, and would never dare to show their
real sentiments among them; but wherever they catch sight of striplings, or a herd of
slaves, or a set of fools, away they go and show off." Now observe, I pray you, how herein
he slanders us by comparing us to the men in the market-places who parade their infamous
opinions and collect a crowd. What infamous opinions, then, do we parade? or how are we
like them, when by readings and explanations of what we read we invite men to the worship
of the God of the universe, and to the cultivation of the virtues connected with that
worship, but dissuade them from the contempt of the Divine Being, and from the practice of
all that is contrary to sound doctrine? The Philosophers, I take it, would gladly get
together so many hearers of their discourses which invite men to a virtuous life, as has
been notably the case with certain of the Cynics, who publicly converse with such hearers
as happen to be by. Will it then be said that these Philosophers, because they do not
gather an audience of what are considered educated people, but invite the common people to
assemble, are like the men in the market-places who parade their infamous opinions and
collect a crowd? The truth is that neither Celsus, nor any one who agrees with him, finds
fault with teachers who follow the course which humanity dictates, and address their
arguments to the ignorant masses as well as to other people.

22. If the Philosophers are not to be blamed for doing this, let us see whether Christians
do not more than they, and to better purpose, endeavour to win multitudes to the love of
the beautiful and good. The Philosophers who discourse in public make no distinctions in
their choice of hearers; any one who likes stands and listens. But Christian teachers, so
far as they can, first make trial of the souls of those who wish to hear them, and rejoice
over them in private; then, when the hearers appear sufficiently earnest in their desire
to lead a good life, they introduce them to the public assembly, having made a private
list of those who are novices and catechumens, and have not as yet received the Sacrament
of their cleansing, and another list of those who, as far as possible, show their
determination to adopt Christianity to the exclusion of all else; and with these are
associated certain officers appointed to inquire carefully into the lives and conduct of
the candidates, so that they may prevent such as are guilty of infamous practices from
coming to the public assembly, but may heartily welcome such as are different from these,
and may day by day do them good.373 And they have a similar method in dealing with those
who fall into sin, particularly such as are licentious, whom they, who, according to
Celsus, resemble the market-place orators parading their infamous opinions, expel from the
public assembly.

The venerable school of the Pythagoreans used to set up kenotaphs to those who abandoned
that philosophy, reckoning them as dead. But our Christian teachers lament as dead,
inasmuch as they are lost and dead to God, those who have been overcome by lasciviousness,
or some other disgusting wickedness; and regarding them as risen from the dead if they
manifest a considerable change, they afterwards receive them, though a longer interval is
required than in the case of catechumens;374 they choose, however, to no office and
administration in the Church of God those who soon lapsed after submitting to the Gospel.
23. Now Celsus says that these men to whom he compares us, the men in the market-places
parading their infamous opinions and collecting a crowd, would never think of coming near
a company of sensible people, nor venture to show their real sentiments among them: "but
wherever they see striplings, or a herd of slaves, and a set of fools, away they go and
show off. When he thus abuses us he is exactly like the low women who delight in
slandering one another. For we do all we can to get an audience of sensible men, and we
then venture in our public discourses to bring forth what is best and most Divine, when we
have a number of intelligent hearers, but we conceal and pass over in silence the deeper
truths, when we see that those who assemble are the simpler sort of people, and require
such teaching as is metaphorically called "milk. For Paul, writing to the Corinthians,
Greeks whose morals were not yet cleansed, says, "I fed you with milk, not with meat: for
ye were not able to bear it: nay, not even now are ye able; for ye are yet carnal;

for whereas there is among you jealousy and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk after the
manner of men?" 375 And the same Paul, knowing that some things are food for the more
mature soul, and that others being suitable for beginners are like "milk," says, "Ye have
become such as have need of milk, not of solid food.376 For every one that partaketh of
milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; For he is a babe. But solid food
is for full-grown men, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern good and evil. Now, let me ask, could men who believe this to be well spoken
suppose that the beauties of the Word should never be declared to an assembly of sensible
men, but that "wherever they see striplings, and a herd of slaves, and a set of fools,"
there "they should produce the Divine and hallowed truths, and before such an audience
show off in handling them? On the contrary, it is clear to any one who examines the whole
drift of our Scriptures, that Celsus, like the ignorant masses, is moved by hatred against
the family of Christ when he makes such false and unwarranted statements.

24. We own to a desire to instruct all with the Word of God, whatever Celsus may wish, so
as to give the striplings such exhortation as is suitable for them, and show slaves how
they may be ennobled by the Word if they recover a free mind. And our advocates of
Christianity emphatically declare that they are debtors to Greeks and Barbarians, to the
wise and to the foolish; 377 for they do not deny that they are bound to cure the souls
even of the foolish, so that, as far as they can, laying aside their ignorance they may
earnestly seek wisdom, and may give heed to Solomon's words, "Ye fools, be of an
understanding heart";378 and, "Let him who is most foolish among you turn aside unto
me";379 and those who are without understanding Wisdom exhorts thus, "Come, eat ye of my
bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake folly that ye may live, and
correct understanding in knowledge." I should also like to ask in reply to what Celsus
states, for the point is important, whether the teachers of philosophy do not invite
striplings to come and hear them? And do they not urge young men to give up a low life and
turn to something better? How does Celsus make out that they do not wish slaves to take up
Philosophy? Are we going to blame Philosophers for encouraging slaves to turn and lead a
virtuous life, as Pythagoras did Zamolxis, and Zeno did Persaeus, or as they did who very
recently won Epictetus to the side of Philosophy? May you, ye Greeks,380 invite
striplings, and slaves, and fools, to embrace Philosophy? and if we do so, will ye not
allow our motive to be love for man, seeing that we wish with the healing virtue of the
Word to cure every rational nature and make it fit for God, the Creator of all things?

25. When Celsus, distracted at the numbers of those who flock to hear the Word, alleges
that no sensible person obeys the Word, he acts like a man who alleges that because so
many ignorant persons submit to the laws, no sensible person obeys Solon,381 for instance,
or Lycurgus,382 or Zaleucus,383 or any other lawgiver, particularly if by "sensible" he
means in respect of virtue. For as the law-givers, providing for the masses according to
their views of what was best, have given them proper guidance and laws on all sides: so
God when He gives the law in Jesus Christ to all men every where, leads those who are not
"sensible" as well as others, so far as such men can be led, on to the better life. Paul
knew this when he said, "God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to
shame them that are wise; 384 and, speaking generally, he calls all those "wise" who seem
to be proficient in learning but have fallen into godless polytheism; for "Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God
for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and
creeping things." 385

26. Celsus blames the Christian teacher as if he specially looked for ignoramuses. In
reply we would ask, What ignoramuses do you mean? For, strictly speaking, any inferior man
is an ignoramus. Well, then, if by ignoramuses you mean inferior people, do you when you
try to attract men to Philosophy seek to attract inferior people or the cultured?
Certainly not the cultured, for they are already acquainted with Philosophy. Inferior
people, then. But inferior people, as we have seen, are ignoramuses; and your aim is to
win many such inferior people to Philosophy; it follows that you, too, look for
ignoramuses. But I, even if I do seek those who are thus called "ignoramuses," am like a
humane physician who looks for the sick that he may bring them the help they need, and may
restore them to health and strength. If, however, by "ignoramuses" you mean those who are
not only not clever, but are portentously stupid people, my answer is that I do my best to
benefit these also, though I should not like the great body of Christians to consist of
them. By way of preference I look for men of some cleverness and acuteness, inasmuch as
they are able to trace out the clear interpretation of the hard sayings and obscure
passages in the Law and the Prophets, and the Gospels, which you have despised as
containing nothing of any account, because you have not closely examined their sense, nor
tried to enter into the meaning of the writers.

CHAP. XIX. ----And again, earlier in the same book, Origen says, That our faith in our
Lord has nothing in common with the irrational superstitious faith of the Gentiles, and
that it is both commendable, and accords with the original moral notions of mankind. In
answer also to those who say, How do we think that Jesus is God seeing that He had a
mortal body? 1. Faith in Antinous 386 or some other Egyptian or Greek hero, is, if I may
use the expression, unfortunate;387 but faith in Jesus would appear to be either
fortunate, or to have its claims severely tested; for it seems to be fortunate with the
many, and severely tested by very few. And if I say that a certain faith is fortunate, as
the many would call it, I refer the explanation of this good fortune to God, Who knows the
causes of every human being's lot in life. And the Greeks will also admit that even in the
case of those who are regarded as their wisest men, good fortune accounts for much, as for
example the sort of teachers they have, and whether they meet with better ones (for other
men teach opposite doctrines), and whether they have a better bringing up. For it is the
lot of many to be so brought up that they cannot get even a faint perception of the higher
life, but from their very earliest years are destined to be among the favourites of
licentious men, or of tyrants, or to be in some other sad condition which prevents the
opening of the eyes of the soul. I quite suppose that the causes of this are to be found
in the rulings of Providence; but how the causes affect mankind is not easy to explain. I
thought I would make this digression in passing, for we remember the old saying, "What
wonders faith performs when it once takes hold of anything!" It was necessary to speak of
different forms of faith on account of the different ways men are brought up; and from
this to go on to show that what is called good or bad fortune would appear to assist even
clever men in this very respect, that they appear more reasonable than other men, and with
better reason for the most part to adopt their opinions. But enough of this.

2. But we must consider what Celsus says next. Amongst other things he tells us that "we
are already under the influence of faith when we thus submit to Jesus." 388 And in truth
faith does effect this submission. Observe, however, whether the very act of faith does
not exhibit something praiseworthy when we submit ourselves to God Who is over all,
confessing our gratitude to Him Who has guided us to such a faith, and saying that He did
not without God's help undertake and accomplish such a difficult task. And we believe also
in the intentions of those who wrote the Gospels, as we mark the caution 389 and
conscientiousness shown in their writings, and how they admit nothing spurious, hazardous,
invented, or unscrupulous. For it strikes us that souls which knew nothing of the strange
devices taught by the unscrupulous sophistry of the Greeks, and by the rhetoric bandied in
the law-courts, could not thus invent incidents able of themselves to lead men to faith
and to a life in keeping with their faith. And I suppose this was why Jesus wished to
employ such teachers of His doctrines, that there might be no room to suspect them of
plausible sophisms, but that they who are capable of understanding may see clearly that
the writers' purity of intention with its, if I may so speak, great simplicity, was deemed
worthy of Divine help, which accomplishes far more than diction, and composition, and
right construction with its refinements and rules of Grecian art seems able to accomplish.

3. Now see whether the principles of our faith, being accordant with man's original
conceptions, do not work a change in fair-minded hearers of the Word. For though the
perverted doctrine, backed up with much instruction, has been able to implant in the minds
of the many the belief that images are gods, and that things made of gold, and silver, and
ivory, and stone, are worthy of worship; common sense, nevertheless, forbids us to think
that God is by any means corruptible matter, or that He is honoured when He is fashioned
by men in forms of dead matter, supposed to pictorially or symbolically represent Him. And
we accordingly at once decide respecting images that they are not gods; and respecting
such works of art that they are not to be compared to the Creator; and that they are
insignificant when we think of God, Who is over all, the Maker, Preserver, and Governor of
the universe. And the rational soul, as if it recognised its affinity, at once rejects
what it hitherto imagined to be gods, and resumes its natural affection for the Creator;
and because of that natural affection for Him, it eagerly accepts Him, Who first showed
these truths to the Gentile world by means of the disciples whom He prepared, and whom He
sent forth with Divine power and authority to preach the Word concerning God and His
kingdom.

4. And whereas Celsus, I know not how many times already, taunts us with holding that
Jesus, though He had a mortal body, is a god, and with supposing that herein we show our
piety, it is superfluous to say more, for more than enough has already been said. Still, I
would have our accusers know that He Who we think and are persuaded was from the beginning
God and Son of God, is the very Word, and very Wisdom, and very Truth; and we affirm that
the mortal body and the human soul therein, not only by communication with Him, but by an
union and intimate mixture, gained the highest honours, and having participated in the
Divine Nature, were taken into God.390 And if, any one stumbles at our saying this
concerning His body, let him attend to what is said by the Greeks about matter, in itself
unqualified, acquiring whatever qualities the Creator wishes to invest it with; and how it
frequently divests itself of its former qualities and assumes better ones of a different
kind. For if this is sound doctrine, is it any wonder that the quality of mortality
attaching to the body of Jesus should by the providence of God, Who so willed, change into
one that was heavenly and Divine?

5. Celsus, then, did not show his dialectical skill when, comparing the human flesh of
Jesus to gold, and silver, and stone, he saw it was more corruptible than they. For, to
speak correctly, what is incorruptible cannot be more incorruptible than something else
which is incorruptible, nor can what is corruptible be more corruptible than some other
corruptible thing. But allowing that there are degrees of corruptibility, we shall still
reply, that if it is possible for the matter which underlies all qualities to change its
qualities, why should it be impossible for the flesh of Jesus to change its qualities, and
become such as it ought to be if it is to live in the sky, and the upper realms, no longer
having the qualities of fleshly weakness, and whatever other qualities Celsus called
"pollutions"? ----and in doing so did not speak like a philosopher. For in the proper
sense pollution is the result of vice; but the nature of the body is not polluted; for as
bodily nature it has no vice, which generates the pollution.

CHAP. XX. ----A reply to those who say that the whole world, including man, was made not
for man, but for the irrational creatures; for the irrational creatures live with less
toil than men; further, that they are wiser than we are, and are both dear to God, and
have a conception of God, and foreknow the future; wherein we shall also oppose
transmigration of souls, and have something to say concerning augury and the trickery
connected with it. From Book IV. against Celsus. 1. He, Celsus I mean, then says, "But,
not to confine my remarks to the Jews, for that is not my aim, but that I may deal with
the whole of nature, as I promised, I will explain more clearly what I have said." What
modest man who reads this and is conscious of human weakness, would not shrink from the
offensiveness of a man who promises to give an account of the whole of nature, and so
pretentious as Celsus in daring to give such a title to his book? Let us see, then, what
it is he promises to tell us about the whole of nature, and what light he throws upon the
subject.

2. Well, he proceeds to blame us at great length for alleging that God has made all things
for man. And, drawing on the stories of animals and the sagacity they show, he wishes to
prove that everything exists no more for the sake of men than for the sake of the
irrational creatures. Here he seems to me to talk like those men who from hatred of the
people they dislike, blame them for the very qualities for which their own friends are
praised. For as enmity so blinds these men that they are not aware of accusing their
friends when they think they are abusing their enemies: the same way, Celsus in this
confusion of thought has not seen that he is blaming the Philosophers of the Porch,
inasmuch as not unwisely they give man the first place, and in general prefer rational
nature to all irrational beings, and maintain that for the sake of the rational creation
chiefly, Providence has made everything. And rational creatures, inasmuch as they are the
leading objects of Providence, are regarded as children begotten; but irrational and
lifeless creatures are like the after-birth.391 I moreover think that as in our towns the
inspectors of provisions and of the market exercise their office only for the sake of men,
but even dogs and other irrational creatures enjoy the abundance as well: so Providence
chiefly provides for the rational creatures, but it follows also that the irrational
creatures enjoy what exists for the sake of men.

And as a man is in error if he says that the clerks of the markets provide no more for men
than dogs, for that the dogs as well as men enjoy the abundance of what is on sale: so
Celsus and they who are of his mind are much more guilty of impiety towards God, "Who
provides for the rational creatures; for they pretend to ask. "What more is done for man's
support than for plants, and trees, and roots,392 and thorns?" 3. For, in the first place,
now more clearly showing his Epicurean views, he thinks that "thunder and lightning and
rain are not works of God. And, secondly, he says that "if one were to grant that these
are works of God, they exist no more for us men than they do for plants, and trees, and
roots, and thorns"; thus, like a true Epicurean, allowing that they are the result of
chance and not designed by Providence. If they are no more useful to men than they are to
plants, and trees, roots, and thorns, it is clear that they are not the gift of
Providence, or that they come from a Providence which no more provides for us than for
trees, or a root, or a thorn. But the impiety is obvious whichever way you take it; and it
is silly to oppose such views by withstanding a man who accuses us of impiety; for any one
may see, from what has been said, who it is that is guilty of impiety. Then he adds, "Even
if you say that these (he clearly means the plants, trees, roots, and thorns) grow for
men, what reason is there for saying that they grow more for the sake of men than for the
sake of the wildest irrational creatures?

I wish Celsus would tell us plainly that the great variety in the produce of the earth is
not the work of Providence, but that a fortuitous concourse of atoms is the cause of so
many qualities, and that we are indebted to chance for so many kinds of plants, and trees,
and grass,393 resembling one another; and that no reason designed them to begin with, and
that they do not spring from an infinitely marvellous understanding. But we Christian
people, who are dedicated to the service of the Creator of these things, the only God,
even herein find motives for gratitude to the Maker of them all, because He prepared so
fair a home for us, and, for our sakes, for the animals which serve us; "He causeth the
grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth
food out of the earth; and wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his
face to shine, and bread that strengtheneth man's heart." 394 And if He also prepared food
for the most savage beasts, it is no wonder; for these beasts, as some philosophers have
maintained, were meant to be a training school for the rational creature. And one of our
wise men somewhere says, "Say not, what is this? wherefore is that? for all things have
been made for their uses"; and, "Say not, what is this? wherefore is that? for at time
convenient they shall be sought out." 395

4. After this, Celsus wishing to show that Providence has not made the things that grow
upon the earth any more for us than for the most savage beasts, says, "We wear ourselves
out with unceasing toil, and yet with all our labour hardly get a living; but everything
grows for the beasts without their ploughing and sowing." 396 He does not see that because
God wished man's intelligence everywhere to find a field for exercise, so that it might
not remain idle and without some conception of the arts, He made man a creature of many
wants, intending him to be driven by his very necessities to discover various arts, some
for his sustenance, others for his protection. For it was better that men who were not
likely to search and study Divine things should be in want, so that they should have to
use their understanding in discovering these various arts, than that they should through
abundance altogether neglect their understanding. One result of the scarcity of the
necessaries of life was agriculture, another vine-dressing, another the different styles
of gardening, another the crafts of the carpenter and the smith, which furnish tools to
the arts which minister to man's sustenance. And the want of protection brought weaving,
which followed wool-carding and spinning, and also building; and thus man's intelligence
rose even to architecture. And the lack of necessaries led also to the transport of
commodities from certain places, through seamanship and the shipmaster's skill, to those
who were without them; so that for these reasons, as well as others, a man might marvel at
Providence for having made the rational creature, to its advantage, more necessitous than
the irrational creatures. For the irrational creatures have their food prepared for them,
because they have no means of cultivating the arts; and they have a natural protection,
for they are covered with hair, or wings, or horny scales, or shells.

5. But some advocate of the dignity of man, he tells us, may object that the irrational
creatures were created for man's sake. "If any one should call us lords of creation
because we hunt and feast on the other creatures, we will ask in return, Is it not nearer
the truth to say that we exist for their sakes, because they hunt and devour us? The fact
is we must have nets and weapons, and a lot of men, and dogs, to assist us in our sport,
while nature gave them their own weapons as soon as they were born, thus making us an easy
prey to them." Now here, again, you see how the gift of understanding is a great help to
us, and better than any weapon which the wild beasts seem to have. We, at any rate, though
our bodily strength is far less than that of the animals, and very far less than that of
some of them, gain the mastery over them through our understanding, and hunt even such
huge beasts as elephants. Some animals which were intended by nature to be domesticated,
we tame by our gentleness; but in dealing with those which cannot be domesticated, or
which it would appear useless to domesticate, we consult our own safety, and when we like
we keep them shut up, or when we want them for food we kill them, just as we do the
animals that are not wild. So then, the Creator has made all things to serve the rational
creature, and to be in subjection to his rational intelligence. We want dogs for such
purposes as guarding the flocks, or cattle, or herds of goats, or our houses; and cattle
for tilling the land; while we use other beasts for drawing vehicles or carrying loads. So
we may say that lions and bears, pards and boars, and all such animals, are given to us to
exercise and develop our manhood.

6. Then, in defiance of mankind, who perceive their own superiority over the irrational
creatures, he says, "In reply to your contention, that God has given us the power to
capture and make full use of the wild beasts, we shall take up this position. It is
probable that before towns were built, or crafts invented, or such-like social
arrangements were made, before weapons and nets were devised, men were carried off and
devoured by the wild beasts, while the beasts were only by the rarest chance captured by
men. Now, in answer to this, observe that even though men capture the beasts and the
beasts carry off men, there is a wide difference between men who prevail by intelligence,
and the beasts whose savage and cruel nature gives them the mastery over men, and who do
not use their intelligence to secure safety from them. When Celsus makes the remark about
a time when there were no towns, nor arts, nor such means of social intercourse, he must,
I think, have forgotten what he said before to the effect that "the world was uncreated
and incorruptible, and that only the dwellers upon earth were exposed to deluges and
conflagrations, and that their misfortunes did not end there." 397 As it is not for those
who suppose the world to be eternal to talk of its beginning, so neither may they speak of
a time when there were no towns of any sort and arts had not been discovered.

Now, for argument's sake, let us allow that he and we are herein agreed, though he is not
at all consistent with himself in what he said before. But has this anything at all to do
with men's being at the first captured and eaten by the wild beasts, while as yet the
beasts were not captured by men? Certainly, if the world came into being through the
wisdom of Providence, and God is ruler over all, the small sparks 398 of the human race
must at first have been guarded by a higher power, so that at first there was intercourse
between the Divine Nature and men. The poet of Ascra 399 thought so, for he said---- "Then
the feasts were common, and seats 400 common, To immortal gods and mortal men." 7. And the
Divine Word according to Moses, introducing the first men, makes them hear a more Divine
voice, and oracles, and sometimes see the angels of God coming to visit them. It is surely
probable that at the beginning of the world human nature received more assistance than
afterwards; until such time as, having advanced in understanding, and the other manly
qualities, and having discovered various arts, men were able to live independent lives,
and did not continually need guardians and governors, with miraculous manifestation of the
service rendered to the will of God. It is consequently false to say that at the beginning
"men were caught and eaten by the beasts, but the beasts were hardly ever captured by
men." And this shows the falsity also of what Celsus thus expresses: "So that in this
respect at least God subjected men to the beasts, rather than beasts to men." For God did
not subject men to the beasts, but God gave the beasts to be taken by the intelligence of
men, and by the arts which intelligence suggests for their destruction. For not without
God's help did men devise the means of saving themselves from the beasts, and of
maintaining their dominion over them.

8. The noble critic, overlooking the fact that so many philosophers bring Providence into
their arguments and affirm that it does everything for the sake of the rational creatures,
does his best to destroy 401 their doctrines, which are of use in showing the agreement of
Christian teaching and philosophy in these respects; nor does he perceive what an injury
and hindrance it is to piety to accept the view that with God there is no difference
between man and ants or bees. Because he does not observe this, Celsus says: "If men seem
to excel the irrational creatures, inasmuch as they dwell in towns, and have some form of
government, and magistracies, and authorities, it is nothing to the purpose, for ants and
bees have all this as well. Bees, at any rate, have their queen with her followers and
attendants; they have also their wars and victories and capture the vanquished; they have
their towns and even suburbs, the division of labour, and courts for trying the idle and
bad members of the community; anyway, they drive the drones away and punish them. Now
here, again, Celsus has not seen where the difference lies between what is accomplished by
thought and reason, and what results from an irrational nature and a creature's mere make.
No original gift of reason in the creatures accounts for these doings, for they have not
reason;

but the Most Ancient One, He Who is both Son of God and King of the subject universe, has
created an irrational nature which by its very lack of reason helps the creatures not
deemed worthy of reason. Towns, then, arose among men along with many arts and a legal
system; and forms of government, and magistracies, and human authorities, whether those
which are properly so called because they secure good habits and activities, or those less
properly so named, according as the former are imitated as far as possible; for it was by
contemplating these habits and activities that legislators succeeded in establishing the
best forms of government, magistracies, and authorities. But nothing like this can be
found among the irrational creatures, though Celsus may transfer to ants and bees the
names derived from reason, and institutions based on reason, "town," "government,"
"magistracies," "authorities. Even so we must not receive 402 ants or bees, for they do
not reason when they thus act; but we must admire the Divine nature, extending as it does
to irrational creatures what I may call the imitation of the rational, perhaps to put
rational creatures to the blush; so that when they look at the ants, they may become more
diligent and may husband their own blessings better; and when they observe the bees, they
may obey their authorities, and may take their share in such duties of government as tend
to promote the welfare of the citizens.

9. Perhaps the so-called "wars" of bees are intended as a lesson in just and regular
warfare among men, if the necessity should arise. And bees have no "towns" and "suburbs";
but their hives and hexagonal cells, their works, and their division of labour, are for
the sake of men, who require honey for many purposes, for the healing of their bodies and
for wholesome food. And we must not compare the treatment of the drones by the bees to the
courts for prosecuting the idlers and bad characters in our towns, and to the punishments
inflicted on them. But, as I said before, while we must admire the nature of the bees in
these respects, we must allow that man is able to consider the details of everything, and
to arrange everything, for he co-operates with Providence, and not only accomplishes the
works of God's Providence, but also those of his own foresight.

10. After speaking of bees, so that as far as possible he may disparage the towns, forms
of government, magistracies, authorities, and patriotic warfare, not only of us Christians
but of mankind generally, Celsus proceeds to introduce an elaborate eulogy of ants, in
order that by thus eulogising the ants he may upset the superiority of man in the
management of his food supplies, and show his contempt for the provision which man makes
for his winter quarters, as being nothing more than the irrational foresight of the ants
where Celsus thinks they show it. Would not Celsus, so far as it depends upon him, turn
any one of the simpler sort, and such as are not qualified to look into things all round,
from helping a heavily-laden fellow-man, and from sharing his toil, by telling us that the
ants when they see a fellow-ant labouring with a load help him to carry it? He who needs
the instruction of the Word, and does not by any means give ear to it, will say, "It seems
we are no better than the ants even when we help those who are weary with their heavy
burdens; why go on doing so to no purpose? Ants, indeed, since they are irrational
creatures, would not be puffed up with pride because their works were compared to those of
men; but men being able to learn through reason how their social life is belittled, might,
if it depended on Celsus and his arguments, suffer injury;

for Celsus does not see that in wishing to turn his readers from Christianity, he is also
diverting the sympathy of those who are not Christians from the most heavily laden of his
fellow-men. If he were a public-spirited philosopher, he ought not only to refrain from
destroying at the same time both Christianity and the beneficent practices of human life,
but he should, if possible, support the excellence which Christianity has in common with
the rest of mankind. Supposing, however, that the ants do tear off the shoots of the corn
they have in store, to prevent its swelling, so that it may last through the year for
food, we must not imagine that this is the result of reasoning in ants, but must rather
believe that Nature, mother of all things, has so constituted even irrational creatures as
not to leave even the least without some trace of Nature's reason. It cannot be that
Celsus----in a moment of forgetfulness, for in many things he likes to follow Plato----
wishes to indicate that all souls are of the same kind, and that the soul of man no way
differs from that of ants and bees; that would be not only to bring down the soul from the
vaults of heaven to the human body, but also to everything else. Christians will not
assent to these views, for they have already grasped the truth that man's soul was made in
the image of God;

and they see that it is impossible for a nature created in the image of God to altogether
obliterate its characteristics, and take others, copies of I know not what, in irrational
creatures. 11. And since Celsus says also that "when ants die the survivors choose a
burial ground, and that there they have their family memorials," I must answer that the
more he praises the irrational creatures, so much the more, in spite of himself, he exalts
the work of that reason which ordered 403 all things, and shows the cleverness of man,
which is able by reason to order the natural advantages of the irrational creatures. Why
do I say "irrational," seeing that Celsus thinks that the creatures so named by the
general consent of mankind are not irrational? Nor does he who promised to discuss the
whole range of nature, and boasted of his truthfulness in the title of his book, think
that ants, at all events, are without reason. For he speaks of ants talking to one
another, and makes the following remarks: "It really is a fact that when they meet they
talk to one another, and this is why they never miss their way; so then they have a full
measure of reason, and some general notions, and a voice, know what accidents are, and
express what they mean." It is indeed true that when two persons talk to one another they
use a voice which expresses some meaning, and frequently describes what are called
"accidents"; but would it not be very ridiculous to say we find that sort of thing in
ants?

12. And he is not ashamed to add (that he may fully show the indecency of his opinions to
those who shall come after him), "Come! if one were to look down from heaven upon the
earth, what difference would there seem to be between the doings of us men and those of
ants and bees?" Now picture a spectator looking down from heaven, as Celsus supposes, and
seeing the doings of men and ants: does he look upon the bodies of men and ants, and not
perceive that in men the ruling principle is rational and set in action by reasoning
power, and that, on the contrary, in ants the ruling principle is irrational, set in
action without the help of reason, by impulse and fancy, along with some secret
contrivance of nature? But it is absurd to suppose that any one who saw from heaven what
is done upon earth should wish to look upon the bodies of men and ants from such a
distance, and not be much more desirous to see the nature of the ruling principles and the
source of impulses, whether rational or irrational. And if he once sees the source of all
impulses, he will of course see also the difference, and the superiority of man not only
to ants but also to elephants. For the spectator from heaven will discover in the
irrational creatures, whatever their size, no other principle than, if I may so call it,
irrationality; while in the rational creatures he will see reason, the common property of
all men, and of beings heavenly and Divine, and perhaps also of the Supreme God Himself;
and it is on account of reason that man is said to have been made in the image of God, for
reason is the image of the Supreme God Himself. 404

13. Next, as if he were doing his utmost to degrade the human race and make it resemble
irrational natures, and as if he were reluctant to give up anything at all related of
irrational creatures which shows their dignity, he says that some of them have magical
powers as well as men; so that not even in this respect can men claim special distinction,
or dream of having superiority over the brute creation. This is what he tells us: "If men
pique themselves on magic, the fact is that serpents and eagles are wiser than men in this
respect also; they, at all events, are acquainted with many antidotes and means of
averting mischief, and specially with the virtue of certain stones in saving their
nestlings; when men come upon these stones they think they have got hold of something
wonderful. Now, in the first place, I cannot understand how he applies the name "magic" to
the, shall we say? experience, or kind of instinct the animals have in using the antidotes
which nature provides, for the name has another familiar application; it may be that he
forgets himself, and, like a true Epicurean, wishes to disparage the use of such arts
altogether because it belongs to the profession of magic. However, let us grant that men
do pride themselves on their knowledge of these things, whether they are magicians or not.

Does it follow that serpents are wiser on this showing than men, because they use fennel
to clear their sight and quicken their movements, the truth being that they take this
natural remedy not because they calculate (the effect), but because they are so
constituted? Men do not arrive at such methods, like serpents, through the mere promptings
of nature, but partly by experiment, partly by reason, and sometimes by calculation and by
following the rules of science. Even supposing that eagles do find and carry to the nest
what is called the "eagle stone" to keep their nestlings safe, does it follow that eagles
are wise, or wiser than men, who because they have the faculty of reason, discover by
experiment what is given to the eagles as a natural remedy, and use it intelligently?
Suppose that other antidotes come to be known by the animals, is this any proof that in
them it is not nature but reason that makes the discovery? If reason made the discovery,
there would not have been one discovery, or two or three, confined to snakes, and
something different among eagles, and so on with the other creatures; the discoveries
would have been as numerous as they are among men. But the fact that the remedies are
exclusively adapted to the particular nature of each animal, shows that the animals have
not wisdom or reason, but that for their good they are naturally disposed to such remedies
through the creative power of the Divine reason.405

14. If, indeed, I wished to join issue with Celsus on these lines, I might quote the words
of Solomon in the Proverbs: "There be four things which be little upon the earth, but they
are exceedingly wise: the ants are a people not strong, yet they provide their meat in the
summer; the conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; the
locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands at one word of command; the
lizard taketh hold with her hands, and though easily taken, yet is she in the strongholds
of kings." 406 But the words are not clear, and I therefore do not avail myself of them;
in accordance with the title of the book (it is called "Proverbs ") I regard them as "dark
sayings" and look for the meaning. For the inspired writers are wont to distinguish the
many ways of conveying a deeper meaning than the literal, and one of them is the Proverb.
Hence it is that even in our Gospels our Saviour is reported to have said, "These things
have I spoken unto you in proverbs: the hour cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in
proverbs." 407 Now it is not the ants we see that are wiser than the wise, but the ants
proverbially indicated. And we say the same of the other animals. But Celsus thinks the
books of Jesus and Christians are very simple common-place productions, and he supposes
that they who treat them allegorically do violence to the meaning of the writers. Let this
suffice to show how futile it is for Celsus to slander us; and let it be the reputation of
his argument to prove that snakes and eagles are wiser than men.

15. And wishing to show at still greater length that even man's conceptions of God are no
more remarkable than the mortal side of his nature, but that some of the irrational
creatures have thoughts of God, concerning Whom the acutest thinkers everywhere, Greek and
Barbarian, have entertained such discordant opinions, he says, "If man because he has got
hold of some Divine thoughts is supposed to surpass other animals, let me remind those who
are of this opinion that many other animals will put in a claim to the same thing; and
with very good reason; for what is more Divine than to foreknow and foreshow the future?
Well, men learn the art from other animals, and specially from birds; and as many as
profess to know what they point out are Soothsayers. Now, if birds, or any other oracular
creatures gifted by God with foreknowledge, teach us by signs, it seems that they have
naturally a closer intercourse with God, and are wiser than men and dearer to God. And
intelligent men tell us that the birds have their assemblies, obviously more sacred than
ours; and, further, that somehow or other they discover what the birds say, and that they
give real proof of the discovery whenever they previously declare what the birds said,
viz. that the birds would go away to some place and do this and that, and then show that
the birds did go there and do what they foretold.

And as for elephants, nothing could surpass their fidelity to oaths or be truer to Divine
things, just because, I suppose, they have some knowledge of God. Now, here observe how
often he begs the question, and takes for granted what is still speculative matter, the
fact being that both Greeks and Barbarians have either discovered, or learned from certain
demons, the ways of birds and other creatures, from which they are said to derive their
powers of divination. In the first place, it is open to question whether there is any such
art of augury, and, in general, any basis for divination by means of animals, or not.
Secondly, among those who admit that there is an art of divination through birds, it is
not agreed as to why the divination takes that form; for some say that it is from demons
or gods of divination that the animals receive their impulses, the birds to different
flights and cries, the other animals to such and such movements; while others hold that
the souls of these animals are more divine than others, and are adapted to the purpose;
which is most improbable.

16. If Celsus wished to prove by the foregoing that the irrational creatures have a Divine
nature and are wiser than man, he ought to have fully shown that there is such an art as
divination; then, he should have more clearly shown how it can be defended; then have
given clear grounds for rejecting the arguments of those who would do away with such arts;
and, lastly, should have decisively upset the arguments of those who say that it is from
demons or gods the animals derive their divination impulses. Then would be the time for
dealing with the question, whether the soul of irrational creatures is more Divine than
that of men. If he had thus shown a philosophic spirit in treating such important matters,
we would have withstood his plausible assertions to the best of our power; we would have
upset his statement that the irrational creatures are wiser than men, and we would have
proved how false it is that they have more sacred conceptions of God than we have, and
that they hold certain sacred assemblies.408 But, as things are, the man who reproaches us
with believing in the Supreme God expects us to believe that the souls of birds have more
divine and clearer conceptions than men. If this be indeed true, birds have clearer
conceptions of God than Celsus has, and no wonder if they surpass Celsus who so belittles
man.

Celsus certainly does his best to make it look as though the birds have greater and
diviner conceptions, I do not say than we Christians have, or the Jews, who use the same
Scriptures as ourselves, but than even the Greeks had, who treated of God and the Divine
nature, for they were men. So, according to Celsus, the race of divining birds, forsooth,
understand the nature of God better than Pherecydes,409 and Pythagoras, and Socrates, and
Plato. And it seems that we must go and be taught by the birds, in order that, as,
according to Celsus, they teach us by means of divination what is going to happen, so they
may also rid men of their doubts respecting the Divine Being, by passing on the clear
conception of Him to which they have attained. It follows that Celsus, holding as he does
that birds are superior to men, should go to the birds for instruction, and not to one of
those distinguished Greek philosophers.

17. But we must add a few remarks, out of many, in answer to the foregoing, for we wish to
utterly refute the false opinions of Celsus and prove his ingratitude to his Maker; for
Celsus, being a man, and being in honour, understandeth not;410 wherefore, he is not even
like the birds and other irrational creatures which he considers to have the gift of
divination; but yielding them the preeminence, he goes further than the Egyptians, who
worship the irrational creatures as gods, and places himself, and, so far as he can, the
whole human race, beneath the irrational creatures, for he believes that men have lower
and meaner conceptions of God. Let our inquiry, then, be chiefly directed to the point
whether there really is, or is not, an art of divination by birds, and the other animals
believed to be "divining," for both ways the argument is to be treated with respect; on
the one hand, it presses us not to accept any such thing as divination, lest the rational
creatures should forsake the oracles of demons and resort to birds; on the other hand, it
brings much clear evidence to show that many people have been preserved from the greatest
dangers because they believed in divination by birds. For our present purpose let us allow
that augury is a reality:

my object is to show any persons who are prepossessed in its favour, that even if this is
conceded, the superiority of man over the irrational creatures, and over the very
creatures with powers of divination, is incomparably great. Let me then say that even
though there were in them a Divine nature capable of predicting the future, and so passing
rich, that out of its superfluity it could disclose the future to any man who wished to
know it, we must suppose that these creatures would much sooner know their own affairs.
But if they knew their own affairs they would have taken care not to fly to any place
where men set snares and nets to catch them, or archers make them a target and shoot them
on the wing. And certainly, if eagles knew beforehand the designs upon their young ones,
whether of serpents climbing to them and killing them, or of men trying to take them
either for sport or to serve some other purpose, they would not have made their nests
where they were likely to be exposed to these attacks; and, in general, not a single
living creature could ever have been captured by men, inasmuch as it was more Divine and
wiser than men.

18. Moreover, if birds of omen converse with one another;411 if, as Celsus says, the
divining birds and the other irrational creatures having a Divine nature and conceptions
of God, and having the knowledge of the future, disclosed this knowledge to others, the
sparrow in Homer would not have made her nest where the serpent would destroy her and her
little ones; and the serpent would not, as the same poet relates, have failed to guard
itself against being caught by the eagle. Homer, that marvellous poet, thus tells the
story of the sparrow---- "Behold a wonder! by Olympian Jove Sent forth to light, a snake,
with blood-red back, Of aspect fearful, issuing from beneath The altars, glided to the
plane-tree straight. There on the topmost bough, beneath the leaves Cowering, a sparrow's
callow nestlings lay; Eight fledglings, and the parent bird the ninth. All the eight
nestlings, uttering piercing cries, The snake devoured; and as the mother flew, Lamenting
o'er her offspring, round and round, Uncoiling, caught her, shrieking, by the wing! Then,
when the sparrow's nestlings and herself The snake had swallowed, by the God, who first
Sent him to light, a miracle was wrought: For Jove, the deep-designing Saturn's son,
Turned him to stone; we stood, and wondering gazed."412

Respecting the eagle he says---- "A soaring eagle in his talons bore A dragon, huge of
size, of blood-red line, Alive, and breathing still, nor yet subdued; For, twisting
backward, through the breast he pierced His bearer, near the neck; he, stung with pain,
Let fall his prey, which dropped amid the crowd; Then screaming, on the blast was borne
away. The Trojans, shuddering, in their midst beheld The spotted serpent, dire portent of
Jove." 413 Shall we say that the eagle was a divining bird, but that the serpent, though
the augurs make use of the creature, had not the gift of divination? The arbitrary
distinction is easily refuted, and is not the supposition that both had the gift easily
disproved? Would not the serpent, if he had possessed divining power, have taken care that
the eagle did not treat him so? One might produce countless other instances to show that
the animals have not in themselves a divining soul. But, as the poet says, and most men
agree, "Olympian Jove himself sent him to the light"; 414 and if Apollo also uses a hawk
as his messenger, something symbolical is intended, for a falcon is said to be Apollo's
swift messenger.415

19. Our view is that certain worthless demons (Titans or Giants, if I may say so), having
sinned against the true God and the angels in heaven, and, having fallen from heaven,
wallow in the grosser bodily existences and the unclean things of earth; they have some
insight into the future, and inasmuch as they are not encumbered with earthly bodies, and
are set on that sort of thing (for they desire to seduce the human race from their
allegiance to the real God), they conceal themselves in the more rapacious and savage
beasts, and others of a craftier kind, and make them at any time do what they choose; or
they turn the fancies of such creatures to such and such nights and movements; so that
men, caught in the snare of that divining power which is in the irrational creatures, may
not seek Him Who embraceth all, nor try to discover the pure form of worship, but may sink
by their speculations to the level of the birds and serpents upon earth, and still lower
to foxes and wolves. For it has been observed by the experts that the clearest indications
of the future are given through such creatures as these; it may be because the demons
cannot so fully "possess" the gentler animals as they can the wild ones, which they
closely resemble in wickedness, though the wickedness is not really wickedness in such
animals.

20. And nothing in Moses appears to me more marvellous than what I am about to mention.
Because he understands the different natures of animals, and has either learnt from God
the facts about them and the demons which have affinity with each, or has by exercising
his own wisdom made the discovery, all the animals which he classifies as unclean are
those considered by the Egyptians and the rest of mankind to be connected with divination,
while those not so connected are, generally speaking, clean animals. Amongst the unclean
Moses places the wolf, the fox, the serpent, the eagle, the hawk, and such-like.416 And,
speaking generally, you will find, not only in the Law but in the Prophets, that these
animals are taken to represent the worst qualities, while there is no instance of a wolf
or a fox being mentioned in connection with anything good. There seems to be, then, a
fellowship between such kind of demons and each kind of animals. And as among men some are
stronger than others, and not at all on account of their moral character: so some demons
in things indifferent may be stronger than others; and some of them may use certain
animals to deceive men, according to the pleasure of him who in the words of our
Scriptures is called "the prince of this world";417 and different ones may show the future
by means of another kind of animal. And observe that the demons are so filthy that even
weasels are seized by them for revealing the future. Now judge for yourself which is the
best view to take, that God over All, and His Son, impel the birds and other creatures for
divination, or that they who give the impulse to such animals, and not to men, though men
are present, are worthless, and, as our sacred Scriptures call them, "unclean" demons.

21. But if the soul of birds is really Divine because the future is foretold by means of
them, must we not much more admit that wherever omens are received by men, the soul of the
medium through which the omens are heard is Divine? According to such teachers as these,
we must believe that the slave in Homer who ground the corn was "divine"; for, speaking of
the suitors, she said---- "Would that they might eat their last meal here!" 418 She was
"divine": the great Ulysses, the friend of Homer's Athene, was not "divine," but
understanding the omens given by the "divine" slave he rejoiced; in the words of the poet,
"The noble Ulysses rejoiced at the omen." 419 Again, observe that if the birds really have
a Divine soul and perceptions of God, or, as Celsus says, "the gods," when we men sneeze,
we sneeze, of course, because we have a certain divinity and divining faculty of soul. For
many testify to this; and the poet accordingly says----

"Telemachus sneezed as the prayer was offered." 420 Wherefore, also, Penelope says---- "Do
you not see that my son sneezed as you spoke?" 22. The true God, however, in imparting a
knowledge of the future employs neither irrational creatures nor ordinary men, but the
holiest and purest souls of men, such as He inspires with prophetic power. And this
explains why amongst the other wonderful precepts of the law of Moses we must place such
prohibitions as "Ye shall not practise augury, nor observe birds." 421 And in another
place, "For the nations, which the Lord thy God shall destroy from before thy face, will
hearken to omens and divinations; but the Lord thy God gave not so unto thee." 422 And
elsewhere, "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from among thy brethren."
423 On one occasion God wished by means of an augur to turn His people from the practice
of augury, and therefore caused a spirit in the augur to say, "Surely there is no augury
with Jacob, nor is there divination with Israel; at the due season shall it be told to
Jacob and to Israel, what God will perform." 424 Just because we are acquainted with these
and similar passages, we wish to observe the mystical command, "Keep thy heart with all
diligence," 425 lest some demon usurp the throne of reason, or some hostile spirit turn
our imagination to follow his desires. And we pray that "the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God" 426 may shine in our hearts, the Spirit of God dwelling in our imagination
and impressing on us the things of God; "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God." 427

23. And we ought to know that the knowledge of the future is not necessarily Divine: for
in itself it is a thing indifferent, and is found among both bad and good men. Physicians,
at all events, by their medical knowledge know certain things beforehand, though they may
be men of bad character; and so, also, shipmasters, though they may be rascals, know the
signs of the weather, tempestuous winds, and atmospheric changes, through their peculiar
experience and observation. I suppose no one will say that because they have this
knowledge they are "divine," no matter what rascals they are. So then, when Celsus says,
"What can be pronounced more Divine than to foreknow and foreshow the future? he implies
what is false. It is also false that "many of the animals have claims to Divine
conceptions," for no irrational creature has a conception of God. It is also false that
"the irrational creatures have a closer intimacy with God"; for the fact is that bad men,
however high their attainments, are far from intimacy with God. We maintain that only the
truly wise and the sincerely godly approach at all near to intimacy with God:

such men as our Prophets and Moses, to whom on account of the great purity of his
character the Word has borne witness, saying, "Moses alone shall draw near to God, the
rest shall not draw nigh." 428 Is it not impiety for the man who accuses us of impiety, to
say that "the irrational creatures are not only wiser than man, but are also dearer to
God? And who would not shrink from heeding a man who says that the serpent, the fox, the
wolf, the eagle, and the hawk are dearer to God than human kind? He will have to admit
that if these creatures are dearer to God than men, these same creatures are obviously
dearer to God than Socrates, and Plato, and Pythagoras, and Pherecydes, and the other
exponents of God and the Divine nature, whose praises he sang not long before. One might
really offer up a prayer for Celsus, and say, "If these creatures are dearer to God than
men, may you be as dear to God as they are, and may you come to resemble those creatures
which, according to you, are dearer to God than men! And let him not suppose that such a
prayer is really an imprecation; for who would not pray that he may become altogether such
as they who, he is persuaded, are dearer to God than others, so that he, like them, may
become dear to God?

24. And wishing to show that the assemblies of the irrational creatures are more sacred
than ours, Celsus ascribes what he relates, not to ordinary mortals, but to "intelligent"
men; though in truth only the good are intelligent, for no bad man is intelligent. Well,
he speaks after this fashion: "Intelligent men say that the creatures have their
assemblies, obviously more sacred than ours; and that they somehow discover what is said
and show that they actually have the knowledge, inasmuch as they announce beforehand that
the birds said they would go away and do this or that, and then show that they did go away
and do what they had already foretold." In reality, no "intelligent" person tells such
stories, and no wise man says that the assemblies of the irrational creatures are more
sacred than those of men. If, however, for the sake of testing the statements of Celsus,
we examine what they lead to, it appears, according to him, that the assemblies of the
irrational creatures are more sacred than those of the venerable Pherecydes, Pythagoras,
Socrates, and Plato, and the Philosophers in general, which, on the face of it, is not
only unseemly, but most absurd. But if we are to believe that certain men, who have
derived their information from the inarticulate cry of the birds, announce beforehand that
the birds will go to some place and do this or that, we shall maintain that the
information has been given to men by demons through certain signs, for the purpose of men
being deceived by demons, and their understanding dragged down from heaven and from God to
earth and places lower still.

25. I do not know how Celsus came to hear tell of an oath being taken by elephants, and
that they show more fidelity towards the Divine Being than we men, and that they have a
knowledge of God. I know a good many marvellous stories about the animal and its docility,
but I am not aware that any one has spoken of an elephant's oaths, unless, perhaps, Celsus
calls their docility and the sort of covenant they make once for all with men, the keeping
of an oath; but that again is absurd. There are instances, though rare, of elephants,
after seeming to be tamed, fiercely attacking men and killing them, and of their being
therefore condemned to death as of no further use. And. to prove his point, as he thinks,
that the stork has more piety than men, our opponent adduces what is related about its
loving and cherishing its parents and bringing them food. I must therefore add that even
this conduct of the storks does not proceed from a regard to what is right, nor from
reasoning, but from nature, it being nature's aim in fashioning them, to set an example in
irrational creatures strong enough to shame men into showing gratitude to their parents.
If Celsus had known the vast difference between doing these things with the aid of reason
and doing them without the aid of reason, and by the mere impulses of nature, he would
never have said that storks have more piety than men.

Further, as if determined to uphold the piety of irrational creatures, Celsus adduces the
fable of the Arabian creature, the Phoenix, which is said to visit Egypt at long
intervals, and to bring its father, dead and buried in a globe of myrrh, and deposit the
remains at the temple of the Sun. Now, even supposing what is here related to be true, it
may be the result of natural processes; for Divine Providence has even in the different
constitutions of living creatures given proof to man of the rich variety to be found in
the ordering of the world, a variety extending even to the birds; and it brought into
being a unique creature, not that men might marvel at the creature, but at its Creator.
26. To all this Celsus adds the following: "Just as all things have not been made for the
sake of lion, eagle, or dolphin, so neither have they for the sake of man; but the aim was
that this world, as God's work, might be a complete and perfect unity;429 and this is why
all the parts have been proportioned, not to one another, except in a secondary sense, but
to the whole, and God cares for the whole; and Providence never forsakes it, nor does it
degenerate, nor does God in process of time turn it again to Himself, nor is He angry on
account of men any more than on account of apes or flies; nor does He threaten these
creatures, each of which has in its turn received its appointed lot. Let us, if only
briefly, meet these allegations. I suppose I have already said enough to show how
everything has been made for man, and for every rational creature; for it is chiefly on
account of the rational creature that everything has been created. Celsus may tell us that
the world exists no more for man than it does for the lion, or the other creatures which
he mentions; hut we shall maintain that the Creator has made these things not for the
lion, the eagle, or the dolphin, but all things for the sake of the rational creature; and
this is so, in the words of Celsus, "in order that this world may be, as God's work, a
complete and perfect unity";

for we must acknowledge the good sense of this. But God's care is not merely universal, as
Celsus thinks, but while He cares for the whole, He has a special care for every rational
creature. And a general Providence will never fail; for it is His plan, even though there
be a general deterioration because of the sinning rational portion, to purify all
creation, and in process of time to turn it back to Himself. It is true that God is never
angry on account of apes and flies; but inasmuch as men have transgressed the promptings
of nature,430 He brings upon them judgment and chastisement, and threatens them through
the Prophets and the Saviour Who came to save the whole human race; that through His
threatening they who hear may be turned, and they who neglect the words intended to turn
them may fitly pay the penalty which it is proper that God should, according to His own
will, and as is expedient for the whole, inflict on those who need such painful treatment
and correction. But our fourth book is now large enough, and we will therefore here end
the discourse. God grant through His Son, Who is God the Word, and Wisdom, and Truth, and
Righteousness, and whatsoever else the sacred Scriptures say of His Divinity, that we may
begin the fifth volume to the profit of our readers, and finish it well, with the help of
His Word abiding in our soul!

CHAP. XXI. ----Of Free Will, with an explanation and interpretation of those sayings of
Scripture which seem to destroy it; such as the following:---- a. "The Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh." b. "I will take away their stony hearts, and will give them hearts of
flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances." c. "That seeing they
may not see, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest haply they should turn
again, and it should be forgiven them." d. "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that hath mercy." e. "It is of God both to will and to do" f."So then
he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth." 1. Since the doctrine of a
righteous judgment of God forms part of 431 the preaching of the Church, and that doctrine
if believed to be true stimulates the hearers, of course consenting that praiseworthy or
blameworthy conduct is in our own power, to live good lives and by all means to avoid sin,
come let us briefly discuss a few points connected with Free Will, for the subject is of
the utmost importance. And that we may understand what Free Will is, I must unfold the
meaning of it, so that when this is cleared up the question may be accurately stated. Now
of things that move, some have the cause of motion in themselves, while those of a
different kind are moved only from without. To this latter class belong portable things
only, for example, wood and stones, and all matter which is held together by its
constitution only.432 And on this occasion we will not apply the term "motion" to the flux
of bodies, for it is not necessary for our purpose. But animals, plants, and generally
whatever is held together by a natural soul,433 including metals, as some say, have the
cause of motion in themselves. Besides these, fire is self-moved, and so perhaps are
fountains. And of things which have the cause of motion in themselves, some are said to be
moved of 434 themselves, others by themselves; lifeless things of themselves, living
things by themselves.

And the living things are moved by themselves when there arises within them a phantasy,
that is, a desire or feeling,435 which calls forth an instinct. And, again, in certain of
the living creatures the phantastic nature not only calls forth an instinct, but does so
regularly; for instance, in the spider a "phantasy" of weaving arises and the instinct to
weave follows, its phantastic nature regularly urging it to do so, the creature having
been entrusted with nothing more than its phantastic nature; and in the bee the instinct
is to make cells of wax. 2. The rational creature, however, in addition to its phantastic
nature has reason, which distinguishes between the phantasies, rejecting some, approving
others, so that the creature may be guided accordingly. Now it is the nature of reason to
have promptings to the contemplation of virtue and vice; and if, yielding to these
promptings, we choose the former and shun the latter, we deserve praise for devoting
ourselves to the practice of virtue, or blame if we take the opposite course. We must not,
however, fail to remark that, though for the most part 436 the nature of animals is
adapted to all their needs, it is so in varying degrees, sometimes more, sometimes less;
so that hounds in hunting and horses in war are not, if I may say so, far from the
rational creature. Now, whether something external shall chance to excite this or that
phantasy in us, confessedly does not rest with us; but it is for reason and nothing else
to decide whether we shall use what has happened in a particular way or otherwise, reason
either urging us, according to its promptings, to follow our better and nobler instincts,
or misleading us so that we do the reverse.

3. If any one says that the outward world is so constituted that one cannot resist it, let
him study his own feelings and movements, and see whether there are not some plausible
motives to account for his approval and assent, and the inclination of his reason to a
particular object. To take an illustration, suppose a man to have made up his mind to
exercise self-control and refrain from sexual intercourse, and then let a woman come upon
the scene and solicit him to act contrary to his resolution; she is not cause sufficient
to make him break his resolution. It is just because he likes the luxury and softness of
the pleasure, and is unwilling to resist it, or stand firm in his determination, that he
indulges in the licentious practice. On the contrary, the same thing may happen to a man
of greater knowledge and better disciplined; he will not escape the sensations and
incitements; but his reason, inasmuch as it is strengthened and nourished by exercise, and
has firm convictions on the side of virtue, or is near to having them, stops the
excitements short and gradually weakens the lust.

4. Now, when the facts stand thus, to excuse ourselves by putting the blame on outward
things, declaring ourselves to be like wood and stone drawn hither and thither by the
outward things that move them, is neither truth nor candour, and no one but a man who
wishes to give a false conception of Free Will would make such a statement. For if we were
to ask him what Free Will is, he would say that my will is free when I purpose to do
something, and nothing from without opposes and incites to the contrary. And again, on the
other hand, to blame our mere natural constitution 437 is absurd; for reason takes and
teaches the most licentious and savage men, if they will but follow her exhortation, and
changes them, so that the exhortation is very efficacious, and the change for the better
very great; and the most licentious men frequently surpass in goodness those who do not at
first seem likely to be licentious by nature, while the most savage men change and become
so gentle, that men who were never so savage as they, seem savage in comparison with some
individual who has adopted gentler ways. On the other hand, we see men of a different
type, men of the utmost steadiness and gravity,438 turning aside to low amusements, and
thus stripped of their steadiness and gravity; so that they change to licentiousness,
oftentimes beginning this licentiousness in middle life, and falling into disorderly ways
after that, in the natural course of things, the unsteadiness of youth has passed away.
Reason then shows that outward things are not in our own power, but that it is our
business to make reason inquire and judge how we ought to meet any particular combination
of circumstances, and turn it to account this way or the contrary.

5. That it is our business to lead a good life, and that God asks this of us, inasmuch as
it does not depend on Him, and does not come from some different god, or, as some suppose,
from fate, but is a matter for ourselves, the prophet Micah will testify, when he says,
"Was it shewed thee, O man, what is good? What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do
justice, and love mercy, and to be ready to walk with the Lord thy God?" 439 And Moses, "I
have set before thee the way of life and the way of death. Choose the good, and walk
therein." 440 And Esaias, "If ye be willing, and will hearken unto me, ye shall eat the
good of the land; but if you refuse, and will not hearken unto me, the sword shall devour
you: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it." 441 And in the Psalms, "Oh that my people
had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their
enemies, and turned my hand against those that oppress them":442 which shows that it was
in the power of the people to hearken and walk in the ways of God.

And the Saviour says, "But I say unto you, Resist not him that is evil";443 and, "That
every one who is angry with his brother shall be in danger of the judgment";444 and,
"Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already
in his heart." 445 And if He gives any other commandments, He speaks on the supposition
that it is in our power to keep what is enjoined; and with good reason, if we are to be in
danger of the judgment for transgressing them. Whence also He says, "Every one which
heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, which built
his house upon the rock"; and so on. "But he that heareth and doeth not, is likened unto a
foolish man, which built his house upon the sand";446 and so on. And, speaking to those on
the right hand, "Come, ye blessed of my Father," and so forth; "for I was an hungered, and
ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink";447 which shows very clearly that
because they deserve to be praised He gives them the promises. And, on the contrary, He
says to the others, because in comparison with them they deserved to be blamed, "Depart
from me, ye cursed, into the eternal fire." 448 And let us see how Paul also discourses to
us on the supposition that we have Free Will and are ourselves responsible for being lost
or saved.

"Or despisest thou," he says,449 "the riches of his goodness and forbearance and
longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after
thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath and
revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who will render to every man according to his
works: to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honour and incorruption,
eternal life: but unto them that are factious, and obey not the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, shall be wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul
of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honour
and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. There
are, indeed, countless passages in the Scriptures which very clearly support the doctrine
of Free Will.

6. But since certain passages in the Old Testament and in the New tend to the opposite
conclusion, viz. that it is not in our power to keep the commandments and be saved, or to
transgress them and perish, let us in turn take some of these, and look at the
explanations of them; so that a reader studying our examples may similarly pick out for
himself all the passages which seem to destroy Free Will, and may consider the way to
explain them. No doubt what is related of Pharaoh, concerning whom God says repeatedly, "I
will harden Pharaoh's heart," 450 has troubled many. For if he is hardened by God, and
sins because he is hardened, he does not cause himself to sin, nor, if this is so, is
Pharaoh a free agent; and similarly, some one will say that the perishing are not free
agents, and that their perishing will not be their own doing. Again, in Ezekiel it is
said, "I will take away their stony hearts, and will give them hearts of flesh: that they
may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances." 451 This is disturbing, for it seems
to say that God gives the power to walk in the statutes and to keep the ordinances,
inasmuch as He has taken away that which hinders, viz. the stony heart, and has put in
them something better, the heart of flesh.

Let us look, too, at the passage in the Gospel, where the Saviour replies to those who
asked why He spoke to the multitude in parables. "That," He says, "seeing they may not
perceive; and hearing they may not understand; lest haply they should turn again, and it
should be forgiven them." 452 Further, in Paul we find, "It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy." 453 And elsewhere, "It is God that
worketh in you both to will and to do." 454 And in another place, "So then he hath mercy
on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he
still find fault? For who withstandeth his will?" 455 And "This persuasion 456 is of him
that calleth and not of ourselves." 457 "Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest
against God? " 458 And again, "Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why didst
thou make me thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to
make one part a vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? This in itself is surely
enough to greatly trouble most readers, and give the impression that man is not a free
agent, but that God saves and destroys whomsoever He wishes.

7. Let us begin, then, with what is said about Pharaoh's being hardened by God, so that he
might not let the people go; and with this shall also be examined the apostolic statement,
"So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth." 459 And since some
heterodox thinkers use these passages, themselves almost destroying Free Will, for the
sake of introducing perishing natures incapable of being saved, and different natures
which are being saved, because they cannot possibly be lost; and since they say that
Pharaoh being of a perishing nature was therefore hardened by God, Who hath mercy on the
spiritual, but hardeneth the earthy; come, let us see what it is they mean. We will ask
them if Pharaoh was of an earthy nature; and if they answer "Yes," we will tell them that
the man with an earthy nature is altogether disobedient to God; and if he be thus
disobedient, what need is there for hardening his heart, and this not once but many times?
Unless perhaps (seeing that it was possible for him to obey, and he certainly would have
obeyed, inasmuch as he was not earthy, because he was put to shame by the signs and
wonders) God wanted him still more disobedient for the sake of showing forth mighty deeds
to the saving of the many, and therefore hardened his heart. This shall be our first
argument against them in order to overthrow their assumption that Pharaoh was of a
perishing nature.

And we shall give the same answer respecting the Apostle's statement. Does God really
harden any? Does He harden the perishing, because He believes that they will be partially
obedient unless they are hardened? or, forsooth, those who would be saved, because they
have not a perishing nature? And on whom hath He mercy? Is it on those who will be saved?
But what need have they of a second mercy, seeing that once for all they have been so
fashioned that they will be saved, and that they are certain to be blessed on account of
their nature? Unless, perhaps, since it is possible for them to perish if they have not
mercy shown them, they have mercy shown them, so that they may not incur destruction to
which they are liable, but may come to be numbered with those who are being saved. This is
our reply to those men.

8. But we must raise another question in reply to those who think they understand the word
"harden." What do they mean by saying that God by His operation hardens the heart, and
what is His object in so doing? Let them, at all events, keep to a conception of God
consistent with His being really just and good. If they object to this, let us for the
present waive the point, and only say just; and I invite them to show how the good and
just God, or the just God, to say no more, manifests His justice by hardening the heart of
a man who is perishing through being hardened; and how the just God can be the cause of a
man's disobedience and destruction, seeing that men are punished by Him for their hardness
and because they do not obey Him? And why does God also blame Pharaoh, saying, "Thou wilt
not let my people go.460 Behold, I smite all the first-born in the land of Egypt, and thy
first-born";461 and whatever else is recorded as spoken by God to Pharaoh through the
mouth of Moses. Any fair-minded man who believes that the Scriptures are true, and that
God is just, must do his best to show how in using such expressions God is clearly
understood to be just; for if any one should have the effrontery to stand up and denounce
the Creator for His wickedness,462 we should want other arguments to answer him. But since
our opponents say they are disposed to regard Him as just, and we regard Him as both just
and good, let us consider how the good and just God could harden the heart of Pharaoh.

9. Let us see, then, whether an illustration which the Apostle used in the Epistle to the
Hebrews will help us to show how by one operation God hath mercy on whom He will, and
hardens whom He will; not that God intends to harden: God's purpose is merciful; but the
hardening is a result thereof, through man's inherent wickedness, and God is therefore
said to harden him that is hardened. "The land," he says, "which hath drunk the rain that
cometh upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them for whose sake it is also tilled,
receiveth blessing from God: but if it beareth thorns and thistles, it is rejected and
nigh unto a curse; whose end is to be burned." 463 So then, in respect of the rain there
is one operation; but while there is one operation in respect of the rain, the land which
is tilled bears fruit, and the land which is neglected and barren bears thorns. It would
sound harsh for the sender of the rain to say, "I made the fruits and the thorns to grow
that are in the land"; but however harsh it might sound, it would nevertheless be true.
For if there had been no rain, there would have been neither fruits nor thorns; but
because there were seasonable and moderate rains, both fruits and thorns grew. It is the
land which hath drunk the rain that cometh frequently upon it, and beareth thorns and
thistles, that is rejected and nigh unto a curse. So then, the blessing of the rain came
also upon the inferior land; but it was the inherent badness of the land, left uncared for
and uncultivated, which caused thorns and thistles to grow. Similarly, God's marvellous
doings are, as it were, the rain; but men's different purposes 464 are, as it were, the
cultivation or neglect of the land; the nature of the land is one and the same.

10. Suppose the sun were to speak and say, "I melt and dry up. Melting and drying up are
the contraries of one another, but it would not speak falsely, because of the subject
matter:465 wax being melted, and clay dried up, by one and the same heat. Similarly, the
one operation of God by means of Moses proved the hardening of Pharaoh on account of his
evil disposition, and the obedience of the mixed multitudes of the Egyptians who went out
with the Hebrews. And the brief statement that the heart of Pharaoh was somewhat softened,
inasmuch as he said, "Only ye shall not go very far away: ye shall go a three days'
journey, but leave your wives"; 466 and whatever else he said, slightly yielding to the
marvellous deeds of Moses, shows that the signs produced some effect upon him, but not the
full effect. Now there would not have been even this degree of softening, if, as is
thought by the many, the meaning of "I will harden Pharaoh's heart" is that the hardening
was effected by God Himself. And it is not absurd to tone down the harshness of such
expressions as we do in common life. It often happens that kind masters say to their
servants, who are being ruined by their kindness and forbearance, "I have spoiled you"; "I
am to blame for such and such offences.

We ought to attend to the nature and force of what is said, and not quibble because we do
not plainly catch the meaning of the expression. Paul, at any rate, no doubt after careful
inquiry, says to the sinner, "Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and long-suffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? 467
But, after thy hardness and impenitent heart, treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day
of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Now, let us suppose that what
the Apostle says to the sinner is addressed to Pharaoh, and we see how well the
declaration would suit him; for after his hardness and impenitent heart he was treasuring
up for himself wrath; and his hardness would not have been so clearly proved, nor have
been so manifest, if the signs had not been wrought, or, if they had been wrought, but had
not been so many and so great.

11. But since such interpretations are far from convincing and are thought to be forced,
let us look at the word of Prophecy, and see what the many say who have experienced the
abundant goodness of God though they may not have lived good lives, but afterwards sinned:
"O Lord, why dost thou make us to err from thy way? Wherefore hardenest thou our heart
that we fear not thy name? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance,
that for a little while we may inherit thy holy mount." 468 And in Jeremiah, "O Lord, thou
hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed." 469
For when the suppliants for mercy say, "Wherefore hardenest thou our heart that we fear
not thy name?",470 the meaning is, in effect, something like this: "Wherefore didst thou
spare us so long, not visiting us to take vengeance on our sins, but leaving us alone
until our offences became so great? God leaves the greater number of men without
chastisement, so that the character of each one may be thoroughly tested from our
voluntary conduct, and that through the trial the good may be made manifest, and the rest,
not without being known,----I will not say to God, for He knows all things before they
begin,471 ----but to the rational creatures and themselves, may afterwards light on a way
of healing; for they would never have realised the benefit, if they had not condemned
themselves;

and this is expedient for every one, that he may perceive his own peculiar nature and the
grace which God gives. But if a man does not perceive his own weakness and the grace of
God, though he be benefited without having had experience of himself and without having
condemned himself, he will imagine that the blessing bestowed upon him by the grace of
heaven is his own brave and manly conduct. And this supposition, filling him with pride,
will be the cause of his downfall; as we think happened to the Devil, because he gave
himself credit for the privileges which he enjoyed when he was blameless. "For every one
that exalteth himself shall be humbled," and "Every one that humbleth himself shall be
exalted." 472 Consider, further, that for this cause the Divine mysteries are hidden from
the wise and understanding,473 viz. that, as the Apostle says, "No flesh may glory before
God"; and they are revealed to babes, who, when they have passed their infancy, have come
to better things, and remember that if they have reached the height of blessedness, the
credit is not so much due to themselves as to the unspeakable bounty of God.

12. So then, he that 474 is left without chastisement is so left by the Divine judgment,
and God is long-suffering towards some sinners, not without reason, but because it will be
good for them, having regard to the immortality of the soul and eternal life, that they be
not too soon assisted in the attainment of salvation, but be slowly brought thereto after
they have had experience of much evil. For as physicians, though they might quickly cure a
man, will adopt the opposite of remedial measures whenever they suspect lurking mischief,
because by so doing they mean to make the cure more permanent, and think it better to keep
the patient for a long time in feverishness and sickness, so that he may make a sounder
recovery, than that he should soon seem to pick up strength, but suffer a relapse, and the
too hasty cure prove to be only temporary: so God also, knowing the secrets of the heart
and having foreknowledge of the future, in His long-suffering perhaps lets things take
their course, and by means of outward circumstances draws forth the secret evil, in order
to cleanse him, who through neglect, has harboured the seeds of sin; so that a man having
vomited them when they have come to the surface, even if he be far gone in wickedness, may
afterwards find strength when he has been cleansed from his wickness and been renewed. For
God governs the souls of men, not, if I may so speak, according to the scale of an earthly
life of fifty years, but by the measure of eternity; for He has made the intellectual
nature incorruptible and akin to Himself; and the rational soul is not debarred of
healing, as if this present life were all.

13. Now let us make use of the following illustration from the Gospel: There is a rock
with a scanty surface soil; if the seeds fall into that soil, they quickly spring up, but
when they have sprung up, once the sun is risen, they are scorched and wither away because
they have no root.475 Now this rock is the soul of man, hardened through neglect, and
through wickedness turned to stone; for no man's heart is created stony by God, but it
becomes such through wickedness. Suppose one were to blame the husbandman for not sowing
his seed on the rocky ground earlier, because some other rocky ground which had received
the seed was seen to be flourishing; the husbandman might reply, "I will sow this land
later when I have dressed 476 it with what will keep back 477 what I intend to sow; for
the slower and safer method will suit this land better than it would the land which takes
the seed sooner and more superficially"; we should give the husbandman credit for speaking
reasonably and for understanding his work. So, too, the great Husbandman of every nature
puts off the well-doing, which might too soon be reckoned such, in order that it may not
be superficial. But some one may here object, "How is it that some of the seeds fall upon
the soul which is like a rock with its thin covering of soil?

In reply, let us say that it is better for such a soul which has too hastily resolved on
the higher life, and is not treading the path which leads to it, to get what it wishes, so
that, condemning itself for its impatience, it may have long patience hereafter to receive
its natural cultivation. For our 478 souls, so to speak, are countless, and their
characters countless, and their emotions, dispositions, purposes, and instincts
innumerable; there is but One Who ordered them, and He the Best; He understandeth the
seasons, and the proper helps, and the ways of guidance, and the paths, the God and Father
of All, Who knoweth how He is guiding even Pharaoh through many experiences and through
the drowning in the sea, though His ordering of Pharaoh's welfare does not end there. For
Pharaoh was not destroyed when he was drowned. "In the hand of God are both we and our
words: All wisdom also and knowledge of workmanship?" 479 So far, briefly, in defence of
the statement that Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and in explanation of the words, "On whom
he will he hath mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." 480

14. Now, let us look at the passage from Ezekiel, "I will take away their stony hearts
from them, and will give them hearts of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep
mine ordinances." 481 If God when He wishes takes away their stony hearts and puts in them
hearts of flesh, so that His ordinances are kept and His commandments observed, the
putting away of wickedness does not depend upon ourselves. For the taking away of stony
hearts can have but one meaning, viz., that from whom God chooses, the wickedness in which
any man is hardened is put away; and as for the creating of a heart of flesh, that a man
may walk in the ordinances of God and keep His commandments, what does this mean but that
the man begins to yield, does not stubbornly withstand the truth, and has the power to
practise virtue? And if God promises to do this, and until God takes away the stony
hearts, we do not put them away, it is clear that the putting away of our wickedness does
not depend upon ourselves; and if we contribute nothing towards the creation within us of
the heart of flesh, but it is the work of God, it follows that a virtuous life will not be
our work, but altogether [the work of] Divine grace. This is what any one will say who
from the bare words seeks to destroy Free Will. In reply we shall say that we ought thus
to understand these passages.

Suppose some one ignorant and uneducated to become conscious of his defects, either
through the admonition of his teacher, or simply of himself, and then to put himself in
the hands of a man whom he thinks capable of leading him into education and virtue; when
he thus surrenders himself, his instructor promises to take away the lack of education and
to give him an education; not, however, as though the educating and the escape from the
want of it in no way depend on the pupil having offered himself for treatment: he only
promises to benefit his pupil because he desires to improve. Thus the Divine Word promises
to take away the wickedness, which it calls the stony heart, of those who come to it, not
if they are unwilling, but if they submit themselves to the Physician of the sick; just as
in the Gospels, the sick are found coming to the Saviour and begging to be healed and
restored to health. We may say that if the blind received their sight, it was the doing of
the sufferers, inasmuch as they believed they could be restored and begged the blessing,
and that it was the Saviour's doing, inasmuch as He did restore their sight. So, also, the
Word of God promises to implant knowledge in those who come to it, by taking away the
stony and hard heart, that is to say, their wickedness, so that a man may walk in the
Divine commandments and keep the Divine ordinances. 15.

Then there was the passage from the Gospel, in which the Saviour said that His reason for
speaking to those without in parables was, "That seeing they may not perceive, and hearing
they may not understand, lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven
them." 482 Our opponents will say, "If it is certainly the case that some hearers turn
because they hear clearer teaching, and so turn that they become worthy of the forgiveness
of sins, and whether they hear the clearer teaching or not does not depend upon them but
upon the teacher, and the reason why he does not speak to them more clearly is that they
may not see and understand, their salvation does not depend upon themselves; and if this
is so, we are not free agents as regards salvation and perdition. If it were not for the
additional words, "Lest haply they should turn again, and it should be forgiven them," it
would be a convincing reply to say that the Saviour did not wish those who were unlikely
to become good and upright to understand the deeper, mystical truths, and He therefore
spoke to them in parables; but, as it is, when we find the words, "Lest haply they should
turn again, and it should be forgiven them," our defence is more difficult.

In the first place, then, we must note the passage in connection with the heterodox, who
hunt up such portions of the Old Testament, because in them, as they make bold to say, the
cruelty of the Creator 483 shows itself, the spirit of revenge and retaliation which bad
men display, or whatever they like to call it, their only object being to prove that there
is no goodness in the Creator; and in reading the New Testament they do not accord it fair
and equal treatment, but dismiss such passages as resemble those they think deserving of
censure in the Old Testament. For the Saviour is clearly shown in the Gospel, and they
themselves so take the above words, to have had this motive in not speaking plainly, viz.
"That men may not turn, and having turned become worthy of remission of sins"----a passage
which in itself rivals any like it from the Old Testament which are impugned. But if they
seek a defence of the Gospel, we must ask them whether their inconsistent treatment of
similar questions is not culpable, inasmuch as they take no offence at the New Testament
but seek to defend it, while they attack the Old Testament for such-like things, though
they ought to defend them like those from the New Testament. And let us hereby teach them
on account of the resemblances to consider all as the Scriptures of one God. Now let us
offer the best defence we can in the matter before us.

16. When we were investigating the story of Pharaoh we said that sometimes a too rapid
cure is not for the good of the patients; for if, having got themselves into trouble, they
were to be relieved of their sufferings on easy terms, they would think little of the evil
because it was soon cured, and through not being on their guard against falling into it
would fall into it again. Wherefore, in such cases the Eternal God, Who knoweth the secret
things and knoweth all things before they be,484 according to His goodness will not give
the sufferers too speedy assistance, and, if I may so say, helps them by not helping
them,485 because that is best for them. It is probable, then, that those "without," 486 of
whom we are speaking, inasmuch as the Saviour saw, as we suppose, that they would not be
steadfast in their conversion if they clearly heard what He said, were so treated by the
Lord that they should not distinctly hear the deeper truths; lest haply, having turned too
quickly, and having been healed by gaining forgiveness, they should despise the wounds of
their wickedness as .trifling and easily cured, and again, even more quickly than before,
suffer from them. Perhaps also, while paying the penalty for their former sins, offences
against virtue which they committed through forsaking her, they had not filled the proper
time;

so that, being forsaken of the Divine superintendence, and having had enough of the evils
which they themselves sowed, they are afterwards called to a more steadfast repentance,
and will not speedily fall into the sins into which they fell before, because they mocked
at the worth of goodness, and abandoned themselves to the lower life. Those, then, who are
said to be "without," of course as compared with those "within," inasmuch as they are not
very far distant from those within, these last being the inner circle who hear distinctly,
hear indistinctly because they are addressed in parables, but they do hear. Others, again,
of those "without," they who are called the people of Tyre,487 although it was foreknown
that they would long ago have repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes, if the Saviour
came near their borders, do not even hear what He said to those "without." 488 The reason
probably is that these Tyrians were far less deserving than those "without"; and the
Saviour intended that at another season, when it has become more tolerable for them than
for those who did not receive the Word, and who reminded him of the Tyrians, they may hear
under more favourable conditions, and may more steadfastly repent. And observe whether, as
we prosecute the inquiry,489 we do not more and more strive to every way preserve piety
towards God and His Christ, endeavouring, for we know how marvellous these things are, to
defend by all means the manifold providence of God Who taketh thought for an immortal
soul.

If, indeed, any one should ask concerning those who were reproached by the Saviour,
because, though they saw marvellous things and heard Divine words, they did not profit,
while the Tyrians would have repented if such things had been said and clone among them:
if he were to raise the question and ask, Why in the world did the Saviour preach to such
people to their hurt, so that a heavier burden of sins might be imputed to them? we must
reply that He Who understands the dispositions of those who blame His providence, and say
that it explains their unbelief, because it has not granted them to see what it privileged
others to behold, and has not arranged for them to hear what others have heard to their
profit, He, inasmuch as He wishes to show the unreasonableness of their defence, grants
those things for which the accusers of His government ask, so that after they have
received them they may none the less be convicted of deep impiety, seeing that they do not
surrender themselves that they may be profited, and may therefore cease from such
audacity; and, being so far free, may learn that God sometimes lingers and delays out of
kindness to some men, not granting them to see and hear things which, if seen and heard,
would convict them of still more grievous sin, forasmuch as after such mighty works they
did not believe.

17. Now let us look at the words, "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that hath mercy." 490 They who take hold of the passage say, "If it is
not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy," salvation
does not depend upon ourselves, but upon the way 491 they are constituted by Him Who makes
them what they are, or on the choice 492 of Him Who hath mercy when He pleases! We must
ask the objectors this question: Is the willing that which is good a good or a bad thing?
and the running of the man who wishes to reach the goal by zealously pursuing that which
is good, is this deserving of praise or blame? If they tell us that it deserves blame,
their answer will be absurd, for the saints will and run, and, of course, herein do
nothing deserving blame. If they say that to will that which is good is good, and to run
after that which is good is good, we will ask how the perishing nature wills the better
course; for it is like a bad tree bearing good fruit, if willing the better course is
really good.

And, thirdly, they will say that to will that which is good and run after that which is
good belongs to the class of things indifferent, and is neither good nor bad.493 In reply
to this it must be said that if willing the good and running after the good is a thing
indifferent, then its opposite is also a thing indifferent, that is to say, willing that
which is evil and running after that which is evil. But, in fact, to will that which is
evil and run after that which is evil, is not a thing indifferent. Therefore, to will that
which is good and run after that which is good, is not a thing indifferent. 18. Some such
defence as this, I think, we can offer to the words, "So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath mercy." 494 In the Book of Psalms
Solomon says (for he is the author of the Song of Ascents 495 which we are about to
quote), "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the
Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." 496 He does not mean to dissuade us
from building, nor is he teaching us not to watch so as to guard the city of our soul, but
he is showing that what is built apart from God, and is not blessed with His guardianship,
is built in vain and kept to no purpose, because God might reasonably have been called the
Lord of the building, and the Master of the Universe, the Ruler of the guard of the city.
Suppose, therefore, we were to say that such a building is not the work of the builder,
but God's work; and that if the city has suffered nothing from its enemies, success is not
to be attributed to the watchman, but to God over all, we should not err: for it is
understood that man plays his part, though the manliness and virtue is thankfully ascribed
to God Who brought it to perfection.

Similarly, inasmuch as human willing is not sufficient for the attainment of the end in
view, nor the running, as if we were athletes, sufficient for grasping the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus,497 for these results are secured with God's
assistance, it is well said that "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth,
but of God that hath mercy." 498 The same might be said of husbandry, as it is written, "I
planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth
anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase";499 and if there are
abundant fruits, we could not with piety say that this is the work of the husbandman, or
the work of him that watereth, but the work of God; so also our perfecting is not brought
about if we do nothing at all, though it is not completed by us, but God effects the
greater part of it. And that what we say may carry clear conviction, we will take an
illustration from navigation. If we regard the winds that blow, the settled state of the
weather, and the brightness of the stars, all contributing to the safety of those on
board, how much could we credit seamanship with for bringing the vessel into harbour? The
shipmasters themselves from motives of piety do not often venture to affirm that they have
saved the ship, but ascribe everything to God;

not as though they had done nothing, but because Providence has contributed to the result
immensely more than their skill. And certainly in the saving of our souls what God gives
is immensely more than what comes from our own ability;500 and this, I think, accounts for
the words, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that hath
mercy. For if we must take the words, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that hath mercy," as our opponents suppose, the commandments are
superfluous, and Paul to no purpose blames some for having fallen into sin, and
congratulates others on their uprightness, and lays down laws for the churches; and on
their showing it is useless for us to devotedly will the better life, useless to earnestly
resolve to run. But not in vain does Paul give his advice, blaming some, congratulating
others; and not in vain do we devotedly will the better life and press on to things which
excel. So, then, they have not well understood the passage.

19. Besides these there is the passage, "It is God which worketh in you both to will and
to work." 501 Some say, "If the willing comes from God, and the working from God, even if
we will badly and work badly, God is the original source of our so doing; and if this be
so, we are not free agents. On the other hand, when we will what is better and work the
things that excel, since the willing and the working come from God, it is not we who have
done the things that excel; we, indeed, seemed to do them, but the doing them was God's
gift; so that, according to this also, we are not free agents." In reply, we have to say
that the Apostle's language does not imply that the willing of evil, or the willing of
good, is of God, and similarly, the working of what is better or worse, but willing and
running in general. For as it is from God that we are living creatures and men, so also it
is from Him that we have the power of willing in general, as I said, and the power of
motion in general. And as, although in virtue of our being living creatures we have the
power of motion and can move the members of our bodies, our hands or feet, for instance,
we could not reasonably say that the specific movement comes from God, the movements to
strike, or kill, or take away another man's goods, but must maintain that motion in
general is indeed a gift from God, though we use it for either bad or good purposes: so
the working which stamps us as living creatures, we have received from God, and the
willing we received from the Creator; but we use that power of willing either for the
noblest purposes, or for the opposite, and so also the power of working.

20. Still, the utterance of the Apostle will seem to force us to the conclusion that we
are not free agents. Putting an objection, he says, "Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth
he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that
repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hadst thou
made me thus? Or hath not the potter a right over the clay, from the same lump to make one
part a vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?" 502 A reader may well say, "If, as
the potter from the same lump makes some vessels unto honour and some unto dishonour, so
also God makes some unto salvation and some to perdition, it follows that we have nothing
to do with our salvation or perdition: nor are we free agents. Let me ask a reader who
makes this use of the words, if he can imagine the Apostle contradicting himself. I do not
think any one will dare say this. Well, then, if the Apostle does not contradict himself,
how does the reader who thus understands him mean to show that the Apostle reasonably
finds fault when he blames the Corinthian fornicator, or those who fell into sin and did
not repent of the lasciviousness and incontinence which they committed? 503 And how is it
that he blesses for their well-doing those whom he praises, as, for instance, the house of
Onesiphorus, saying, "The Lord grant mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus:

for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain: but, when he was in Rome, he
sought me diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord in
that day." 504 Surely it is not consistent for the same Apostle to censure the sinner
because he deserves blame, and congratulate the well-doer because he deserves praise; and,
contrariwise, as if nothing depended on ourselves, maintain that the Creator of the world
is responsible for one vessel being unto honour, and another unto dishonour. How can it be
sound doctrine that, "We must all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, that each one
may receive the things done in the body, according to what he hath done, whether it be
good or bad," 505 if they who have done evil have so conducted themselves because they
were created vessels of dishonour, and they who have lived virtuous lives have done that
which is right, because originally they were fashioned thereto and were vessels of honour?
And again, is not what is said elsewhere inconsistent with the view that it is the fault
of the Creator if "one vessel is in honour and another in dishonour," as the critics infer
from what we have quoted? "In a great house," we read, "there are not only vessels of gold
and silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some unto honour and some unto dishonour.

If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified,
meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work." 506 For if he who purges
himself becomes a vessel unto honour, while he who carelessly leaves himself unpurged
becomes a vessel unto dishonour, the Creator cannot, so far as these words go, be held
responsible. For the Creator makes vessels of honour and vessels of dishonour, not
originally according to His foreknowledge, since He does not, according to it, condemn or
justify beforehand, but He makes them vessels of honour who purge themselves, and them
vessels of dishonour who carelessly leave themselves unpurged. So that from antecedent 507
causes for making the vessels to honour and dishonour it arises that one man is to honour
and another to dishonour. 21. But if we once admit that there are certain antecedent
causes for one vessel being a vessel of honour, and another a vessel of dishonour, what
absurdity is there in going back to the mystery of the soul, and understanding that there
were antecedent causes for Jacob's being loved and Esau's being hated; as regards Jacob,
before his assumption of a body, and as regards Esau, before he was conceived in the womb?
At the same time it clearly appears that, so far as the subject nature is concerned, as
there is one and the same lump of clay subject to the potter, out of which vessels are
made to honour and dishonour: so, though there is one common soul nature subject to God,
and, if I may so speak, one lump of rational subsistences, certain antecedent causes have
made some men to be unto honour and others to dishonour. And if the Apostle's question
conveys a rebuke, "Nay, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? 508 it perhaps
teaches that he who has confidence towards God, as a man of faith and good life, would not
have the question addressed to him, "Who art thou that repliest against God?" Such an one
was Moses; for Moses spake, and God answered him by a Voice,509 and as God answers Moses,
so also the holy man answers God. But he who has not this confidence, manifestly, either
because he has lost it, or because he investigates these topics not from a love of
learning but in a contentious spirit, and therefore says, "Why doth he still find fault?
For who withstandeth his will?" 510 this man would deserve the rebuke, "Nay, O man, who
art thou that repliest against God?" 511

22. But to those who introduce different natures,512 and use the present passage in
support, I have this to say: If they make good their contention that from one lump are
made both those who are perishing and those who are being saved, and that the Creator of
those who are being saved is the Creator also of those who are perishing, and if He is
good Who maketh not only men who are spiritual, but also those who are earthy (for this is
a consequence of their doctrine), it is nevertheless possible that a man who in the
present time has through certain previous deeds of righteousness become a vessel of
honour, may, if he do not the like things, nor such as befits the vessel of honour, become
in a different age a vessel of dishonour; as, on the contrary, it is possible that
although through causes prior to this life a man has here become a vessel of dishonour,
when his faults have been corrected, he may become a vessel of honour in the new creation,
sanctified and meet for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work.513 And perhaps
the Israelites of our day, if they live unworthily of their high descent, will degenerate,
and change as it were from vessels of honour to vessels of dishonour; and many of the
Egyptians and Edomites of the present time, whenever they shall bring forth fruit
abundantly, will enter the Church of the Lord, being no longer accounted Egyptians and
Edomites, but future Israelites; so that, according to this, some through their deliberate
choice advance from bad to good, while others fall away from good to bad; and others are
kept in goodness, or rise step by step from good to better, and others, again, abide in
evil, or, because their wickedness abounds, grow worse and worse.

23. And since the Apostle in one place does not pretend that it rests with God whether a
man becomes a vessel unto honour or unto dishonour, but puts the whole responsibility upon
us, saying, "If then a man purge himself, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified and
meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work"; and elsewhere he does not
pretend that it depends upon us but lays the whole responsibility upon God, when he
asserts that "the potter hath a right over the clay, to make one vessel unto honour and
another unto dishonour",514 and his statements are not contradictory; we must bring them
both together, and from the two draw one sound conclusion. The power we have does not
compel us to advance in goodness apart from the knowledge of God, nor does the knowledge
of God compel us to advance unless we also contribute to the good result; for neither does
our power apart from the knowledge of God, and the full use of what is in a worthy sense
our "power," make a man to be unto honour or unto dishonour; nor does God's power alone
fashion a man unto honour or dishonour unless He have our choice, inclining to the better
or the worse, as a sort of raw material out of which to make the difference. This may
suffice for our treatment of Free Will.

CHAP. XXII. ---- What is the dispersion on earth of rational, that is, human souls,
indicated under a veil in the building of the tower, and the confusion of tongues thereat?
Wherein we shall also treat of many lords set over the dispersed according to their
condition. From Book v. against Celsus. 1. Now let us see what Celsus says next. It runs
thus: "The Jews having become a separate nation, and having made laws to suit their
country, in still maintaining the authority of their laws, and guarding the national
religion with all its peculiarities, are only doing what other men do; for every community
cherishes its ancestral customs, once they are established, no matter what they are. And
it seems to be a good thing, not only because the different peoples have had different
ideas of laws and customs, and because of the necessity of guarding public institutions,
but also because it is probable that different parts of the earth were originally assigned
to different superintending spirits,515 and having been made into separate realms are that
way administered. And, in fact, correct practice in the several instances would depend on
the pleasure of these spirits;516 and it would be profanity to relinquish the original
local usages." What Celsus here really means to show is that the ancient Egyptians
afterwards became a separate nation, the Jews, and that having made laws for themselves
they observe them. And, not to repeat the exact words of Celsus already quoted, he says
that it is best for them to keep to their ancestral religion, just as it is for the other
nations which honour their own forms of worship. And he adduces a deeper reason to explain
why it is best for the Jews to honour their own forms of worship, when he darkly hints
that they whose lot it was to superintend the land of those for whom the laws were made,
assisted the lawgivers in the several instances. He seems, then, to indicate that one or
more beings watch over the country of the Jews and its inhabitants, and that the laws were
made by Moses with their assistance.

2. "And they ought," he says, "to keep their laws not only because different peoples have
had different ideas of laws and customs, and because of the necessity of guarding public
institutions, but also because it is probable that different parts of the earth were
originally assigned to different superintending spirits, and having been made into
separate realms are that way administered. So, as if he had forgotten what he said against
the Jews, he now gives them a share in the general distribution of praise to all who keep
the ancestral usages; for he says, "And, in fact, in the several instances right practice
would depend on the pleasure of the ruling spirits. And observe whether he does not
distinctly mean, if he can bring it about, to make a Jew live in the observance of Jewish
laws and not forsake them, inasmuch as he would be guilty of profanity if he did forsake
them; for he says, "It is profanity to relinquish the original local usages. In reply, I
should like to ask him and those who agree with him, who it was that originally assigned
the different parts of the earth to the different guardian angels,517 in particular, the
country of the Jews and its people, to the one or more angels whose charge they were. Did
Zeus, as Celsus would say, assign the Jewish people and their country to one or more?

And Did Zeus intend that the spirit to whom Judea was allotted should make the existing
Jewish laws, or was this done against his will? That Celsus may answer, if he will, you
see I am willing to put the whole thing in a nutshell. But if the parts of the earth have
not been assigned to their guardian spirits by some one deity, it follows that each at
random and with no one to direct him, took his share of the earth just as it happened; but
this is absurd, and enough to overthrow belief in the providence of the Supreme God. 3.
And let any one who chooses relate how the various parts of the earth, having been divided
into certain realms, are administered by the spirits which have the oversight of them; but
let him also tell us how it is that in the several communities the correct practice would
depend on the pleasure of the ruling spirits; and whether, for instance, the laws of the
Scythians, which allow the doing away with fathers, are right; or those of the Persians,
which do not forbid marriages between mothers and their own sons, nor between fathers and
their own daughters. And why need I take other instances from those who interested
themselves in the laws of different nations, and go on to ask how, in the several
communities, the laws are properly executed according to the pleasure of the ruling
spirits? We shall be glad if Celsus will tell us how it is impiety to relinquish ancestral
laws which allow the marriages 518 of mothers and daughters, or make suicide by hanging a
happy end of life, or affirm the perfect purification of those who give their bodies to be
burnt, and through fire seek their release from life; and how it can be impiety to abolish
laws, those of the Tauri, for instance, which enjoin the offering of strangers as
sacrifices to Artemis, or those of certain Libyan tribes regarding the sacrificing of
their children to Saturn.

Celsus must, moreover, accept the consequence, that it is impiety for the Jews to break
their ancestral laws which prohibit the worship of any other God than the Creator of the
universe. And piety, according to him, will not be essentially Divine, but a matter of
arbitrary institution; for with some it is piety to worship a crocodile, and with others
to eat a portion of the objects of their adoration; others deem it piety to worship a
calf, and others to regard the goat as a god. The result will be that the same man will be
pious in regard of one set of laws, and impious according to a different set, which is an
utter absurdity. 4. But they will probably reply that the pious man is he who keeps the
customs of his own country, and that he is by no means to be taxed with impiety when he
does not observe those of other countries; and again, that a man who is deemed impious by
certain races is not impious when, according to the customs of his own country, he
worships his own gods, but fights against and feasts upon the gods of those who have
opposite laws. Now, consider whether these arguments do not exhibit great confusion of
thought in respect of righteousness, and piety, and religion; for religion has thus no
organic unity, no distinctive character of its own, no power to impress a religious stamp
on those who act in accordance with it. If, then, religion, piety, and righteousness are
relative only, so that piety and impiety are the same thing, inasmuch as they depend on
varying relations and on the established laws, consider whether it does not follow that
temperance 519 will also be in the class of things relative, and courage, and prudence,
and knowledge, and the rest of the virtues, which is the height of absurdity.

5. Celsus seems to think that the argument leads to the conclusion that "all men ought to
live according to the customs of their country, and that they should not be blamed for so
doing; but that Christians having forsaken their ancestral usages, and not being one
nation like the Jews, are to be blamed for following the teaching of Jesus. Let him then
tell us whether men of a philosophic turn of mind, who have been taught to avoid
superstition, are right in forsaking their ancestral usages and in going so far as to eat
things forbidden in their own countries; or will they act unbecomingly in so doing? For if
on account of their philosophy, and what they have learned in opposition to superstition,
they do not keep their ancestral customs, but would eat of things traditionally forbidden,
why should not Christians also, since reason persuades them not to concern themselves with
images, and statues, or even with the works of God, but to rise above these and bring the
soul near to the Creator, why should not they be free from blame when they are only doing
what the philosophers do?

If for the sake of defending his pet theory, Celsus or his supporters should say that even
a philosopher will observe his country's customs, it is time for philosophers to make a
laughing-stock of themselves, in Egypt, for instance, by refraining from eating onions
that they may observe their country's customs, or certain parts of a carcase, head or
shoulder, for example, that they may not transgress the traditions of their fathers. So
then, also, if a man has been brought by the Word to worship the Supreme God, and out of
regard for ancestral usage lingers somewhere down among the images and statues of men, and
is not willing by deliberate choice to rise to the Creator, he would be like those who are
acquainted with philosophy, but fear where no fear is, and count it impiety to partake of
such food. 6. Enough has now been said to satisfy those who take their stand upon plain
common-sense principles against the opinions of Celsus now before us; but as we think that
some persons of a more critical temper will read what we write, let us venture to set
forth a few of the deeper arguments, involving speculation of a mystical and esoteric
nature, concerning the original distribution of various countries of the earth to various
spirits who have the oversight of them; and, to the best of our ability, let us show that
our argument is free from the absurdities recounted. Celsus really seems to me to have
misunderstood some of the deeper reasoning concerning the distribution of the earth's
inhabitants, upon which even Grecian history touches in a way, when it represents certain
of those who are accounted gods as having contended with one another for Attica, and in
the poetical writings makes some of those who are called gods acknowledge that certain
places are in a special sense their own. The history of barbarous nations, too,
particularly that of Egypt, also indicates something similar in treating of the division
of Egypt into what are called nomes, for it says that Athene to whose lot Sais fell is the
same goddess that has Achaia. And the learned Egyptians will tell countless similar
stories; but I do not know whether they include the Jews and their country in the
distribution, and assign them to some spirit. But enough for the present, concerning what
is said on these topics outside the Divine Word.

7. We say that Moses, who with us is regarded as a Prophet of God and His true servant, in
the song in Deuteronomy, speaks as follows concerning the division of the earth. He tells
us that "when the Most High separated the nations, when he scattered abroad the sons of
Adam, be set the bounds of the peoples, according to the number of the angels of God; and
the Lord's portion became his people Jacob; Israel the lot of his inheritance." 520 And
the same Moses, in the book called Genesis, gives an historical account of the
distribution of the nations, to this effect: "And the whole earth was of one language, and
of one speech. And it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in
the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there." 521 And a little farther on he says, "The Lord
came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord
said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is what they
begin to do: and now nothing will be withholden from them, which they purpose to do. Go
to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one
another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth: and they left off to build the city and the tower.

Therefore was the name of it it called Confusion, because the Lord did there confound the
language of all the earth: and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face
of all the earth. And also in the book entitled "The Wisdom of Solomon," where wisdom and
the confusion of languages, whereby the division of the inhabitants of the earth has
arisen, are discussed, this is what is said concerning wisdom: "Moreover the nations in
their wicked conspiracy being confounded, she found out the righteous, and preserved him
blameless unto God, and kept him strong in her tender compassion toward his son." 522 8.
Much might be said, and that of a mystical nature, about these things: with which agrees
the saying, "It is good to keep close the secret of the king";523 in order that the
doctrine of the embodying of souls (not through transmigration) may not be wasted on
everybody's ears, nor holy things be given to the dogs, nor pearls cast before swine.524
For this is impious, and involves a betrayal of the secret oracles of the wisdom of God,
concerning which it is well said, "A malicious soul wisdom shall not enter, nor dwell in
the body that is subject unto sin." 525 And it is sufficient to present as historical
narrative the secret meaning of the seeming 526 historical statement, so that they who
can; may for themselves thoroughly investigate the subject.

9. Let us then conceive of all the dwellers upon earth as using one Divine language, and,
so long as they agree with one another, as being kept in the use of that Divine language;
and let us suppose that they do not move from the east, so long as they mind the things of
the light and the brightness of the everlasting light. And let them, whenever they move
from the east, minding the things alien to the east, find a plain in the land of Shinar:
which, being interpreted, is "the shaking of teeth," and symbolises their losing the means
of their support; and there let them dwell. Then, inasmuch as they will to collect
material things, and join to heaven things which have no such natural affinity, so that
through the material things they may conspire against the immaterial, we will suppose them
to say, "Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly." 527 When, accordingly, they
harden and stiffen the clay and other materials, and determine to make brick into stone
and clay into bitumen, and therewith build a city and a tower the top of which they expect
to reach unto heaven,528 let them severally, in proportion as they have moved a greater or
less distance from the east, and in proportion as they have made the bricks into stones,
and the clay into bitumen, and have built with them, be delivered to angels of more or
less severity, and of such and such dispositions, until they have paid the penalty for
their audacity; and we will further suppose them to be severally led by the angels, who
give them their own language, to various parts of the earth according as they deserve;
some, let us say, to a scorching hot country, others to one so bitterly cold that it
punishes its inhabitants, some to a land hard to cultivate, others to one not so hard,
some to a land full of wild beasts, and others to one with not so many.

10. Next, if any one has the ability, let him, under the garb of history, in part
literally true, in part conveying some secret meaning, see those also who have preserved
their original language because they have not moved from the east, but have stayed in the
east, and have kept to the eastern language; and let him understand that these alone
become the portion of the Lord and His people called Jacob, and Israel the lot of His
inheritance; 529 and let these alone be governed by a ruler who has not received his
command that he may punish his subjects, like the other rulers. And let him who can,
remembering that he is dealing with men, observe the sins committed in this commonwealth
of those who constitute the special portion of the Lord, sins at first venial and such as
do not make the offenders deserve to be quite forsaken, but becoming more abundant though
still venial; and let our observer notice that this goes on for a long time, and that
remedial measures are all the while applied, and that these same men at intervals turn
again, and let him behold them, in proportion to their sins, forsaken and given up to the
appointed rulers of the other countries, and when they have been a little chastised and
have suffered punishment, having been, as it were, trained, let him behold them returning
to their own home; and afterwards, let him see them delivered to harsher rulers, to use
Scripture names, the Assyrians and the Babylonians.

Then, in spite of the care taken of them, let him see them none the less multiplying their
offences, and for that reason made a spoil by the rulers of the other nations, and
scattered over the other parts of the earth. Now let us suppose that their ruler advisedly
takes no notice of them when they are made a spoil by the rulers over the other nations,
so that, as it were, avenging Himself, having acquired the right to detach from the other
nations whom He can, He may reasonably do so, and may make laws for them, and show them
the sort of life they have to live, intending to raise them to the level to which He
raised those belonging to the former people who did not sin. And let those who have eyes
to see such wondrous truths, hereby learn that He, whose lot it was to govern those who
did not sin at the first, is more powerful than the other rulers: for He has proved
Himself able to choose His men from all sides, make them revolt from their tormentors,
being then under His laws, and lead them to live such a life as helps towards their former
sins being no longer remembered.

But, as we said before, we must be supposed to have a secret meaning in saying all this,
it being our purpose to show the mistakes of those who allege that "the various parts of
the earth were originally assigned to various spirits who had the oversight of them, were
divided into realms, and are administered on that principle. It was from these men Celsus
borrowed the statements under discussion. 11. And whereas they who moved from the east
were for the sins they committed given up unto a reprobate mind, and unto vile passions,
and in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness,530 so that having taken their fill of
sin they might hate it, we shall not agree with the opinion of Celsus, "that right
practice in the several instances depends on the spirits who have the oversight of the
various parts of the earth"; but we even wish not to do their will and pleasure. For we
see that it is piety to abolish original local usages by laws which are better and more
Divine, which Jesus in the plenitude of His power inspired, delivering us out of this
present evil world,531 and from the rulers of this world which are coming to nought;532
and that it is impiety not to throw ourselves upon the mercy of Him Who is seen and proved
to be more mighty than all rulers, to whom God said, as the prophets foretold many
generations before, "Ask of me and I will give thee nations for thine inheritance, and the
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." 533 For He has become the "expectation"
of us who from among the peoples have believed on Him and on His Father, God over All.534

CHAP. XXIII. ----Of Fate, and how though God foreknows the conduct of every one, human
responsibility remains the same. Further, how the stars 535 are not productive of human
affairs, but merely indicate them; further, that men cannot attain to an accurate
knowledge of these things, but that the signs are set by Divine powers; what is the cause
of the signs. Astrology seems to have some elements of truth. From Book III. of the
Commentaries on Genesis, "And let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and
for years." 1. As regards the lights of heaven having been created for signs, to speak
precisely, the sun, moon, and stars, this is a subject which we are bound to discuss; for
not only do many nations, strangers to the Faith of Christ, err in the matter of fate,
inasmuch as they think that all things happen, both earthly events in general and the
incidents of every human life, and perhaps what befalls the irrational creatures, through
the relation of the planets to the constellations of the Zodiac; but beside this, many who
are supposed to have embraced the Faith are distracted at the thought that human affairs
may be governed by necessity, and cannot possibly be otherwise than is ruled by the stars
in their different groupings. And a consequence of this opinion is the complete
destruction of Free Will; and a further result is that praise and blame are unmeaning, and
the distinction between acceptable conduct and conduct deserving of blame is lost. And if
this be so, there is an end of that Divine judgment which we preach; an end also of God's
threats of punishment awaiting sinners; an end, too, of a blessed future for those who
have devoted themselves to the higher life: for there will no longer be any basis of
reason for them.

And if any one wishes to see the other consequences of holding these views, our faith will
be vain, the advent of Christ of no avail, and the whole dispensation of the Law and the
Prophets, and the labours of Apostles to establish the churches of God through Christ, of
no avail; unless, forsooth, as these bold thinkers would have us believe, Christ also,
inasmuch as His nativity was necessitated by the movement of the stars, did and suffered
everything, not because the God and Father of All gave Him those marvellous powers, but
because the stars bestowed them. Another result of their godless and unholy principles is,
that believers are said to believe in God because they are compelled by the stars to
believe. But we would ask our opponents to tell us what God meant by so making the world,
that some men are effeminate creatures and lead lascivious lives through no fault of their
own; while others, who are in the condition of wild beasts through the revolution of the
whole heavens, because God so ordered the universe, abandon themselves to the most savage
and inhuman practices, murders, and piratical outrages. And why need I speak of the
incidents of human life, and the sins of men, in their countless variety? The champions of
these noble principles may free their fellow-men from all guilt, but they make God the
cause of all that is bad and blameworthy.

2. And if some of them, that they may seem to defend God's character, shall say that there
is a different God, the good God,536 Who has no control of these things, and attribute all
such evils to the Creator;537 not even so will they succeed in showing, as they desire,
that the Creator is just; for how could the Author of so many evils, as according to them
He is, be reasonably thought just? In the second place, let us inquire what they will say
about themselves. Are they subject to the revolution of the stars, or are they free men,
and all their lives no way influenced thereby? If they shall admit that they are subject
to the stars, it is clear that the stars gave them this impression, and the Creator will
have suggested through the general movement of the stars the doctrine of the higher God
they have imagined; but that they would deny. If they reply that they are not influenced
by the Creator's laws connected with the stars, that their statements may not be more than
unverified assertion, let them endeavour to win our assent by some more forcible plea; let
them show how to distinguish between the two kinds of mind, the one controlled by nativity
and fate, the other free from their control. Any one who knows such men will be aware that
if they are asked for a reason they will be quite unable to give it. In addition to what
has been said, even the prayers we offer are superfluous; for if certain events must
happen, and the stars create the necessity, and nothing contrary to their combination with
one another can happen, it is unreasonable to expect God to give us this or that. Why need
we further pursue the impiety involved in the doctrine of fate, a subject treated by many
with too little consideration as a commonplace? Enough has been said to give some idea of
it.

3. Here let us remind ourselves that we were examining the words, "Let the lights be for
signs" 538 when we came upon this discussion. They who learn the truth about things, have
either been eye-witnesses and therefore give a good account of what takes place because
they have beheld the suffering and the doing of those who do or suffer, or they get to
know the circumstances by hearsay from informants not at all responsible for what has
occurred. For we will agree on the present occasion to exclude the possibility that the
doers or sufferers may themselves relate what they have done and suffered, and may
acquaint any one who did not happen to be present with the facts. If, then, any one who
gets the information from a person no way responsible for the events, on hearing that
certain things have befallen or will befall certain individuals, does not bear in mind
that his informant as to the past or future is no way answerable for any given occurrence,
he will suppose that the informant has brought about or will bring about what he relates,
but he will obviously be wrong in so doing; it is as though a man were to read a prophetic
book in which the conduct of Judas the traitor is foretold, and having learnt what was to
happen, were, on seeing it accomplished, to think that the book was the cause of what
afterwards occurred, because the book showed him the future conduct of Judas;

or, again, should imagine that not the book was the cause, but he who first wrote it, or
He Who had the book written, God Himself, if we may so speak. Just as in the case of the
prophecies concerning Judas, the passages themselves on investigation show that God did
not produce the treachery of Judas, but that, foreknowing what would result from the
wickedness of the traitor through his own fault, He only made it known: so also, if any
one would go deep into the discussion of God's universal foreknowledge, and into those
things whereon, as it were, God stamps the proofs of His own foreknowledge, he would
understand that neither is He Who foreknows at all the cause of what is foreknown, nor are
those things which were stamped with the proofs of the foreknowledge of Him Who did
foreknow. 4. That God knows long before every detail of the future, is, apart from
Scripture, from the very conception of God clear to him who understands the power and
excellence of the Divine understanding. If, however, we must prove this from the
Scriptures, the prophecies are full of suitable illustrations; and, according to Susanna,
God knows all things before they be: for she thus speaks, "O everlasting God, that knowest
the secrets, and knowest all things before they be, Thou knowest that they have borne
false witness against me." 539 And in the third Book of the Kings even the name of a
future king, and his acts, were thus prophetically described many years before the events
took place. "And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of
the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he went up unto the altar which is in
Bethel, which he made for the calves which he made." 540 Then, a little farther on, "And,
behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Bethel: and
Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. And he cried against the altar by the
word of the Lord, and said, O altar, altar! thus saith the Lord, Behold, a child shall be
born unto the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests
of the high places that burn incense upon thee, and men's bones shall they burn upon thee.

And he gave a sign the same clay, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken:
Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the fat that is upon it shall be poured out." 541
And, a little farther on, it is shown that "the altar also was rent, and the fat poured
out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the Word of
the Lord."542 5. And in Isaiah, who lived long before the Babylonish Captivity, there is
this prophecy concerning Cyrus by name, Cyrus king of the Persians, who lived some time
after the Captivity, and assisted in the building of the Temple in the days of Esdras.
There is this prophecy concerning Cyrus by name, "Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to
Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to subdue 543 nations before him, and I will loose
the loins 544 of kings; I will open the doors before him, and the gates of cities shall
not be shut; I will go before thee, and make mountains plain: I will break in pieces the
doors of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: and I will give thee the treasures of
darkness, hidden riches of secret places will I lay bare to thee, that thou mayest know
that I am the Lord, which call thee by thy name, even the God of Israel. For Jacob my
servant's sake, and Israel my chosen, I will call thee by thy name and will receive thee."
545 This clearly shows, that for the sake of the people to whom Cyrus was a benefactor,
God gave him, though he was unacquainted with the Hebrew religion, the rule over many
nations; and we may also learn this from Greek historians who wrote the history of Cyrus,
the subject of the prophecy.

And again in Daniel also, at a time when Babylonian kings were on the throne, the kingdoms
which should be after him are shown to Nebuchadnezzar. And they are shown by means of the
image: the Babylonian kingdom being called gold, the Persian silver, the Macedonian brass,
the Roman iron.546 And again, in the same prophet the affairs of Darius and Alexander, and
the four successors of Alexander king of Macedonia, and Ptolemy, the ruler of Egypt,
surnamed Lagos, are thus foretold: "And as I was considering, behold, an he-goat came from
the west over the face of the whole earth; and the goat had a horn between his eyes. And
he came to the ram that had the horns, whom I saw standing before the stream Ulai,547 and
ran upon him in the face of his power. And I saw him close unto the ram, and he was moved
with choler against him, and smote the ram, and brake his two horns; and there was no
power in the ram to stand before him: but he cast him down to the ground, and trampled
upon him; and there was none that could deliver the ram out of his hand. And the he-goat
magnified himself exceedingly: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and
instead of it there came up four other horns toward the four winds of heaven.

And out of one of them came forth a mighty horn, and waxed exceedingly great towards the
south and towards the west." 548 Why need I mention the prophecies concerning Christ, as
for example that Bethlehem should be the place of His birth, and Nazareth the place of His
bringing up, and the marvellous works He did, and the manner of His betrayal by Judas who
was called to be an Apostle? For all these are signs of the foreknowledge of God. But the
Saviour Himself also says, "When ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then ye shall
know that her desolation is at hand";549 for He spake beforehand what afterwards came to
pass, the final destruction of Jerusalem. 6. Well, then, now that we have, not
unseasonably, demonstrated the foreknowledge of God, if we are to explain how the stars
are for signs, we must understand that the stars have their movements so regulated, those
we call planets revolving the contrary way to the fixed stars, that observers may take and
know the signs from the grouping of all those stars which have a special or general
influence. And when I say "observers," I do not mean men (for ability to really learn from
the movements of the stars what will befall every individual soul with all its
possibilities of doing or suffering, far transcends human capacity), but I refer to the
Powers, which must for many reasons have this knowledge, as, so far as we can, we shall
show in the sequel. But men being deceived by certain observations, or even by the
teaching of Angels who have lost their proper rank, and, to the injury of our race, give
some instruction about these things, supposed that they from whom they thought they
received the signs were the original causes of the events which the Word says the signs
indicate. We shall proceed at once to briefly discuss somewhat carefully as well as we can
both the events and the supposed authors. These, then, are the problems which confront
us----(α) How, if God knows from all eternity what we regard as done by the individual,
Free Will is to be maintained; (β) in what way the stars are not productive of human
affairs, but only indicate them; (γ) that men cannot have an accurate knowledge of these
things, but the signs are shown to Powers superior to men; (δ) why it is that God has made
the signs for the Powers to know, shall be the fourth point of investigation.

7. Well, then, let us look at the first. Many of the Greeks, handling the matter with
caution, and supposing events to be ruled by necessity, and that man's Free Will cannot be
at all maintained if God foreknows the future, ventured to hold an impious doctrine,
rather than admit, as they allow it to be, a glorious attribute of God, but one
destructive of Free Will, and which therefore does away with the distinction between
praise and blame, the acceptability of virtue and the censure of vice. They tell us that
if God from everlasting knows that a certain person will be unjust, and will do certain
unjust deeds, and if the knowledge of God be infallible, and if he that is foreseen to
have such a character will certainly be unjust and will do these unjust deeds, his
injustice is necessitated, and it will be impossible for his conduct to be other than what
God knew it would be. But if his conduct could not be different, and no one is to be
blamed for not doing impossibilities, it is no use for us to accuse the unjust. And from
the unjust man and his unjust deeds they pass on to the other sins a man may commit, and,
on the contrary, to what is considered upright conduct; and they say that consistently
with God's foreknowledge our Free Will cannot possibly be maintained.

8. Our reply will be as follows: When God planned the creation of the world, inasmuch as
there is nothing without a cause, His thoughts traversed the whole course of the future,
and He saw that when a certain thing takes place another follows, and if this occurs it
will have its fitting result, and this supposed, something is its consequence; and going
on thus to the end of all things He knows what will be, but is not at all the cause of the
occurrence of any particular event. For as when we see a man reckless through ignorance,
and in his recklessness foolishly venturing on a slippery path, we are not the causes of
the man's finding the path slippery, because we realise that the man will slip and fall:
just so, we must understand that God having foreseen what every one will be like, also
perceives the causes of his being what he is, and that he will commit these sins, or do
these righteous deeds. And if we are bound to admit that the foreknowledge is not the
cause of the occurrences (for though God knows before that a man will sin, He does not put
a finger on him when he does sin), we shall make a still stronger statement, nevertheless
true, that the future event is the cause of God's peculiar knowledge concerning it. For it
does not happen because it is known, but it is known because it will happen; and we must
herein carefully distinguish.

For if any one interprets the words certainly will be in the sense that what is foreknown
will of necessity be, we do not agree with him; for we shall not say that, because it was
foreknown that Judas would be a traitor, there was any necessity for Judas to be a
traitor. At any rate, in the prophecies concerning Judas reproaches and accusations of
Judas are recorded, which prove his guilt to every reader. Now no blame would have
attached to him if he had of necessity been a traitor, and if it had not been possible for
him to be like the other Apostles. And consider whether this is not shown by the following
words which we shall quote: "Neither let there be any to have pity on his fatherless
children. Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy
man, and the broken in heart, to slay them. Yea, he loved cursing, and it came unto him;
and he delighted not in blessing, and it was far from him." 550 If any one will explain
the "certainly will be" as only meaning that some particular events will occur, but that
things might have turned out differently, we assent to this as true; for God cannot
possibly lie; and when things may possibly happen or not happen, we may contemplate either
contingency.

9. We will put the case more clearly this way: If it is possible for Judas to be an
Apostle like Peter, it is possible for God to think of Judas continuing an Apostle as
Peter did. If it is possible for Judas to be a traitor, it is possible for God to
contemplate his becoming a traitor. And if Judas proves to be a traitor, God by His
foreknowledge of the two aforesaid possibilities (one only of Which can be realised),
inasmuch as His foreknowledge is true, will know before that Judas is going to be a
traitor; but though God knows this, it might have been otherwise; and the knowledge of God
would say, "It is possible for Judas to do this, but also possible for him to do the
opposite; but of the two things possible I know that he will do this one." If God were to
say, "It is not possible for this man to fly," and, predicting the future 551 of another
man, were to say, for instance, "It is not possible for him to be temperate," the cases
would not be parallel. For the man is not in the least qualified to fly, but he is
qualified to lead either a temperate or a licentious life. Now, though there be this
ability both ways, if a man does not give heed to admonition and instruction, he gives
himself up to the worse; but he who seeks the truth and is resolved to live accordingly,
gives himself up to the better. And one man does not seek the truth because he inclines to
pleasure, while another man investigates it, being brought thereto, partly by common
sense,552 partly by exhortation. The former, again, chooses pleasure, not because he is
unable to resist it, but because he will not strive against it; and the latter despises
it, because he sees the disgrace which often attaches to it.

10. To prove our point, that the foreknowledge of God really does not necessitate the
things which it apprehends, we will further observe that in many parts of Scripture God
commands the Prophets to preach repentance, not professing to know before whether the
hearers will turn or abide in their sins. Thus in Jeremiah God says, "It may be they will
hearken and repent." 553 If God thus speaks, it is not because He does not know whether
they will hearken or not; but by this form of speech He shows, as it were, that they have
equal ability to do one or the other; so that He may not, by announcing beforehand what He
knows, make the hearers despond because of a seeming necessity, as if they had no power to
turn, and His foreknowledge thus become, as it were, the cause of their sins. Or again,
let us take the case of those who, because they do not know their goodness foreknown to
God, may by striving .and struggling against wickedness succeed in living a virtuous life.
God will not have His foreknowledge become a cause of their slackness, inasmuch as,
relying on the certain accomplishment of what has been foretold, they no longer stand firm
against sin: for so the foreknowledge of their future goodness might prove a hindrance.
Thus it is that God Who ordereth all things for the best, with good reason hides the
future from our eyes.

For the knowledge of the future makes us relax in the struggle against wickedness, and the
apparent certainty of wickedness enervates us, and the result is that because we do not
wrestle against sin we soon become subject to it. And at the same time it would be an
obstacle in the way of a man's becoming good and upright, if the knowledge that he will
certainly some day be good reached him beforehand. For in addition to what we have, there
is need of great earnestness and vigorous application if a man is to become good and
upright; but the knowledge beforehand that a man will certainly be good and upright,
weakens his habits of discipline. Wherefore it is expedient that we know not whether we
shall be good, or whether we shall be bad. 11. And since we have said that God blinds our
eyes with regard to the future, consider whether we can thus explain the question in
Exodus, "Who maketh a man dumb and deaf, seeing and blind?" 554 If we are to understand
that God has made the same man blind and seeing, the man must see things present and be
blind as regards things future; for we are not now concerned with the interpretation of
the dumbness and deafness. That, however, many things for which we are responsible are
caused by a multitude of things for which we are not responsible, even we will allow; if
they had not occurred, the things I mean for which we are not responsible, certain things
for which we are responsible would not have been done; but they have been done in
consequence of precedent events for which we are not responsible, though it was possible
for us on the basis of the past to have acted otherwise than we did. If any one would have
our Free Will detached from everything else, so as to make our voluntary choice
independent of the changes and chances of life, he has forgotten that he is a part of the
world, and subject to limitations as a member of society and a participant in the general
environment. I think it has been shown with tolerable clearness, if briefly, that the
foreknowledge of God does not necessitate what is certainly foreknown.

The same subject is further discussed in Book II. of the treatise against Celsus as
follows:---- 12. Celsus thinks that if a prediction comes to pass it is because the event
was predicted. We do not grant this; we say that the Prophet is not the cause of the
future event because he foretells its occurrence, but that the future event, which would
happen even if it were not predicted, is the cause of his foretelling it, who has the
foreknowledge. And the whole thing is in the foreknowledge of the Prophet; a given event
may or may not come to pass; he knows which of the two it will be. Further, we do not say
that he who foreknows destroys the possible alternative, and as it were declares, "This
shall certainly be, and it is impossible that the event can be otherwise. And something
like what we have urged is applicable to the whole question of the foreknowledge of what
is in our power, whether we look at the Divine Scriptures or at the narratives of the
Greeks. And what the dialecticians call an "idle argument," by which they mean a sophism,
will be, if we are to believe Celsus, no sophism, though according to sound reason it is a
sophism. That our point may be understood, I will use the prophecies of the Scriptures
concerning Judas, or our Saviour's foreknowledge of his being a traitor: and from the
narratives of the Greeks, I will take the oracle addressed to Laius, for the present
assuming it to be true, for that does not affect the argument.

Well, then, at the beginning of the 108th Psalm, speaking in the person of Christ, the
Psalmist says, "Hold not thy peace, O God, at my praise; for the mouth of the wicked and
the deceitful man is opened upon me." 555 And if you carefully note what is said in the
psalm you will find that as Judas is foreknown to be the betrayer of the Saviour, so he is
also represented as being the cause of the betrayal, and worthy of the curses pronounced
against him for his wickedness----let him suffer such and such things----"Because that he
remembered not to do mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man." 556 He might then have
remembered to do mercy, and he might have refrained from persecuting Him whom he did
persecute, but though he might he did not, but betrayed the Saviour; so that he deserves
the curses in the prophecy against him. And as regards the Greeks, we will similarly make
use of what was said by the oracle to Laius, either in the precise words of the tragic
poet, or in equivalent terms. This is what the oracle with its knowledge of the future
told him:----

"Beget not children in defiance of the gods; For if thou shalt beget a son, thy son shall
slay thee, And all thy house shall wade through blood." 557 Here it is clearly shown that
it was possible for Laius not to beget children, for the oracle would not have commanded
him to do what was impossible; but the begetting was possible, and neither alternative was
compulsory. And the consequence of his not guarding against begetting children, was that
through begetting he suffered what is related in the tragedy concerning Oedipus and
Jocasta and their sons. 13. By way of illustrating the "idle argument," that is to say,
the sophistical form of reasoning, we may suppose the following argument to be addressed
to an invalid in order to dissuade him from calling in the doctor: "If you are fated to
recover from your sickness, whether you call in the doctor, or do not call him in, you
"will recover; but if you are fated not to recover from your sickness, whether you call in
the doctor, or do not call him in, you will not recover; now either you are fated to
recover from your sickness, or you are fated not to recover; it is therefore no good for
you to call in the doctor. Now a parallel to this reasoning is neatly drawn after this
fashion: "If you are fated to beget children, whether you go with a woman, or whether you
do not, you will beget children; but if you are fated not to beget children, whether you
go with a woman, or do not go, you will not beget children: now either you are fated to
beget children or not to beget them; it is useless therefore for you to go with a woman.
In this case, forasmuch as it is an utter impossibility to beget children without going
with a woman, to go with a woman is not a useless procedure; and similarly, if there is
but one road to recovery from sickness, and that is via the doctor's skill, the doctor
must be summoned;

and it is false to say, "It is no good for you to call in the doctor. Now I have gone into
all these details on account of what our paragon of wisdom, Celsus, said: "Being God He
foretold, and what was foretold must certainly have come to pass"; for if Celsus by
"certainly" means "necessarily," we shall not agree with him, for the event might not have
happened. But if by "certainly" he means "will be,"----and there is nothing to prevent
this being true, though the event might possibly not have happened,----my argument is as
sound as ever; it does not follow that because Jesus truly foretold the traitor's
treachery, or Peter's denial, He was Himself the cause of their impiety and unholy
conduct. For, as we hold, He knew what was in man;558 and seeing the traitor's detestable
character, and also what through avarice and through want of a right and steadfast regard
for the Master he would dare to do, after much besides, Jesus said,"He that dippeth his
hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me." 559

From Book III. of the Commentary on Genesis:---- 14. Now let us grapple with the question
whether it is a fact that the stars are not in the least productive of human affairs, but
only indicate them. It is quite plain that if the stars in a given position are thought to
produce certain events in a human life----let us make that the precise point of the
present inquiry----their position to-day, for instance, which concerns that one man, could
not be understood to have produced the past of some other person or persons; for whatever
produces precedes the thing produced. But, according to the teaching of the professors of
the art, things that happened before this grouping of the stars are generally thought to
be declared. For they profess, once they have ascertained somehow or other the particular
560 hour of any given man, to be able to find the elevation of each planet, or in what
minutest part of the sign it appeared, and what sort of a star of the Zodiac happened to
be on the eastern horizon, and what on the west, and which star was on the meridian, and
which on the opposite meridian. And when they have placed the stars, whose position they
think they have determined for themselves, and which are thus grouped according to the
season of the nativity of the person, from the time of the birth of him concerning whom
they are inquiring, they investigate not only the future, but also the past, and things
before the birth and begetting of the person we are speaking of; what manner of man his
father was, rich or poor, sound in body or maimed, of good or bad character, with much
wealth or little, of this or that condition; and, similarly, respecting the man's mother,
and his elder brethren, if there happen to be any.

15. For the present let us allow, though we shall afterwards show that it is not so, that
they do ascertain the true meaning of the position and relations of the stars;
nevertheless, let us ask those who suppose that human affairs are necessitated by the
stars, how such and such a position to-day can have produced previous events. For if this
is impossible, even supposing that they discover the truth concerning those previous
events, it is clear that the stars with their present movements in the heavens have not
produced things past and gone before they took that position. And if any one, noting what
is said about the future, should allow that they are correct, he will say that they are
right, not because the stars cause the events, but only because they indicate them. And if
any one alleges that the stars do not now cause past events, but that there were other
groupings which were the causes of the nativity of the persons I have mentioned, but that
the present grouping has only indicated them, and that future events are nevertheless
shown by the present grouping at the nativity of such an one, let him show how we are to
distinguish between our ability to prove the truth of certain things if the stars are
causative,561 and of others if they are indicative only. If they cannot explain the
difference, they will frankly concede that nothing human is caused by the stars, but, as
we said before, some way or other indicated;

as if one did not receive the knowledge of the past and future from the stars at all, but
from the mind of God through some prophetic utterance. For, as we have already shown that
the fact of God's knowing the future conduct of every person does not disturb the argument
respecting our Free Will, so neither do the signs, which God appointed to be indicative,
interfere with our Free Will; but, like a volume of prophecy, the heavens as a whole,
being as it were one of God's books, may contain the future. And thus what is said by
Jacob in the prayer for Joseph may be understood: "For I read in the pages of the sky what
shall befall thee and thy sons." 562 Perhaps also the passage, "The heavens shall be
rolled together as a book," 563 shows that the declarations therein indicative of the
future shall be brought to completion, and, so to speak, fulfilled, as the prophecies are
said to be fulfilled by the event. And thus the existing stars will be for signs,
according as it is said, "Let them be for signs." 564 And Jeremiah, in order that he may
bring us back to ourselves, and remove our dread of what is thought to be indicated by the
stars, and perhaps supposed to come from them, says, "Be not dismayed at the signs of
heaven." 565

16. Now let us look at our second undertaking, and try to show how it is that the stars
cannot be causative, though they may possibly be indicative. In the vast multitude of
nativities we may possibly get at the incidents of one man's life; but this is only an
assumption; we concede the point that it is possible for men to gain a knowledge of them.
For instance, our opponents say we may learn both from a man's own nativity, and from the
nativity of each of his brothers, if he has more than one, that he will suffer in a
certain way, and will die a violent death through meeting with robbers. For they suppose
that the nativity of each one includes the death of a brother at the hand of robbers, and
likewise the nativity of the father and mother and wife and sons and domestics and dearest
friends, and perhaps the nativity of the murderers themselves. How can a man then, whose
future is involved in so many nativities, to make them this concession, be influenced by
the position and relation of the stars at one nativity more than by those at the others?
The statement that the position of the stars at a man's own nativity has caused certain
events, while their position at the nativities of the rest has not caused but only
indicated them, is incredible;

and it is as silly to say that the nativity of each one of them, severally, included a
cause of the violent death of this one in particular, so that in fifty nativities,
suppose, is included the death of this one person. I do not know how they will maintain
that the position of the stars at the nativity of nearly everybody in Judea was such that
they received circumcision on the eighth day, being mutilated in their parts, and
ulcerated, and subject to inflammation and sores, and no sooner born than needing a
doctor; while the position at the nativity of certain Israelites down in Arabia was such
that they were all circumcised at the age of thirteen years, for this is what we are told
about them; and again the position at the nativity of certain people in Etheopia such that
they had their knee-pans taken away, while the Amazons had one of their breasts removed.
How do the stars cause these effects in various nations? I suppose that if we give close
attention to the subject, we shall not be able to state a single true and reliable fact
566 about these things. And when we hear of so many ways of knowing the future, I am at a
loss to understand how men can be so inconsistent as to deny the existence of an active
cause in augury, and in sacrificial inspection, maintaining that they are only indicative,
but will not allow that astrology also, and nativity casting, are only indicative.

For if because a future event is known,----granting that it is known,----the source of the
event is the same as the source of the knowledge, why shall events any more be caused by
stars than by birds, and by birds, or by entrails of victims, more than by ruling stars?
567 This will suffice for the present to upset the notion that the stars are causes of
human affairs. 17. We conceded the point, for it does not interfere with the reasoning,
that men can understand the positions of the stars in the heavens, the signs, and the
things of which they are signs; now let us see if it is true. Well, then, the masters of
this art say that any one who is going to accurately cast a nativity must know not only in
which twelfth part of the Zodiac the star in question is, but also in what part of the
twelfth part, and in which of its sixty parts; and the more careful calculators add, in
which sixtieth of that sixtieth. And the observer, they say, ought to do this in the case
of each one of the planets, investigating its relation to the fixed stars. He must,
moreover, scanning the eastern horizon, observe not only which sign 568 of the Zodiac is
there, but also the part of the sign, and the sixtieth part of this part, whether the
first or second sixtieth. How, then, since an hour, roughly speaking, is equivalent to
half the twelfth part, can any one ascertain the sixtieth part, unless he has a
corresponding scale for the division of the hours? For example, who could know that such
an one was born at the fourth hour, plus half an hour, plus a quarter, plus an eighth,
plus a sixteenth, plus a thirty-second of an hour?

For they say it makes a great difference in the things indicated if there is an error, not
of a whole hour, but even of a fraction of an hour. Anyway, in the birth of twins there is
frequently only a momentary interval; and yet, according to them, the twins differ widely
in their fortunes and performances, because they who were thought to have observed the
hour were not quite correct as to the relation of the stars, and the part of the sign on
the horizon. For no one can say to the thirtieth of an hour what the interval" between the
two births is. But let us allow that they are able to determine the hour. 18. There is a
well-known theorem which proves that the Zodiac, like the planets, moves from west to east
at the rate of one part in a hundred years, and that this movement in the lapse of so long
a time changes the local relation of the signs; so that, on the one hand, there is the
invisible 569 sign, and on the other, as it were, the visible figure of it; and events,
they say, are discovered not from the figure, but from the invisible sign; though it
cannot possibly be apprehended. But let us grant that the invisible sign can be
apprehended, or admit the possibility of getting at the truth through the visible sign;
still even they will admit their inability to preserve in due proportion what they call
the "blending" 570 of the signs in these positions, for it often happens that the
influence of a malignant star which appears is more or less weakened by the aspect of a
more benign one; and again, that the weakening of the influence of the malignant star by
the aspect of the benign one is hindered, because of some particular position and relation
of the other, though it is indicative of evil. And I think that any one who studies the
passages must despair of understanding such matters, inasmuch as the knowledge is not
disclosed to men, but at the most only goes as far as the indication 571 of events.

And any one who has had actual experience will know that speakers and writers more
frequently fail than succeed in their guesses at the truth. Wherefore Isaiah, believing
that these things cannot be discovered by men, says to the daughter of the Chaldeans, who
above all others were professors of the art, "Let now the astrologers, the star-gazers,
stand up and save thee; let them tell thee what shall come upon thee." 572 We are thus
taught that the most learned in these matters cannot show beforehand what the Lord intends
to bring upon every nation. 19. We have already given instances of the literal fulfilment
of prophecy. And if Jacob speaks of reading in the pages of the sky what should befall his
sons, and if any one on the strength of this should meet us with the objection that the
contrary to what we say is proved by Scripture,----for we said that men cannot comprehend
the signs, and Jacob says that he read in the pages of the sky,573 ----our defence will be
that our wise men, guided by a marvellous superhuman spirit, are not taught the mysteries
by human skill but by the power of God; as Paul says, "I heard unspeakable words, which it
is not lawful for a man to utter." 574 For they know the alterations of the turning of the
sun, and the change of seasons: the events of years, and the position of stars," 575 not
from men nor through men, but because the Spirit reveals them, and reveals them clearly,
as God wills, announcing the Divine purposes. And another way also Jacob was more than
human, for he supplanted his brother, and confessed in the same book from which we quoted
the words, "I read in the pages of the sky," that he was commander-in-chief of the host of
the Lord and had long ago gained the name Israel; all of which he acknowledges when
ministering in bodily form, when the Archangel Uriel 576 reminds him of it.

20. It now remains to inquire and show those who believe that the lights of heaven are set
for signs, but have been misled by fanciful interpretations of the passages, why it is
that God has made these signs in the sky. And we must first observe that if we believe the
mind of God to be great enough to embrace the perfect knowledge of every individual
existence, so that not the least ordinary occurrence escapes His Divinity, this belief
involves the tenet, not demonstrably certain, but held as being consistent with the
eternity of God's understanding, which transcends all nature, that His knowledge is, as it
were, infinite. In order, then, that superhuman beings, and also the holy souls which have
escaped from the bondage of this present state, may by experience grasp this truth, God
created in the heavens beings who have been taught and shall be taught, as well by the
revolution of the heavens as by other means, to read the signs which God gives as if they
were written and stamped on the face of the sky.

And it is not surprising that God should create some one for the sake of a manifestation
to the blessed, for the Scripture saith to Pharaoh, "For this very purpose did I raise
thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and that my name might be published abroad in
all the earth." 577 For if Pharaoh was preserved for the sake of showing the power of God
and publishing abroad His name in all the earth,578 consider what a marvellous
manifestation of the power of God there is in the heavenly signs, for all of them have
been from everlasting to everlasting engraved in the book of the heavens, a book worthy of
God. And, secondly, I conjecture that the signs are exposed to the Powers which administer
human affairs, in order that they may only know some things, and effect others; just as in
our books some things are written that we may know them, as, for example, the story of the
Creation, or any other mystery, and others that we may know and do them, as, for instance,
the commandments and ordinances of God. It is indeed possible that the writings of the
heavens, which Angels and Divine powers can read well, contain some things to be read by
the Angels and ministers of God in order that they may rejoice in their knowledge; and
other things in order that they may receive them as commandments and do them.

21. And we shall not err if we maintain the analogy between the things in the Law and that
which is written in the heavens and the stars. Even supposing that inferior energies,
different from human kind, do bring about some of the events foreknown and indicated in
the heavens, there is no necessity for supposing that they effect the results because they
are reminded by the writings of God (in the heavens). Just as men when they act unjustly,
effect the injustice through their own wickedness, not because they have learnt that God
foreknows that some one will be unjustly treated by them; so the opposing Powers, though
God foreknows the wickedness of the men and Powers who devise the detestable results,
bring things to pass of their own shameful free choice. As regards the holy Angels,
however, the ministering spirits sent forth to do service,579 it is probable that inasmuch
as they follow 580 the commands of God's written law, they produce the better results in
an orderly way, having regard to time, manner, and degree; for it is absurd to suppose
that being Divine, they at random, and not deliberately, approach some transaction, for
instance, with Abraham, and do something for Isaac, and deliver Jacob from danger, or
impress the spirit of some prophet. In order, therefore, that they may not thus act at
random or haphazard, they read God's book; and thus they do the things belonging to them.
And, as we said before, we, as regards our own conduct, or the working of the opposing
Powers against us, act of our own free choice; when we sin, the choice is disorderly; when
we do such things as are pleasing to God, the choice is disciplined; not however that we
can dispense with Angels, the Divine Scriptures, or assisting saints.

And Clement of Rome 581 in his argument with his father at Laodicea has some comments on
the question before us----the passage occurs in The Travels,582----which agree with the
foregoing. Towards the end he speaks with great force on the seeming results of
"Nativity," Book X. 22. The Father.----Pardon me, my son, what you said yesterday was so
true that I had no choice but to agree with you; but my conscience, like the weakness left
by a fever, torments me with a lingering doubt, for I feel that everything in my nativity
has come to pass. I answered, consider with me, father, what the nature of Astrology 583
is, and upon what grounds I give you my advice. If you meet with an astrologer, and begin
by telling him that at a certain time you had poor luck, and ask him to be good enough to
inform you what star was the cause of it, he will, say that a malignant Mars or Saturn
ruled the times, or that one of them was periodic,584 or that one of them regarded the
particular year from the point of quadrature, or diametrically,585 or in conjunction, or
centrally,586 or was retrograding,587 and no end of things besides. He will tell you that
either an auspicious planet was not counteracting 588 a malignant one, or it was not
observable, or was in figure,589 or was retrograding, or in eclipse, or in detriment,590
or was among the dim stars. And because there are many ostensible causes, he is still able
to adapt his proofs to what he has been told by you. Now, if you afterwards go to another
astrologer and tell him the opposite, viz. that at that same time you had a piece of good
fortune, and ask him from what star of your nativity it has arisen, though you have
deceived him, he is able, as I said before, out of many figures to find one, or two, or
three, or more, which he will make out to be the true cause of your good fortune.

For it is impossible that at any man's nativity, at any hour, some of the stars should not
be favourably placed, others unfavourably; for the circle 591 admits of equal divisions,
is diversified in contents, and admits of unlimited shuffling, so that any astrologer can
say what he likes. We can sometimes make nothing of ambiguous dreams, but the event
enables us to give them the most fitting interpretation. So it is with Astrology. Before
the events it can tell us nothing certain, but when the facts are related the result
clearly shows the cause. This is why in predicting the future they frequently err, and
after the event blame themselves, and say, "It was this or that caused it, and we did not
know. As I said yesterday, the reason why the very learned astrologers err is that they do
not know what is certainly the cause of a man's nativity, and what is not certainly so,
and what things we certainly long to do, and are not certain to do. The cause is clear to
us who have learnt the secret, viz. that being free to exercise our faculties of reason we
sometimes yield to concupiscence and suffer defeat, sometimes resolve to check it, and
succeed. But astrologers, through not being acquainted with this very secret, though they
have expatiated on the whole subject of man's Free Will from the first, have fallen into
the error of devising climacterics; for they regard our power of choice as a most obscure
subject, as we pointed out yesterday.

Now it is your turn. If you have anything to say in reply, please say it. And the father
answered with an oath, Nothing can be truer than your words.

CHAP. XXIV. ----Matter is not uncreated, or the cause of evil. From Book VII. of the
Praeparatio Evangelica of Eusebius of Palestine.

1. I suppose you are aware that two uncreated things cannot exist together; though you
seem to assume that they can, and to put the assumption in the forefront of your argument,
when you say that one of two things must be admitted, either that God is separated from
matter, or, on the contrary, that He is united to it. Now, if any one would maintain that
God is united to matter, this is saying that there is one uncreated substance; for each of
these two uncreated substances will be a part of the other, and, as they are parts of one
another, they will not be two uncreated, but one, consisting of different parts. We do not
because a man has different parts divide him into many created substances, but, as reason
demands, we say that a single being, a man with many parts, has been created by God.
Similarly, of necessity, if God is not separated from matter, we must allow that there is
one substance, and that uncreated. But if any one will say that God is separated from
matter, there must be something between the two which also proves their separation; for it
is impossible to arrive at any idea of distance between two objects, unless there be a
third to form the basis of measurement. And this holds good not only of a single
substance, as in the present case, but of any number you please;

for our argument respecting the two uncreated substances must be no less sound if we
suppose that there are three. For we should ask respecting these, whether they are
separated from one another, or whether, on the contrary, each is united to its neighbour.
If any one decides to assert the union, our reply will be the same as before; if, on the
other hand, he holds to the separation, he will have to face the question of the necessary
separating medium. And should any one thereupon say that there is a third account which
may be fitly given of the uncreated substances, viz. that God is neither separated from
matter nor united with it, but is, as it were, locally in matter, or matter in God, let me
tell him, and it is the gist of the whole argument, that if we say matter is the place of
God, we must of necessity affirm that He is finite and circumscribed by matter. He must,
moreover, like matter, be subject to irregular disturbance; He cannot stay in one place,
nor abide self-dependent, inasmuch as that wherein He is contained is carried first one
way, then another. Besides this, it follows that we must affirm God to be in the lower
forms of being.

For if matter ever was unordered, and God of His own free choice ordered it with a view to
progressive development, there was a time when God had no order of His own,592 and we
might fairly ask whether God filled matter, or was in a part of it. If any one prefers to
say that God was in a part of matter, he makes God infinitely smaller than matter: if a
part really contained the whole of God. If he says that God is in all matter and pervades
the whole of matter, let him tell us how God worked on matter. Either there was some
contraction of God before He worked on that from which He withdrew, or He worked at
Himself as well as the matter, because He had no place to withdraw to. If any one will
maintain that matter is in God, we must similarly inquire whether we are to suppose that
God stood apart from Himself, and as living creatures are in the air, that He split up and
divided Himself to receive the things in Him, or whether matter is in Him locally, like
water in earth. If we say that matter is in Him like birds in the air, we are bound to
admit that God is divisible;

if we say that matter is in God as water is in earth, and if matter was in a state of
confusion and disorder, and, moreover, contained even evil things, we must of necessity
allow that God was the place of disorder and of evil, which does not seem to me consistent
with piety, but to be rather dangerous. For you postulate the existence of matter, so that
you may not have to admit that God is the Author of evil, and in your determination to
avoid this error, you affirm that He is a receptacle of evil. If you told me that what you
see in created substances 593 leads you to suppose that matter was originally uncreated, I
should have had many arguments to prove the impossibility of this conclusion; but as you
say the origin of evil is the cause of such a supposition, I must, I think, proceed to
inquire into the nature of evil. For once it is clear how evil comes to exist, and, if
because matter is subject to God, we cannot possibly deny that He was the cause of evil,
there will, I think, be an end of your supposition.

2. Do I understand you to say that unqualified matter is co-existent with God, and that
out of it He created the world? It seems so to me. So, then, if matter had no qualities,
and the world was made by God, and qualities are in the world, God is the Maker of the
qualities. Just so. But I think you said before that nothing can possibly come out of
nothing. Please tell me, therefore, whether you think that the qualities of the world have
not sprung from already existing qualities? It seems so. And that these qualities are
quite distinct from the substances? Yes. Well, then, if God did not make the qualities out
of existing qualities, and they have not come from the substances, because they are not
substances, we are driven to the conclusion that they were made by God out of nothing. And
this is why you seemed to me to urge in vain that we cannot possibly suppose that anything
was made by God out of nothing. Let us look at the matter this way. Among ourselves we see
men making various things out of nothing; out of nothing I say, though they certainly do
seem to be creators in their own departments. Take architects, for example. They do not
build cities out of cities, nor, similarly, temples out of temples. If because substances
exist which are at their command, you suppose the architects to produce cities and temples
out of existing things, you are mistaken, for it is not the substance which makes the
city, nor the temples, but the skill in treating the substance. And the skill does not
spring from any skill existing in the substances, but from a skill which has no existence
in them. You may meet me with the objection that the artist out of the skill which he
himself has makes the skill in the substance. It seems to me a fair rejoinder that the
man's skill does not arise from any previously existing skill. It cannot be that skill as
a self-existent entity gives the skill;

for it belongs to the class of accidents, and to those things which receive a real
existence when they inhere in substance. You may have the man without the architect's
skill, but you cannot have the architect's skill unless the man first exist; and we must
therefore maintain that the various forms of human skill have nothing out of which they
arise.594 Now, if we have shown that this is so with men, must we not much rather admit
that God can make not only qualities out of nothing, but also substances? For if it is
proved that anything arises out of nothing, it is also proved that the same holds good of
substances. 3. But I know you are longing to investigate the origin of evil; I will
therefore go on to the discussion of that topic. And I should like to briefly ask you, Do
you regard evil things as substances, or qualities of substances? I think it is right to
say, qualities of substances. But matter, you thought, was unqualified and unformed? So I
assumed when we began the discussion. Well, then, if evil is a quality of matter, and
matter was unqualified, and you affirm that God is the Maker of the qualities, it follows
that God will also be the Creator of evil. Since, then, we cannot even thus avoid making
God the cause of evil, it seems to me superfluous to make Him inseparable from matter. If
you have any answer to this, pray say on. If we were disputing for victory, I should think
the question of evil decided; but as we are making the inquiry more in a friendly spirit
and to do one another good, I think we may re-open the discussion.

My aim and object must, I think, be very obvious, and you must be conscious how earnestly
I desire in arguing not to score a victory on the strength of plausible lies, but by
careful inquiry to point out the truth. And I am quite sure that you are so disposed. So
please, therefore, without hesitation use such means as you consider best for the
discovery of the truth, for by so doing you will profit not yourself only but me also, by
showing me my ignorance. It seems clear to me that evil has a substantial existence, for I
never see what is evil apart from substances. 4. Ho! Ho! If you say that things evil are
substances, I must examine the meaning of substance. Do you think that substance is a kind
of bodily compound? I think so. And the bodily compound is self-existent, needing nothing
to give it existence?

Just so. And do you think that evil things are a man's actions? It appears so to me. And
the actions then only begin when the agent is present? Of course. And if there is no one
to act, there are no actions? There cannot be any. Well, then, if substance is a kind of
bodily compound, and the bodily compound needs nothing to give it existence: and if evil
things are a man's actions, and the actions require some one to act, and when he acts they
then begin to be, it follows that evil things are not substances. But if evil things are
substances, and murder is an evil, murder will be a substance; murder, however, is a man's
action; murder will therefore not be a substance. If you mean that the things in action
are substances, I agree; as, for example, the murderer, inasmuch as he is a man, is a
substance; but the murder which he commits is not a substance, but something, done by the
substance. Now we say that a man is sometimes bad because he commits murder, and
sometimes, on the contrary, we call him good because of his well-doing; and these names
are accidentally associated with the substance, though the accidents are not the substance
itself. For neither is murder a substance, nor adultery, nor is any such like evil thing.
But as the grammarian is so called from grammar, and the rhetorician from rhetoric, and
the medical man from medicine, though neither medicine nor rhetoric nor grammar is a
substance, and the substance takes its title according to its accidents, neither of which
it is; in the same way, it appears to me, the substance receives a name from what are
considered evil things, though it is neither one nor the other of them.

Consider further, that if you imagine some other deity to be the cause of the evil which
men do, he too, inasmuch as he acts in men, is evil because of the evil which he does. For
the reason why he too is said to be evil, is that he is an author of evil; and what a man
does, is not the man himself, but his actions, and it is from these the title "evil" is
derived. If we were to say that a man is what he creates, and he creates murders, and
adulteries, and thefts, and all sorts of such things, he will be all these. But if he is
all these, and they exist only when they are being done, and have no existence when they
are not being done, and if they are done by men, men will be the creators of them, and the
causes of their existing or not existing. If you admit that these evil things are the
man's actions, it is what from what he does that he has the quality of evil, not from what
he is as a substance. For we said that he is called evil from the accidents of the
substance, which accidents are not the substance itself, as the medical man is so-called
from medicine. And if every man is evil through his actions, and his actions have a
beginning, he himself began to be evil, and these evil things, too, had a beginning.

If this be so, the man was not evil when his wickedness began, nor can the evil attaching
to him be unoriginate; we say it did originate with him. 5. I think, my friend, you have
given a sufficient answer to your companion, and I thought you drew an excellent
conclusion from his own premises; for, in truth, if matter was unqualified, and God was
the Creator of the qualities, and the qualities are evil, God will be the Author of evil.
We are agreed, then, that he has been well answered. But it seems to me false to speak of
unqualified matter, for we cannot say that any substance whatsoever is without qualities;
in fact the very affirmation that it is unqualified, and the description of matter thus
given, point out a particular kind of quality. So, if you please, once more discuss the
matter with me; for matter seems to me to have had qualities from all eternity; and if I
maintain that evil is an effluence of matter, it is that God may not be the cause of evil,
but matter the cause of all the evil in the world.

I am delighted with your ready acquiescence, my friend, and commend your earnestness in
the discussion: for every one who is desirous to learn ought not to give a mere random
assent to what is said, but should carefully weigh the arguments. For supposing one of two
disputants to take up a false position, and thus lead his opponent to the conclusion he
desires, that will not convince the man who hears him; but if there seems to be a good
opening for a remark, the latter will make it on the spot; for one of two things will
happen: he will either after hearing what has been said be absolutely benefited by his
impressions, or he will convict his antagonist of not speaking the truth. And in my
opinion you are not right in saying that matter was qualified from all eternity. For if
this be so, what is there for God to create? If we say substances, we have admitted that
they already existed; if, on the contrary, we say qualities, we have recognised their pre-
existence also. So, then, if both substances and qualities are already in existence, it
seems to me useless to call God a Creator. But that I may not seem to argue all on my own
side, let me ask you a question: In what sense do you say that God was a "Creator"? 595 Is
it that He changed the substances so that they no longer were what they were before, but
became something different? Or is it that He kept the substances as they previously were,
but changed their qualities?

6. I do not suppose there was a change in the substances; that is to me an obvious
absurdity; what I say is that there was a change of the qualities, and I maintain that in
respect of them God is a Creator. For just as we may say that a house is built of stones,
but cannot say that, because the stones have become a house, they do not remain stones in
substance: for I maintain that the house is built in virtue of the quality of arrangement,
the former quality of the stones having been of course changed; so, it seems to me, God,
while the substance remained the same, created a change of its qualities, and I maintain
that this change justifies us in saying that God made the world. Well, then, since you say
that a change of the qualities was brought about by God, I wish you would briefly tell me
whether you likewise think that things evil are qualities of the substances?

I think so. And were these qualities themselves in matter from the very first, or had they
a beginning? I say that these qualities were eternally co-existent with matter. But do you
not say that God produced a change of the qualities? Yes. That is what I say. Was it for
the better, or for the worse? I think I must admit it was for the better. Well, then, if
the evil things are qualities of matter, and God changed its qualities for the better, we
are bound to inquire into the origin of evil. For the qualities did not remain what they
were by nature. If the qualities were not bad at first, and you say that through the
change which God made, matter acquired its first bad qualities, God will be the cause of
evil, because He changed qualities which were not bad, so that they became bad; or do you
suppose God not to have changed the bad qualities into better ones, but that the only ones
left, the indifferent ones, were changed by God for the sake of putting all in order?

That has been my view from the first. 7. How, then, do you account for His having left the
qualities of bad things as they were? Do you say that He had the power to destroy them,
but did not choose to do so, or that He had not the power? If you say that He could, but
would not, you are bound to admit that He was the cause of these things: for though He had
the power to abolish evil He allowed it to remain as it was, particularly when He began to
work at matter. If he had not concerned Himself at all with matter, He would not have been
the cause of those qualities which He allowed to remain; but since He worked upon a
portion of it, and let alone another portion though He might have changed it for the
better, it appears to mo that He deserves blame, because He left part of the matter in its
evil state, to the destruction of the part on which He worked. In truth, very great
injustice seems to have been done to this part of matter; inasmuch as though He reduced it
to order, it now partakes of evil. For if any one will carefully look into things, he will
find that the present condition of matter is worse than that of the original chaos. Before
it was differentiated, it had ho perception of evil; but now every part of it has the
perception of evil. Take man, for instance.

Before he was fashioned, and by the Creator's skill became a living creature, he had no
natural participation in evil; but as soon as God made him a man, he became conscious of
approaching evil; and what you say God intended for the benefit of matter is found to have
done it more harm than good. If you say that the reason why evil was not stopped was that
God could not remove it, you will affirm that God is impotent; and His impotence must
either be caused by natural weakness, or be due to the fact that, as if He were the slave
of some stronger power, He is overcome by fear. If you venture to say that He is weak by
nature, you appear to imperil your salvation; and if you say that He is overcome by fear
of some stronger power, you will be affirming that evil is mightier than God, inasmuch as
it is strong enough to resist and overcome His will; and this seems to me an absurd
statement to make about God. These things, which according to you are able to overcome
God, must surely be the true gods, that is to say, if by God we mean Omnipotence.

8. And I should like to also ask you a short question about matter itself. Tell me, is
matter simple or compound? for the difference in things brings me to this turn in the
argument. If matter is simple and uniform, and the world is compound, and consists of
different substances and commixtures,596 we cannot say that it is made of matter, because
compound things cannot consist of one simple substance; for when we speak of "compound" we
mean a mixture 597 of several simple things. If, on the other hand, you say that matter is
compound, you will certainly affirm it to be compounded of simple things; and if it is
compounded of simple things, there was a time when these simple things existed apart from
one another, and it was by their being compounded together that matter was made; and this
shows that matter was created. For if matter is compound, and compound things consist of
simple things, there was a time when matter was not, that is, before the simple things
came together; and if there was a time when matter was not, and there never was a time
when the uncreated was not, it follows that matter cannot be uncreated. But from your view
it follows that there will be many things uncreated. For if God was uncreated, and the
simple things of which matter is compounded were uncreated, there will not be two and only
two uncreated. But do you think that nothing opposes itself?

That is my opinion. But water is the opposite of fire? Certainly. And, likewise, darkness
is the opposite of light, and heat of cold? And moisture of drought? Just so. Well, now,
if nothing opposes itself, and the things I have mentioned are opposed to one another, it
follows that they are not one and the same matter, nor made of one and the same matter.
And I wish to ask you a question like the others: Do you admit that the parts of a thing
are not destructive of one another? I do. And that fire and water, and the others I
mentioned, are parts of matter? Just so. And do you not also agree that water is
destructive of fire, light of darkness, and so on with all similar things? Yes. If, then,
the parts of a thing are not destructive of one another, and these things are destructive
of one another, it follows that they are not parts of one another; and if they are not
parts of one another, they will not be parts of one and the same matter. But in fact they
will not be matter at all, because that nothing is destructive of itself, as is the case
with opposites. For nothing is opposed to itself, opposites being by nature opposed to
things other than themselves; as for example, white is not the opposite of white, but is
said to be opposed to black; light, too, is shown not to be opposed to itself, but to
darkness, and similarly with countless other things. So then, if matter is a single
substance, it cannot be its own opposite; and if this doctrine of opposites holds good, it
appears that there is no such matter.

The foregoing is taken from Book VII. of the Praeparatio Evangelica of Eusebius; being, as
he says, the work of Maximus,598 a Christian writer of some distinction. But it has been
discovered word for word in Origen's discussion with the Marcionites and other heretics,
Eutropius defending, Megethius opposing.

CHAP. XXV. ----That the "separation" which arises from foreknowledge does not do away with
Free Will. From Book I. of the Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans, at the words
"separated unto the gospel of God."

1. The third point to notice is the phrase "separated unto the Gospel of God";599 and in
the Epistle to the Galatians the Apostle says the same thing about himself: "When it was
the good pleasure of God, who separated me even from my mother's womb, to reveal his son
in me." 600 They who do not understand that any one who is predestined through the
foreknowledge of God is the cause of the events foreknown, take hold of such expressions
as these, and think they can by them establish their doctrine that men are so constituted
by nature that they must be saved. And some employ such passages to destroy man's Free
Will, and also make use of the words in the Psalms, "The wicked are estranged from the
womb. We may easily meet this by asking them to explain what comes next; for it is
written, "The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray as soon as they be born,
speaking lies. Their poison is like the poison of a serpent." 601 And we will ask those
who insist on the clearness of the words, whether the wicked who were estranged from the
womb, as soon as they were born went astray and erred from the way of salvation, and
whether this was their own doing. And how could the wicked who were estranged from the
womb, both go astray as soon as they were born and also speak lies?

For our opponents, I suppose, will never be able to show that in the moment of birth they
uttered an articulate cry, and told lies. If, however, we observe the steps by which we
approach predestination in the argument of the epistle which we are examining, we shall,
once we have disposed of what inclines the simpler sort of readers to justify the charge
of injustice brought against God's decree, be able to defend Him Who separated from his
mother's womb, and separated unto the Gospel of God, Paul the servant of Jesus Christ,
called to be an Apostle. The words stand thus: "We know that to them that love God all
things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose. For
whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he
might be the first-born among many brethren: and whom he foreordained, them he also
called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also
glorified."602

2. Let us, then, attend to the order of these statements. God first calls, and then
justifies, and He does not justify those whom He did not call; and He calls, having before
the calling foreordained, and He does not call whom He did not foreordain;603 and the
foreordaining is not the origin of His calling and justifying; for if it were the origin
of all that follows they who bring in by a side wind the absurd doctrine of souls being
"naturally constituted" 604 might very plausibly have claimed the victory; but the
foreknowledge comes before the foreordaining, for "whom he did foreknow," says the
Apostle, "he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son." 605 So then, God
first surveyed the long series of events, and perceiving the will of certain men to be
inclined to godliness, and also their efforts to attain thereto when their will was so
inclined, and further, how they would wholly give themselves up to a virtuous life, He
foreknew them, for He knows the present and foreknows the future; and whom He thus
foreknew, He foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son. Now we know there is a
Person, Who is the image of the invisible God,606 and it is His image which is called the
image of the Son of God; and we think that this image is the human 607 soul which the Son
of God assumed, and which for its merit became the image of the image of God.

And it was to this, which we think is the image of the image of the Son of God, that God
foreordained those to be conformed, whom, on account of His foreknowledge of them, He did
foreordain. We must not therefore suppose that the foreknowledge of God is the cause of
future events; but inasmuch as these events would follow the agent's own impulses, on this
account He foreknew, for He knoweth all things before they be:608 and inasmuch as He
knoweth all things before they be, He foreknew certain individuals and foreordained them
to be conformed to the image of His Son; but others He saw estranged. And if any one
objects, and asks whether what God foreknows might possibly not occur, we shall say it
possibly might not; but granting this possibility, there is no necessity that it should
occur, or not occur; and the events will not in the least be necessitated, but there is
also the possibility of their not occurring. The subject of possibilities, however,
belongs to the science of the skilled logician; so that if a man will cleanse the eye of
his mind, he may thus be able to follow the subtle arguments, and may understand how, even
in the course of ordinary events, there is nothing to prevent the possibility of a given
circumstance issuing many ways, though, in fact, there will be only one out of the many,
and that not necessitated; and the foreknowledge of it means that it will be, but will not
of necessity be;

for though it may possibly not occur, the prediction of it will not be conjecture but real
foreknowledge. 3. And let no one think that we have said nothing about the phrase
"according to his purpose," because it may seem to hamper our argument; for Paul says, "We
know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are
called according to his purpose." 609 The critic should observe that the Apostle also at
once gave the reason for their being culled according to His purpose, saying, "Whom he did
foreknow, them he also foreordained to bo conformed to the image of his Son. And who more
fitting to be included in the justifying calling by the purpose of God, than those who
love Him? And that the cause of the purpose and foreknowledge lies in our Free Will is
clearly shown by the words, "We know that all things work together for good to them that
love God"; for Paul all but said that if all things work together for good, the reason is
that they who love God are worthy of their working together. And here let us ask our
opponents a question, and let them give us an answer. Just for a moment let us assume that
we have some measure of Free Will,----and we will tell them that this is a fact, though
they seek to destroy Free Will,----until on that assumption we can prove the unsoundness
of their view.

If Free Will is indeed a reality, will God, when He considers the chain of future events,
foreknow what will be done by each possessor of Free Will through the exercise of that
Free Will, or will He not foreknow? To say that He will not foreknow, is worthy of a man
who knows nothing of the omniscience and majesty of God. But if they will admit His
foreknowledge, let us ask them another question: Is His knowing the cause of future
occurrences, assuming that men have Free Will? Or does He foreknow because the events will
come to pass? And is it the truth that His foreknowledge is by no means the cause of what
will result from man's Free Will? It is then possible for a man created free, under given
circumstances, not to do one thing and to do another. 4. For these reasons, and others
like them which might be adduced, we uphold the words, "Well done, good and faithful
servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things:
enter thou into the joy of thy Lord," 610 and meaning attaches to all commendation. There
is sound reason also in the words, "Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou oughtest to
have put my money to the bankers." 611 Only thus can we maintain the justice of what is
said to those on His right hand, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me
meat," 612 and so on; and to those on the left hand, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into the
eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungred, and ye
gave me no meat," 613 and so on.

But even supposing that the words "Separated unto the gospel of God," 614 and "He that
separated me from my mother's womb," 615 imply some necessity, how could the Apostle
reasonably say, "I buffet my body and bring it into bondage, lest by any means, after that
I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected." 616 And further, "Woe is unto me
if I preach not the gospel." 617 For he clearly shows hereby that if he did not buffet his
body and bring it into bondage as much as he could, he would be rejected after preaching
to others, and that woe might have been unto him if he did not preach the Gospel. Perhaps,
then, it was under these conditions that God separated him from his mother's womb: God saw
the cause of the just separation, viz. that Paul would buffet his body, and bring it into
bondage, because he feared lest having preached to others he himself might be rejected,
and that, knowing there would be woe to him unless he preached the Gospel, being moved
with fear towards God so that he might not be in woe, he would not hold his peace but
would preach the Gospel. And this He also saw Who separated him from his mother's womb,
and separated him unto His own Gospel, viz. that he would be in labours more
abundantly,618 in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in death oft;

that of the Jews he would five times receive forty stripes save one, that he would be
thrice beaten with rods, once be stoned; and that he would suffer all this rejoicing in
tribulations, and that, knowing that tribulation worketh endurance,619 he would endure.
For these reasons it was meet that he should be separated unto the Gospel of God, as it
was foreknown that he would be, and that he should be separated from his mother's womb.
And he was separated unto the Gospel of God not because his nature was specially endowed
and by its constitution surpassed the natures of men unlike him, but on account of his
actions, first foreknown, but afterwards realised, every one of them, through his
apostolic fitness and apostolic purpose. This is not the time to discuss the passage in
the psalm, for it was a digression; so, God willing, it shall be discussed in its proper
place, whenever we interpret the psalm. The foregoing will abundantly suffice for the term
"separated."

CHAP. XXVI. ----Of the question of things "good"and "evil"; that they partly depend on our
own efforts 620 and partly do not; and (that) according to the teaching of Christ, but not
as Aristotle thinks. From the treatise on the 4th Psalm, at the words, "Many say, who will
show us the good things?" 621 1. Seeing that there is so much discussion as to what things
are "good," what "evil," some affirming that good things and the contrary do not depend
622 on our own efforts, pleasure,623 for instance, as they declare, being a good thing,
trouble an evil thing; while others identify "good" and "evil" with things dependent on
our own efforts only, for they say that good 624 things are the virtues only and virtuous
actions, and that evil things are the vices and vicious actions; and a third set of
thinkers unite the two views, and tell us that good and evil things partly depend on our
own efforts, partly do not: no wonder, if distracted by these sophistries the majority of
believers, longing to learn what are really good things, cry out with the psalmist, "Who
will show us the good things?" 621 That the good things naturally depend upon our own
efforts, everybody who accepts the passage in the Gospel where the judgment is described,
would unhesitatingly allow. For it says that a man is good, supposing him to hear the
sentence, "Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few
things, I will set thee over many things:

enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." 625 And that is also good which proceedeth from the
good man, out of his heart, as the Saviour says, "The good man out of the good treasure of
his heart bringeth forth that which is good." 626 And, in general, every fruit of a good
tree, because it depends on a man's own efforts, is a good thing: such as love, peace,
joy, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control; and the
contraries are evil things. And if, according to the teaching of Christ, there is a
something good and evil, and we must still look for it in things independent of our
choice, and it should prove to be independent of our efforts, we shall on further
investigation very quickly show. But, at any rate, things so called by those who unite
what is within our choice with what is not, could not be good and evil; for they think
that some good things pertain to the soul, others to the body, and that others are
external; and similarly with evil things. And in respect of the soul, they speak of virtue
and virtuous conduct, or vice and vicious conduct; as concerns the body, of health and
vigour and beauty, or disease and sickliness and deformity; as regards externals, wealth,
good birth and reputation, or poverty, humble origin and disgrace.

2. And some will suppose that likewise according to the Scriptures there are three kinds
of good things, and three of evil; for while they allow that virtues and vices are "good"
and "evil," according to the recognised distinction between virtue and vice, and the
corresponding conduct on either side, they will make use of passages which declare that
oven things pertaining to the body, and things external, are good or evil. And as regards
virtues and vices, need I say anything? for we are taught by ethics that we ought to
choose righteousness, and temperance, and prudence, and courage, and regulate our conduct
according to these virtues; and that we ought to shun the contraries to them. We therefore
require no illustrations of good things which are the objects of our own choice; but from
many places they will adduce instances of good things which are bodily and external. On
the present occasion it will suffice if we adduce certain passages from Exodus, Leviticus,
and Deuteronomy, to prove that promises are made to those who keep the commandments' while
there are threats and curses against those who transgress them; for example, that health
is a blessing, and disease the opposite, the following quotation from Exodus will show:
"If thou wilt keep my commandments and my ordinances, I will put none of the diseases upon
thee, which I put upon the Egyptians;

for I am the Lord that healeth thee." 627 And the words also from Deuteronomy against
sinners might be supposed to make bodily plagues and diseases an evil thing, and health
and bodily strength, of course, a good thing. The passage stands thus: "If thou wilt not
observe to do all the words of this law which are written in this book, that thou mayest
fear this glorious and marvellous name, The Lord thy God; then The Lord thy God will make
thy plagues wonderful, and the plagues of thy seed, even great plagues, and marvellous,
and sore sicknesses, and very many. And he will bring upon thee again all the grievous
plague of Egypt, which thou wast afraid of, and it shall cleave unto thee. Also every
sickness, and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, will the Lord
bring upon thee, until it utterly destroy thee." 628 And again to transgressors it is
said, "I will appoint over you even fever and jaundice, that shall consume your eyes, and
make your soul to pine away." 629 Further, in Deuteronomy 630 the Word threatens with
incurable lockjaw 631 those who forsake godliness.

3. And they who understand outward blessings to be promised by the Divine word in
Leviticus, will make use of the following: "If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my
commandments, and do them: then I will give you the rain in its season, and the land shall
yield her increase, and the trees of the plains shall yield their fruit. And your
threshing shall overtake the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time,
and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely," 632 and so on.
And from Deuteronomy they will take and use the passage, "And it shall be when ye shall
pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, and ye observe to do
all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God shall set thee
on high above all: and all these blessings shall come upon thee, and overtake thee, if
thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God.633 Blessed shalt thou be in the
city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and
the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed shall
be thy garners and thy kneading-troughs," 634 and so on. And so again, on the contrary, it
is said to the ungodly, "Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the
field.

Cursed shall be thy garners and thy kneading-troughs. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy
body, and the fruit of thy ground, cursed the herds of thy cattle and the flocks of thy
sheep." 635 And countless other passages will be brought forward by those who will have it
that good and evil things are bodily and external. And they lay hold of the Gospels also,
and tell us that the Saviour when He came took away from men, inasmuch as He deemed them
evil things, bodily blindness, and deafness, and palsy, and healed every disease and every
sickness,636 and gave instead of the evil things which previously prevailed, clearness of
bodily sight, and hearing, and every form of health and strength; and they will put you
out of countenance by what they allege, unless we are prepared to admit possession by
devils and lunacy to be evil things,637 and, on the contrary, deliverance from them to be
a good thing. Nay, the Apostles also in exercising the gifts of healing, and in working
miracles, by the very nature of what they did brought good things to men and freed them
from evil things. And they who say such things will pass over to the world to come, and
allege that because pain is an evil thing sinners are committed to age-long fire; and if
pain is an evil thing, pleasure must be a good one.

4. The foregoing clearly shows the arguments which mostly silence such readers as cannot
dispose of the. scriptural statements which are adduced in favour of there being three
kinds of good things and three of evil things. Moreover, not only have confessedly
unsophisticated believers been thus beguiled, but even some of those who profess wisdom
according to Christ have fallen into the snare; for they suppose such promises as these to
be made by the Creator,638 and that beyond their literal signification the threats have no
meaning. Well, then, in reply to all who so strangely apprehend the Scriptures, we must
further inquire whether the Prophets, against whom no charge is brought, kept the law;
Elias, for instance, the poorest of men, so poor that he had not bread of his own to eat,
and was therefore sent to a woman of Zarephath which belonged to Zidon;639 and Eliseus,
who at the house of the Shunammite had a very little chamber, and a bed, and a cheap
candlestick, who also fell sick and died;640 and Isaiah, who went three years naked and
barefoot;641 and Jeremiah, who was cast into a miry pit, and was constantly derided, so
that he prayed he might have a lodging-place in the wilderness;642 and John, who was in
the deserts and ate nothing but locusts and wild honey, who had a leathern girdle about
his loins, and was clothed in raiment of camel's hair.643 They will, I suppose, admit that
these men kept the law.

And we will ask whether what our opponents consider good things, were the lot of those who
kept the law. And if they cannot show that this was so, there will be no escape for them;
they will have to allow either that the promises which are said to be given to the godly
are false, or that being true they must be anagogically interpreted; and once they are
compelled to resort to allegory, there is an end of their supposition that the law
threatens the ungodly with bodily disease, and such external things as are reckoned to be
evils, and that the promise of bodily health and wealth is for those who follow after God.
5. And is it not foolish to make such a point of the ills of life, and to boast of those
who suffer from them? For if tribulations are evil, and the Apostle speaks of rejoicing in
tribulations,644 it is clear that he rejoiced in evil things; but this is foolish, and the
Apostle was not a fool; and it follows that such exercises of the Apostle as he speaks of
were not evil; being pressed on every side he is not straitened; he is perplexed, yet not
unto despair;645 tempted, but not killed; thought to be poor, he maketh many rich, and
supposed to have nothing, he possesses all things; for the whole world of wealth belongs
to the believer, and not an obol to the unbeliever. And further, they who suppose that
according to Scripture there are three kinds of good and three kinds of evil, have to face
another fact, viz.

that the righteous are ever in the midst of evils, for the word of prophecy says truly,
"Many are the afllictions of the righteous."646 And they who suppose certain things to be
evils might not unfitly remember what befell Job, to whom after that he had nobly borne
the trials which compassed him about, the Divine word says, "And dost thou suppose that I
dealt with thee for any other purpose than that thou mayest appear righteous?" 647 For if
Job is shown to be righteous no other way than through this and that befalling him, how
can we say that the causes of his appearing righteous are evils to him? And it follows
that even the Devil is not an evil to the holy man. At all events, the Devil was not an
evil to Job, for all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are
the called according to His purpose.648 And we further say that it is far from clear that,
if the blessings are taken literally, the "righteous" man will be a partaker of those
things which in the Scriptures are considered "good. For the story of many a holy man's
life contradicts such interpretations. It is absurd to suppose that the holy man will be a
money lender, opening banks in many nations,649 in town after town, distracted over
payments and receipts, and following a prohibited business; for "the righteous man 650
putteth not out his money to usury, and taketh not rewards against the innocent";

and "he that doeth these things shall never be moved." 651 And, according to Ezekiel, "the
holy man giveth not forth his money upon usury nor taketh increase." 652 And as for
thinking that fever is inflicted on account of sins, that is an opinion of very ignorant
people, for the causes of such a sickness are often clear enough; either the
neighbourhood, or the quality of the water, or the character of the food. And if health
and wealth are rewards for the righteous, no ungodly man ought to have health or wealth.
But we must look for this health in the constitution of a man's soul, and the wealth we
must take to be that ransom of a man's soul of which Solomon speaks,----"The ransom of a
man's soul is his own riches." 653 But we must shun poverty, which is thus described: "A
poor man endureth not a threat. And further, by wounds and bruises and sicknesses we must
understand the evils which befall heedless souls through their wickedness; and the prophet
blames the sufferers this way for being in such a condition, saying, "From the sole of the
foot even unto the head, neither wound, nor bruise, nor festering sore (is healed); there
is no plaster, nor oil, to put upon them, neither have they been bound up." 654

6. This will be enough to enable any but the very dull, when they read the distracting
passages of Scripture, to arrive at a worthy conception of the action of the Holy Spirit.
But in order to silence those who think that in these passages we have the good things
which shall be given to the saints, and, on the other hand, the evil things which shall be
awarded to sinners, we must further observe that everything which exists on account of a
given object is less important than that for which it exists; for instance, surgical
operations, cauteries, and plasters, which are means to health, are less important than
the health in view. And even supposing that regarded as remedies of the physician these
things are called "good," we must understand that they are not the final good things of
the healing art, but causes of them; from the physician's standpoint bodily health is the
final good. Similarly, if we must keep certain commands for the sake of securing certain
blessings, and the rewards are bodily and external, the good actions will not be good as
ends in themselves, but only as productive of the blessings; and the wealth which our
opponents suppose the Scripture to promise, and the bodily health, will excel the
righteousness, and the very holiness, piety, and fear of God which constitute the upright
and virtuous conduct. It is for men who do not know the dignity of virtue, but prefer
material things to virtue itself, to accept such doctrines;

for of all things it is most absurd to say that wealth and bodily health surpass upright
and virtuous conduct. And, in fact, it is on account of these detestable opinions that
some persons have come to believe that even after the Resurrection one of the first things
promised is that we shall eat and drink such and such things, and some hold that we shall
even beget children. As soon as ever these opinions reach heathen inquirers, they will
make Christianity appear a very foolish thing; for some who are strangers to the Faith
hold far better views. 7. Now we will apply what appears to be the results of our
investigation of the sacred oracles. We alleged that we were content to say that "good"
things and "evil" things, partly depend on our own efforts, and partly do not. We did
not,655 however, reckon among the blessings which do not depend on our efforts, health and
beauty and high descent and riches, and, as best we could, we endeavoured to briefly solve
these perplexing passages. We must now say what the good things are which do not depend on
our efforts; for it is true that "except the Lord build the house, they labour but in vain
who build it"; and "except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." 656
Every one who is making progress is building a house, and every one that is perfect
keepeth a city; and the work of him that buildeth is in vain, except the Lord build and
the Lord watch. The power of the Lord which assists in the building of him that buildeth,
and which cooperates with him who is himself unable to complete the edifice, is one of the
good things which do not depend on our efforts; and we must take the same view of the city
which is being watched.

And just as if I were to say that the "good thing" of agriculture, that which produces the
fruit, partly depends on ourselves in respect of the husbandman's skill, and partly does
not so depend, in respect of the working of Providence for a genial atmosphere and an
abundant supply of rain: so the "good thing" of the rational creature is made up of man's
purpose, and the Divine power assisting him, when he has chosen the better life. There is
need, therefore, both of our own purpose and of the Divine assistance, not only that we
may become good and upright, but also that having become good and upright we may abide in
virtue; for even if a man has been perfected he will fall away, if he be puffed up over
his goodness and accounts himself the cause thereof, and does not fitly ascribe glory to
Him who contributes more than all besides to the acquiring and keeping of his virtue.
Something like this, we think, explains how it was that he who in Ezekiel is said to have
walked blameless in all his ways, until iniquity was found in him,657 fell from heaven,
viz., as Isaiah tells us, Lucifer, once a morning star, afterwards, undone and cast clown
to earth.658 For not only of the sons of men is it true that if a man be perfect and have
not the wisdom of God, he is accounted but a thing of nought;

but it is true even in the order of Angels, and of sovereign Powers, and in every rank of
being that is Divine so far as God is with it. Anyway, perhaps because the holy Apostle
sees that our purposing counts for far less than the power of God in the acquisition of
the good things, he says that the result is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy;659 not as though God showeth mercy without our
willing and running, but because our willing and running is as nothing in comparison with
the mercy of God; and therefore, as is right and meet, he gives the credit of the good
result rather to the mercy of God than to human willing and running. 8. Although we knew
we should seem to be widely digressing, we have gone into all these details, for we are
convinced of the necessity of the inquiry, if we are to handle the words, "Many say, who
will show us the good things?" 660 As far as we could we have clearly pointed out to the
many who say "Who will show us the good things? what the good things are, and,
consequently, also, what are the evil things, in order that through our exercises and
prayers we may acquire the good things, and repel the evil things from our souls. But
since in speaking men sometimes use literal expressions, and sometimes, I suppose, even
use words in a wrong sense, we must not be surprised if occasionally we find those who
hold unsound opinions applying the terms "good" and "evil" to bodily things, and what we
call things external. For example, in Job we read, "If we receive good at the hand of God,
shall wo not endure evil? " 661 And in Jeremiah, "Evil came down from the Lord to the
gates of Jerusalem." 662 Instead of saying, "If we receive such and such useful and
pleasant things at the hand of Providence, shall we not put up with the unpleasant and
painful ones? Job says, "If we receive good at the hand of God, shall we not endure evil?

And instead of, "These particular events providentially happened to Jerusalem for the
chastisement of its inhabitants," we have, "Evil came down from the Lord to the gates of
Jerusalem. So then, readers who understand the facts must not quibble over the names, but
must ascertain when the names are to be taken literally, and when on account of their
limited connotation they are not taken in their strict sense. And even if the Saviour
healed some of these disorders, and gave health, and sight, and hearing to men, we must
look chiefly for their spiritual meaning, since the narratives prove that the word of the
Gospel does heal the disorders of the soul. And there is no absurdity in supposing in such
cases that what is related in the narrative was done to astonish the men of that time; so
that if any were not convinced by argument and instruction, they might be silenced through
the marvellous miracles, and yield assent to the teacher.

CHAP. XXVII. ----The meaning of the Lord's hardening Pharaoh's heart.

1. Nearly all readers of the Book of Exodus, both they who disbelieve, and they who say
they believe it, are disturbed at the frequently occurring words, "The Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh," 663 and "I will harden the heart of Pharaoh." 664 For among many other
causes of men's disbelief we must include this, that things unworthy of God are spoken of
God, and it is unworthy of God to bring about the hardening of any man's heart, and to
effect the hardening in order that he who is hardened may disobey the will of Him who
hardens. And they further ask, Is it not absurd for God to influence any one to disobey
His will? That would be a clear proof that God did not wish Pharaoh to be obedient to His
commands. And to ordinary believers it sounds very harsh to say, "The Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh. For readers who are convinced that there is no other God but the
Creator,665 think that God arbitrarily, as it were, has mercy on whom He will have mercy,
and hardens whom He will,666 when there is no reason why one man should have mercy shown
him by God, and another be hardened by Him. And others, better advised than these, say
they look upon Scripture as containing many secrets, and that they do not on that account
turn aside from the sound faith; and one of the secrets they hold to be the true 667
account of this portion of Scripture.

Others, alleging that there is a God other than the Creator, will have Him to be just but
not good, very foolishly and impiously going the length of severing righteousness from
goodness, and supposing that it is possible for righteousness to exist in any one apart
from goodness, and for goodness to be separated from righteousness. And although they say
this, they nevertheless, in contradiction of their own conception of a righteous God,
concede the point that He hardens the heart of Pharaoh, and makes him disobedient to
Himself. For if He who giveth to every man his due, and bestoweth on those who have
themselves been the cause of progress or deterioration, such things as He knoweth each one
to be fitted to receive,----if He is just, how can that God be just Who was the cause of
Pharaoh's sin? not absolutely the cause, indeed, but so far as they understand Him to have
contributed to Pharaoh's becoming a most unrighteous man. For inasmuch as they refer the
hardening of Pharaoh's heart to nothing worthy of the purpose of a just God, I fail to
understand how, even on their own showing, they can make the hardener of Pharaoh's heart a
just God. We must therefore press them in the exposition of the passage before us either
to show how a just God hardens, or to pluck up courage and say that the Creator, because
He hardens, is a wicked God.

If they can find but scanty proofs that the just God is capable of hardening a man's
heart, and dare not be so godless as to own that they charge the Creator with wickedness,
let them take refuge in some other way of interpreting the words, "The Lord hardened the
heart of Pharaoh," 668 and no longer contradict their own conception of a just God,
because they think they understand the literal meaning. They will at last, perhaps,
confess that they are at a loss to know what the Word is hinting at. 2. Away, then, with
such conceptions of the Divine nature as we are investigating in the question before us.
They are torn to shreds. But inasmuch as there are those who advance the plea of natural
constitution, supposing some persons to have been created to perdition, and adduce these
passages in support of their views, maintaining that their contention is clearly proved by
the fact that Pharaoh's heart was hardened by the Lord, come, let us ask them a few
questions. A man created to perdition would never be able to grow in goodness, because his
original nature neutralises his efforts to attain to virtue. What need, then, was there
for Pharaoh, who was, as you say, a son of perdition, to be hardened by God so that he
should not let the people go? For you tell us that if he had not been hardened he would
have let them go. Further, we should like an answer to another question: What would
Pharaoh have done if he had not been hardened? If he had let them go, not being hardened,
he had not a nature doomed to perdition. If he had not let them go, the hardening of his
heart was superfluous; for he would just the same have refused to let them go, even if he
had not been hardened. And what did God do to control his reason when he hardened him?

And how is it that He blames him, saying, "Because thou disobeyest me, behold I will slay
thy first-born." 669 Can it be that He who hardens, hardens one already hard. Clearly, the
hard is not hardened, but the change is from softness to hardness; and softness of heart
is, according to the Scripture, praiseworthy, as we have often observed. Let them,
therefore, tell us whether Pharaoh turns from good to bad; further, whether God in blaming
Pharaoh blames him without cause, or not without cause; if without cause, how is He any
longer wise and just? if not without cause, Pharaoh was responsible for his sins of
disobedience; and if he was responsible, he had not a nature doomed to perdition. We must
certainly ask another question, because the Apostle, pushing his arguments to their full
conclusion, says, "So then he hath mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardeneth.
Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he still find fault? For who withstandeth his will? "
670 Who, we ask, is it that hardeneth and hath mercy? The hardening surely does not belong
to one God, and the having mercy to a different one, if we follow the apostolic utterance,
but both are attributed to the same God. Either, then, they who in Christ find mercy,
belong to Him Who hardeneth Pharaoh's heart, and it is idle for our opponents to invent
any other god than (as they allow Him to be) the good God, Who not only hath mercy but
also hardens;

or He would no longer be, as they suppose, even good. 3. We have advisedly gone into all
these details at considerable length, in opposition to those who unwarrantably
congratulate themselves on their understanding, and complain of our simplicity, in order
to show that neither in their conceptions of God, nor in their doctrines of natures, does
the Word when examined give them any support. For ourselves, we are for many reasons
convinced, both as we study the sacred Scriptures, and as we contemplate the magnitude of
the forces at work in creation, and the evidences of orderly design, that things visible
and invisible, things temporal and things eternal, come from God the Creator, Who is to be
regarded as one and the same with the Father of our Lord and Saviour, the good and just
and wise God; and in handling the Scriptures we strive to keep that steadily in view,
begging God our Saviour to show us all things pertaining to a good and just and wise God,
for we suppose that the things we speak of cannot be regarded, at least by intelligent
beings, as the result of chance, but that we must ask ourselves whether they are
consistent with His goodness and justice and wisdom.

4. Something like this, then, we suppose to be the meaning of the words,"The Lord hardened
the heart of Pharaoh." 671 The Word of God is a physician of the soul, and uses the most
diverse, suitable, and seasonable methods of healing the sick; and of these methods of
healing, some more, some less, give pain and torment to those who are under treatment; and
the remedies, moreover, seem unsuitable, sometimes not; and, further, they act speedily or
slowly; and are sometimes applied when the patients have had their fill of sin, or when,
so to speak, they have only touched it. The whole of inspired Scripture abounds in proofs
of each of these statements. For example, we read that remedies more or less sad were
applied to the people in the course of what befell them, for the sake of punishment and
correction, in wars of greater or less magnitude, and in famines of longer or shorter
duration; and we have an instance of seemingly unsuitable treatment in the passage, "I
will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your brides when they commit
adultery." 672 It may be that God leaves to themselves the souls that eagerly desire the
sweets of bodily pleasure, until being satiated they abandon the objects of their longing;
they are, as it were, sick of them, and not likely to fall quickly into the same snares,
because they are disgusted and have been so far tormented. Souls are more slowly healed,
because, if they were soon rid of their sufferings, they would think little of falling a
second time into the same evils. The God who designed them knows all their different
constitutions, and, for that He is an expert in the art of healing, it is for Him alone to
say what is best to be done for each, and when.

5. In some bodily sicknesses, when the mischief is, as they say, deep-seated, the
physician with the aid of certain drugs draws and forces the matter to the surface,
producing severe inflammation and swelling, causing more pains than those which a patient
had before he put himself under treatment----as is the practice in cases of Hydrophobia
and similar diseases. So God also, I think, deals with secret, deep-seated mischief in the
soul. The physician might say in one of his cases, "I will set up inflammation round about
the injury, and will force certain parts to swell, so as to produce a bad abscess"; and
when he speaks thus, one hearer will not blame a scientific expert but will even praise
him for, as it were, threatening to produce these effects, while another hearer will blame
him, and will allege that a man who makes a cure depend on inflammations and abscesses
must be a quack; so it is, I think, when God says, "I will harden the heart of Pharaoh."
673 And seeing that these things are written, he that heareth them as the oracles of God,
observing the dignity of the Speaker, accepts them, and every one who seeketh, findeth a
way of showing even herein the goodness of God;674 for the people were through the
numerous miracles more openly assured of safety; and, secondly, there was goodness as
regards the Egyptians, as many as, amazed at what took place, intended to follow the
Hebrews:

for "a mixed multitude," says the historian, "of the Egyptians went out with them";675 and
there was perhaps a deeper and more secret purpose of benefiting Pharaoh himself, when he
shall no longer conceal the poison nor check the malady, but draw it forth to the light,
and perhaps by his conduct put a stop to it: so that having gone through all the stages of
the eruption of the wickedness within him, he may find the tree which bore the evil fruit
less vigorous, perhaps at last withering away, when he is overwhelmed in the sea: not, as
one might suppose, to perish altogether, but that he may cast away and be relieved of the
burden of his sins, and, it may be, descend to Hades in peace, or in less warfare of the
soul. 6. Readers, however, may hardly be convinced: they will suspect that there is
something forced in our version of the matter, viz. that the hardening of Pharaoh's heart
was for his good, and that everything we are told, right up to the overwhelming in the
sea, was for his sake. Let us see, then, if we cannot remove this reluctance, and convince
our readers of the truth of what we say. "Many are the scourges," says David, "of the
wicked";676 and his son teaches that "God scourgeth every son whom he re-receiveth." 677
And elsewhere David in a prophetic promise concerning Christ and those who believe on Him,
says, "If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments; if they profane my
statutes, and keep not my commandments; then will I visit their transgressions with the
rod, and their iniquities with scourges. But my mercy will I not utterly take from them."
678 So, then, it is a favour from the Lord that the transgressor is visited with a rod and
the sinner with scourges. And so far as the sinner is not scourged, he is not yet brought
under discipline and correction. And this is why God threatens, that if the sins of the
inhabitants of Judah become great, He will no longer punish their daughters when they
commit whoredom, nor their brides when they commit adultery.679 And elsewhere he says,
"Because I have purged thee, and thou wast not purged, I will not again be furious over
thee, nor again be jealous over thee." 680 So, then, there are sinners with whom God is
not furious; if I may so speak, though He is angry, He is not furious.

7. We must also observe that the threats of the Prophets against the many end with "They
shall know that I am the Lord";681 and not only the threats against the Israelites, but
also those against the Egyptians and Assyrians and the other enemies of the people. And
this familiar ending of many threats is found also in the Book of Exodus: "And all the
Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord":682 the usual sufferings being brought upon them
for this very purpose, that they may know the Lord. And in the Maccabees something similar
is said: "Now I beseech those that read this book, that they be not discouraged for these
calamities, but that they judge those punishments not to be for destruction, but for a
chastening of our nation. For it is a token of His great goodness, when wicked doers are
not suffered any long time, but forthwith punished. For not as with other nations whom the
Lord forbeareth to punish, till they be come to the fulness of their sins, so dealeth he
with us; but though he punish with adversity he doth not forsake his own people." 683 If
the incurring punishment for sins is a token of God's great goodness, I would have you
consider whether Pharaoh, inasmuch as he was punished after the hardening of his heart,
and chastised as well as his people, was not punished with good reason, and according to
his own wickedness.

And David, as it were imitating God, and having due regard to times and seasons, when he
gives Solomon command concerning Joab, to chastise him for his offences against Abner the
son of Ner, and to slay him for his errors, goes on to say, "And thou shalt bring down his
hoar head in peace to the grave." 684 And it is clear, as the Jew 685 also told us, that
Joab's resting in peace would be the result of his punishment, torment and punishment
being no longer due to him after his discharge therefrom, for he had therein already
received his deserts. And so we think that every threat and pain and punishment, things
that come from God, are never inflicted to injure the sufferers, but always to do them
good. And what are considered the severest terms we can apply to God, fury and anger, are
called rebuking and chastening in the passage, "O Lord, rebuke me not in thy fury, nor
chasten me in thine anger";686 where the suppliant begs that he may not need rebuke
through God's fury, and chastening through God's anger, for some there were who would be
rebuked in God's fury, and chastened in His anger.

8. But that we may the more readily assent to what has been said, we must make use of
similar passages from the New Testament. The Saviour says, "I came to cast fire upon the
earth; and what will I, if it is already kindled." 687 If the fire which He came to cast
upon the earth had not been a saving fire, at all events a saving fire for men, the Son of
the good God would not have said this. And then there is the case of Peter, who, when with
the sword of his mouth he slew Ananias and Sapphira, because they sinned by lying,688 not
to men but to the Lord, had in view not only the edification of such as seeing what was
done would show more reverence towards the Faith of Christ, but also the welfare of the
offenders visited with death. He wished them to depart from the body purified by their
sudden and unexpected death; for they had some right on their side, inasmuch as they gave
even the half of their possessions for the wants of the needy. And Paul also, though he
pronounces the sentence of blindness on the companion of Sergius Paulus the Proconsul,
endeavours through suffering to turn him from sin to godliness, for he says to him, "O
full of all guile, and all villainy, thou son of the devil, thou enemy of all
righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?

And now thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season." 689 What "season" would it
be, except such time as, having been punished and tormented for his sins, he would repent
and become worthy of both ways seeing the sun?----with his bodily eyes, that the Divine
power might be proclaimed in the restoration of his sight, and with the eyes of the soul,
when, as a believer he would delight in godliness. Demas, too, and Hermogenes, whom Paul
690 delivered to Satan that they might learn not to blaspheme, experienced something like
what we have spoken of. And the man at Corinth that had his father's wife was himself,
also, delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit might be saved
in the day of the Lord.691 No wonder, then, if the treatment of Pharaoh, so that he was
hardened and finally involved in such chastisements, is to be traced to the goodness of
God. For the present let the foregoing, which we put down as it came into our head,
suffice for the words, "And the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart." 692 If any one with due
regard to God's glory should discover better arguments, and such as have no tincture of
impiety, and can support them with the evidence of the Divine Scriptures, we will gladly
avail ourselves of them.

Origen elsewhere discusses the same subject---- 9. Among other considerations, I would
further urge that possibly as physicians in the treatment of Hydrophobia, to prevent the
poison from getting a hold within and killing the man, draw it to the surface, thus
causing more acute suffering and inflammation: so God through His healing art draws out
the secret mischief lurking in the depths of the soul, and makes it show itself, in order
that He may afterwards induce a healthy state. This, I think, is the meaning of what we
read in Deuteronomy: "And thou shalt remember all the way that the Lord thy God hath led
thee these forty years in the wilderness, that He might humble thee, to prove thee, to
know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep His commandments, or no. And He
humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest
not, neither did thy fathers know; that He might make thee know that man doth not live by
bread only, but by every thing that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man
live." 693 Observe here that God humbles and tries, in order that what is in each man's
heart may be known, inasmuch as it lies deep and is revealed through tribulations. And
such is the declaration of the Lord to Job in storm and whirlwind: "Dost thou think that I
have dealt with thee for any other purpose than that thou mayest appear righteous?" He did
not say, "That thou mayest be righteous," but, "That thou mayest appear righteous.694
Righteous he was even before his trials, but God would have him show his righteousness by
what befell him.

Elsewhere in the same Commentaries on Exodus---- 10. One of our friends to relieve the
difficulty takes an illustration from daily life, and tells us how frequently it happens
that masters who are kind and long-suffering towards their erring servants say, "I ruined
you"; and "I spoiled you"; meaning to imply that their kindness and long-suffering seem to
have occasioned worse behaviour. As then a sophistical reasoner may say that because the
master speaks thus, he confesses that he has spoiled the servant; so, it may be urged,
what God in His goodness does, having been made the occasion of Pharaoh's hardness, is
described as having hardened Pharaoh's heart. And our friend will discover in the
Apostle's own words the softer meaning he desires: "Or despisest thou the riches of His
goodness, and forbearance, and long-suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God
leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up for
thyself wrath in the day of wrath, and revelation of the righteous judgment of God; who
will render to every man according to his works." 695 Anyway, the same Apostle, in the
same Epistle to the Romans, says, "What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his
power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction,"
696 as if the long-suffering of God having endured the vessels of wrath, had, as it were,
produced them.

For if, because of His long-suffering He did not chastise the sinners but took pity on
them, and if wickedness thereby abounded, He in a way by His long-suffering endured the
vessels of wrath, and, so to speak, Himself made them vessels of wrath, and accordingly
Himself hardened their heart. For when Pharaoh, although so many signs and wonders were
wrought, is not persuaded, but after his strange experiences still resists, is he not
certainly proved to be harder and more unbelieving, and does it not look as though the
hardness and unbelief had arisen from the marvellous miracles? The passage in the Gospel
is similar: "For judgment came I into this world";697 for the Saviour did not purpose to
come for judgment, but His coming for judgment of those who after His marvellous works
believed not on Him was a consequence of His coming; He, moreover, came for the fall of
many;698 but He did not purpose when He came to make them fall for whose fall He came.

And elsewhere---- 11. So the marvellous things, to those who accept them and believe, as
was the case with the mixed multitude of Egyptians who went out with the people, mean
mercy; but to the unbelieving they bring hardness of heart. And, further, besides what has
been said, we may adduce similar passages from the Gospel, which go to show that even the
Saviour appears to have been the cause of evil to some people. "Woe unto thee. Chorazin!
Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which
were done in you, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But I
say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And thou,
Capernaum," 699 and so on. The Saviour knew beforehand the unbelief of the dwellers at
Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum, and that it will be more tolerable for the land of
Sodom in the day of judgment than for them. Why, then, does He do His marvellous works in
Chorazin and Bethsaida, though He sees that those works will make it more tolerable in the
day of judgment for the people of Tyre and Sidon than for them?

And again---- 12. "And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Israel is my son, my first-born: and I
have said unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me; and if thou refusest to let him
go: behold, I will slay thy son, thy first-born." 700 Let me ask those persons who allege
that this is the action of a just God, and suppose, according to the literal meaning of
the words, that Pharaoh's heart was hardened, how He Who hardened the heart of Pharaoh
that he might not let the people go, can be just, and at the same time threaten that
unless Pharaoh will let them go, He will slay his first-born son? Being hard pressed they
will confess that He must be a bad God. Then, again, they will be upset by other passages
and forced to escape from their bondage to the letter, inasmuch as the literal meaning,
according to them, is inconsistent, with the justice of the Creator.701 And once they are
compelled to investigate the matter, they will proceed so far that they will no longer
accuse the Creator, but will allow that He is good. Let us then ask those who think they
understand the words, "The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh," 702 whether they believe
the above threats were uttered by God through the mouth of Moses inspired for the
occasion, or whether there was no truth in them?

If there was no truth in them, God according to them is neither just nor true, and on
their own showing is not God at all; but if the words were truly spoken, I would have them
consider whether God does not blame Pharaoh as a free agent when He says, "If thou wilt
not let my people go";703 and in another place, "How long wilt thou refuse to humble
thyself before me?"704 For the question, "How long wilt thou refuse to humble thyself
before me?" 704 is intended to shame Pharaoh, because, if he did not humble himself, it
was not that he could not, but that he would not. And then there is what was said before
by Moses to Pharaoh: "That thou mayest know that the earth is the Lord's. But as for thee
and thy servants, I know that ye have not yet feared the Lord." 705 This shows that they
will fear----a good argument against the heterodox, for it proves the goodness of God, and
disproves their tenet of a man's being naturally doomed to perdition.

And in Book II. of the Commentaries on the "Song of Songs "---- 13. Observe further that
the sun though white and shining seems to be the cause of a man's turning black, not
because of what it does itself, but because of him who turns black.706 And so also,
perhaps, the Lord hardens Pharaoh's heart, though the cause of this was connected with the
king's making the lives of the Hebrews bitter with hard service, in clay and in brick, and
in all the service, not on the mountains and hills, but in the plains.707 For becoming a
material man through his own wickedness, and living a life in all things according to the
flesh, just because he is fond of clay, he wishes to turn 708 the Hebrews also into clay,
for his own reason is not purified from the clay; and just as clay is hardened by the sun,
so his reason was hardened by the bright beams of Godhead visiting Israel. And that
something like this is the interpretation of the passage, and that it is not the purpose
of God's servant to write mere history, will be clear to any one who notices that when the
children of Israel groaned they did not groan because of the brick, nor because of the
clay, nor because of the straw, but because of the service; and their cry went up to God
not because of the clay, but, we repeat, because of the service.709 Wherefore God also
heard their groans, though He did not hear the groaning of such as cried to Him, not
because of the service, but because of the clay and their earthly condition.

Footnotes

1. 1 As "oracles." ↩ 2. 2 Matt. x. 18; cf. Mark xiii. 9. ↩ 3. 3 Matt. vii. 22 f.; cf. Luke
xiii. 26. ↩ 4. 4 Cf. Gen. xlix. 10. ↩ 5. 5 Hos. iii. 4. ↩ 6. 6 For the Heb. teraphim the
Sept. has delon. Schleusner shows that this word was used for the clear or shining stones,
the Urim and Thummim. The teraphim were idolatrous means of divination (Pusey). The
Seventy appear to have had in view the use of the Urim and Thummim by the high priest. ↩
7. 1 Gen. xlix. 10. ↩ 8. 2 Deut. xxxii. 21. ↩ 9. 1 1 Cor. i. 26 ff. ↩ 10. 2 Ps. xlv.
(xliv.) 1 f. ↩ 11. 3 Ps. lxxii. (lxxi.) 7 f. ↩ 12. 4 Cf. Isa. vii. 14; Matt. i. 215. ↩ 13.
5 Isa. viii. 11 f. ↩ 14. 6 Matt. ii. 6; cf. Mic. v. 2. ↩

15. 1 Dan. ix. 24. ↩ 16. 2 Job iii. 8. ↩ 17. 3 Luke x. 19. ↩ 18. 4 Cf. Heb. ii. 4. ↩ 19. 1
Cf. 2 Cor. iii. 16; Heb. x. 1. ↩ 20. 2 2 Cor. iv. 7, ↩ 21. 3 Or, "being stored up in the
books (of the Bible)," etc. ↩ 22. 1 1 Cor. ii. 4 f. ↩ 23. 2 Heb. vi. 1. ↩ 24. 3 1 Cor. ii.
6 f. ↩ 25. 4 Rom. xvi. 25 ff. ↩ 26. 5 2 Tim. i. 10. ↩ 27. 6 Isa. lxi. i. ↩ 28. 7 Isa. xlv.
13. ↩ 29. 8 Zech. ix. 10. ↩ 30. 9 Isa. vii. 15. ↩ 31. 1 Isa. xi. 6 f. ↩ 32. 2 Jer. xv. 14.
↩ 33. 3 Ex. xx. 5. ↩ 34. 4 Cf. 1 Sam. xv. 11, 17, 35. ↩ 35. 5 Isa. xlv. 7. ↩

36. 6 Amos iii. 6. ↩ 37. 7 Mic. i. 12. ↩ 38. 8 1 Sam. xvi. 14. ↩ 39. 9 World-builder----
Creator. ↩ 40. 1 Cf. Gen. xix. 30 ff. ↩ 41. 2 Cf. Gen. xvi. ↩ 42. 3 Cf Gen. xxix. 21 ff. ↩
43. 4 Cf. Ex. xxv. ff. ↩ 44. 1 1 Cor. ii. 16, 12 f. ↩ 45. 2 The Greek word is used in the
Sept. for the Heb. for network, laced work, and so a lattice. In Eccles. xii. 3, a window,
as closed by a lattice, and not with glass. In Hos. xiii. 3, a chimney, or hole for the
smoke, covered with lattice-work. See Gesenius and Schleusner. ↩ 46. 1 Luke xi. 52. ↩ 47.
2 Prov. xxii. 20 f. ↩ 48. 3 1 Cor. ii. 6 f. ↩ 49. 4 Heb. x. 1. ↩ 50. 5 Herm. Vis. ii. 4. ↩

51. 1 Widows and orphans----" Those who are not yet united with the Spouse of the Church,
though divorced from their old connection, nor yet adopted children of the Father."----
Westcott. ↩ 52. 2 "By this he evidently means that certain passages taken literally do not
instruct us, for no one can deny that they have a meaning."----Westcott. ↩ 53. 3 John ii.
6. ↩ 54. 4 Rom. ii. 29. ↩ 55. 5 That is, a number equal to the sum of its factors or
divisors. Thus 6 = 3 + 2 + 1. ↩ 56. 1 1 Cor. ix. 9 f.; cf. Deut. xxv. 4. ↩ 57. 2 Heb.
viii. 5; x. 1. ↩ 58. 3 1 Cor. ii. 7 f. ↩ 59. 4 1 Cor. x. 11. ↩ 60. 5 1 Cor. x. 4. ↩ 61. 6
Heb. viii. 5; cf, Ex. xxv. 40. ↩ 62. 7 Gal. iv. 21 ff ↩

63. 1 Col. ii. 16 f. ↩ 64. 2 Heb. viii. 5. ↩ 65. 3 That is, "inspired." ↩ 66. 4 Rom. xi. 4
; cf. 1 Kings xix. 18, ↩ 67. 5 Rom. xi. 5. ↩ 68. 6 "Divine." ↩ 69. 1 See sec. 14,
beginning. ↩ 70. 1 Gen. i. 5. ↩ 71. 2 Gen. ii. 8 f. ↩ 72. 3 Gen. iii. 8. ↩ 73. 4 Gen. iv.
16. ↩ 74. 1 Matt. iv. 8. ↩ 75. 2 Cf. Lev. xi. 14. ↩ 76. 3 Gen. xvii. 14. ↩ 77. 4 Cf. Deut.
xiv. 5, 12. ↩ 78. 5 Ex. xvi. 29. ↩ 79. 1 Jer. xvii. 21. ↩ 80. 2 Luke x. 4. ↩ 81. 3 Matt.
v. 39. ↩ 82. 4 Matt. v. 28 f. ↩ 83. 5 1 Cor. vii. 18. ↩ 84. 1 See above. The Spirit is
supposed to invent some of the history for the sake of the spiritual meaning conveyed. ↩

85. 2 Gen. xxv. 9 f. ↩ 86. 3 Gen. xlviii. 22; Josh. xxiv. 32. ↩ 87. 4 Ex. xx. 12; cf. Eph.
vi. 2 f. ↩ 88. 5 "The spiritual world in which the interpretation of Scripture is
realised, may be regarded as heavenly, or as Christian and earthly; when we contemplate
the former, we explain anagogically, and allegories properly are applied only to the
latter. Thus the prophecies which describe the character and fate of various nations under
the Jewish dispensation may be referred, according to the one system (anagoge), to the
inhabitants of the celestial regions correlative to the kingdoms on earth, or by the other
(allegoria), to spiritual characters unfolded by Christianity."----Westcott. ↩ 89. 1 Ex.
xx. 13 ff. ↩ 90. 2 Matt. v. 22. ↩ 91. 3 Matt. v. 34. ↩ 92. 4 1 Thess. v. 14. ↩ 93. 5 John
v. 39. ↩ 94. 1 1 Cor. x. 18. ↩

95. 2 Rom. ix. 8, 6. ↩ 96. 3 Rom. ii. 28 f. ↩ 97. 1 Matt. xv. 24. ↩ 98. 1 Rom. ix. 8. ↩
99. 2 Gal. iv. 26 f. ↩ 100. 3 Heb. xii. 22 f. ↩ 101. 4 Rufinus, "If we listen to the words
of Paul as the words of Christ speaking in him." ↩ 102. 5 Or, "refers us." ↩ 103. 6 That
is, "Egyptians," etc., literally. ↩ 104. 1 Isa. xiv. 12. ↩ 105. 2 Ezek. xxix. 11 f. ↩ 106.
3 Matt. xv. 24 ; cf. John xi. 52. ↩ 107. 4 Matt. xiii. 44. ↩ 108. 1 Col. ii. 3 ; Isa. xlv.
2f. ↩ 109. 2 Heb. xi. 12 ; cf. Gen. xxii. 17. ↩ 110. 3 Matt. v. 14. ↩ 111. 4 Rom. ix. 6. ↩
112. 1 Eccles. v. 1. ↩ 113. 2 Ex. xxxiv. 20. ↩ 114. 3 Cf. Isa. i. 16. ↩

115. 4 Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet. ii. 7; cf. Isa. viii. 14. ↩ 116. 5 Rom. ix. 33; cf. Isa.
xxviii. 16. ↩ 117. 6 Or, "reconciling the nmrder of the man with his evident kindliness."
↩ 118. 1 Wisd. xvii. 1. ↩ 119. 2 1 Cor. ii. 7 f. ↩ 120. 3 Rom. xvi. 25 f. ↩ 121. 4 2 Tim.
i. 10; John i. 1 f. ↩ 122. 5 Rom. ii. 28 f. ↩ 123. 1 Rom. i. 20. ↩ 124. 2 That is, which
come within the province of the reason, as opposed to things simply visible. ↩ 125. 3 Heb.
viii. 5. ↩ 126. 4 Ex. xxviii. 32. ↩ 127. 5 Rev. iii. 7 f. ↩ 128. 1 Rev. v. 1 ff. ↩ 129. 2
Isa. xxix. 11 f. ↩ 130. 3 Luke xi. 51; cf. Matt. xxiii. 14. ↩ 131. 1 1 Cor. ii. 13. ↩

132. 2 See Chap. viii. ↩ 133. 3 Ps. xii. (xi.) 7. ↩ 134. 4 Cf. Luke i. 2. ↩ 135. 5 Matt.
v. 18. ↩ 136. 1 Or, "providence." ↩ 137. 1 This total was made by taking Ruth with Judges,
and Lamentations with Jeremiah. See Sanday, Inspiration, pp. 56 ff., 111 ff., on "the
Symbolism of. Numbers." "Origen was the first who pointed out this number was also that of
the letters in the Hebrew alphabet (Euseb. H.E. vi. 25, and the coincidence is
emphatically repeated by Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, Hilary of Poitiers, and
Epiphanius, as well as by Jerome. The coincidence, it was thought, could hardly be
accidental. The 'twenty-two' books of the Greek Bible must, it was supposed, represent
'twenty-two' books of the Hebrew Bible; hence, it was concluded, the number of the books
in the Hebrew Canon was providentially ordained to agree with the number of the Hebrew
letters."----Ryle, Canon of the Old Testament, p. 221. ↩

138. "It is noteworthy that the supposed agreement in the number of the Hebrew letters
with the number of the Hebrew sacred books seems to be of Greek origin, and does not
appear in Hebrew tradition,"----Ryle, p. 222. ↩ 139. 1 Or, "inaccurate." ↩ 140. 2 I Cor.
ii. 4. ↩ 141. 3 2 Cor. xi. 6. ↩ 142. 4 2 Cor. iv. 7. ↩ 143. 5 Col. ii. 3. ↩ 144. 6 1 Cor.
i. 26 f. ↩ 145. 1 Rom. i. 14. ↩ 146. 2 2 Cor. iii. 6. ↩ 147. 3 1 Cor. ii. 4 f. ↩ 148. 4
"Not content with the labour of lecturing and collating MSS., Origen composed numerous
books. These were all written to the order of his patron Ambrose, who had at one time been
attracted by Gnosticism, but was won over to orthodoxy by Origen. Ambrose made use of his
wealth to give the poor but independent scholar the only aid he was likely to accept. He
supplied him with quarters and a staff of shorthand writers and copyists. Ambrose not only
provided the means, he also prescribed the subjects." ----Origen the Teacher, S.P.C.K., p.
9. ↩

149. 5 Eccles. xii. 12. ↩ 150. 1 "Nisi primum, plane secundum; si vero secundum, non
primum omnino." ↩ 151. 1 Eccles. xii. 12. ↩ 152. 2 Prov. x. 19. ↩ 153. 3 1 Kings iv. 32 f.
↩ 154. 4 Prov. i. 24. ↩ 155. 5 Acts xx. 7 f. ↩ 156. 6 John i. 1. ↩ 157. 7 Lit.,
"consisting of many theorems." ↩ 158. 1 John v. 39. ↩ 159. 2 Ps. xl. (xxxix.) 7. ↩ 160. 1
Rev. v. 1 ff. ↩ 161. 2 Rev. iii. 7. ↩ 162. 3 Ps. lxix. (lxviii.) 29. ↩ 163. 4 Dan. vii.
10. ↩ 164. 5 Ex. xxxii. 32. ↩ 165. 6 Isa. xxii. 22; cf. Rev. iii. 7. ↩ 166. 1 Ezek. ii.
10. ↩ 167. 2 Cf. Rev. x. 10. ↩ 168. 3 Rom. ii. 16. ↩ 169. 1 2 Cor. iii. 6. ↩ 170. 2 Lit.,
"dictation." According to others, "too boldly give advice." ↩

171. 3 Matt. v. 9. ↩ 172. 4 Prov. viii. 8. ↩ 173. 5 Ps. lxxii. (lxxi.) 7. ↩ 174. 1 R.V.,
"The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails well fastened are the words of the
masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd." The margin has for "masters of
assemblies " the alternative "collectors of sentences." ↩ 175. 2 Eccles. xii. 11. ↩ 176. 3
Cf. Luke viii. 8. ↩ 177. 1 1 Sam. xvi. 14. ↩ 178. 2 That is, "treatment." ↩ 179. 3
"Inconsequence in the connections, abruptness in the transitions." ↩ 180. 4 A Homily was a
popular exposition. Origen's writings were of three kinds----tomes, properly sections
(volumina, Jerome), commentaries, homilies. ↩ 181. 1 Ps. cix. (cviii.) 1, 8. ↩ 182. 2 Acts
i. 16. ↩ 183. 3 Ex persona Dei. On the prosopopoeia of Scripture, see Schleusner. The verb
signifies personas fictos induco, personas fingo, or confingo. Cf. "The heavens declare
the glory of God"; "The sea saw that and fled," etc. ↩

184. 4 That is, "inaccurate expressions." ↩ 185. 5 Hos. xii. 4. ↩ 186. 1 Gen. ii. 16 f. ↩
187. 2 One "thing." Cf. S. John x. 30, and see below. ↩ 188. 1 1 Cor. x. 17. ↩ 189. 2 Cf.
Eph. iv. 5 f. ↩ 190. 3 Cf. Rom. xii. 5 ; Gal. iii. 28. ↩ 191. 4 2 Cor. xi. 2. ↩ 192. 5 The
neuter. ↩ 193. 6 Cf. John xvii. 11, 21. ↩ 194. 7 Rom. xii. 5. ; Eph. iv. 25. ↩ 195. 8
Herm. Vis. xi. ↩ 196. 9 Rom, vii. 7. ↩ 197. 1 Gal. iii. 10; cf. Deut. xxvii. 26. ↩ 198. 2
Gal. iii. 19. ↩ 199. 3 Gal. iii. 24 ff. ↩ 200. 4 Gal. iv. 21 ff. ↩ 201. 5 John xv. 25; cf.
Ps. xxxv. (xxxiv.) 19. ↩ 202. 1 1 Cor. xiv. 21; cf. Isa. xxxviii. 11 f. ↩

203. 2 Rom. vii. 14. ↩ 204. 3 Rom. ii. 14f. ↩ 205. 4 The governing part, or reason. The
Stoics taught that the soul had eight parts, the hegemonicon or governing part, the five
senses, the faculty of speech, and the generative force. The word occurs also in xx. 12
(rational and irrational), xx. 22, xxi. 3, xxvii. 2, xxvii. 13. ↩ 206. 5 Rom. v. 13. ↩
207. 6 Rom. vii. 7. ↩ 208. 1 Jolm iv. 35. ↩ 209. 2 That is, "literal." See above. ↩ 210. 3
John ix. 39. ↩ 211. 4 Cf. Rom. iii. 21. ↩ 212. 5 John i. 18. ↩ 213. 1 Rom. ix. 33; 1 Pet.
ii. 7; cf. Isa. viii. 14. ↩ 214. 2 Rom. ix. 33; cf. Isa. xxviii. 16. ↩ 215. 3 Matt. xii.
36. ↩ 216. 1 Cf. Matt. v. 18. ↩ 217. 1 Ezek. xxxiv. 17 ff. ↩

218. 1 Ezek. xxxiv. 19. ↩ 219. 1 Ps. ciii. (cii.) 1. ↩ 220. 2 1 Cor. xiv. 14. ↩ 221. 1 Cf.
Matt. ix. 29. ↩ 222. 2 Cf. 2 Tim. iii. 16. ↩ 223. 1 Gregory Thaumaturgus, so called from
his miracles, converted by Origen about 234 A.D., afterwards Bishop of his native place,
Neocaesarea in Cappadocia. ↩ 224. 2 Ex. xi. 2; xii. 35 f. ↩ 225. 3 Lit., "things
received," viz. "in the Mount," Ex. xxv. 40, etc. ↩ 226. 1 Ex. xxvii. 16. ↩ 227. 2 1 Kings
xi. 14 ff. In the text, Ader (accurately, Eder, 1 Chron. viii. 15). ↩ 228. 1 1 Kings xii.
28 f., Jeroboam. ↩ 229. 2 John x. 3. ↩ 230. 3 Matt. vii. 7; Luke xi. 9. ↩ 231. 1 Heb. iii.
14. ↩ 232. 2 Gen. i. 16 ff. ↩ 233. 3 "In principatum." ↩ 234. 4 "Ut proeessent." In Greek
the Infinitive. ↩

235. 5 "In potestatem." ↩ 236. 6 "Ut potestatem habeant." ↩ 237. 1 John v. 19. ↩ 238. 2
John i. 29. ↩ 239. 1 2 Cor. v. 19. ↩ 240. 2 Lit., "distinction of points, or stops." ↩
241. 1 I take this to be Origen's meaning. Cf. Westcott, Introduction to the Gospel of St.
John, p. 50. ↩ 242. 1 1 Cor. ii. 4 f. ↩ 243. 2 Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 4. ↩ 244. 3 "Sermonis gratia
allicere ad obsequium: sicut veteres in ore Herculis aureas catenas finxerunt, quae vulgus
hominum auribus traherent."----Calvin on Ps. xlv. 3. ↩ 245. 4 Ps. lxviii. (lxvii.) 12. ↩
246. 1 Plat. Ep. vii. 341 C, D. ↩ 247. 2 Rom. i. 19. ↩ 248. 3 Cf. Rom. i. .18 ff. ↩ 249. 4
Plat. Ep., ibid. ↩ 250. 1 Cf. Plat. Rep. i. 327, A. ↩ 251. 2 Cf. Plat. Phaedo, 118, A. ↩

252. 3 "Noumena" as opposed to "phoenomena." ↩ 253. 4 Rom. i. 25. ↩ 254. 5 1 Cor. i. 27
ff. ↩ 255. 1 Or, "Word = Scripture." ↩ 256. 2 Cf. Plat. Ep. vii. 341 C, D. ↩ 257. 3 Hos.
x. 12. ↩ 258. 4 John i. 4, 9. ↩ 259. 5 Cf. Matt. v. 14. ↩ 260. 6 2 Cor. iv. 6. ↩ 261. 7
Ps. xxvii. (xxvi.) 1. ↩ 262. 8 Ps. cxix. (cxviii.) 105. ↩ 263. 9 Ps. iv. 7. ↩ 264. 10 Ps.
xxxvi. (xxxv.) 10. ↩ 265. 11 Isa. lx. 1, ↩ 266. 12 Matt. iv. 16, ↩ 267. 1 Cf. Isa. ix. 2.
↩ 268. 2 Cf. Matt, xxv. 4. ↩ 269. 3 Plato, Crito, 49 B. ↩ 270. 1 1 Cor. ii. 5; cf. i. 26;
2 Cor. i. 12. ↩ 271. 1 Luke vi. 29. ↩ 272. 2 Matt. v. 40. ↩

273. 3 Isa. liii. 1 ff. ↩ 274. 1 Sept. παιδίον. Heb. Sugens = tenera planta.----
Schleusner. ↩ 275. 2 Ps. xlv. (xliv.) 4 f. ↩ 276. 3 Cf. Matt. xvii. 1 f. ↩ 277. 4 Luke ix.
30 f. ↩ 278. 5 Isa. liii. 2. ↩ 279. 1 Or, "the prophecy," viz. in Ps. xlv. above referred
to. ↩ 280. 2 "Demiurge." ↩ 281. 3 Cf. Matt. xvii. 6. ↩ 282. 1 Or, forms." ↩ 283. 2 "The
Divine Word," introducing a quotation from St. Paul, is found in Theophilus of Antioch as
a name for Holy Scripture. ---- Sanday, Inspiration, p. 28. ↩ 284. 3 Cf. Matt. xvii. 1. ↩
285. 4 See Cont. Cels. vi. 68, "Caused us to ascend to the lofty mountain of His Word,"
etc. ↩ 286. 5 Isa. liii. 2 f. ↩ 287. 6 1 Cor. i. 21. ↩ 288. 7 Matt, xvi. 18. ↩

289. 8 Ps. ix. (viii.), 14. ↩ 290. 9 Cf. Mark iii. 1. ↩ 291. 1 Matt. i. 1. ↩ 292. 2 John
xxi. 25. ↩ 293. 3 Cf. 2 Cor. xii. 2 ff. ↩ 294. 4 John i. 1. ↩ 295. 5 Phil. ii. 7. ↩ 296. 6
In the Apocalypse (xix. 13) the "Word of God" is a title of the Son of God. ↩ 297. 7 John
i. 14. ↩ 298. 1 Cf. John xiii. 25; Matt. xvii. 1. ↩ 299. 2 Cf. John i. 14. ↩ 300. 3 1 Cor.
ii. 7. ↩ 301. 1 The Dogmatici, Empirici, Methodici, Pneumatici, Eclectici, etc. ↩ 302. 1 1
Cor. xi. 19. ↩ 303. 2 Cf. Rom. iii. 29. ↩ 304. 3 2 Tim. i. 3. ↩ 305. 1 Tertullian called
those who rejected the Montanist view Psychici, that is, animal or carnal: while the
followers of Montanus were called Spiritales, spiritual. See Snicer. The Gnostics also
reproached Catholic Christians as being ignorant, animal, and worldly, but called
themselves spiritual, perfect. ↩

306. 2 Cor. iv. 12f. ↩ 307. 3 Tit. iii. 10 f. ↩ 308. 4 Matt. v. 9. ↩ 309. 5 Matt. v. 5. ↩
310. 1 De Interp. Bk. i. part 1, chap. 2. See also Plato, Cratylus. Hermogenes, one of the
speakers, maintained that all the words of a language were formed by an agreement of men
among themselves, or were conventional. "Do you prefer the notion of Hermogenes and of
many others who say that names are conventional, and have a meaning to those who have
agreed about them, and who have previous knowledge of the things intended by them, and
that convention is the only principle?"----(Jowett's translation.) ↩ 311. 2 According to
Epicurus words, were formed originally, not by an arbitrary, but by a natural process, in
correspondence with our sensations and ideas. ----Ueberweg. Hist. Phil. I. p. 206.
"Democritus, and after him, Epicurus, say that speech consists of elementary parts (in
Physics, atoms), and, to use their own expression, call it a stream of words."----A.
Gellius, Bk. v. c. 15, quoted by Selwyn. ↩

312. 1 The Brahmans were the hereditary priests of the Indian Theosophists. The Samaneans
were picked men, recruited from those who wished to be Theosophists. They were also found
among the Bactrians of Persia. ↩ 313. 2 "Demiurge." ↩ 314. 3 Lit., "after ": the names
being given after the demons. See L. and Sc. ↩ 315. 1 "Demiurge." ↩ 316. 2 Plat. Phileb.
12 B, C. ↩ 317. 3 That is, "Zeus." ↩ 318. 1 Lit., "If we translate into Greek him that was
originally called (or invoked)," etc. ↩ 319. 2 The point of the passage appears to be the
difference between translation and transliteration. These translations correspond to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ↩ 320. 1 Cf. Plat. Phileb. 12 B, C. ↩ 321. 1 See Clem. Aleu.,
Exhortation to the Heathen, chap. 2. "The token of the Sabazian mysteries to the initiated
is the deity gliding over the breast, the deity being this serpent crawling over the
breast of the initiated." Zeus was said to have intercourse with his daughter Core
(Persephone) in the shape of a dragon or serpent (see p. 83). ↩

322. 2 "From her being an infernal divinity, she came to be regarded as a spectral being,
who sent at night all kinds of demons and terrible phantoms from the lower world." ↩ 323.
1 Or, "since probability is the guide of human life." ↩ 324. 1 1 Cor. iii. 18 f. ↩ 325. 2
Others translate, "and that it was only in certain circumstances that the latter course
was desired by Christianity, in order not to leave men altogether without help." The
meaning perhaps is that bare faith is better than leaving men altogether unprofitable, or
hurtful. ↩ 326. 1 1 Cor. i. 21. ↩ 327. 2 Lit., "Arrangement of the offer (of the Gospel"),
as opposed to the matter." ↩ 328. 3 1 Cor. ii. 4 f. ↩ 329. 1 Matt. iv. 19. ↩ 330. 2 1 Cor.
ii. 4. ↩ 331. 3 Ps. lxviii. (lxvii.) 12 f. ↩

332. 4 Jerome----"Dominus dabit verbum Evangelizantibus virtute multa, Rex virtutum
Dilecti." ↩ 333. 5 Ps. cxlvii. 15. ↩ 334. 6 Cf. Ps. xix. (xviii.) 5. ↩ 335. 1 Matt. ix. 37
f. ↩ 336. 2 Ep. Barn. v. 9. ↩ 337. 3 Luke v. 8. ↩ 338. 4 1 Tim. i. 15. ↩ 339. 1 Tit. iii.
3 ff. ↩ 340. 2 Ps. cvii. (cvi.) 20. ↩ 341. 1 Matt. x. 23. ↩ 342. 2 John xiv. 6. ↩ 343. 3
John viii. 40. ↩ 344. 4 Others, "Be led by human guidance to keep out of the way of
dangers." ↩ 345. 1 Cf. Gen. xix. 11. ↩ 346. 2 "Proprie."----Bp. Bull. ↩ 347. 3 1 Cor. i.
24. ↩ 348. 1 Matt. v. 28. ↩ 349. 2 Or, "the 'word' of Christians." See below. ↩ 350. 3 PS.
li. (l.)8. ↩ 351. 4 Cf. 2 Chron. i. 10. ↩

352. 5 1 Kings x. 1 ff. ↩ 353. 1 1 Kings iv. 29 ff. ↩ 354. 2 "Problems." ↩ 355. 3 Hos.
xiv. 9. ↩ 356. 4 Dan. i. 20. ↩ 357. 5 Ezek. xxviii. 3. ↩ 358. 6 Mark iv. 11, 34. ↩ 359. 7
Matt. xxiii. 34. ↩ 360. 1 1 Cor. xii. 8 ff. ↩ 361. 2 Acts vii. 11. ↩ 362. 3 Ex. vii. 22. ↩
363. 4 Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 6. ↩ 364. 1 Rom. i. 21. ↩ 365. 2 Rom. i. 19 ff. ↩ 366. 3 Or,
"spiritual." ↩ 367. 4 1 Cor. i. 26 ff. ↩ 368. 5 Cf. Tit. i. 9. ↩ 369. 1 Cf. 1 Tim. iii. 2.
↩ 370. 2 1 Tim. iv. 10. ↩ 371. 3 1 John ii. 2. ↩ 372. 1 Others see an allusion to the
jugglers in the market-places, and render, "performing their disgraceful tricks," etc. ↩

373. 1 For the Catechumens (instructed privately without the Church), the Hearers (so
called from their being admitted to hear sermons and the Scriptures read in the Church),
the Kneelers, the Competentes (petitioners for baptism), and Electi (candidates approved),
the Registers, etc., see Bingham, Book x. chap. II. ↩ 374. 1 The Catechumens were treated
with more moderation than others, because "their sins were committed whilst they were
unregenerate in the old man, and therefore were more easily pardoned than crimes committed
by believers after baptism."----See Bingham, Book x. chap. II. sec. xvii. ↩ 375. 2 1 Cor.
iii. 2 f. ↩ 376. 3 Heb. v. 12ff. ↩ 377. 1 Cf. Rom. i. 14. ↩ 378. 2 Prov. viii. 5. ↩ 379. 3
Prov. ix. 4ff., 16. ↩ 380. 1 Or, "Ye Greeks, it seems, may invite, etc. . . . and yet, if
we do so, there is no motive of humanity in what we do, though we wish," etc. ↩

381. 2 The Athenian legislator, born about 638 B.C. ↩ 382. 3 The Spartan legislator,
probably about 800 B.C. ↩ 383. 4 The Locrian legislator, the date of his legislation is
assigned to 660 B.C. His code is said to have been the first collection of written laws
that the Greeks possessed. ↩ 384. 5 1 Cor. i. 27. ↩ 385. 6 Rom. i. 22 f. ↩ 386. 1 Antinous
was the favourite of the Emperor Hadrian. He was drowned in the Nile, 122 A.D. Hadrian
enrolled him among the gods, etc. See Cont. Cels. iii. 36, 37. ↩ 387. 2 This is explained
below, "Men are more or less fortunate in their beliefs." ↩ 388. 1 Lit., "Faith having
first taken possession of us produces such an assent, or submission, to Jesus." ↩ 389. 2
Or, "piety." ↩ 390. 1 Waterland says, "It is difficult to express the full force of this
passage in English." ↩

391. 1 Lat., secundae. ↩ 392. 2 Grasses, or any plants that bear leaves and seeds from the
root. ↩ 393. 1 Or, "roots." ↩ 394. 2 Ps. civ. (ciii.) 14 f. ↩ 395. 3 Ecclus. xxxix. 21 17.
↩ 396. 4 Cf. Hom. Od. ix. 109. ↩ 397. 1 Others, "that it was only the things on earth
which underwent deluges and conflagrations, and that all these things did not happen at
the same time." ↩ 398. 2 See Plato, Legg. 677 B. ↩ 399. 3 Hesiod. ↩ 400. 4 Or,
"assemblies." ↩ 401. 1 Or, "destroy their useful doctrines, and at the same time the
agreement of Christianity and philosophy in these respects." ↩ 402. 1 Admit them among
rational creatures? ↩ 403. 1 Ecclus. xvi. 27, "He garnished his works for ever." Wisd. xi.
20, "Thou hast ordered all things in measure and number and weight." Origen's word is the
same as that in the former, but equivalent to the word used in the latter. ↩

404. 1 Cf. Gen. i. 26. ↩ 405. 1 "Logos, or Word." ↩ 406. 2 Prov. xxx. 24 ff. (xxiv. 59
ff.). ↩ 407. 3 John xvi. 25. ↩ 408. 1 Or, "have certain sacred modes of converse with one
another." ↩ 409. 2 Circ. 544 B.C. Generally regarded as the teacher of Pythagoras. ↩ 410.
1 Ps. xlix. (xlviii.) 12, 20. ↩ 411. 1 The conjectural reading. ↩ 412. 2 Iliad, ii. 308
ff. (Lord Derby's translation). ↩ 413. 1 Hom. Il. xii. 200 ff. ↩ 414. 2 Hom. Il. ii. 309.
↩ 415. 3 Cf. Hom. Od. xv. 526. ↩ 416. 1 Cf. Lev. xi. ↩ 417. 2 John xii. 31; 2 Cor. iv. 4.
↩ 418. 1 Cf. Hom. Od. iv. 685, xx. 116, 119. ↩ 419. 2 Hom. Od. xx. 120. ↩ 420. 3 Cf. Hom.
Od. xvii. 541 ff. ↩ 421. 4 Lev. xix. 26. ↩

422. 1 Deut, xviii. 14; cf. 12. ↩ 423. 2 Deut, xviii. 15. ↩ 424. 3 Num. xxiii. 23. ↩ 425.
4 Prov. iv. 23. ↩ 426. 5 Cf. 2 Cor. iv. 6. ↩ 427. 6 Cf. Rom. viii. 14. ↩ 428. 1 Ex. xxiv.
2. ↩ 429. 1 Or, "complete and perfect in all respects." ↩ 430. 1 See Chap. xxi. 2,
"promptings to the contemplation of virtue and vice." ↩ 431. 1 Or, "is included in." ↩
432. 2 Inanimate nature. ↩ 433. 3 Animate nature. Lit., "by nature and a soul." Cf. Arist.
Nic. Eth. Bk. III. c. 1, "The man acts voluntarily, because the originating of the motion
of his limbs in such actions rests with himself; and where the origination rests in
himself, it rests with himself to do or not to do" (Chase's translation). ↩ 434. 1 Lit.,
"out of." ↩ 435. 2 So Rufinus explains "phantasy," voluntas vel sensus. ↩

436. 3 Or, "speaking generally." Others translate, "the greater part of the nature
assigned to all things is a varying quantity among animals." ↩ 437. 1
Rufinus----"naturalem corporis intemperiem." ↩ 438. 1 See Ellicott on 1 Tim. ii. 2,
"Decency and propriety of deportment." ↩ 439. 2 Mic. vi. 8. ↩ 440. 3 Deut. xxx. 19. ↩ 441.
4 Isa. i. 19. ↩ 442. 5 Ps. lxxxi. (lxxx.) 13 f. ↩ 443. 6 Matt. v. 39. ↩ 444. 1 Matt. v.
22. ↩ 445. 2 Matt. v. 28. ↩ 446. 3 Matt. vii. 24, 26. ↩ 447. 4 Matt. xxv. 34 f. ↩ 448. 5
Matt. xxv. 41. . ↩ 449. 6 Rom. ii. 4 ff. ↩ 450. 1 Ex. iv. 21, vii. 3. ↩ 451. 2 Ex. xi. 19
f. ↩ 452. 3 Mark iv. 20 ; cf. Luke viii. 10. ↩ 453. 4 Rom. ix. 16. ↩ 454. 5 Cf. Phil. ii.
13. ↩

455. 1 Rom. ix. 18 f. ↩ 456. 2 R.V. "This persuasion came not of him that calleth you." ↩
457. 3 Cf. Gal. v. 8. ↩ 458. 4 Rom. ix. 20 f. ↩ 459. 5 Rom. ix. 18. ↩ 460. 1 Cf. Ex. iv.
23, ix. 17. ↩ 461. 2 Cf. Ex. xii. 12. ↩ 462. 1 According to others, "If any one should
stand, declaring with uncovered head that the Creator of the world was inclined to
wickedness," etc. ↩ 463. 2 Heb. vi. 7 f. ↩ 464. 1 The word denotes the deliberate
selection of a course of conduct. ↩ 465. 2 Others, "as regards the point in question." ↩
466. 3 Cf. Ex. viii. 28. ↩ 467. 4 Rom. ii. 4 f. ↩ 468. 1 Isa. lxiii. 17 f. ↩ 469. 2 Jer.
xx. 7. ↩ 470. 3 Isa. lxiii. 17. ↩ 471. 4 Sus. 42. ↩

472. 1 Cf. Luke xiv. 11. ↩ 473. 2 Cf. Matt. xi. 25; 1 Cor. i. 29. ↩ 474. 3 Others, "he
that is abandoned is abandoned to the Divine judgment." ↩ 475. 1 Matt. xiii. 5 f. ↩ 476. 2
Or, "applied"; lit. "cast upon." ↩ 477. 3 That is, "check the growth." ↩ 478. 1 Or, "to
us," that is, "in our opinion." ↩ 479. 2 Wisd. vii. 16. ↩ 480. 3 Cf. Ex. vii. 14 ; Rom.
ix. 18. ↩ 481. 4 Ezek. xi. 19, 20. ↩ 482. 1 Mark iv. 11 f. ↩ 483. 1 "Demiurge." ↩ 484. 1
Sus. 42. ↩ 485. 2 Lit., "helping them does not help." ↩ 486. 3 Cf. Mark iv. 11. ↩ 487. 1
Cf. Matt. xi. 21. ↩ 488. 2 Lit., "the things of those without." ↩ 489. 3 Or, "in addition
to our inquiring." ↩ 490. 1 Rom. ix. 16. ↩

491. 2 Or, "the 'furniture' which God gave them for life." Cf. Eur. Supp. 214. ↩ 492. 3
Or, "deliberate purpose." ↩ 493. 4 The same phrase as in Chap. xviii. 26. ↩ 494. 1 Rom.
ix. 15. ↩ 495. 2 Or, "Degrees." ↩ 496. 3 Ps. cxxvii. (cxxvi.) 1 f. ↩ 497. 4 Cf. Phil. iii.
14. ↩ 498. 5 Rom. ix. 16. ↩ 499. 6 1 Cor. iii. 6f. ↩ 500. 1 Or, "our own free will." ↩
501. 2 Cf. Phil. ii. 13. ↩ 502. 1 Rom. ix. 18 ff. ↩ 503. 1 2 Cor. xii. 21. ↩ 504. 2 2 Tim.
i. 16 ff. ↩ 505. 3 2 Cor. v. 10. ↩ 506. 4 2 Tim. ii. 20 f. ↩ 507. 1 Either (a) God's
foreknowledge of man's efforts, or (b) the soul's conduct in a prior state of existence,
or (c) both. ↩ 508. 2 Rom. ix. 20. ↩

509. 3 Ex. xix. 19. ↩ 510. 1 Rom. ix. 19. ↩ 511. 2 Rom. ix. 20. ↩ 512. 3 That is, "soul
natures, perishing or being saved." Rufinus---- "Diversas animarum naturas." ↩ 513. 4 2
Tim. ii. 21. ↩ 514. 1 Rom. ix. 21. ↩ 515. 1 The Greek word occurs in 2 Macc. iii. 39, vii.
35, 3 Macc. ii. 21. Schleusner gives inspector as the equivalent. L. and Sc. "overseer,
watcher, esp. of a god." "Intendant," an officer who superintends, is perhaps the least
cumbrous and the least ambiguous for our purpose. For the different Greek word in Dan. iv.
13, translated watcher (not a guardian, but a wakeful one), see Driver's Daniel, page 49.
↩ 516. 2 The ruling spirits. ↩ 517. 1 The same word as above. See Huetii Origeniana, lib.
ii. c. ii. quaest. v. 26, "De angelis tutelaribus. Assignatos esse angelos ut curam earum
pastorum instar gererent, et primitias ex iis Deo offerrent, homines nimirum qui meritis
praecellerent et virtute, eorumque pias cogitationes." Origen thought that both bad and
good angels might have "provinces." "Neque enim, inquit, fas est credere malos angelos
suis proeesse provinciis et bonos non easdem provincias habere permissas."----Cont. Cels.
lib. viii. 34, Hom. 12 in Luc. ↩

518. 1 Explained above. ↩ 519. 1 Sophrosune, "Perfected self-mastery." ↩ 520. 1 Deut.
xxxii. 8 f. ↩ 521. 2 Gen. xi. 1 ff. ↩ 522. 3 Wisd. x. 5. ↩ 523. 4 Tob. xii. 7. ↩ 524. 1
Cf. Matt. vii. 6. ↩ 525. 2 Wisd. i. 4. ↩ 526. 3 See Chap. i. (heading) for "invented
history." ↩ 527. 4 Gen. xi. 3. ↩ 528. 5 Cf. Gen. xi. 4. ↩ 529. 1 Cf. Deut. xxxii. 9. ↩
530. 1 Cf. Rom. i. 28, 26, 24. ↩ 531. 2 Cf. Gal. i. 4. ↩ 532. 3 Cf. 1 Cor. ii. 6. ↩ 533. 1
Ps. ii. 8. ↩ 534. 2 Gen. xlix. 10. ↩ 535. 3 See the De Princip. Bk. i. c. 7, s. 3. It was
Origen's belief that the stars were living beings, capable of receiving commandments from
God. ↩ 536. 1 Eumque rerum istarum fontem esse ac principium esse negabunt.----Viger. ↩

537. 2 "Demiurge." But Waterland (i. p. 383, Ox. 1843) says "the three words τεχνίτης,
δημιουργὸς, and ποιητής, especially the two last, seem to have been used by the ancients
promiscuously; and to have been applied indifferently to Father or Son, as they had
occasion to mention either." See also, note 71. ↩ 538. 1 Gen. i. 14. ↩ 539. 1 Sus. 42 f. ↩
540. 2 1 Kings xii. 32. ↩ 541. 3 1 Kings xiii. 1 ff. ↩ 542. 4 1 Kings xiii. 5. ↩ 543. 5
Reading ὑπακοῦσαι. See Schleusner. ↩ 544. 6 Lit. "strength." ↩ 545. 1 Isa. xlv. ff. ↩ 546.
2 Cf. Dan. ii. 37 ff. ↩ 547. 3 R.V. "the river." "The Eulaeus was a large artificial canal
some 900 feet broad, of which traces remain, though it is now dry."----Prof. Driver. ↩
548. 1 Dan. viii. 5 ff. ↩ 549. 2 Luke xxi. 20. ↩

550. 1 Ps. cix. (cviii.) 12, 16 f. ↩ 551. 1 Or, "giving an oracular response." ↩ 552. 2
Or, "common moral notions." ↩ 553. 3 Jer. xxvi. (xxxiii.) 3. ↩ 554. 1 Ex. iv. 11. R.V.
"Dumb, or deaf, or seeing, or blind." ↩ 555. 1 Ps. cix. (cviii.) ff. ↩ 556. 2 Ps. cix.
(cviii.) 16. ↩ 557. 3 Eur. Phoen. 18 ff. ↩ 558. 1 Cf. John ii. 25. ↩ 559. 1 Matt. xxvi.
23. ↩ 560. 2 Viger----singularem horam. Of birth? ↩ 561. 1 Or, "productive." How we are to
tell when the stars are causative, and when they are merely indicative. ↩ 562. 2 Cf. Test.
Aser, 7. ↩ 563. 3 Isa. xxxiv. 4. ↩ 564. 1 Gen. i. 14. ↩ 565. 2 Jer. x. 2. ↩ 566. 1
Following ABC; Viger, "vel leviter haerere." ↩ 567. 2 Eusebius, "shooting stars." ↩ 568. 1
"Twelfth part." ↩

569. 2 "Thinkable, intelligible." Viger----"quod mente percipitur." ↩ 570. 3
"Contemperatio." ↩ 571. 1 "A mathematician (i.e. astrologer) can indeed indicate the
desire which a malignant power produces; but whether the acting or the issue of this
desire shall be fulfilled or not, no one can know before the accomplishment of the thing,
because it depends upon freedom of will."----Recognitions of Clement, Bk. x. c. xii. ↩
572. 2 Isa. xlvii. 13. ↩ 573. 3 Cf. Test. Aser., 7. ↩ 574. 4 2 Cor. xii. 4. ↩ 575. 1 Wisd.
viii. 18. ↩ 576. 2 "The fire of God." See 2 Esd. iv. 1, 36, v. 20, x. 28 In the second of
these passages he is called "the Archangel." ↩ 577. 1 Rom. ix. 17. ↩ 578. 2 Cf. Ex. ix.
16. ↩ 579. 3 Cf. Heb. i. 14. ↩ 580. 4 Lit., "take." ↩ 581. 1 For the story of Clement
being appointed S. Peter's attendant, for the doings at Laodicea, and how Clement
discovered his father in the poor old workman, and the discussions between father and son,
see the Clementine Recognitions, vii. 25, viii. 1, etc. ↩

582. 2 That is, the travels of S. Peter. ↩ 583. 3 In popular language mathematici was the
exclusive name for astrologers, who were so called from employing diagrams used by
geometricians. ↩ 584. 4 Had returned at the end of its cycle. ↩ 585. 1 From the point of
opposition. ↩ 586. 2 From the centre (mid-heaven). ↩ 587. 3 Through the kindness of the
Rev. P. H. Kempthorne I am favoured by E. Walter Maunder, Esq., F.E.A.S., with some notes
on this difficult passage. As regards the phrase rendered "retrograding," Mr. Maunders
writes: "In a modern horoscope no planet could be left outside it. I think it just
possible that it (the phrase) may mean 'contrary to its proper course,' that is to say, '
retrograding,' but I am not sure of this. If it does not mean this, I think it must mean
'not operative,' 'negligible.' " ↩

588. 4 Lit., "unconnected with." ↩ 589. 5 In an (ill-omened) "house." ↩ 590. 6 Lit. "not
conjoined." ↩ 591. 7 Perhaps, the Zodiac. Others translate, "the circle is equally
complete in every part." Possibly, "co-extensive with," wide as, the heavens. ↩ 592. 1 See
Plat. Gorg. 506 E. Another rendering is "in things unordered." ↩ 593. 1 Viger----"Si ex
rerum genitarum ortu atque natura in eam te mentem adductum esse diceres, id ortu carere
materiam putares." ↩ 594. 1 "Are spontaneous" does not quite convey the meaning, because
the architect is supposed to create the skill. ↩ 595. 1 "Demiurge." ↩ 596. 1 The word
denotes the mixing of two things, so that they are blended and form a compound, as in wine
and water. ↩ 597. 2 The word denotes mixing, as of two sorts of grain----mechanical
mixture. ↩ 598. 1 See Robinson, p. xli. et seq ↩

599. 2 Rom. i. 1. ↩ 600. 3 Gal. i. 15 f. ↩ 601. 1 Ps. Iviii. (Ivii.) 3. ↩ 602. 2 Rom.
viii. 28 ff. ↩ 603. 3 Or, predestination, and so throughout. ↩ 604. 4 For salvation or
perdition. ↩ 605. 1 Rom. viii. 29. ↩ 606. 2 Cf. Col. i. 15. ↩ 607. 3 According to Origen,
God created a finite number of souls to begin with; they were all equal, not in fixed
classes; gifted with free will, and capable of growing better or worse. The soul of
Christ, like all souls, pre-existed from the beginning of the world. By its decision for
the good, and by its virtue, it was fitted for unflinchingly carrying out all the will and
all the saving revelations of the Word and Wisdom. The Logos dwelt in an unique manner in
this soul. At the commencement of creation, it is true, He was united with all souls; but
this one alone clung to Him so closely, faithfully, and unchangeably, that it became one
spirit with Him.----See Dorner, Doctrine of the Person of Christ, div. I. vol. ii., p.
138. ↩

608. 4 Cf. Sus. 42. ↩ 609. 1 Rom. viii. 28 f. ↩ 610. 1 Matt. xxv. 21, 23. ↩ 611. 2 Matt.
xxv. 26 f. ↩ 612. 3 Matt. xxv. 34 f. ↩ 613. 4 Matt. xxv. 41 f. ↩ 614. 5 Rom. i. 1. ↩ 615.
6 Gal. i. 15. ↩ 616. 1 1 Cor. ix. 27. ↩ 617. 2 1 Cor. ix. 16. ↩ 618. 3 2 Cor. xi. 2:3 ff.
↩ 619. 4 Cf. Rom. v. 3 f. ↩ 620. 1 Or, on "purpose," "choice," or "deliberate preference,"
which is a part of the voluntary, but not co-extensive with it. For Aristotle's
description of the Chief Good as "that which all things aim at," and for the discussion of
various theories concerning the Chief Good and Happiness, see Arist. Eth. Nic. bk. 1
(Chase's translation). ↩ 621. 2 Ps. iv. 6. ↩ 622. 3 "Does happiness come from self? Is it
a thing that can be learned, or acquired by habituation or discipline of some other kind?
Does it come in the way of Divine dispensation, or even in the way of chance?"----Arist.
Eth. Nic. bk. i. 7. ↩

623. 4 Making happiness a mere external thing. ↩ 624. 5 Making happiness = internal good,
"living well and doing well." ↩ 625. 1 Matt. xxv. 21, 23. ↩ 626. 2 Luke vi. 45. ↩ 627. 1
Ex. xv. 20. ↩ 628. 2 Deut. xxviii. 58 ff. ↩ 629. 3 Lev. xxvi. 16. ↩ 630. 4 Cf. Deut.
xxxii. 24. ↩ 631. 5 "Opisthonia, tetanic recurvation; Pliny's dolor (cervicum)
inflexibilis." ↩ 632. 1 Lev. xxvi. 3 ff. ↩ 633. 2 Deut. xxviii. 1 ff. ↩ 634. 3 Sept.,
"remainders," from misunderstanding the Heb. root. ↩ 635. 4 Deut. xxviii. 16 ff. ↩ 636. 5
Cf. Matt. iv. 23, ix. 35. ↩ 637. 1 Cf. Matt. iv. 24. ↩ 638. 2 "Demiurge." ↩ 639. 3 Cf. 1
Kings xvii. 8 f. ↩ 640. 4 Cf. 2 Kings iv. 8 ff., xiii. 14. ↩ 641. 5 Cf. Isa. xx. 3. ↩ 642.
6 Cf. Jer. xxxviii. (xlv.) 6, ix. 2. ↩

643. 7 Cf. Matt. iii. 4. ↩ 644. 1 Cf. Rom. v. 3. ↩ 645. 2 Cf. 2 Cor. iv. 8 f., iv. 9 f. ↩
646. 3 Ps. xxxiv. (lxxxiii.) 19. ↩ 647. 4 Job xl. 3. ↩ 648. 1 Cf. Rom. viii. 28. ↩ 649. 2
Cf. Deut. xv. 6. ↩ 650. 3 Some MSS. omit "the righteous man." ↩ 651. 4 Ps. xv. (xiv.) 5. ↩
652. 5 Cf. Exek. xviii. 8. ↩ 653. 6 Prov. xiii. 8. ↩ 654. 7 Isa. i. 6. ↩ 655. 1
"Happiness," according to Aristotle, "combines the good, the noble, the pleasurable; and
though external prosperity is not of its essence, yet it is necessary to its full
development" (Chase----Analysis of Arist. Eth. Nic. c. 6). ↩ 656. 2 Ps. cxxvii. (cxxvi.)
1. ↩ 657. 1 Cf. Ezek. xxviii. 15. ↩ 658. 2 Cf. Isa. xiv. 12. ↩ 659. 3 Cf. Rom. ix. 16. ↩

660. 4 Ps. iv. 6. ↩ 661. 5 Job ii. 10. ↩ 662. 1 Mic. i. 12 ; cf. Jer. xvii. 27. ↩ 663. 2
Ex. x. 27. ↩ 664. 3 Ex. vii. 3. ↩ 665. 1 "Demiurge." ↩ 666. 2 Rom. ix. 18. ↩ 667. 3 Sound.
↩ 668. 1 Ex. x. 27. ↩ 669. 2 Cf. Ex. iv. 23. ↩ 670. 1 Rom. ix. 18. ↩ 671. 1 Ex. x. 27. ↩
672. 2 Hos. iv. 14. ↩ 673. 1 Ex. vii. 3. ↩ 674. 2 Cf. Matt. vii. 8. ↩ 675. 3 Ex. xii. 38.
↩ 676. 1 Ps. xxxii. (xxxi.) 10. ↩ 677. 2 Prov. iii. 12. ↩ 678. 3 Ps. lxxxix. (lxxxviii.)
30 ff. ↩ 679. 4 Cf. Hos. iv. 14. ↩ 680. 5 Cf. Ezek. xxiv. 13. ↩ 681. 6 Ezek. vii. 27, et
passim. ↩ 682. 1 Ex. vii. 5. ↩ 683. 2 2 Macc. vi. 12 ff. ↩

684. 3 3 Kings ii. 6. ↩ 685. 4 The Jew----probably a Rabbi, whom Origen employed to teach
him Hebrew. Cf. De Princip. i. 3, 4 (Hebraeus magister), iv. 26 (Hebraeus doctor). I am
indebted to Dr. Sanday for the references. See also Chap, ii. 3 of this book. ↩ 686. 1 Ps.
vi. 1, xxxviii. (xxxvii.) 1. ↩ 687. 2 Luke xii. 40. ↩ 688. 3 Cf. Acts v. 4. ↩ 689. 4 Acts
xiii. 10 f. ↩ 690. 1 Cf. 1 Tim. i. 20. ↩ 691. 2 1 Cor. v. 5. ↩ 692. 3 Ex. x. 27. ↩ 693. 4
Deut. viii. 2 f. ↩ 694. 1 Job xl. 8. ↩ 695. 2 Rom. ii. 4 ff. ↩ 696. 3 Rom. ix. 22. ↩ 697.
1 John ix. 39. ↩ 698. 2 Luke ii. 34. ↩ 699. 3 Luke x. 13 ff. ↩ 700. 1 Ex. iv. 22 f. ↩

701. 2 "Demiurge." ↩ 702. 3 Ex. x. 27. ↩ 703. 4 Ex. iv. 23. ↩ 704. 5 Ex. x. 3. ↩ 705. 1
Ex. ix. 29 f. ↩ 706. 2 Cant. i. 5, 6. ↩ 707. 3 Ex. i. 14. ↩ 708. 4 Lit., "make muddy." ↩
709. 5 Cf. Ex. ii. 23 f. ↩


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