======================================================================== FATHERS OF THE THIRD CENTURY TERTULLIAN APPENDIX by Tertullian ======================================================================== An appendix to the writings of Tertullian, the influential third-century church father. This collection includes additional poems and writings attributed to Tertullian and his contemporaries from the early Latin church. Chapters: 11 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 0. Fathers Of The Third Century Tertullian Appendix 1. 1. A Strain of Jonah the Prophet. 2. 2. A Strain of Sodom. 3. 3. Genesis. 4. 4. A Strain of the Judgment of the Lord. 5. 5. Five Books in Reply to Marcion. 6. Book II.--Of the Harmony of the Old and New Laws. 7. Book III.--Of the Harmony of the Fathers of the Old and New Testaments. 8. Book IV.--Of Marcion's Antitheses. 9. Book V.--General Reply to Sundry of Marcion's Heresies. 10. Elucidations. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 0: FATHERS OF THE THIRD CENTURY TERTULLIAN APPENDIX ======================================================================== ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 1. A STRAIN OF JONAH THE PROPHET. ======================================================================== [1198]1. A Strain of Jonah the Prophet.After the living, aye -- enduring deathOf Sodom and Gomorrah; after firesPenal, attested by time-frosted plainsOf ashes; after fruitless apple-growths,5 Born but to feed the eye; after the deathOf sea and brine, both in like fate involved;While whatsoe'er is human still retainsIn change corporeal its penal badge: [1199]A city -- Nineveh -- by stepping o'er10 The path of justice and of equity,On her own head had well-nigh shaken downMore fires of rain supernal. For what dread [1200]Dwells in a mind subverted? CommonlyTokens of penal visitations prove15 All vain where error holds possession. Still,Kindly and patient of our waywardness,And slow to punish, the Almighty LordWill launch no shaft of wrath, unless He firstAdmonish and knock oft at hardened hearts,20 Rousing with mind august presaging seers.For to the merits of the NinevitesThe Lord had bidden Jonah to foretellDestruction; but he, conscious that He spare;The subject, and remits to suppliants25 The dues of penalty, and is to goodEver inclinable, was loth to faceThat errand; lest he sing his seerly strainIn vain, and peaceful issue of his threatsEnsue. His counsel presently is flight:30 (If, howsoe'er, there is at all the powerGod to avoid, and shun the Lord's right hand'Neath whom the whole orb trembles and is heldIn check: but is there reason in the actWhich in [1201] his saintly heart the prophet dares?)35 On the beach-lip, over against the shoresOf the Cilicians, is a city poised, [1202]Far-famed for trusty port -- Joppa her name.Thence therefore Jonah speeding in a barqueSeeks Tarsus, [1203] through the signal providence40 Of the same God; [1204] nor marvel is't, I ween,If, fleeing from the Lord upon the lands,He found Him in the waves. For suddenlyA little cloud had stained the lower airWith fleecy wrack sulphureous, itself [1205]45 By the wind's seed excited: by degrees,Bearing a brood globose, it with the sunCohered, and with a train caliginousShut in the cheated day. The main becomesThe mirror of the sky; the waves are dyed so50 With black encirclement; the upper airDown rushes into darkness, and the seaUprises; nought of middle space is left;While the clouds touch the waves, and the waves allAre mingled by the bluster of the winds55 In whirling eddy. 'Gainst the renegade,'Gainst Jonah, diverse frenzy joined to rave,While one sole barque did all the struggle breed'Twixt sky and surge. From this side and from thatPounded she reels; 'neath each wave-breaking blow60 The forest of her tackling trembles all;As, underneath, her spinal length of keel,Staggered by shock on shock, all palpitates;And, from on high, her labouring mass of yardCreaks shuddering; and the tree-like mast itself65 Bends to the gale, misdoubting to be riven.Meantime the rising [1206] clamour of the crewTries every chance for barque's and dear life's sake:To pass from hand to hand [1207] the tardy coilsTo tighten the girth's noose: straitly to bind70 The tiller's struggles; or, with breast opposed,T' impel reluctant curves. Part, turn by turn,With foremost haste outbale the reeking wellOf inward sea. The wares and cargo allThey then cast headlong, and with losses seek75 Their perils to subdue. At every crashOf the wild deep rise piteous cries; and outThey stretch their hands to majesties of gods,Which gods are none; whom might of sea and skyFears not, nor yet the less from off their poops80 With angry eddy sweeping sinks them down.Unconscious of all this, the guilty one'Neath the poop's hollow arch was making sleepRe-echo stertorous with nostril wideInflated: whom, so soon as he who guides85 The functions of the wave-dividing prowSaw him sleep-bound in placid peace, and proudIn his repose, he, standing o'er him, shook,And said, "Why sing'st, with vocal nostril, dreams,In such a crisis? In so wild a whirl,90 Why keep'st thou only harbour? Lo! the waveWhelms us, and our one hope is in the gods.Thou also, whosoever is thy god,Make vows, and, pouring prayers on bended knee,Win o'er thy country's Sovran!"Then they vote95 To learn by lot who is the culprit, whoThe cause of storm; nor does the lot belieJonah: whom then they ask, and ask again,"Who? whence? who in the world? from what abode,What people, hail'st thou?" He avows himself100 A servant, and an over-timid one,Of God, who raised aloft the sky, who basedThe earth, who corporally fused the whole:A renegade from Him he owns himself,And tells the reason. Rigid turned they all105 With dread. "What grudge, then, ow'st thou us? What nowWill follow? By what deed shall we appeaseThe main?" For more and far more swelling grewThe savage surges. Then the seer beginsWords prompted by the Spirit of the Lord: [1208]110 "Lo! I your tempest am; I am the sumOf the world's [1209] madness: 'tis in me," he says,"That the sea rises, and the upper airDown rushes; land in me is far, death near,And hope in God is none! Come, headlong hurl115 Your cause of bane: lighten your ship, and cast This single mighty burden to the main,A willing prey!" But they -- all vainly! -- striveHomeward to turn their course; for helm refusedTo suffer turning, and the yard's stiff poise120 Willed not to change. At last unto the LordThey cry: "For one soul's sake give us not o'erUnto death's maw, nor let us be besprentWith righteous blood, if thus Thine own right handLeadeth." And from the eddy's depth a whale125 Outrising on the spot, scaly with shells, [1210]Unravelling his body's train, 'gan urgeMore near the waves, shocking the gleaming brine,Seizing -- at God's command -- the prey; which, rolledFrom the poop's summit prone, with slimy jaws130 He sucked; and into his long belly spedThe living feast; and swallowed, with the man,The rage of sky and main. The billowy wasteGrows level, and the ether's gloom dissolves;The waves on this side, and the blasts on that,135 Are to their friendly mood restored; and, whereThe placid keel marks out a path secure,White traces in the emerald furrow bloom.The sailor then does to the reverend LordOf death make grateful offering of his fear; [1211]140 Then enters friendly ports.Jonah the seerThe while is voyaging, in other craftEmbarked, and cleaving 'neath the lowest wavesA wave: his sails the intestines of the fish,Inspired with breath ferine; himself, shut in;145 By waters, yet untouched; in the sea's heartAnd yet beyond its reach; 'mid wrecks of fleetsHalf-eaten, and men's carcasses dissolvedIn putrid disintegrity: in lifeLearning the process of his death; but still -- 150 To be a sign hereafter of the Lord [1212] -- A witness was he (in his very self), [1213]Not of destruction, but of death's repulse. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 2. A STRAIN OF SODOM. ======================================================================== (Author Uncertain.) Already had Almighty God wiped off By vengeful flood (with waters all conjoined Which heaven discharged on earth and the sea's plain [1214] Outspued) the times of the primeval age: 5 Had pledged Himself, while nether air should bring The winters in their course, ne'er to decree, By liquid ruin, retribution's due; And had assigned, to curb the rains, the bow Of many hues, sealing the clouds with band 10 Of purple and of green, Iris its name, The rain-clouds' proper baldric. [1215]But alikeWith mankind's second race impietyRevives, and a new age of ill once moreShoots forth; allotted now no more to showers15 For ruin, but to fires: thus did the landOf Sodom earn to be by glowing dewsUpburnt, and typically thus portendThe future end. [1216] There wild voluptuousness(Modesty's foe) stood in the room of law;20 Which prescient guest would shun, and sooner chooseAt Scythian or Busirian altar's foot'Mid sacred rites to die, and, slaughtered, pourHis blood to Bebryx, or to satiateLibyan palæstras, or assume new forms;25 By virtue of Circæan cups, than loseHis outraged sex in Sodom. At heaven's gateThere knocked for vengeance marriages commitWith equal incest common 'mong a raceBy nature rebels 'gainst themselves; [1217] and hurts30 Done to man's name and person equally.But God, forewatching all things, at fix'd timeDoth judge the unjust; with patience tarryingThe hour when crime's ripe age -- not any forceOf wrath impetuous -- shall have circumscribed35 The space for waiting. [1218]Now at length the dayOf vengeance was at hand. Sent from the hostAngelical, two, youths in form, who bothWere ministering spirits, [1219] carryingThe Lord's divine commissions, come beneath40 The walls of Sodom. There was dwelling LotA transplantation from a pious stock;Wise, and a practicer of righteousness,He was the only one to think on God:As oft a fruitful tree is wont to lurk,45 Guest-like, in forests wild. He, sitting thenBefore the gate (for the celestials scarceHad reached the ramparts), though he knew not themDivine, [1220] accosts them unsolicited,Invites, and with ancestral honour greets;50 And offers them, preparing to abideAbroad, a hospice. By repeated prayersHe wins them; and then ranges studiouslyThe sacred pledges [1221] on his board, [1222] and quits [1223]His friends with courteous offices. The night55 Had brought repose: alternate [1224] dawn had chasedThe night, and Sodom with her shameful lawMakes uproar at the doors. Lot, suppliant wise,Withstands: "Young men, let not your new fed lustEnkindle you to violate this youth! [1225]60 Whither is passion's seed inviting you?To what vain end your lust? For such an endNo creatures wed: not such as haunt the fens;Not stall-fed cattle; not the gaping broodSubaqueous; nor they which, modulant65 On pinions, hang suspended near the clouds;Nor they which with forth-stretched body creepOver earth's face. To conjugal delightEach kind its kind doth owe: but female stillTo all is wife; nor is there one that has70 A mother save a female one. Yet now,If youthful vigour holds it right [1226] to wasteThe flower of modesty, I have withinTwo daughters of a nuptial age, in whomVirginity is swelling in its bloom,75 Already ripe for harvest -- a desireWorthy of men -- which let your pleasure reap!Myself their sire, I yield them; and will payFor my guests' sake, the forfeit of my grief!"Answered the mob insane: "And who art thou?80 And what? and whence? to lord it over us,And to expound us laws? Shall foreignerRule Sodom, and hurl threats? Now, then, thyselfFor daughters and for guests shalt sate our greed!One shall suffice for all!" So said, so done:85 The frantic mob delays not. As, whene'erA turbid torrent rolls with wintry tide,And rushes at one speed through countless streamsOf rivers, if, just where it forks, some treeMeets the swift waves (not long to stand, save while90 By her root's force she shall avail to opposeHer tufty obstacles), when graduallyHer hold upon the undermined soilIs failing, with her bared stem she hangs,And, with uncertain heavings to and fro,95 Defers her certain fall; not otherwiseLot in the mid-whirl of the dizzy mobKept nodding, now almost o'ercome. But powerDivine brings succour: the angelic youths,Snatching him from the threshold, to his roof100 Restore him; but upon the spot they mulctOf sight the mob insane in open day, -- Fit augury of coming penalties!Then they unlock the just decrees of God:That penalty condign from heaven will fall105 On Sodom; that himself had meritedSafety upon the count of righteousness."Gird thee, then, up to hasten hence thy flight,And with thee to lead out what familyThou hast: already we are bringing on110 Destruction o'er the city." Lot with speedSpeaks to his sons-in-law; but their hard heartScorned to believe the warning, and at fearLaughed. At what time the light attempts to climbThe darkness, and heaven's face wears double hue115 From night and day, the youthful visitantsWere instant to outlead from SodomaThe race Chaldæan, [1227] and the righteous houseConsign to safety: "Ho! come, Lot! arise,And take thy yokefellow and daughters twain,120 And hence, beyond the boundaries be gone,Preventing [1228] Sodom's penalties!" And ekeWith friendly hands they lead them trembling forth,And then their final mandates give: "Save, Lot,Thy life, lest thou perchance should will to turn125 Thy retroverted gaze behind, or stayThe step once taken: to the mountain speed!" Lot feared to creep the heights with tardy step,Lest the celestial wrath-fires should o'ertakeAnd whelm him: therefore he essays to crave130 Some other ports; a city small, to wit,Which opposite he had espied. "Hereto,"He said, "I speed my flight: scarce with its walls'Tis visible; nor is it far, nor great."They, favouring his prayer, safety assured135 To him and to the city; whence the spotIs known in speech barbaric by the nameSegor. [1229] Lot enters Segor while the sunIs rising, [1230] the last sun, which glowing bearsTo Sodom conflagration; for his rays140 He had armed all with fire: beneath him spreadsAn emulous gloom, which seeks to interceptThe light; and clouds combine to interweaveTheir smoky globes with the confused sky:Down pours a novel shower: the ether seethes145 With sulphur mixt with blazing flames: [1231] the airCrackles with liquid heats exust. From henceThe fable has an echo of the truthAmid its false, that the sun's progenyWould drive his father's team; but nought availed150 The giddy boy to curb the haughty steedsOf fire: so blazed our orb: then lightning reftThe lawless charioteer, and bitter plaintTransformed his sisters. Let EridanusSee to it, if one poplar on his banks155 Whitens, or any bird dons plumage thereWhose note old age makes mellow! [1232]Here they mournO'er miracles of metamorphosisOf other sort. For, partner of Lot's flight,His wife (ah me, for woman! even then [1233]160 Intolerant of law!) alone turned backAt the unearthly murmurs of the sky)Her daring eyes, but bootlessly: not doomedTo utter what she saw! and then and thereChanged into brittle salt, herself her tomb165 She stood, herself an image of herself,Keeping an incorporeal form: and stillIn her unsheltered station 'neath the heavenDures she, by rains unmelted, by decayAnd winds unwasted; nay, if some strange hand170 Deface her form, forthwith from her own storeHer wounds she doth repair. Still is she saidTo live, and, 'mid her corporal change, dischargeWith wonted blood her sex's monthly dues.Gone are the men of Sodom; gone the glare175 Of their unhallowed ramparts; all the houseInhospitable, with its lords, is gone:The champaign is one pyre; here embers roughAnd black, here ash-heaps with hoar mould, mark outThe conflagration's course: evanished180 Is all that old fertility [1234] which Lot,Seeing outspread before him,... . . . . . . . . . . . . .No ploughman spends his fruitless toil on glebesPitchy with soot: or if some acres there,But half consumed, still strive to emulate185 Autumn's glad wealth, pears, peaches, and all fruitsPromise themselves full easely [1235] to the eyeIn fairest bloom, until the plucker's handIs on them: then forthwith the seeming fruitCrumbles to dust 'neath the bewraying touch,190 And turns to embers vain.Thus, therefore (skyAnd earth entombed alike), not e'en the seaLives there: the quiet of that quiet seaIs death! [1236] -- a sea which no wave animatesThrough its anhealant volumes; which beneath195 Its native Auster sighs not anywhere;Which cannot from its depths one scaly race,Or with smooth skin or cork-like fence encased,Produce, or curled shell in single valveOr double fold enclosed. Bitumen there200 (The sooty reek of sea exust) alone,With its own crop, a spurious harvest yields;Which 'neath the stagnant surface vivid heatFrom seething mass of sulphur and of brineMaturing tempers, making earth cohere205 Into a pitch marine. [1237] At season dueThe heated water's fatty ooze is borneUp to the surface; and with foamy flakesOver the level top a tawny skinIs woven. They whose function is to catch210 That ware put to, tilting their smooth skin downWith balance of their sides, to teach the film,Once o'er the gunnel, to float in: for, lo!Raising itself spontaneous, it will swimUp to the edge of the unmoving craft;215 And will, when pressed, [1238] for guerdon large, ensureImmunity from the defiling touchOf weft which female monthly efflux clothes.Behold another portent notable,Fruit of that sea's disaster: all things cast220 Therein do swim: gone is its native powerFor sinking bodies: if, in fine, you launchA torch's lightsome [1239] hull (where spirit servesFor fire) therein, the apex of the flameWill act as sail; put out the flame, and 'neath225 The waters will the light's wrecks ruin go!Such Sodom's and Gomorrah's penalties,For ages sealed as signs before the eyesOf unjust nations, whose obdurate heartsGod's fear have quite forsaken, [1240] will them teach230 To reverence heaven-sanctioned rights, [1241] and liftTheir gaze unto one only Lord of all. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 3. GENESIS. ======================================================================== (Author Uncertain.) In the beginning did the Lord create The heaven and earth: [1242] for formless was the land, [1243] And hidden by the wave, and God immense [1244] O'er the vast watery plains was hovering, 5 While chaos and black darkness shrouded all: Which darkness, when God bade be from the pole [1245] Disjoined, He speaks, "Let there be light;" and all In the clear world [1246] was bright. Then, when the Lord The first day's work had finished, He formed 10 Heaven's axis white with nascent clouds: the deep Immense receives its wandering [1247] shores, and drawsThe rivers manifold with mighty trains.The third dun light unveiled earth's [1248] face, and soon(Its name assigned [1249] ) the dry land's story 'gins:15 Together on the windy champaigns riseThe flowery seeds, and simultaneouslyFruit-bearing boughs put forth procurvant arms.The fourth day, with [1250] the sun's lamp generatesThe moon, and moulds the stars with tremulous light20 Radiant: these elements it [1251] gave as signsTo th' underlying world, [1252] to teach the timesWhich, through their rise and setting, were to change.Then, on the fifth, the liquid [1253] streams receiveTheir fish, and birds poise in the lower air25 Their pinions many-hued. The sixth, again,Supples the ice-cold snakes into their coils,And over the whole fields diffuses herdsOf quadrupeds; and mandate gave that allShould grow with multiplying seed, and roam30 And feed in earth's immensity.All theseWhen power divine by mere command arranged,Observing that things mundane still would lackA ruler, thus It [1254] speaks: "With utmost care,Assimilated to our own aspect, [1255]35 Make We a man to reign in the whole orb."And him, although He with a single word [1256]Could have compounded, yet Himself did deignTo shape him with His sacred own right hand,Inspiring his dull breast from breast divine.40 Whom when He saw formed in a likeness suchAs is His own, He measures how he broodsAlone on gnawing cares. Straight way his eyesWith sleep irriguous He doth perfuse;That from his left rib woman softlier45 May formed be, and that by mixture twinHis substance may add firmness to her limbs.To her the name of "Life" -- which is called "Eve" [1257] -- Is given: wherefore sons, as custom is,Their parents leave, and, with a settled home,50 Cleave to their wives.The seventh came, when GodAt His works' end did rest, decreeing itSacred unto the coming ages' joys.Straightway -- the crowds of living things deployedBefore him -- Adam's cunning skill (the gift55 Of the good Lord) gives severally to allThe name which still is permanent. Himself,And, joined with him, his Eve, God deigns address"Grow, for the times to come, with manifoldIncrease, that with your seed the pole and earth [1258]60 Be filled; and, as Mine heirs, the varied fruitsPluck ye, which groves and champaigns render you,From their rich turf." Thus after He discoursed,In gladsome court [1259] a paradise is strewn,And looks towards the rays of th' early sun. [1260]65 These joys among, a tree with deadly fruits,Breeding, conjoined, the taste of life and death,Arises. In the midst of the demesne [1261]Flows with pure tide a stream, which irrigatesFair offsprings from its liquid waves, and cuts70 Quadrified paths from out its bubbling fountHere wealthy Phison, with auriferous waves,Swells, and with hoarse tide wears [1262] conspicuous gems,This prasinus, [1263] that glowing carbuncle, [1264]By name; and raves, transparent in its shoals,75 The margin of the land of Havilath.Next Gihon, gliding by the Æthiops,Enriches them. The Tigris is the third,Adjoined to fair Euphrates, furrowingDisjunctively with rapid flood the land80 Of Asshur. Adam, with his faithful wife,Placed here as guard and workman, is informedBy such the Thunderer's [1265] speech: "Tremble ye notTo pluck together the permitted fruitsWhich, with its leafy bough, the unshorn grove85 Hath furnished; anxious only lest perchanceYe cull the hurtful apple, [1266] which is greenWith a twin juice for functions several."And, no less blind meantime than Night herself,Deep night 'gan hold them, nor had e'en a robe90 Covered their new-formed limbs.Amid these haunts,And on mild berries reared, a foamy snake,Surpassing living things in sense astute,Was creeping silently with chilly coils.He, brooding over envious lies instinct95 With gnawing sense, tempts the soft heart beneathThe woman's breast: "Tell me, why shouldst thou dreadThe apple's [1267] happy seeds? Why, hath notAll known fruits hallowed? [1268] Whence if thou be promptTo cull the honeyed fruits, the golden world [1269]100 Will on its starry pole return." [1270] But sheRefuses, and the boughs forbidden fearsTo touch. But yet her breast 'gins be o'er comeWith sense infirm. Straightway, as she at lengthWith snowy tooth the dainty morsels bit,105 Stained with no cloud the sky serene up-lit!Then taste, instilling lure in honeyed jaws,To her yet uninitiated lordConstrained her to present the gift; which heNo sooner took, then -- night effaced!: -- their eyes110 Shone out serene in the resplendent world. [1271]When, then, they each their body bare espied,And when their shameful parts they see, with leavesOf fig they shadow them.By chance, beneathThe sun's now setting light, they recognise115 The sound of the Lord's voice, and, trembling, hasteTo bypaths. Then the Lord of heaven accostsThe mournful Adam: "Say, where now thou art."Who suppliant thus answers: "Thine address,O Lord, O Mighty One, I tremble at,120 Beneath my fearful heart; and, being bare, I faint with chilly dread." Then said the Lord:"Who hath the hurtful fruits, then, given you?""This woman, while she tells me how her eyesWith brilliant day promptly perfused were,125 And on her dawned the liquid sky serene,And heaven's sun and stars, o'ergave them me!"Forthwith God's anger frights perturbed Eve,While the Most High inquires the authorshipOf the forbidden act. Hereon she opes130 Her tale: "The speaking serpent's suasive wordsI harboured, while the guile and bland requestMisled me: for, with venoms viperousHis words inweaving, stories told he meOf those delights which should all fruits excel."135 Straightway the Omnipotent the dragon's deedsCondemns, and bids him be to all a sightUnsightly, monstrous; bids him presentlyWith grovelling beast to crawl; and then to biteAnd chew the soil; while war should to all time140 'Twixt human senses and his tottering selfBe waged, that he might creep, crestfallen, prone,Behind the legs of men, [1272] -- that while he glidesClose on their heels they may down-trample him.The woman, sadly caught by guileful words,145 Is bidden yield her fruit with struggle hard,And bear her husband's yoke with patient zeal. [1273]"But thou, to whom the sentence [1274] of the wife(Who, vanquished, to the dragon pitilessYielded) seemed true, shalt through long times deplore150 Thy labour sad; for thou shalt see, insteadOf wheaten harvest's seed, the thistle rise,And the thorn plenteously with pointed spines:So that, with weary heart and mournful breast,Full many sighs shall furnish anxious food; [1275]155 Till, in the setting hour of coming death,To level earth, whence thou thy body draw'st,Thou be restored." This done, the Lord bestowsUpon the trembling pair a tedious life;And from the sacred gardens far removes160 Them downcast, and locates them opposite,And from the threshold bars them by mid fire,Wherein from out the swift heat is evolvedA cherubim, [1276] while fierce the hot point glows,And rolls enfolding flames. And lest their limbs165 With sluggish cold should be benumbed, the LordHides flayed from cattle's flesh together sews,With vestures warm their bare limbs covering.When, therefore, Adam -- now believing -- felt(By wedlock taught) his manhood, he confers170 On his loved wife the mother's name; and, madeSuccessively by scions twain a sire,Gives names to stocks [1277] diverse: Caïn the firstHath for his name, to whom is Abel joined.The latter's care tended the harmless sheep;175 The other turned the earth with curved plough.These, when in course of time [1278] they brought their giftsTo Him who thunders, offered -- as their sensePrompted them -- fruits unlike. The elder oneOffered the first-fruits [1279] of the fertile glebes:180 The other pays his vows with gentle lamb,Bearing in hand the entrails pure, and fatSnow-white; and to the Lord, who pious vowsBeholds, is instantly acceptable.Wherefore with anger cold did Cain glow; [1280]185 With whom God deigns to talk, and thus begins:"Tell Me, if thou live rightly, and discernThings hurtful, couldst thou not then pass thine agePure from contracted guilt? Cease to essayWith gnawing sense thy brother's ruin, who,190 Subject to thee as lord, his neck shall yield."Not e'en thus softened, he unto the fieldsConducts his brother; whom when overta'enIn lonely mead he saw, with his twin palmsBruising his pious throat, he crushed life out.195 Which deed the Lord espying from high heaven,Straitly demands "where Abel is on earth? "He says "he will not as his brother's guardBe set." Then God outspeaks to him again:"Doth not the sound of his blood's voice, sent up200 To Me, ascend unto heaven's lofty pole?Learn, therefore, for so great a crime what doomShall wait thee. Earth, which with thy kinsman's bloodHath reeked but now, shall to thy hateful handRefuse to render back the cursed seeds205 Entrusted her; nor shall, if set with herbs,Produce her fruit: that, torpid, thou shalt dashThy limbs against each other with much fear."...... ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 4. A STRAIN OF THE JUDGMENT OF THE LORD. ======================================================================== (Author Uncertain.) [1281] Who will for me in fitting strain adapt Field-haunting muses? and with flowers will grace The spring-tide's rosy gales? And who will give The summer harvest's heavy stalks mature? 5 And to the autumn's vines their swollen grapes? Or who in winter's honour will commend The olives, ever-peaceful? and will ope Waters renewed, even at their fountainheads? And cut from waving grass the leafy flowers? 10 Forthwith the breezes of celestial light I will attune. Now be it granted meTo meet the lightsome [1282] muses! to discloseThe secret rivers on the fluvial topOf Helicon, [1283] and gladsome woods that grow15 'Neath other star. [1284] And simultaneouslyI will attune in song the eternal flames;Whence the sea fluctuates with wave immense:What power [1285] moves the solid lands to quake;And whence the golden light first shot its rays20 On the new world; or who from gladsome clayCould man have moulded; whence in empty world [1286]Our race could have upgrown; and what the greedOf living which each people so inspires;What things for ill created are; or what25 Death's propagation; whence have rosy wreathsSweet smell and ruddy hue; what makes the vineFerment in gladsome grapes away; and makesFull granaries by fruit of slender stalksdistended be; or makes the tree grow ripe30 'Mid ice, with olives black; who gives to seedsTheir increments of vigour various;And with her young's soft shadowings protectsThe mother. Good it is all things to knowWhich wondrous are in nature, that it may35 Be granted us to recognise through allThe true Lord, who light, seas, sky, earth prepared,And decked with varied star the new-made world; [1287]And first bade beasts and birds to issue forth;And gave the ocean's waters to be stocked40 With fish; and gathered in a mass the sands,With living creatures fertilized. Such strainsWith stately [1288] muses will I spin, and wavesHealthful will from their fountainheads disclose:And may this strain of mine the gladsome shower45 Catch, which from placid clouds doth come, and flowsDeeply and all unsought into men's souls,And guide it into our new-fumed landsIn copious rills. [1289]Now come: if any oneStill ignorant of God, and knowing naught50 Of life to come, [1290] would fain attain to touchThe care-effacing living nymph, and throughThe swift waves' virtue his lost life repair,And 'scape the penalties of flame eterne, [1291]And rather win the guerdons of the life55 To come, let such remember God is One,Alone the object of our prayers; who 'neathHis threshold hath the whole world poised; HimselfEternally abiding, and to beAlway for aye; holding the ages [1292] all;60 Alone, before all ages; [1293] unbegotten,Limitless God; who holds alone His seatSupernal; supereminent aloneAbove high heavens; omnipotent alone;Whom all things do obey; who for Himself65 Formed, when it pleased Him, man for aye; and gaveHim to be pastor of beasts tame, and lordOf wild; who by a word [1294] could stretch forth heaven;And with a word could solid earth suspend;And quicklier than word [1295] had the seas wave70 Disjoined; [1296] and man's dear form with His own handsDid love to mould; and furthermore did willHis own fair likeness [1297] to exist in him;And by His Spirit on his countenanceThe breath [1298] of life did breathe.Unmindful he75 Of God, such guilt rashly t' incur! BeyondThe warning's range he was not ought to touch. [1299]One fruit illicit, whence he was to knowForthwith how to discriminate alikeEvil and equity, God him forbade80 To touch. What functions of the world [1300] did GodPermit to man, and sealed the sweet sweet pledgeOf His own love! and jurisdiction gaveO'er birds, and granted him both deep and soilTo tame, and mandates useful did impart85 Of dear salvation! 'Neath his sway He gaveThe lands, the souls of flying things, the raceFeathered, and every race, or tame or wild,Of beasts, and the sea's race, and monsterformsShapeless of swimming things. But since so soon90 The primal man by primal crime transgressedThe law, and left the mandates of the Lord(Led by a wife who counselled all the ills),By death he 'gan to perish. Woman 'twasWho sin's first ill committed, and (the law95 Transgressed) deceived her husband. Eve, inducedBy guile, the thresholds oped to death, and provedTo her own self, with her whole race as well,A procreatrix of funereal woes.Hence unanticipated wickedness,100 Hence death, like seed, for aye, is scattered. ThenMore frequent grew atrocious deed; and toilMore savage set the corrupt orb astir:(This lure the crafty serpent spread, inspiredBy envy's self:) then peoples more invent105 Practices of ill deeds; and by ill deedsGave birth to seeds of wickedness.And soThe only Lord, whose is the power supreme.Who o'er the heights the summits holds of heavenSupreme, and in exalted regions dwells110 In lofty light for ages, mindful tooOf present time, and of futurityPrescient beforehand, keeps the progenyOf ill-desert, and all the souls which moveBy reason's force much-erring man -- nor less115 Their tardy bodies governs He -- againstThe age decreed, so soon as, stretched in death,Men lay aside their ponderous limbs, and lightAs air, shall go, their earthly bonds undone,And take in diverse parts their proper spheres120 (But some He bids be forthwith by glad galesRecalled to life, and be in secret keptTo wait the decreed law's awards, untilTheir bodies with resuscitated limbsRevive. [1301] ) Then shall men 'gin to weigh the awards 125 Of their first life, and on their crime and faultsTo think, and keep them for their penaltiesWhich will be far from death; and mindful growOf pious duties, by God's judgments taught;To wait expectant for their penalty130 And their descendants', fruit of their own crime;Or else to live wholly the life of sheep, [1302]Without a name; and in God's ear, now deaf,Pour unavailing weeping. Shall not GodAlmighty, 'neath whose law are all things ruled,135 Be able after death life to restore?Or is there ought which the creation's LordUnable seems to do? If, darkness chased,He could outstretch the light, and could compoundAll the world's mass by a word suddenly,140 And raise by potent voice all things from nought,Why out of somewhat [1303] could He not compoundThe well-known shape which erst had been, which HeHad moulded formerly; and bid the formArise assimilated to Himself145 Again? Since God's are all things, earth the moreGives Him all back; for she will, when He bids,Unweave whate'er she woven had before.If one, perhaps, laid on sepulchral pyre,The flame consumed; or one in its blind waves150 The ocean have dismembered; if of oneThe entrails have, in hunger, satisfiedThe fishes; or on any's limbs wild beastsHave fastened cruel death; or any's blood,His body reft by birds, unhid have lain:155 Yet shall they not wrest from the mighty LordHis latest dues. Need is that men appearQuickened from death 'fore God, and at His barStand in their shapes resumed. Thus arid seedsAre drops into the vacant lands, and deep160 In the fixt furrows die and rot: and henceIs not their surface [1304] animated soonWith stalks repaired? and do they [1305] not grow strongAnd yellow with the living grains? and, richWith various usury, [1306] new harvests rise165 In mass? The stars all set, and, born again,Renew their sheen; and day dies with its lightLost in dense night; and now night wanes herselfAs light unveils creation presently;And now another and another day170 Rises from its own stars; and the sun sets,Bright as it is with splendour -- bearing light;Light perishes when by the coming eveThe world [1307] is shaded; and the phoenix livesBy her own soot [1308] renewed, and presently175 Rises, again a bird, O wondrous sight!After her burnings! The bare tree in timeShoots with her leaves; and once more are her boughsCurved by the germen of the fruits.While thenThe world [1309] throughout is trembling at God's voice,180 And deeply moved are the high air's powers, [1310]Then comes a crash unwonted, then ensueHeaven's mightiest murmurs, on the approach of God,The whole world's [1311] Judge! His countless ministersForthwith conjoin their rushing march, and God185 With majesty supernal fence around.Angelic bands will from the heaven descendTo earth; all, God's host, whose is facultyDivine; in form and visage spirits allOf virtue: in them fiery vigour is;190 Rutilant are their bodies; heaven's mightDivine about them flashes; the whole orbHence murmurs; and earth, trembling to her depths(Or whatsoe'er her bulk is [1312] ), echoes backThe roar, parturient of men, whom she,195 Being bidden, will with grief upyield. [1313] All standIn wonderment. At last disturbed areThe clouds, and the stars move and quake from heightOf sudden power. [1314] When thus God comes, with voiceOf potent sound, at once throughout all realms200 The sepulchres are burst, and every groundOutpours bones from wide chasms, and opening sandOutbelches living peoples; to the hair [1315]The members cleave; the bones inwoven areWith marrow; the entwined sinews rule205 The breathing bodies; and the veins 'gin throbWith simultaneously infused blood:And, from their caves dismissed, to open daySouls are restored, and seek to find againEach its own organs, as at their own place210 They rise. O wondrous faith! Hence every ageShoots forth; forth shoots from ancient dust the hostOf dead. Regaining light, there rise againMothers, and sires, and high-souled youths, and boys,And maids unwedded; and deceased old men215 Stand by with living souls; and with the criesOf babes the groaning orb resounds. [1316] Then tribesVarious from their lowest seats will come:Bands of the Easterns; those which earth's extremeSees; those which dwell in the downsloping clime220 Of the mid-world, and hold the frosty star'sRiphæan citadels. Every colonistOf every land stands frighted here: the boor;The son of Atreus [1317] with his diademOf royalty put off; the rich man mixt225 Coequally in line with pauper peers.Deep tremor everywhere: then groans the orbWith prayers; and peoples stretching forth their handsGrow stupid with the din!The Lord HimselfSeated, is bright with light sublime; and fire230 Potent in all the Virtues [1318] flashing shines.And on His high-raised throne the Heavenly OneCoruscates from His seat; with martyrs hemmed(A dazzling troop of men), and by His seersElect accompanied (whose bodies bright235 Effulgent are with snowy stoles), He towersAbove them. And now priests in lustrous robes Attend, who wear upon their marked [1319] frontWreaths golden-red; and all submissive kneelAnd reverently adore. The cry of all240 Is one: "O Holy, Holy Holy, God!"To these [1320] the Lord will mandate give, to rangeThe people in twin lines; and orders themTo set apart by number the depraved;While such as have His biddings followed245 With placid words He calls, and bids them, cladWith vigour -- death quite conquered -- ever dwellAmid light's inextinguishable airs,Stroll through the ancients' ever blooming realm,Through promised wealth, through ever sunny swards,250 And in bright body spend perpetual life.A place there is, beloved of the Lord,In Eastern coasts, where light is bright and clear,And healthier blows the breeze; day is eterne,Time changeless: 'tis a region set apart255 By God, most rich in plains, and passing blest,In the meridian [1321] of His cloudless seat.There gladsome the air, and is in lightEver to be; soft is the wind, and breathesLife-giving blasts; earth, fruitful with a soil260 Luxuriant, bears all things; in the meadsFlowers shed their fragrance; and upon the plainsThe purple -- not in envy -- mingles allWith golden-ruddy light. One gladsome flower,With its own lustre clad, another clothes;265 And here with many a seed the dewy fieldsAre dappled, and the snowy tilths are crispedWith rosy flowers. No region happierIs known in other spots; none which in lookIs fairer, or in honour more excels.270 Never in flowery gardens are there bornSuch lilies, nor do such upon our plainsOutbloom; nor does the rose so blush, what time,New-born, 'tis opened by the breeze; nor isThe purple with such hue by Tyrian dye275 Imbued. With coloured pebbles beauteous gleamsThe gem: here shines the prasinus; [1322] there glowsThe carbuncle; and giant-emeraldIs green with grassy light. Here too are bornThe cinnamons, with odoriferous twigs;280 And with dense leaf gladsome amomum joinsIts fragrance. Here, a native, lies the goldOf radiant sheen; and lofty groves reach heavenIn blooming time, and germens fruitfullestBurden the living boughs. No glades like these285 Hath Ind herself forth-stretcht; no tops so denseRears on her mount the pine; nor with a shadeSo lofty-leaved is her cypress crisped;Nor better in its season blooms her boughIn spring-tide. Here black firs on lofty peak290 Bloom; and the only woods that know no hailAre green eternally: no foliage falls;At no time fails the flower. There, too, there bloomsA flower as red as Tarsine purple is:A rose, I ween, it is (red hue it has,295 An odour keen); such aspect on its leavesIt wears, such odour breathes. A tree it [1323] stands,With a new flower, fairest in fruits; a cropLife-giving, dense, its happy strength does yield.Rich honies with green cane their fragrance join,300 And milk flows potable in runners full;And with whate'er that sacred earth is green,It all breathes life; and there Crete's healing gift [1324]Is sweetly redolent. There, with smooth tide,Flows in the placid plains a fount: four floods305 Thence water parted lands. [1325] The garden robedWith flowers, I wot, keeps ever spring; no coldOf wintry star varies the breeze; and earth,After her birth-throes, with a kindlier blastRepairs. Night there is none; the stars maintain310 Their darkness; angers, envies, and dire greedAre absent; and out-shut is fear, and caresDriven from the threshold. Here the Evil OneIs homeless; he is into worthy courtsOut-gone, nor is't e'er granted him to touch315 The glades forbidden. But here ancient faithRests in elect abode; and life here treads,Joying in an eternal covenant;And health [1326] without a care is gladsome hereIn placid tilths, ever to live and be320 Ever in light.Here whosoe'er hath livedPious, and cultivant of equityAnd goodness; who hath feared the thundering GodWith mind sincere; with sacred duteousnessTended his parents; and his other life [1327]325 Spent ever crimeless; or who hath consoledWith faithful help a friend in indigence;Succoured the over-toiling needy one,As orphans' patron, and the poor man's aid;Rescued the innocent, and succoured them330 When press with accusation; hath to guestsHis ample table's pledges given; hath doneAll things divinely; pious officesEnjoined; done hurt to none; ne'er covetedAnother's: such as these, exulting all335 In divine praises, and themselves at onceExhorting, raise their voices to the stars;Thanksgivings to the Lord in joyous wiseThey psalming celebrate; and they shall goTheir harmless way with comrade messengers.340 When ended hath the Lord these happy gifts,And likewise sent away to realms eterneThe just, then comes a pitiable crowdWailing its crimes; with parching tears it poursAll groans effusely, and attests [1328] in acts345 With frequent ululations. At the sightOf flames, their merit's due, and stagnant poolsOf fire, wrath's weapons, they 'gin tremble all. [1329]Them an angelic host, upsnatching them,Forbids to pray, forbids to pour their cries350 (Too late!) with clamour loud: pardon withheld, Into the lowest bottom they are hurled!O miserable men! how oft to youHath Majesty divine made itself known!The sounds of heaven ye have heard; have seen355 Its lightnings; have experienced its rainsAssiduous; its ires of winds and hail!How often nights and days serene do makeYour seasons -- God's gifts -- fruitful with fair yields!Roses were vernal; the grain's summer-tide360 Failed not; the autumn variously pouredIts mellow fruits; the rugged winter brakeThe olives, icy though they were: 'twas GodWho granted all, nor did His goodness fail.At God earth trembled; on His voice the deep365 Hung, and the rivers trembling fled and leftSands dry; and every creature everywhereConfesses God! Ye (miserable men!)Have heaven's Lord and earth's denied; and oft(Horrible!) have God's heralds put to flight; [1330]370 And rather slain the just with slaughter fell;And, after crime, fraud ever hath in youInhered. Ye then shall reap the natural fruitOf your iniquitous sowing. That God isYe know; yet are ye wont to laugh at Him.375 Into deep darkness ye shall go of fireAnd brimstone; doomed to suffer glowing iresIn torments just. [1331] God bids your bones descendTo [1332] penalty eternal; go beneathThe ardour of an endless raging hell; [1333]380 Be urged, a seething mass, through rotant poolsOf flame; and into threatening flame He bidsThe elements convert; and all heaven's fireDescend in clouds.Then greedy TartarusWith rapid fire enclosed is; and flame385 Is fluctuant within with tempest waves;And the whole earth her whirling embers blends!There is a flamy furrow; teeth acuteAre turned to plough it, and for all the years [1334]The fiery torrent will be armed: with force390 Tartarean will the conflagrations gnashTheir teeth upon the world. [1335] There are they scorchedIn seething tide with course precipitate;Hence flee; thence back are borne in sharp career;The savage flame's ire meets them fugitive!395 And now at length they own the penaltyTheir own, the natural issue of their crime.And now the reeling earth, by not a swainPossest, is by the sea's profundityPrest, at her farthest limit, where the sun400 (His ray out-measured) divides the orb,And where, when traversed is the world, [1336] the starsAre hidden. Ether thickens. O'er the lightSpreads sable darkness; and the latest flamesStagnate in secret rills. A place there is405 Whose nature is with sealed penaltiesFiery, and a dreadful marsh white-hotWith heats infernal, where, in furnacesHorrific, penal deed roars loud, and seethes,And, rushing into torments, is up-caught410 By the flame's vortex wide; by savage waveAnd surge the turbid sand all mingled isWith miry bottom. Hither will be sent,Groaning, the captive crowd of evil ones,And wickedness (the sinful body's train)415 To burn! Great is the beating there of breasts,By bellowing of grief accompanied;Wild is the hissing of the flames, and thenceThe ululation of the sufferers!And flames, and limbs sonorous, [1337] will outrise420 Afar: more fierce will the fire burn; and upTo th' upper air the groaning will be borne.Then human progeny its bygone deedsOf ill will weigh; and will begin to stretchHeavenward its palms; and then will wish to know425 The Lord, whom erst it would not know, what timeTo know Him had proved useful to them. There,His life's excesses, handiworks unjust,And crimes of savage mind, each will confess,And at the knowledge of the impious deeds430 Of his own life will shudder. And now first,Whoe'er erewhile cherished ill thoughts of God;Had worshipped stones unsteady, lyinglyPretending to divinity; hath e'erMade sacred to gore-stained images435 Altars; hath voiceless pictured figures feared;Hath slender shades of false divinityRevered; whome'er ill error onward hathSeduced; whoe'er was an adulterer,Or with the sword had slain his sons; whoe'er440 Had stalked in robbery; whoe'er by fraudHis clients had deferred; whoe'er with mindUnfriendly had behaved himself, or stainedHis palms with blood of men, or poison mixtWherein death lurked, or robed with wicked guise445 His breast, or at his neighbour's ill, or gainIniquitous, was wont to joy; whoe'erCommitted whatsoever wickednessOf evil deeds: him mighty heat shall rack,And bitter fire; and these all shall endure,450 In passing painful death, their punishment.Thus shall the vast crowd lie of mourning men!This oft as holy prophets sang of old,And (by God's inspiration warned) oft toldThe future, none ('tis pity!) none (alas!)455 Did lend his ears. But God Almighty willedHis guerdons to be known, and His law's threats'Mid multitudes of such like signs promulged.He 'stablished them [1338] by sending prophets more,These likewise uttering words divine; and some,460 Roused from their sleep, He bids go from their tombsForth with Himself, when He, His own tomb burst,Had risen. Many 'wildered were, indeed,To see the tombs agape, and in clear lightCorpses long dead appear; and, wondering465 At their discourses pious, dulcet words!Starward they stretch their palms at the mere sound, [1339] And offer God and so -- victorious ChristTheir gratulating homage. Certain 'tisThat these no more re-sought their silent graves,470 Nor were retained within earth's bowels shut; [1340]But the remaining host reposes nowIn lowliest beds, until -- time's circuit run -- That great day do arrive.Now all of youOwn the true Lord, who alone makes this soul475 Of ours to see His light [1341] and can the same(To Tartarus sent) subject to penalties;And to whom all the power of life and deathIs open. Learn that God can do whate'erHe list; for 'tis enough for Him to will,480 And by mere speaking He achieves the deed;And Him nought plainly, by withstanding, checks.He is my God alone, to whom I trustWith deepest senses. But, since death concludesEvery career, let whoe'er is to-day485 Bethink him over all things in his mind.And thus, while life remains, while 'tis allowedTo see the light and change your life, beforeThe limit of allotted age o'ertakeYou unawares, and that last day, which [1342] is490 By death's law fixt, your senseless eyes do glaze,Seek what remains worth seeking: watchful beFor dear salvation; and run down with easeAnd certainty the good course. Wipe awayBy pious sacred rites your past misdeeds495 Which expiation need; and shun the storms,The too uncertain tempests, of the world. [1343]Then turn to right paths, and keep sanctities.Hence from your gladsome minds depraved crimeQuite banish; and let long-inveterate fault500 Be washed forth from your breast; and do awayWicked ill-stains contracted; and appeaseDread God by prayers eternal; and let allMost evil mortal things to living goodGive way: and now at once a new life keep505 Without a crime; and let your minds beginTo use themselves to good things and to true:And render ready voices to God's praise.Thus shall your piety find better thingsAll growing to a flame; thus shall ye, too,510 Receive the gifts of the celestial life; [1344]And, to long age, shall ever live with God,Seeing the starry kingdom's golden joys. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 5. FIVE BOOKS IN REPLY TO MARCION. ======================================================================== (Author Uncertain.) Book I. -- Of the Divine Unity, and the Resurrection of the Flesh. Part I. -- Of the Divine Unity. After the Evil One's impiety Profound, and his life-grudging mind, entrapped Seducèd men with empty hope, it laid Them bare, by impious suasion to false trust 5 In him, -- not with impunity, indeed; For he forthwith, as guilty of the deed, And author rash of such a wickedness, Received deserved maledictions. Thus, Thereafter, maddened, he, most desperate foe,10 Did more assail and instigate men's mindsIn darkness sunk. He taught them to forgetThe Lord, and leave sure hope, and idols vainFollow, and shape themselves a crowd of gods,Lots, auguries, false names of stars, the show15 Of being able to o'errule the birthsOf embryos by inspecting entrails, andExpecting things to come, by hardihoodOf dreadful magic's renegadoes led,Wondering at a mass of feigned lore;20 And he impelled them headlong to spurn life,Sunk in a criminal insanity;To joy in blood; to threaten murders fell;To love the wound, then, in their neighbour's flesh;Or, burning, and by pleasure's heat entrapped,25 To transgress nature's covenants, and stainPure bodies, manly sex, with an embraceUnnameable, and uses feminineMingled in common contact lawlessly;Urging embraces chaste, and dedicate30 To generative duties, to be heldFor intercourse obscene for passion's sake.Such in time past his deeds, assaulting men,Through the soul's lurking-places, with a flowOf scorpion-venom, -- not that men would blame35 Him, for they followed of their own accord:His suasion was in guile; in freedom manPerformed it.Whileas the perfidious oneContinuously through the centuries [1345]Is breathing such ill fumes, and into hearts40 Seduced injecting his own counsellingAnd hoping in his folly (alas!) to findForgiveness of his wickedness, unwareWhat sentence on his deed is waiting him;With words of wisdom's weaving, [1346] and a voice45 Presaging from God's Spirit, speak a hostOf prophets. Publicly he [1347] does not dareNakedly to speak evil of the Lord,Hoping by secret ingenuityHe possibly may lurk unseen. At length50 The soul's Light [1348] as the thrall of flesh is held;The hope of the despairing, mightierThan foe, enters the lists; the Fashioner,The Renovator, of the body He;True Glory of the Father; Son of God;55 Author unique; a Judge and Lord He came,The orb's renowned King; to the opprestPrompt to give pardon, and to loose the bound;Whose friendly aid and penal sufferingBlend God and renewed man in one. With child60 Is holy virgin: life's new gate opes; wordsOf prophets find their proof, fulfilled by facts;Priests [1349] leave their temples, and -- a star their guide -- Wonder the Lord so mean a birth should choose.Waters -- sight memorable! -- turn to wine;65 Eyes are restored to blind; fiends trembling cry,Outdriven by His bidding, and own Christ!All limbs, already rotting, by a wordAre healed; now walks the lame; the deaf forthwithHears hope; the maimed extends his hand; the dumb70 Speaks mighty words: sea at His bidding calms,Winds drop; and all things recognise the Lord:Confounded is the foe, and yields, though fierce,Now triumphed over, to unequal [1350] arms!When all his enterprises now revoked75 He [1351] sees; the flesh, once into ruin sunk,Now rising; man -- death vanquisht quite -- to heavensSoaring; the peoples sealed with holy pledgeOutpoured; [1352] the work and envied deeds of mightMarvellous; [1353] and hears, too, of penalties80 Extreme, and of perpetual dark, preparedFor himself by the Lord by God's decreeIrrevocable; naked and unarmed,Damned, vanquisht, doomed to perish in a deathPerennial, guilty now, and sure that he85 No pardon has, a last impietyForthwith he dares, -- to scatter everywhereA word for ears to shudder at, nor meetFor voice to speak. Accosting men cast offFrom God's community, [1354] men wandering90 Without the light, found mindless, followingThings earthly, them he teaches to becomeDepraved teachers of depravity.By [1355] them he preaches that there are two Sires,And realms divided: ill's cause is the Lord [1356]95 Who built the orb, fashioned breath-quickened flesh,And gave the law, and by the seers' voice spake.Him he affirms not good, but owns Him just;Hard, cruel, taking pleasure fell in war;In judgment dreadful, pliant to no prayers.100 His suasion tells of other one, to noneE'er known, who nowhere is, a deityFalse, nameless, constituting nought, and whoHath spoken precepts none. Him he calls good;Who judges none, but spares all equally,105 And grudges life to none. No judgment waitsThe guilty; so he says, bearing aboutA gory poison with sweet honey mixtFor wretched men. That flesh can rise -- to whichHimself was cause of ruin, which he spoiled110 Iniquitously with contempt (whence, [1357] cursed,He hath grief without end), its ever-foe, -- He doth deny; because with various woundLife to expel and the salvation whenceHe fell he strives: and therefore says that Christ115 Came suddenly to earth, [1358] but was not made,By any compact, partner of the flesh;But Spirit-form, and body feigned beneathA shape imaginary, seeks to mockMen with a semblance that what is not is.120 Does this, then, become God, to sport with menBy darkness led? to act an impious lie?Or falsely call Himself a man? He walks,Is carried, clothed, takes due rest, handled is,Suffers, is hung and buried: man's are all125 Deeds which, in holy body conversant, But sent by God the Father, who hath allCreated, He did perfect properly,Reclaiming not another's but His own;Discernible to peoples who of old130 Were hoping for Him by His very work,And through the prophets' voice to the round world [1359]Best known: and now they seek an unknown Lord,Wandering in death's threshold manifest,And leave behind the known. False is their faith,135 False is their God, deceptive their reward,False is their resurrection, death's defeatFalse, vain their martyrdoms, and e'en Christ's nameAn empty sound: whom, teaching that He cameLike magic mist, they (quite demented) own140 To be the actor of a lie, and makeHis passion bootless, and the populace [1360](A feigned one!) without crime! Is God thus true?Are such the honours rendered to the Lord?Ah! wretched men! gratuitously lost145 In death ungrateful! Who, by blind guide led,Have headlong rushed into the ditch! [1361] and asIn dreams the fancied rich man in his storeOf treasure doth exult, and with his handsGrasps it, the sport of empty hope, so ye, so150 Deceived, are hoping for a shadow vainOf guerdon!Ah! ye silent laughingstocks,Or doomed prey, of the dragon, do ye hope,Stern men, for death in room of gentle peace? [1362]Dare ye blame God, who hath works155 So great? in whose earth, 'mid profuse displaysOf His exceeding parent-care, His gifts(Unmindful of Himself!) ye largely praise,Rushing to ruin! do ye reprobate -- Approving of the works -- the Maker's self,160 The world's [1363] Artificer, whose work withalYe are yourselves? Who gave those little selvesGreat honours; sowed your crops; made all the brutes [1364]Your subjects; makes the seasons of the yearFruitful with stated months; grants sweetnesses,165 Drinks various, rich odours, jocund flowers,And the groves' grateful bowers; to growing herbsGrants wondrous juices; founts and streams dispreadsWith sweet waves, and illumes with stars the skyAnd the whole orb: the infinite sole Lord,170 Both Just and Good; known by His work; to noneBy aspect known; whom nations, flourishingIn wealth, but foolish, wrapped in error's shroud,(Albeit 'tis beneath an alien nameThey praise Him, yet) their Maker knowing! dread175 To blame: nor e'en one [1365] -- save you, hell's new gate! -- Thankless, ye choose to speak ill of your Lord!These cruel deadly gifts the RenegadeTerrible has bestowed, through Marcion -- thanksTo Cerdo's mastership -- on you; nor comes180 The thought into your mind that, from Christ's nameSeduced, Marcion's name has carried youTo lowest depths. [1366] Say of His many actsWhat one displeases you? or what hath GodDone which is not to be extolled with praise?185 Is it that He permits you, all too long,(Unworthy of His patience large,) to seeSweet light? you, who read truths, [1367] and, docking them,Teach these your falsehoods, and approve as pastThings which are yet to be? [1368] What hinders, else,190 That we believe your God incredible? [1369]Nor marvel is't if, practiced as he [1370] is,He captived you unarmed, persuading youThere are two Fathers (being damned by One),And all, whom he had erst seduced, are gods;195 And after that dispread a pest, which ranWith multiplying wound, and cureless crime,To many. Men unworthy to be named,Full of all magic's madness, he inducedTo call themselves "Virtue Supreme;" and feign200 (With harlot comrade) fresh impiety;To roam, to fly. [1371] He is the insane godOf Valentine, and to his ÆonageAssigned heavens thirty, and ProfundityTheir sire. [1372] He taught two baptisms, and led205 The body through the flame. That there are godsSo many as the year hath days, he badeA Basilides to believe, and worldsAs many. Marcus, shrewdly arguingThrough numbers, taught to violate chaste form210 'Mid magic's arts; taught, too, that the Lord's cupIs an oblation, and by prayers is turnedTo blood. His [1373] suasion prompted HebionTo teach that Christ was born from human seed;He taught, too, circumcision, and that room215 Is still left for the Law, and, though Law's fountsAre lost, [1374] its elements must be resumed.Unwilling am I to protract in wordsHis last atrocity, or to tell allThe causes, or the names at length. Enough220 It is to note his many crueltiesBriefly, and the unmentionable men,The dragon's organs fell, through whom he now,Speaking so much profaneness, ever toilsTo blame the Maker of the world. [1375] But come;225 Recall your foot from savage Bandit's cave,While space is granted, and to wretched menGod, patient in perennial parent-love,Condones all deeds through error done! BelieveTruly in the true Sire, who built the orb;230 Who, on behalf of men incapableTo bear the law, sunk in sin's whirlpool, sentThe true Lord to repair the ruin wrought,And bring them the salvation promisedOf old through seers. He who the mandates gave235 Remits sins too. Somewhat, deservedly,Doth He exact, because He formerlyEntrusted somewhat; or else bounteously,As Lord, condones as it were debts to slaves:Finally, peoples shut up 'neath the curse, 240 And meriting the penalty, HimselfDeleting the indictment, bids be washed!Part II. -- Of the Resurrection of the Flesh.The whole man, then, believes; the whole is washed;Abstains from sin, or truly suffers woundsFor Christ's name's sake: he rises a true [1376] man,245 Death, truly vanquish, shall be mute. But notPart of the man, -- his soul, -- her own part [1377] leftBehind, will win the palm which, labouringAnd wrestling in the course, combinedlyAnd simultaneously with flesh, she earns.250 Great crime it were for two in chains to bearA weight, of whom the one were affluentThe other needy, and the wretched oneBe spurned, and guerdons to the happy oneRendered. Not so the Just -- fair Renderer255 Of wages -- deals, both good and just, whom weBelieve Almighty: to the thankless kindFull is His will of pity. Nay, whate'erHe who hath greater mortal need [1378] doth need [1379]That, by advancement, to his comrade he260 May equalled be, that will the affluentBestow the rather unsolicited:So are we bidden to believe, and notBe willing to cast blame unlawfullyOn the Lord in our teaching, as if He265 Were one to raise the soul, as having metWith ruin, and to set her free from deathSo that the granted faculty of lifeUpon the ground of sole desert (becauseShe bravely acted), should abide with her; [1380]270 While she who ever shared the common lotOf toil, the flesh, should to the earth be left,The prey of a perennial death. Has, then,The soul pleased God by acts of fortitude?By no means could she Him have pleased alone275 Without the flesh. Hath she borne penal bonds? [1381]The flesh sustained upon her limbs the bonds.Contemned she death? But she hath left the fleshBehind in death. Groaned she in pain?The flesh is slain and vanquisht by the wound. Repose280 Seeks she? The flesh, spilt by the sword in dust,Is left behind to fishes, birds, decay,And ashes; torn she is, unhappy one!And broken; scattered, she melts away.Hath she not earned to rise? for what could she285 Have e'er committed, lifeless and alone?What so life-grudging [1382] cause impedes, or elseForbids, the flesh to take God's gifts, and liveEver, conjoined with her comrade soul,And see what she hath been, when formerly290 Converted into dust? [1383] After, renewed,Bear she to God deserved meeds of praise,Not ignorant of herself, frail, mortal, sick. [1384]Contend ye as to what the living might [1385]Of the great God can do; who, good alike295 And potent, grudges life to none? Was thisDeath's captive? [1386] shall this perish vanquishedWhich the Lord hath with wondrous wisdom made,And art? This by His virtue wonderfulHimself upraises; this our Leader's self300 Recalls, and this with His own glory clothesGod's art and wisdom, then, our body shapedWhat can by these be made, how faileth itTo be by virtue reproduced? [1387] No causeCan holy parent-love withstand; (lest else305 Ill's cause [1388] should mightier prove than Power Supreme;)That man even now saved by God's gift, may learn [1389](Mortal before, now robed in light immenseInviolable, wholly quickened, [1390] soulAnd body) God, in virtue infinite,310 In parent-love perennial, through His KingChrist, through whom opened is light's way; and now,Standing in new light, filled now with each gift, [1391]Glad with fair fruits of living Paradise,May praise and laud Him to eternity, [1392]315 Rich in the wealth of the celestial hall. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: BOOK II.--OF THE HARMONY OF THE OLD AND NEW LAWS. ======================================================================== After the faith was broken by the dint Of the foe's breathing renegades, [1394] and sworn With wiles the hidden pest [1395] emerged; with lies Self-prompted, scornful of the Deity 5 That underlies the sense, he did his plagues Concoct: skilled in guile's path, he mixed his own Words impious with the sayings of the saints. And on the good seed sowed his wretched tares, Thence willing that foul ruin's every cause 10 Should grow combined; to wit, that with more speed His own iniquitous deeds he may assign To God clandestinely, and may impaleOn penalties such as his suasion led;False with true veiling, turning rough with smooth,15 And, (masking his spear's point with rosy wreaths,)Slaying the unwary unforeseen with deathSupreme. His supreme wickedness is this:That men, to such a depth of madness sunk!Off-broken boughs! [1396] should into parts divide20 The endlessly-dread Deity; Christ's deedsSublime should follow with false praise, and blameThe former acts, [1397] God's countless miracles,Ne'er seen before, nor heard, nor in a heartConceived; [1398] and should so rashly frame in words25 The impermissible impietyOf wishing by "wide dissimilitudeOf sense" to prove that the two TestamentsSound adverse each to other, and the Lord'sOppose the prophets' words; of drawing down30 All the Law's cause to infamy; and ekeOf reprobating holy fathers' lifeOf old, whom into friendship, and to shareHis gifts, God chose. Without beginning, oneIs, for its lesser part, accepted. [1399] Though35 Of one are four, of four one, [1400] yet to themOne part is pleasing, three they (in a word)Reprobate: and they seize, in many ways,On Paul as their own author; yet was heUrged by a frenzied impulse of his own40 To his last words: [1401] all whatsoe'er he spakeOf the old covenant [1402] seems hard to themBecause, deservedly, "made gross in heart." [1403]Weight apostolic, grace of beaming word,Dazzles their mind, nor can they possibly45 Discern the Spirit's drift. Dull as they are,Seek they congenial animals!But yeWho have not yet, (false deity your guide,Reprobate in your very mind, [1404] ) to death'sInmost caves penetrated, learn there flows50 A stream perennial from its fount, which feedsA tree, (twice sixfold are the fruits, its grace!)And into earth and to the orb's four windsGoes out: into so many parts doth flowThe fount's one hue and savour. [1405] Thus, withal,55 From apostolic word descends the Church,Out of Christ's womb, with glory of His SireAll filled, to wash off filth, and vivifyDead fates. [1406] The Gospel, four in number, oneIn its diffusion 'mid the Gentiles, this,60 By faith elect accepted, Paul hands down(Excellent doctor!) pure, without a crime;And from it he forbade Galatian saintsTo turn aside withal; whom "brethren false,"(Urging them on to circumcise themselves,65 And follow "elements," leaving behindTheir novel "freedom,") to "a shadow oldOf things to be" were teaching to be slaves.These were the causes which Paul had to writeTo the Galatians: not that they took out70 One small part of the Gospel, and held thatFor the whole bulk, leaving the greater partBehind. And hence 'tis no words of a book,But Christ Himself, Christ sent into the orb,Who is the gospel, if ye will discern;75 Who from the Father came, sole CarrierOf tidings good; whose glory vast completesThe early testimonies; by His workShowing how great the orb's Creator is:Whose deeds, conjoined at the same time with words,80 Those faithful ones, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,Recorded unalloyed (not speaking wordsExternal), sanctioned by God's Spirit, 'neathSo great a Master's eye!This paschal LambIs hung, a victim, on the tree: Him Paul,85 Writing decrees to Corinth, with his torch, [1407]Hands down as slain, the future life and GodPromised to the fathers, whom beforeHe had attracted.See what virtue, seeWhat power, the paschal image [1408] has; ye thus90 Will able be to see what power there isIn the true Passover.Lest well-earned loveShould tempt the faithful sire and seer, [1409] to whomHis pledge and heir [1410] was dear, whom God by chance [1411]Had given him, to offer him to God95 (A mighty execution!), there is shownTo him a lamb entangled by the headIn thorns; a holy victim -- holy bloodFor blood -- to God. From whose piacular death,That to the wasted race [1412] it might be sign100 And pledge of safety, signed are with bloodTheir posts and thresholds many: [1413] -- aid immense!The flesh (a witness credible) is givenFor food. The Jordan crossed, the land possessed,Joshua by law kept Passover with joy,105 And immolates a lamb; and the great kingsAnd holy prophets that were after him,Not ignorant of the good promisesOf sure salvation; full of godly fearThe great Law to transgress, (that mass of types110 In image of the Supreme Virtue onceTo come,) did celebrate in order dueThe mirrorly-inspected passover. [1414]In short, if thou recur with rapid mindTo times primordial, thou wilt find results115 Too fatal following impious words. That manEasily credulous, alas! and strippedOf life's own covering, might covered beWith skins, a lamb is hung: the wound slays sins,Or death by blood effaces or enshrouds120 Or cherishes the naked with its fleece.Is sheep's blood of more worth than human blood,That, offered up for sins, it should quench wrath?Or is a lamb (as if he were more dear!)Of more worth than much people's? aid immense!125 As safeguard of so great salvation, couldA lamb, if offered, have been price enoughFor the redeemed? Nay: but Almighty God, The heaven's and earth's Creator, infinite, [1415]Living, and perfect, and perennially130 Dwelling in light, is not appeased by these,Nor joys in cattle's blood. Slain be all flocks;Be every herd upburned into smoke;That expiatively 't may pardon winOf but one sin: in vain at so vile price;135 Will the stained figure of the Lord -- foul flesh -- Prepare, if wise, such honours: [1416] but the hopeAnd faith to mortals promised of old -- Great Reason's counterpart [1417] -- hath wrought to bringThese boons premeditated and prepared140 Erst by the Father's passing parent-love;That Christ should come to earth, and be a man!Whom when John saw, baptism's first opener, John,Comrade of seers, apostle great, and sentAs sure forerunner, witness faithful; John,145 August in life, and marked with praise sublime, [1418]He shows, to such as sought of olden timeGod's very Paschal Lamb, that He is comeAt last, the expiation of misdeed,To undo many's sins by His own blood,150 In place of reprobates the Proven One,In place of vile the dear; in body, man;And, in life, God: that He, as the slain Lamb,Might us accept, [1419] and for us might outpourHimself Thus hath it pleased the Lord to spoil155 Proud death: thus wretched man will able beTo hope salvation. This slain paschal LambPaul preaches: nor does a phantasmal shapeOf the sublime Lord (one consimilarTo Isaac's silly sheep [1420] ) the passion bear,160 Wherefore He is called Lamb: but 'tis because,As wool, He these renewed bodies clothes,Giving to many covering, yet HimselfNever deficient. Thus does the Lord shroudIn His Sire's virtue, those whom, disarrayed165 Of their own light, He by His death redeemed,Virtue which ever is in Him. So, then,The Shepherd who hath lost the sheep HimselfRe-seeks it. He, prepared to tread the strengthOf the vine, and its thorns, or to o'ercome170 The wolf's rage, and regain the cattle lost,And brave to snatch them out, the Lion HeIn sheepskin-guise, unasked presents HimselfTo the contemned [1421] teeth, baffling by His garbThe robber's bloody jaws.Thus everywhere175 Christ seeks force-captured Adam; treads the pathHimself where death wrought ruin; permeatesAll the old heroes' monuments; [1422] inspectsEach one; the One of whom all types were full;Begins e'en from the womb to expel the death180 Conceived simultaneously with seedOf flesh within the bosom; purging allLife's stages with a silent wisdom; debtsAssuming; [1423] ready to cleanse all, and giveTheir Maker back the many whom the one [1424]185 Had scattered. And, because one direful manDown-sunk in pit iniquitous did fall,By dragon-subdued virgin's [1425] suasion led;Because he pleased her wittingly; [1426] becauseHe left his heavenly covering [1427] behind:190 Because the "tree" their nakedness did prove;Because dark death coerced them: in like wiseOut of the self-same mass [1428] re-made returnsRenewed now, -- the flower of flesh, and hostOf peace, -- a flesh from espoused virgin born,195 Not of man's seed; conjoined to its ownArtificer; without the debt of death.These mandates of the Father through bright starsAn angel carries down, that angel-fameThe tidings may accredit; telling how200 "A virgin's debts a virgin, flesh's flesh,Should pay." Thus introduced, the Giant-Babe,The Elder-Boy, the Stripling-Man, pursuesDeath's trail. Thereafter, when completed wasThe ripe age of man's strength, when man is wont205 To see the lives that were his fellows dropBy slow degrees away, and to be changedIn mien to wrinkles foul and limbs inert,While blood forsakes his veins, his course he stayed,And suffered not his fleshly garb to age.210 Upon what day or in what place did fallMost famous Adam, or outstretched his handRashly to touch the tree, on that same day,Returning as the years revolve, withinThe stadium of the "tree" the brave Athlete,215 'Countering, outstretched His hands, and, penaltyFor praise pursuing, [1429] quite did vanquish death,Because He left death of His own accordBehind, disrobing Him of fleshly slough,And of death's dues; and to the "tree" affixed220 The serpent's spoil -- "the world's [1430] prince" vanquisht quite!Grand trophy of the renegades: for signWhereof had Moses hung the snake, that all,Who had by many serpents stricken been,Might gaze upon the dragon's self, and see225 Him vanquisht and transfixt.When, afterwards,He reached the infernal region's secret waves,And, as a victor, by the light which ayeAttended Him, revealed His captive thrall,And by His virtue thoroughly fulfilled230 The Father's bidding, He Himself re-tookThe body which, spontaneous, He had left:This was the cause of death: this same was madeSalvation's path: a messenger of guileThe former was; the latter messenger235 Of peace: a spouse her man [1431] did slay; a spouseDid bear a lion: [1432] hurtful to her man [1433]A virgin [1434] proved; a man [1435] from virgin bornProved victor: for a type whereof, while sleepHis [1436] body wrapped, out of his side is ta'en240 A woman, [1437] who is her lord's [1438] rib; whom, he, Awaking, called "flesh from his flesh, and bonesFrom his own bones;" with a presaging mindSpeaking. Faith wondrous! Paul deservedly,(Most certain author!) teaches Christ to be245 "The Second Adam from the heavens." [1439] Truth,Using her own examples, doth refulge;Nor covets out of alien source to showHer paces keen: [1440] this is a pauper's work,Needy of virtue of his own! Great Paul250 These mysteries -- taught to him -- did teach; to wit,Discerning that in Christ thy glory is,O Church! from His side, hanging on high "tree,"His lifeless body's "blood and humour" flowed.The blood the woman [1441] was; the waters were255 The new gifts of the font: [1442] this is the Church,True mother of a living people; fleshNew from Christ's flesh, and from His bones a bone.A spot there is called Golgotha, -- of oldThe fathers' earlier tongue thus called its name, -- 260 "The skull-pan of a head:" here is earth's midst;Here victory's sign; here, have our elders taught,There was a great head [1443] found; here the first man,We have been taught, was buried; here the ChristSuffers; with sacred blood the earth [1444] grows moist.265 That the old Adam's dust may able be,Commingled with Christ's blood, to be upraisedBy dripping water's virtue. The "one ewe"That is, which, during Sabbath-hours, aliveThe Shepherd did resolve that He would draw270 Out of th' infernal pit. This was the causeWhy, on the Sabbaths, He was wont to cureThe prematurely dead limbs of all flesh;Or perfected for sight the eyes of himBlind from his birth -- eyes which He had not erst275 Given; or, in presence of the multitude,Called, during Sabbath-hours, one wholly deadTo life, e'en from the sepulchre. [1445] HimselfThe new man's Maker, the Repairer goodOf th' old, supplying what did lack, or else280 Restoring what was lost. About to do -- When dawns "the holy day" -- these works, for suchAs hope in Him, in plenitude, (to keepHis plighted word,) He taught men thus His powerTo do them.What? If flesh dies, and no hope285 Is given of salvation, say, what groundsChrist had to feign Himself a man, and headMen, or have care for flesh? If He recalls [1446]Some few, why shall He not withal recallAll? Can corruption's power liquefy290 The body and undo it, and shall notThe virtue of the Lord be powerfulThe undone to recall?They, who believeTheir bodies are not loosed from death, do notBelieve the Lord, who wills to raise His own295 Works sunken; or else say they that the GoodWills not, and that the Potent hath not power, -- Ignorant from how great a crime they suckTheir milk, in daring to set things infirmAbove the Strong. [1447] In the grain lurks the tree;300 And if this [1448] rot not, buried in the earth,It yields not tree-graced fruits. [1449] Soon bound will beThe liquid waters: 'neath the whistling coldThey will become, and ever will be stones,Unless a mighty power, by leading on305 Soft-breathing warmth, undo them. The great bunchLurks in the tendril's slender body: ifThou seek it, it is not; when God doth will,'Tis seen to be. On trees their leaves, on thornsThe rose, the seeds on plains, are dead and fail,310 And rise again, new living. For man's useThese things doth God before his eyes recallAnd form anew -- man's, for whose sake at first [1450]The wealthy One made all things bounteously.All naked fall; with its own body each315 He clothes. Why man alone, on whom He showeredSuch honours, should He not recall in allHis first perfection [1451] to Himself? man, whomHe set o'er all?Flesh, then, and blood are saidTo be not worthy of God's realm, as if320 Paul spake of flesh materially. HeIndeed taught mighty truths; but hearts inaneThink he used carnal speech: for pristine deedsHe meant beneath the name of "flesh and blood;"Remembering, heavenly home -- slave that he is,325 His heavenly Master's words; who gave the nameOf His own honour to men born from HimThrough water, and from His own Spirit pouredA pledge; [1452] that, by whose virtue men had beenRedeemed, His name of honour they withal330 Might, when renewed, receive. Because, then, HeRefused, on the old score, the heavenly realmTo peoples not yet from His fount re-born,Still with their ancient sordid raiment clad -- These are "the dues of death" -- saying that that335 Which human is must needs be born again, -- "What hath been born of flesh is flesh; and whatFrom Spirit, life;" [1453] and that the body, washed,Changing with glory its old root's new seeds, [1454]Is no more called "from flesh:" Paul follows this;340 Thus did he speak of "flesh." In fine, he said [1455]This frail garb with a robe must be o'erclad,This mortal form be wholly covered;Not that another body must be given,But that the former one, dismantled, [1456] must345 Be with God's kingdom wholly on all sidesSurrounded: "In the moment of a glance,"He says, "it shall be changed:" as, on the blade,Dispreads the red corn's [1457] face, and changes 'neathThe sun's glare its own hue; so the same flesh,350 From "the effulgent glory" [1458] borrowing, Shall ever joy, and joying, [1459] shall lack death;Exclaiming that "the body's cruel foeIs vanquisht quite; death, by the victoryOf the brave Christ, is swallowed;" [1460] praises high355 Bearing to God, unto the highest stars. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: BOOK III.--OF THE HARMONY OF THE FATHERS OF THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. ======================================================================== Now hath the mother, formerly surnamed Barren, giv'n birth: [1461] now a new people, born From the free woman, [1462] joys: (the slave expelled, Deservedly, with her proud progeny; 5 Who also leaves ungratefully behind The waters of the living fount, [1463] and drinks -- Errant on heated plains -- 'neath glowing star: [1464] ) Now can the Gentiles as their parent claim Abraham; who, the Lord's voice following, 10 Like him, have all things left, [1465] life's pilgrimage To enter. "Be glad, barren one;" conceive The promised people; "break thou out, and cry,"Who with no progeny wert blest; of whomSpake, through the seers, the Spirit of old time:15 She hath borne, out of many nations, one;With whose beginning are her pious limbsEver in labour.Hers "just Abel" [1466] was,A pastor and a cattle -- master he;Whom violence of brother's right hand slew20 Of old. Her Enoch, signal ornament,Limb from her body sprung, by counsel stroveTo recall peoples gone astray from GodAnd following misdeed, (while raves on earthThe horde of robber-renegades, [1467] ) to flee25 The giants'sacrilegious cruel race;Faithful in all himself. With groaning deep [1468]Did he please God, and by deserved toilTranslated [1469] is reserved as a pledge,With honour high. Perfect in praise, and found30 Faultless, and just -- God witnessing [1470] the fact -- In an adulterous people, Noah (heWho in twice fifty years [1471] the ark did weave)By deeds and voice the coming ruin told.Favour he won, snatched out of so great waves35 Of death, and, with his progeny, preserved.Then, in the generation [1472] following,Is Abraham, whose sons ye do denyYourselves to be; who first -- race, country, sire,All left behind -- at suasion of God's voice40 Withdrew to realms extern: such honours heAt God's sublime hand worthily deservedAs to be father to believing tribesAnd peoples. Jacob with the patriarchs(Himself their patriarch) through all his own45 Life's space the gladdest times of Christ foresangBy words, act, virtue, toil.Him follows -- freeFrom foul youth's stain -- Joseph, by slander feigned,Doomed to hard penalty and gaol: his groansGlory succeeds, and the realm's second crown, so50 And in dearth's time large power of furnishingBread: so appropriate a type of Christ,So lightsome type of Light, is manifestTo all whose mind hath eyes, that they may seeIn a face-mirror [1473] their sure hope.Himself55 The patriarch Judah, see; the originOf royal line, [1474] whence leaders rose, nor kingsFailed ever from his seed, until the PowerTo come, by Gentiles looked for, promised long,Came.Moses, leader of the People, (he60 Who, spurning briefly -- blooming riches, leftThe royal thresholds,) rather chose to bearHis people's toils, afflicted, with bowed neck,By no threats daunted, than to gain himselfEnjoyments, and of many penalties65 Remission: admirable for such faithAnd love, he, with God's virtue armed, achievedGreat exploits: smote the nation through with plagues;And left their land behind, and their hard kingConfounds, and leads the People back; trod waves;70 Sunk the foes down in waters; through a "tree" [1475]Made ever-bitter waters sweet; spake much(Manifestly to the People) with the Christ, [1476]From whose face light and brilliance in his ownReflected shone; dashed on the ground the law75 Accepted through some few, [1477] -- implicit type,And sure, of his own toils! -- smote through the rock;And, being bidden, shed forth streams; and stretchedHis hands that, by a sign, [1478] he vanquish mightThe foe; of Christ all severally, all [1479]80 Combined through Christ, do speak. Great and approved,He [1480] rests with praise and peace.But Joshua,The son of Nun, erst called Oshea -- this manThe Holy Spirit to Himself did joinAs partner in His name: [1481] hence did he cleave85 The flood; constrained the People to pass o'er;Freely distributed the land -- the prizePromised the fathers! -- stayed both sun and moonWhile vanquishing the foe; races externAnd giants' progeny outdrave; razed groves;90 Altars and temples levelled; and with mindLoyal [1482] performed all due solemnities:Type of Christ's name; his virtue's image.WhatTouching the People's Judges shall I saySingly? whose virtues, [1483] if unitedly95 Recorded, fill whole volumes numerousWith space of words. But yet the order dueOf filling out the body of my words,Demands that, out of many, I should tellThe life of few.Of whom when Gideon, guide100 Of martial band, keen to attack the foe,(Not keen to gain for his own family,By virtue, [1484] tutelary dignity, [1485] )And needing to be strengthened [1486] in the faithExcited in his mind, seeks for a sign105 Whereby he either could not, or could, wageVictorious war; to wit, that with the dewA fleece, exposèd for the night, should beMoistened, and all the ground lie dry around(By this to show that, with the world, [1487] should dry [1488]110 The enemies' palm); and then again, the fleeceAlone remaining dry, the earth by nightShould with the self-same [1489] moisture be bedewed:For by this sign he prostrated the heapsOf bandits; with Christ's People 'countering them115 Without much soldiery, with cavalry [1490]Three hundred -- the Greek letter Tau, in truth,That number is [1491] -- with torches armed, and hornsOf blowers with the mouth: then [1492] was the fleece,The people of Christ's sheep, from holy seed120 Born (for the earth means nations various,And scattered through the orb), which fleece the wordNourishes; night death's image; Tau the signOf the dear cross; the horn the heraldings Of life; the torches shining in their stand [1493]125 The glowing Spirit: and this testing, too,Forsooth, an image of Christ's virtue was: [1494]To teach that death's fierce battles should not beBy trump angelic vanquished beforeTh' indocile People be deservedly130 By their own fault left desolate behind,And Gentiles, flourishing in faith, receivedIn praise.Yea, Deborah, a woman farAbove all fame, appears; who, having bracedHerself for warlike toil, for country's sake,135 Beneath the palm-tree sang how victoryHad crowned her People; thanks to whom it wasThat the foes, vanquisht, turned at once their backs,And Sisera their leader fled; whose flightNo man, nor any band, arrested: him,140 Suddenly renegade, a woman's hand -- Jael's [1495] -- with wooden weapon vanquished quite,For token of Christ's victory.With firm faithJephthah appears, who a deep-wounding vowDared make -- to promise God a grand reward145 Of war: him [1496] then, because he senselesslyHad promised what the Lord not wills, first meetsThe pledge [1497] dear to his heart; who suddenlyFell by a lot unhoped by any. He,To keep his promise, broke the sacred laws150 Of parenthood: the shade of mighty fearDid in his violent mind cover his vowOf sin: as solace of his widowed lifeFor [1498] wickedness, renown, and, for crime, praise,He won.Nor Samson's strength, all corporal might155 Passing, must we forget; the Spirit's giftWas this; the power was granted to his head. [1499]Alone he for his People, daggerless,Armless, an ass-jaw grasping, prostratedA thousand corpses; and no bonds could keep160 The hero bound: but after his shorn prideForsook him thralled, he fell, and, by his death, -- Though vanquisht, -- bought his foes back 'neath his power.Marvellous Samuel, who first receivedThe precept to anoint kings, to give chrism165 And show men-Christs, [1500] so acted laudablyIn life's space as, e'en after his repose,To keep prophetic rights. [1501]PsalmographistDavid, great king and prophet, with a voiceSubmiss was wont Christ's future suffering170 To sing: which prophecy spontaneouslyHis thankless lawless People did perform:Whom [1502] God had promised that in time to come,Fruit of his womb, [1503] a holy progeny,He would on his sublime throne set: the Lord's175 Fixt faith did all that He had promised.Corrector of an inert People roseEmulous [1504] Hezekiah; who restoredIniquitous forgetful men the Law: [1505]All these God's mandates of old time he first180 Bade men observe, who ended war by prayers, [1506]Not by steel's point: he, dying, had a grantOf years and times of life made to his tears:Deservedly such honour his careerObtained.With zeal immense, Josiah, prince185 Himself withal, in like wise acted: noneSo much, before or after! -- Idols heDethroned; destroyed unhallowed temples; burnedWith fire priests on their altars; all the bonesOf prophets false updug; the altars burned,190 The carcases to be consumed did serveFor fuel!To the praise of signal faith,Noble Elijah, (memorable fact!)Was rapt; [1507] who hath not tasted yet death's dues;Since to the orb he is to come again.195 His faith unbroken, then, chastening with stripesPeople and frenzied king, (who did desertThe Lord's best service), and with bitter flamesThe foes, shut up the stars; kept in the cloudsThe rain; showed all collectively that God200 Is; made their error patent; -- for a flame,Coming with force from heaven at his prayers,Ate up the victim's parts, dripping with flood,Upon the altar: [1508] -- often as he willed,So often from on high rushed fire; [1509] the stream205 Dividing, he made pathless passable; [1510]And, in a chariot raised aloft, was borneTo paradise's hall.Disciple hisElisha was, succeeding to his lot: [1511]Who begged to take to him Elijah's lot [1512]210 In double measure; so, with forceful stripe,The People to chastise: [1513] such and so greatA love for the Lord's cause he breathed. He smoteThrough Jordan; made his feet a way, and crossedAgain; raised with a twig the axe down -- sunk215 Beneath the stream; changed into vital meatThe deathful food; detained a second time,Double in length, [1514] the rains; cleansed leprosies; [1515]Entangled foes in darkness; and when oneOffcast and dead, by bandits'slaughter slain220 His limbs, after his death, already hidIn sepulchre, did touch, he -- light recalled -- Revived.Isaiah, wealthy seer, to whomThe fount was oped, -- so manifest his faith!Poured from his mouth God's word forth. Promised was225 The Father's will, bounteous through Christ; through himIt testified before the way of life,And was approved: [1516] but him, though stainless found,And undeserving, the mad People cutWith wooden saw in twain, and took away230 With cruel death.The holy JeremyFollowed; whom the Eternal's Virtue badeBe prophet to the Gentiles, and him toldThe future: who, because he brooded o'erHis People's deeds illaudable, and said235 (Speaking with voice presaging) that, unlessThey had repented of betaking themTo deeds iniquitous against their slaves, [1517] They should be captived, bore hard bonds, shut upIn squalid gaol; and, in the miry pit,240 Hunger exhausted his decaying limbs.But, after he did prove what they to hearHad been unwilling, and the foes did leadThe People bound in their triumphal trains,Hardly at length his wrinkled right hand lost245 Its chains: it is agreed that by no deathNor slaughter was the hero ta'en away.Faithful Ezekiel, to whom granted wasRich grace of speech, saw sinners' secrets; wailedHis own afflictions; prayed for pardon; saw250 The vengeance of the saints, which is to beBy slaughter; and, in Spirit wrapt, the placeOf the saints' realm, its steps and accesses,And the salvation of the flesh, he saw.Hosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, too,255 With Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, come;Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai,And Zechariah who did violenceSuffer, and Malachi -- angel himself!Are here: these are the Lord's seers; and their choir,260 As still they sing, is heard; and equallyTheir proper wreath of praise they all have earned.How great was Daniel! What a man!What power!Who by their own mouth did false witnessesBewray, and saved a soul on a false charge265 Condemned; [1518] and, before that, by mouth resolvedThe king's so secret dreams; foresaw how ChristDissolves the limbs of kingdoms; was accusedFor his Lord's was made the lions' prey;And, openly preserved [1519] before all eyes,270 Rested in peace.His Three Companions, scarceWith due praise to be sung, did piouslyContemn the king's iniquitous decree,Out of so great a number: to the flamesTheir bodies given were; but they preferred,275 For the Great Name, to yield to penaltiesThemselves, than to an image stretch their palmsOn bended knees. Now their o'erbrilliant faith,Now hope outshining all things, the wild firesHath quencht, and vanquisht the iniquitous!280 Ezra the seer, doctor of Law, and priestHimself (who, after full times, back did leadThe captive People), with the Spirit filledOf memory, restored by word of mouthAll the seers' volumes, by the fires and mould [1520]285 Consumèd.Great above all born from seedIs John whose praises hardly shall we skillTo tell: the washer [1521] of the flesh: the Lord'sOpen forerunner; washer, [1522] too, of Christ,Himself first born again from Him: the first290 Of the new convenant, last of the old,Was he; and for the True Way's sake he died,The first slain victim.See God-Christ! beholdAlike, His Twelve-Fold Warrior-Youth! [1523] in allOne faith, one dove, one power; the flower of men;295 Lightening the world [1524] with light; comrades of ChristAnd apostolic men; who, speaking truth,Heard with their ears Salvation, [1525] with their eyesSaw It, and handled with their hand the lateFrom death recovered body, [1526] and partook300 As fellow-guests of food therewith, as theyThemselves bear witness.Him did Paul as well(Forechosen apostle, and in due time sent),When rapt into the heavens, [1527] behold: and sentBy Him, he, with his comrade Barnabas,305 And with the earlier associatesJoined in one league together, everywhereAmong the Gentiles hands the doctrine downThat Christ is Head, whose members are the Church,He the salvation of the body, He310 The members' life perennial;He, made flesh, He, ta'en away for all, Himself first roseAgain, salvation's only hope; and gaveThe norm to His disciples: they at onceAll variously suffered, for His Name,315 Unworthy penalties.Such members bearsWith beauteous body the free mother, sinceShe never her Lord's precepts left behind,And in His home hath grown old, to her LordEver most choice, having for His Name's sake320 Penalties suffered. For since, barren once,Not yet secure of her futurity,She hath outgiven a people born of seedCelestial, and [1528] been spurned, and borne the spleen [1529]Of her own handmaid; now 'tis time to see325 This former-barren mother have a sonThe heir of her own liberty; not likeThe handmaid's heir, yoked in estate to her,Although she bare him from celestial seedConceived. Far be it that ye should with words330 Unlawful, with rash voice, collectivelyWithout distinction, give men exemplary(Heaven's glowing constellations, to the massOf men conjoined by seed alone or blood),The rugged bondman's [1530] name; or that one think335 That he may speak in servile style aboutA People who the mandates followèdOf the Lord's Law. No: but we mean the troopOf sinners, empty, mindless, who have placedGod's promises in a mistrustful heart;340 Men vanquisht by the miserable sweetOf present life: that troop would have been boundCapital slavery to undergo,By their own fault, if sin's cause shall imposeLaw's yoke upon the mass. For to serve God,345 And be whole-heartedly intent thereon,Untainted faith, and freedom, is theretoPrepared spontaneous.The just fathers, then,And holy stainless prophets, many, sangThe future advent of the Lord; and they350 Faithfully testify what Heaven bidsTo men profane: with them the giants, [1531] menWith Christ's own glory satiated, madeThe consorts of His virtue, filling up The hallowed words, have stablished our faith;355 By facts predictions proving.Of these menDisciples who succeeded them throughoutThe orb, men wholly filled with virtue's breath,And our own masters, have assigned to usHonours conjoined with works.Of whom the first360 Whom Peter bade to take his place and sitUpon this chair in mightiest Rome where heHimself had sat, [1532] was Linus, great, elect,And by the mass approved. And after himCletus himself the fold's flock undertook;365 As his successor Anacletus wasBy lot located: Clement follows him;Well known was he to apostolic men: [1533]Next Evaristus ruled without a crimeThe law. [1534] To Sixtus Sextus Alexander370 Commends the fold: who, after he had filledHis lustral times up, to TelesphorusHands it in order: excellent was he,And martyr faithful. After him succeedsA comrade in the law, [1535] and master sure:375 When lo! the comrade of your wickedness,Its author and forerunner -- Cerdo hight -- Arrived at Rome, smarting with recent wounds:Detected, for that he was scatteringVoices and words of venom stealthily:380 For which cause, driven from the band, he boreThis sacrilegious brood, the dragon's breathEngendering it. Blooming in pietyUnited stood the Church of Rome, compactBy Peter: whose successor, too, himself,385 And now in the ninth place, Hyginus was,The burden undertaking of his chair.After him followed Pius -- Hermas hisOwn brother [1536] was; angelic "Pastor" he,Because he spake the words delivered him: [1537]390 And Anicetus [1538] the allotted postIn pious order undertook. 'Neath whomMarcion here coming, the new Pontic pest,(The secret daring deed in his own heartNot yet disclosed,) went, speaking commonly,395 In all directions, in his perfidy,With lurking art. But after he beganHis deadly arrows to produce, cast offDeservedly (as author of a crimeSo savage), reprobated by the saints,400 He burst, a wondrous monster! on our view. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: BOOK IV.--OF MARCION'S ANTITHESES. ======================================================================== [1539] What the Inviolable Power bids The youthful people, [1540] which, rich, free, and heir, Possesses an eternal hope of praise (By right assigned) is this: that with great zeal 5 Burning, armed with the love of peace -- yet not As teachers (Christ alone doth all things teach [1541] ), But as Christ's household -- servants -- o'er the earth They should conduct a massive war; [1542] should raze The wicked's lofty towers, savage walls, 10 And threats which 'gainst the holy people's bands Rise, and dissolve such empty sounds in air.Wherefore we, justly speaking emulous words, [1543]Out of his [1544] own words even strive to expressThe meaning of salvation's records, [1545] which15 Large grace hath poured profusely; and to opeTo the saints' eyes the Bandit's [1546] covert plague:Lest any untrained, daring, ignorant,Fall therein unawares, and (being caught)Forfeit celestial gifts.God, then, is One20 To mortals all and everywhere; a RealmEternal, Origin of light profound;Life's Fount; a Draught fraught [1547] with all wisdom. HeProduced the orb whose bosom all things girds;Him not a region, not a place, includes as25 In circuit: matter none perennial is, [1548]So as to be self-made, or to have beenEver, created by no Maker: heaven's,Earth's, sea's, and the abyss's [1549] Settler [1550] isThe Spirit; air's Divider, Builder, Author,30 Sole God perpetual, Power immense, is He. [1551]Him had the Law the People [1552] shown to beOne God, [1553] whose mighty voice to Moses spakeUpon the mount. Him this His Virtue, too,His Wisdom, Glory, Word, and Son, this Light35 Begotten from the Light immense, [1554] proclaimsThrough the seers' voices, to be One: and Paul, [1555]Taking the theme in order up, thus tooHimself delivers; "Father there is One [1556]Through whom were all things made: Christ One, through whom40 God all things made;" [1557] to whom he plainly ownsThat every knee doth bow itself; [1558] of whomIs every fatherhood [1559] in heaven and earthCalled: who is zealous with the highest loveOf parent-care His people-ward; and wills45 All flesh to live in holy wise, and willsHis people to appear before Him pureWithout a crime. With such zeal, by a law [1560]Guards He our safety; warns us loyal be;Chastens; is instant. So, too, has the same50 Apostle (when Galatian brethrenChiding) -- Paul -- written that such zeal hath he. [1561]The fathers'sins God freely rendered, then,Slaying in whelming deluge utterly Parents alike with progeny, and e'en55 Grandchildren in "fourth generation" [1562] nowDescended from the parent-stock, when HeHas then for nearly these nine hundred yearsAssisted them. Hard does the judgment seem?The sentence savage? And in Sodom, too,60 That the still guiltless little one unarmedAnd tender should lose life: for what had e'erThe infant sinned? What cruel thou mayst think,Is parent-care's true duty. Lest misdeedShould further grow, crime's authors He did quench,65 And sinful parents' brood. But, with his sires,The harmless infant pays not penaltiesPerpetual, ignorant and not advancedIn crime: but lest he partner should becomeOf adult age's guilt, death immature70 Undid spontaneous future ills.Why, then,Bids God libation to be poured to HimWith blood of sheep? and takes so stringent meansBy Law, that, in the People, none transgressErringly, threatening them with instant death75 By stoning? and why reprobates, again,These gifts of theirs, and says they are to HimUnwelcome, while He chides a People prestWith swarm of sin? [1563] Does He, the truthful, bid,And He, the just, at the same time repel?80 The causes if thou seekst, cease to be movedErringly: for faith's cause is weightierThan fancied reason. [1564] Through a mirror [1565] -- shadeOf fulgent light! -- behold what the calf's blood,The heifer's ashes, and each goat, do mean:85 The one dismissed goes off, the other fallsA victim at the temple.With calf's bloodWith water mixt the seer [1566] (thus from on highBidden) besprinkled People, vessels all,Priests, and the written volumes of the Law.90 See here not their true hope, nor yet a mereSemblance devoid of virtue: [1567] but beholdIn the calf's type Christ destined bodilyTo suffer; who upon His shoulders bareThe plough-beam's hard yokes, [1568] and with fortitude95 Brake His own heart with the steel share, and pouredInto the furrows water of His ownLife's blood. For these "temple-vessels" doDenote our bodies: God's true temple [1569] He,Not dedicated erst; for to Himself100 He by His blood associated men,And willed them be His body's priests, HimselfThe Supreme Father's perfect Priest by right.Hearing, sight, step inert, He cleansed; and, for a "book," [1570]Sprinkled, by speaking [1571] words of presage, those105 His witnesses: demonstrating the LawBound by His holy blood.This cause withalOur victim through "the heifer" manifestsFrom whose blood taking for the People's sakePiacular drops, them the first Levite [1572] bare110 Within the veil; and, by God's bidding, burnedHer corse without the camp's gates; with whose ashHe cleansed lapsed bodies.Thus our Lord (who usBy His own death redeemed), without the camp [1573]Willingly suffering the violence115 Of an iniquitous People, did fulfilThe Law, by facts predictions proving; [1574] whoA people of contamination fullDoth truly cleanse, conceding all things, asThe body's Author rich; within heaven's veil120 Gone with the blood which -- One for many's deaths -- He hath outpoured.A holy victim, then, Is meet for a great priest; which worthilyHe, being perfect, may be proved to have,And offer. He a body hath: this is125 For mortals a live victim; worthy thisOf great price did He offer, One for all.The [1575] semblance of the "goats" teaches that theyAre men exiled out of the "peoples twain" [1576]As barren; [1577] fruitless both; (of whom the Lord130 Spake also, in the Gospel, telling howThe kids are severed from the sheep, and standOn the left hand [1578] ): that some indeed there areWho for the Lord's Name's sake have suffered: thusThat fruit has veiled their former barrenness:135 And such, the prophet teaches, on the groundOf that their final merit worthy areOf the Lord's altar: others, cast away(As was th' iniquitous rich man, we read,By Lazarus [1579] ), are such as have remained140 Exiled, persistent in their stubbornness.Now a veil, hanging in the midst, did bothDissever, [1580] and had into portions twainDivided the one shrine. [1581] The inner partsWere called "Holies of holies." Stationed there145 An altar shone, noble with gold; and there,At the same time, the testaments and arkOf the Law's tablets; covered wholly o'erWith lambs'skins [1582] dyed with heaven's hue; withinGold-clad; [1583] and all between of wood. Here are so150 The tablets of the Law; here is the urnReplete with manna; here is Aaron's rodWhich puts forth germens of the cross [1584] -- unlikeThe cross itself, yet born of storax-tree [1585] -- And over it -- in uniformity155 Fourfold -- the cherubim their pinions spread,And the inviolable sanctities [1586]Covered obediently. [1587] Without the veilPart of the shrine stood open: facing it,Heavy with broad brass, did an altar stand;160 And with two triple sets (on each side one)Of branches woven with the central stem,A lampstand, and as many [1588] lamps:The golden substance wholly filled with lightThe temple. [1589]Thus the temple's outer face,165 Common and open, does the ritualDenote, then, of a people lingeringBeneath the Law; amid whose [1590] gloom there shoneThe Holy Spirit's sevenfold unityEver, the People sheltering. [1591] And thus170 The Lampstand True and living Lamps do shinePersistently throughout the Law and SeersOn men subdued in heart. And for a typeOf earth, [1592] the altar -- so tradition says -- Was made. Here constantly, in open space,175 Before all eyes were visible of oldThe People's "works," [1593] which ever -- "not withoutBlood" [1594] -- it did offer, shedding out the goreOf lawless life. [1595] There, too, the Lord -- HimselfMade victim on behalf of all -- denotes180 The whole earth [1596] -- altar in specific sense.Hence likewise that new covenant author, whomNo language can describe, Disciple John,Testifies that beneath such altar heSaw souls which had for Christ's name suffered,185 Praying the vengeance of the mighty GodUpon their slaughter. [1597] There, [1598] meantime, is rest.In some unknown part there exists a spotOpen, enjoying its own light; 'tis called"Abraham's bosom;" high above the glooms, [1599]190 And far removed from fire, yet 'neath the earth. [1600]The brazen altar this is called, whereon(We have recorded) was a dusky veil. [1601]This veil divides both parts, and leaves the oneOpen, from the eternal one distinct195 In worship and time's usage. To itselfTis not unfriendly, though of fainter love,By time and space divided, and yet linkedBy reason. 'Tis one house, though by a veilParted it seems: and thus (when the veil burst,200 On the Lord's passion) heavenly regions opedAnd holy vaults, [1602] and what was double erstBecame one house perennial.Order dueTraditionally has interpretedThe inner temple of the people called205 After Christ's Name, with worship heavenly,God's actual mandates following; (no "shade"Is herein bound, but persons real; [1603] ) completeBy the arrival of the "perfect things." [1604]The ark beneath a type points out to us210 Christ's venerable body, joined, through "wood," [1605]With sacred Spirit: the aërial [1606] skinsAre flesh not born of seed, outstretcht on "wood;" [1607]At the same time, with golden semblance fused, [1608]Within, the glowing Spirit joined is215 Thereto; that, with peace [1609] granted, flesh might bloomWith Spirit mixt. Of the Lord's flesh, again,The urn, golden and full, a type doth bear.Itself denotes that the new covenant's LordIs manna; in that He, true heavenly Bread,220 Is, and hath by the Father been transfused [1610]Into that bread which He hath to His saintsAssigned for a pledge: this Bread will HeGive perfectly to them who (of good worksThe lovers ever) have the bonds of peace225 Kept. And the double tablets of the lawWritten all over, these, at the same time,Signify that that Law was ever hidIn Christ, who mandate old and new fulfilled,Ark of the Supreme Father as He is,230 Through whom He, being rich, hath all things given.The storax-rod, too, nut's fruit bare itself;(The virgin's semblance this, who bare in bloodA body:) on the "wood" [1611] conjoined 'twill lull Death's bitter, which within sweet fruit doth lurk,235 By virtue of the Holy Spirit's grace:Just as Isaiah did predict "a rod"From Jesse's seed [1612] -- Mary -- from which a flowerIssues into the orb.The altar bright with goldDenotes the heaven on high, whither ascend240 Prayers holy, sent up without crime: the LordThis "altar" spake of, where if one doth giftsOffer, he must first reconciliatePeace with his brother: [1613] thus at length his prayersCan flame unto the stars. Christ, Victor sole245 And foremost. [1614] Priest, thus offered incense bornNot of a tree, but prayers. [1615]The cherubim [1616]Being, with twice two countenances, one,And are the one word through fourfold order led; [1617]The hoped comforts of life's mandate new,250 Which in their plenitude Christ bare HimselfUnto us from the Father. But the wingsIn number four times six, [1618] the heraldingsOf the old world denote, witnessing thingsWhich, we are taught, were after done. On these [1619]255 The heavenly words fly through the orb: with theseChrist's blood is likewise held context, so toldObscurely by the seers' presaging mouth.The number of the wings doth set a sealUpon the ancient volumes; teaching us260 Those twenty-four have certainly enoughWhich sang the Lord's ways and the times of peace:These all, we see, with the new covenantCohere. Thus also John; the Spirit thusTo him reveals that in that number stand265 The enthroned elders white [1620] and crowned, who (asWith girding-rope) all things surround, beforeThe Lord's throne, and upon the glassy seaSubigneous: and four living creatures, wingedAnd full of eyes within and outwardly,270 Do signify that hidden things are oped,And all things shut are at the same time seen,In the word's eye. The glassy flame-mixt seaMeans that the laver's gifts, with Spirit fusedTherein, upon believers are conferred.275 Who could e'en tell what the Lord's parent-careBefore His judgment-seat, before His bar,Prepared hath? that such as willing beHis forum and His judgment for themselvesTo antedate, should 'scape! that who thus hastes280 Might find abundant opportunity!Thus therefore Law and wondrous prophets sang;Thus all parts of the covenant old and new,Those sacred rights and pregnant utterancesOf words, conjoined, do flourish. Thus withal,285 Apostles' voices witness everywhere;Nor aught of old, in fine, but to the newIs joined.Thus err they, and thus facts retortTheir sayings, who to false ways have declined;And from the Lord and God, eternal King,290 Who such an orb produced, detract, and seekSome other deity 'neath feigned name,Bereft of minds, which (frenzied) they have lost;Willing to affirm that Christ a stranger isTo the Law; nor is the world's [1621] Lord; nor doth will295 Salvation of the flesh; nor was HimselfThe body's Maker, by the Father's power. [1622]Them must we flee, stopping (unasked) our ears;Lest with their speech they stain innoxious hearts.Let therefore us, whom so great grace [1623] of God300 Hath penetrated, and the true celestial wordsOf the great Master-Teacher in good waysHave trained, and given us right monuments; [1624]Pay honour ever to the Lord, and singEndlessly, joying in pure faith, and sure305 Salvation. Born of the true God, with breadPerennial are we nourished, and hopeWith our whole heart after eternal life. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: BOOK V.--GENERAL REPLY TO SUNDRY OF MARCION'S HERESIES. ======================================================================== The first Book did the enemy's words recall In order, which the senseless renegade Composed and put forth lawlessly; hence, too, Touched briefly flesh's hope, Christ's victory, 5 And false ways' speciousness. The next doth teach The Law's conjoined mysteries, and what In the new covenant the one God hath Delivered. The third shows the race, create From freeborn mother, to be ministers 10 Sacred to seers and patriarchs; [1626] whom Thou, O Christ, in number twice six out of all, [1627] Chosest; and, with their names, the lustral [1628] timesOf our own elders noted, (times preservedOn record,) showing in whose days appeared15 The author [1629] of this wickedness, unknown,Lawless, and roaming, cast forth [1630] with his brood.The fourth, too, the piacular rites recallsOf the old Law themselves, and shows them typesIn which the Victim True appeared, by saints20 Expected long since, with the holy Seed.This fifth doth many twists and knots untie,Rolls wholly into sight what ills soe'erWere lurking; drawing arguments, but notWithout attesting prophet.And although25 With strong arms fortified we vanquish foes,Yet hath the serpent mingled so at onceAll things polluted, impious, unallowed,Commaculate, -- the blind's path without light!A voice contaminant! -- that, all the while30 We are contending the world's Maker isHimself sole God, who also spake by voiceOf seers, and proving that there is none elseUnknown; and, while pursuing Him with praise,Who is by various endearment [1631] known,35 Are blaming -- among other fallacies -- The Unknown's tardy times: our subject's faultWill scarce keep pure our tongue. Yet, for all that,Guile's many hidden venoms us enforce(Although with double risk [1632] ) to ope our words.40 Who, then, the God whom ye say is the true,Unknown to peoples, alien, in a word,To all the world? [1633] Him whom none knew before?Came he from high? If 'tis his own [1634] he seeks,Why seek so late? If not his own, why rob45 Bandit-like? and why ply with words unknownSo oft throughout Law's rein a People stillLingering 'neath the Law? If, too, he comesTo pity and to succour all combined,And to re-elevate men vanquisht quite50 By death's funereal weight, and to releaseSpirit from flesh's bond obscene, wherebyThe inner man (iniquitously dwarfed)Is held in check; why, then, so late appearHis ever-kindness, duteous vigilance?55 How comes it that he ne'er at all beforeOffered himself to any, but let slipPoor souls in numbers? [1635] and then with his mouthSeeks to regain another's subjects: ne'erExpected; not known; sent into the orb.60 Seeking the "ewe" he had not lost before,The Shepherd ought [1636] to have disrobed himselfOf flesh, as if his victor-self withalHad ever been a spirit, and as such [1637]Willed to rescue all expelled souls,65 Without a body, everywhere, and leaveThe spoiled flesh to earth; wholly to fillThe world [1638] on one day equally with corpsesTo leave the orb void; and to raise the soulsTo heaven. Then would human progeny70 At once have ceased to be born; nor hadThereafter any scion of your [1639] kithBeen born, or spread a new pest [1640] o'er the orb.Or (since at that time [1641] none of all these thingsIs shown to have been done) he should have set75 A bound to future race; with solid heartNuptial embraces would he, in that caseHave sated quite; [1642] made men grow torpid, reftOf fruitful seed; made irksome intercourseWith female sex; and closed up inwardly80 The flesh's organs genital: our mindHad had no will, no potent facultyOur body: after this the "inner man"Could withal, joined with blood, [1643] have been infusedAnd cleaved to flesh, and would have ever been85 Perishing. Ever perishes the "ewe:"And is there then no power of saving her?Since man is ever being born beneathDeath's doom, what is the Shepherd's work, if thusThe "ewe" is stated [1644] to be found? Unsought90 In that case, but not rescued, she is proved.But now choice is allowed of enteringWedlock, as hath been ever; and that choiceSure progeny hath yoked: nations are bornAnd folk scarce numerable, at whose birth95 Their souls by living bodies are received;Nor was it meet that Paul (though, for the time,He did exhort some few, discerning wellThe many pressures of a straitened time)To counsel men in like case to abide100 As he himself: [1645] for elsewhere he has biddenThe tender ages marry, nor defraudEach other, but their compact's dues discharge.But say, whose suasion hath, with fraud astute,Made you "abide," and in divided love105 Of offspring live secure, and commit crimeAdulterous, and lose your life? and, though'Tis perishing, belie (by verbal name)That fact. For which cause all the so sweet soundsOf his voice pours he forth, that "you must do,110 Undaunted, whatsoever pleases you;"Outwardly chaste, stealthily stained with crime!Of honourable wedlock, by this plea, [1646]He hath deprived you. But why more? 'Tis well(Forsooth) to be disjoined! for the world, too,115 Expedient 'tis! lest any of your seedBe born! Then will death's organs [1647] cease at length!The while you hope salvation to retain,Your "total man" quite loses part of man,With mind profane: but neither is man said120 To be sole spirit, nor the flesh is called"The old man;" nor unfriendly are the fleshAnd spirit, the true man combined in one,The inner, and he whom you call "old foe;" [1648]Nor are they seen to have each his own set125 Of senses. One is ruled; the other rules,Groans, joys, grieves, loves; himself [1649] to his own flesh Most dear, too; through which [1650] his humanityIs visible, with which commixt he isHeld ever: to its wounds he care applies;130 And pours forth tears; and nutriments of foodTakes, through its limbs, often and eagerly:This hopes he to have ever with himselfImmortal; o'er its fracture doth he groan;And grieves to quit it limb by limb: fixt time135 Death lords it o'er the unhappy flesh; that soFrom light dust it may be renewed, and deathUnfriendly fail at length, when flesh, released,Rises again. This will that victory beSupreme and long expected, wrought by Him,140 The aye-to-be-revered, who did becomeTrue man; and by His Father's virtue won:Who man's redeemed limbs unto the heavensHath raised, [1651] and richly opened access upThither in hope, first to His nation; then145 To those among all tongues in whom His workIs ever doing: Minister imbuedWith His Sire's parent-care, seen by the eyeOf the Illimitable, He performed,By suffering, His missions. [1652]What say now150 The impious voices? what th' abandoned crew?If He Himself, God the Creator's self,Gave not the Law, [1653] He who from Egypt's vale [1654]Paved in the waves a path, and freely gaveThe seats which He had said of old, why comes155 He in that very People and that landAforesaid? and why rather sought He notSome other [1655] peoples or some rival [1656] realms?Why, further, did He teach that, through the seers,(With Name foretold in full, yet not His own,)160 He had been often sung of? Whence, again,Could He have issued baptism's kindly gifts,Promised by some one else, as His own works?These gifts men who God's mandates had transgressed,And hence were found polluted, longed for,165 And begged a pardoning rescue from fierce death.Expected long, they [1657] came: but that to thoseWho recognised them when erst heard, and nowHave recognised them, when in due time found,Christ's true hand is to give them, this, with voice170 Paternal, the Creator-Sire HimselfWarns ever from eternity, and claims;And thus the work of virtue which He framed,And still frames, arms, and fosters, and doth nowVictorious look down on and reclothe175 With His own light, should with perennial praiseAbide. [1658]What [1659] hath the Living Power doneTo make men recognise what God can giveAnd man can suffer, and thus live? [1660] But sinceNeither predictions earlier nor facts180 The latest can suede senseless frantic [1661] menThat God became a man, and (after HeHad suffered and been buried) rose; that theyMay credit those so many witnessesHarmonious, [1662] who of old did cry aloud185 With heavenly word, let them both [1663] learn to trustAt least terrestrial reason.When the LordChrist came to be, as flesh, born into the orbIn time of king Augustus' reign at Rome,First, by decree, the nations numbered are190 By census everywhere: this measure, then,This same king chanced to pass, because theWillSupreme, in whose high reigning hand doth lieThe king's heart, had impelled him: [1664] he was firstTo do it, and the enrolment was reduced195 To orderly arrangement. Joseph thenLikewise, with his but just delivered wifeMary, [1665] with her celestial Son alike,Themselves withal are numbered. Let, then, suchAs trust to instruments of human skill,200 Who may (approving of applying themAs attestators of the holy word)Inquire into this census, if it beBut found so as we say, then afterwardsRepent they and seek pardon while time still205 Is had [1666]The Jews, who own [1667] to having wroughtA grave crime, while in our disparagementThey glow, and do resist us, neither callChrist's family unknown, nor can [1668] affirmThey hanged a man, who spake truth, on a tree: [1669]210 Ignorant that the Lord's flesh which they bound [1670]Was not seed-gendered. But, while partiallyThey keep a reticence, so partiallyThey triumph; for they strive to representGod to the peoples commonly as man.215 Behold the error which o'ercomes you both! [1671]This error will our cause assist, the while,We prove to you those things which certain are.They do deny Him God; you falsely callHim man, a body bodiless! and ah!220 A various insanity of mindSinks you; which him who hath presumed to hintYou both do, sinking, sprinkle: [1672] for His deedsWill then approve Him man alike and GodCommingled, and the world [1673] will furnish signs225 No few.While then the Son Himself of GodIs seeking to regain the flesh's limbs, [1674]Already robed as King, He doth sustainBlows from rude palms; with spitting covered isHis face; a thorn-inwoven crown His head230 Pierces all round; and to the tree [1675] HimselfIs fixed; wine drugged with myrrh, [1676] is drunk, and gall [1677]Is mixt with vinegar; parted His robe, [1678]And in it [1679] lots are cast; what for himselfEach one hath seized he keeps; in murky gloom,235 As God from fleshly body silentlyOutbreathes His soul, in darkness trembling dayTook refuge with the sun; twice dawned one day;Its centre black night covered: from their baseMounts move in circle, wholly moved was earth, 240 Saints' sepulchres stood ope, and all things joinedIn fear to see His passion whom they knew!His lifeless side a soldier with bare spearPierces, and forth flows blood, nor water lessThence followed. These facts they [1680] agree to hide,245 And are unwilling the misdeed to own,Willing to blink the crime.Can spirit, then,Without a body wear a robe? or is'tSusceptible of penalty? the woundOf violence does it bear? or die? or rise?250 Is blood thence poured? from what flesh. since ye sayHe had none? or else, rather, feigned He? if'Tis safe for you to say so; though you do(Headlong) so say, by passing over moreIn silence. Is not, then, faith manifest?255 And are not all things fixed? The day beforeHe then [1681] should suffer, keeping Passover,And handing down a memorable rite [1682]To His disciples, taking bread alikeAnd the vine's juice, "My body, and My blood260 Which is poured [1683] for you, this is," did He say;And bade it ever afterward be done.Of what created elements were made,Think ye, the bread and wine which were (He said)His body with its blood? and what must be265 Confessed? Proved He not Himself the world's [1684]Maker, through deeds? and that He bore at onceA body formed from flesh and blood?This GodThis true Man, too, the Father's Virtue 'neathAn Image, [1685] with the Father ever was,270 United both in glory and in age; [1686]Because alone He ministers the wordsOf the All-Holder; whom He [1687] upon earthAccepts; [1688] through whom He all things did create:God's Son, God's dearest Minister, is He!275 Hence hath He generation, hence Name too,Hence, finally, a kingdom; Lord from Lord;Stream from perennial Fount! He, He it wasWho to the holy fathers (whosoe'erAmong them doth profess to have "seen God" [1689] ) -- 280 God is our witness -- since the originOf this our world, [1690] appearing, opened upThe Father's words of promise and of chargeFrom heaven high: He led the People out;Smote through th'iniquitous nation; was Himself285 The column both of light and of cloud's shade;And dried the sea; and bids the People goRight through the waves, the foe therein involvedAnd covered with the flood and surge: a wayThrough deserts made He for the followers290 Of His high biddings; sent down bread in showers [1691]From heaven for the People; brake the rock;Bedewed with wave the thirsty; [1692] and from GodThe mandate of the Law to Moses spakeWith thunder, trumpet-sound, and flamey column295 Terrible to the sight, while men's hearts shook.After twice twenty years, with months complete,Jordan was parted; a way oped; the waveStood in a mass; and the tribes shared the land,Their fathers' promised boons! The Father's word,300 Speaking Himself by prophets' mouth, that He [1693]Would come to earth and be a man, He didPredict; Christ manifestly to the earthForetelling.Then, expected for our aid,Life's only Hope, the Cleanser of our flesh, [1694]305 Death's Router, from th' Almighty Sire's empireAt length He came, and with our human limbsHe clothed Him. Adam -- virgin -- dragon -- tree, [1695]The cause of ruin, and the way wherebyRash death us all had vanquisht! by the same310 Our Shepherd treading, seeking to regainHis sheep -- with angel -- virgin -- His own flesh -- And the "tree's" remedy; [1696] whence vanquisht manAnd doomed to perish was aye wont to goTo meet his vanquisht peers; hence, interposed,315 One in all captives' room, He did sustainIn body the unfriendly penaltyWith patience; by His own death spoiling death;Becomes salvation's cause; and, having paidThroughly our debts by throughly suffering320 On earth, in holy body, everything,Seeks the infern! here souls, bound for their crime,Which shut up all together by Law's weight,Without a guard, [1697] were asking for the boonsPromised of old, hoped for, and tardy, He325 To the saints'rest admitted, and, with light,Brought back. For on the third day mounting up, [1698]A victor, with His body by His Sire'sVirtue immense, (salvation's pathway made,)And bearing God and man is form create,330 He clomb the heavens, leading back with HimCaptivity's first-fruits (a welcome giftAnd a dear figure [1699] to the Lord), and tookHis seat beside light's Father, and resumedThe virtue and the glory of which, while335 He was engaged in vanquishing the foeHe had been stripped; [1700] conjoined with Spirit; boundWith flesh, on our part. Him, Lord, Christ, King, God,Judgment and kingdom given to His hand,The father is to send unto the orb. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: ELUCIDATIONS. ======================================================================== I. (Appendix, p.127.) About these versifications, which are "poems" only as mules are horses, it is enough to say of them, with Dupin, "They are no more Tertullian's than they are Virgil's or Homer's. The poem called Genesis seems to be that which Gennadius attributes to Salvian, Bishop of Marseilles. That concerning the Judgment of God was, perhaps, composed by Verecundus, an African bishop. In the books Against Marcion there are some opinions different from those of Tertullian. There is likewise a poem To a Senator in Pamelius' edition, one of Sodom, and in the Bibliotheca Patrum one of Jonas and Nineve; the first of which is ancient, and the other two seem to be by the same author." It is worth while to observe that this rhymester makes two bishops out of one. [1701] Cletus and Anacletus he supposes different persons, which brings Clement into the fourth place in the see of Rome. Our author elsewhere makes St. Clement the immediate successor of the apostles. [1702] II. (Or is there ought, etc., l.136, p.137.) In taking leave of Tertullian, it may be well to say a word of his famous saying, Certum est quia impossibile est. It occurs in the tract De Carne Christi, [1703] and is one of those startling epigrammatic dicta of our author which is no more to be pressed in argument than any other bon-mot of a wit or a poet. It is evidently designed as a rhetorical climax, to enforce the same idea which we find in the hymn of Aquinas: -- "Et si sensus deficit, Adfirmandum cor sincerum Sola fides sufficit." As Jeremy Taylor [1704] argues, the condition is, that holy Scripture affirms it. If that be the case, then "all things are possible with God:" I believe; but I do not argue, for it is impossible with men. This is the plain sense of the great Carthaginian doctor's pithy rhetoric. But Dr. Bunsen sets it on all-fours, and treats it as if it were soberly designed to defy reason, -- that reason to which Tertullian constantly makes his appeal against Marcion, and in many of his sayings [1705] hardly less witty. Speaking of Hippolytus, that writer remarks, [1706] "He might have said on some points, Credibile licet ineptum: he would never have exclaimed with Tertullian, Credibile quia ineptum.'" Why attempt to prove the absurdity of such a reflection? As well attempt to defend St. John's hyperbole [1707] against a mind incapable of comprehending a figure of speech. ======================================================================== Source: https://sermonindex.net/books/fathers-of-the-third-century-tertullian-appendix/ ========================================================================