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ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiii-p2 | Harvey remarks here, that this can hardly be the same
presbyter mentioned before, “who was only a hearer of those who had
heard the apostles. Irenæus may here mean the venerable martyr Polycarp,
bishop of Smyrna.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiii-p9 | 2. For all the apostles taught that there were indeed
two testaments among the two peoples; but that it was one and the same
God who appointed both for the advantage of those men (for whose sakes the testaments were given) who were
to believe in God, I have proved in the third book from the very teaching
of the apostles; and that the first testament was not given without
reason, or to no purpose, or in an accidental sort of manner; but that it
subdued those to whom it was given to the service of God, for their
benefit (for God needs no service from men), and exhibited a type of
heavenly things, inasmuch as man was not yet able to see the things of
God through means of immediate vision; and foreshadowed the images of those things which [now actually]
exist in the Church, in order that our faith might be firmly
established; and contained
a prophecy of things to come, in order that man might learn that God has
foreknowledge of all things. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiii-p11 |
“Concurvans,” corresponding to συγκάμπτων,
which, says Harvey, “would be expressive of those who were brought
under the law, as the neck of the steer is bent to the yoke.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiii-p13 | [If this
and the former chapter seem to us superfluous, we must reflect that such
testimony, from the beginning, has established the unity of Holy
Scripture, and preserved to us—the Bible.] | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p1 | 1. A spiritual disciple of this
sort truly receiving the Spirit of God, who was from the beginning, in
all the dispensations of God, present with mankind, and announced things
future, revealed things present, and narrated things past—[such a
man] does indeed “judge all men, but is himself judged by no
man.” For he judges the Gentiles, “who
serve the creature more than the Creator,” and with a reprobate mind spend all their labour on vanity. And
he also judges the Jews, who do not accept of the word of liberty, nor
are willing to go forth free, although they have a Deliverer present
[with them]; but they pretend, at a time unsuitable [for such conduct],
to serve, [with observances] beyond [those required by] the law, God who
stands in need of nothing, and do not recognise the advent of Christ,
which He accomplished for the salvation of men, nor are willing to
understand that all the prophets announced His two advents: the one,
indeed, in which He became a man subject to stripes, and knowing what it
is to bear infirmity, and sat upon the foal of
an ass, and was a stone rejected by the
builders, and was led as a sheep to the
slaughter, and by the stretching
forth of His hands destroyed Amalek; while He
gathered from the ends of the earth into His Father’s fold the
children who were scattered abroad, and
remembered His own dead ones who had formerly fallen asleep, and came down to them that He might deliver them: but the second
in which He will come on the clouds, bringing
on the day which burns as a furnace, and smiting
the earth with the word of His mouth, and slaying
the impious with the breath of His lips, and having a fan in His hands,
and cleansing His floor, and gathering the wheat indeed into His barn,
but burning the chaff with unquenchable fire. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p2 | 1
Cor. ii. 15. [The argument of this chapter hinges on
Ps. xxv. 14, and expounds a difficult text of St.
Paul. A man who has the mind of God’s Spirit is the only judge of
spiritual things. Worldly men are incompetent critics of Scripture and of
Christian exposition. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p15 | 2. Moreover, he shall also examine the doctrine
of Marcion, [inquiring] how he holds that there are two gods,
separated from each other by an infinite distance. Or how can he be good who draws away men
that do not belong to him from him who made them, and calls them into his
own kingdom? And why is his goodness, which does not save all [thus],
defective? Also, why does he, indeed, seem to be good as respects men,
but most unjust with regard to him who made men, inasmuch as he deprives
him of his possessions? Moreover, how could the Lord, with any justice,
if He belonged to another father, have acknowledged the bread to be His
body, while He took it from that creation to which we belong, and
affirmed the mixed cup to be His blood? And why did He
acknowledge Himself to be the Son of man, if He had not gone through that
birth which belongs to a human being? How, too, could He forgive us those
sins for which we are answerable to our Maker and God? And how, again,
supposing that He was not flesh, but was a man merely in appearance,
could He have been crucified, and could blood and water have issued from
His pierced side? What body, moreover, was
it that those who buried Him consigned to the tomb? And what was that
which rose again from the dead? | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p17 | “Temperamentum calicis:” on which Harvey
remarks that “the mixture of water with the wine in the holy
Eucharist was the universal practice of antiquity … the wine
signifying the mystical Head of the Church, the water the body.”
[Whatever the significance, it harmonizes with the Paschal chalice, and
with 1 John v. 6, and St. John’s gospel
John xix. 34, 35.] | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p19 | 3. [This spiritual man] shall also judge all the
followers of Valentinus, because they do indeed confess with the tongue
one God the Father, and that all things derive their existence from Him,
but do at the same time maintain that He who formed all things is the
fruit of an apostasy or defect. [He shall judge them, too, because] they
do in like manner confess with the tongue one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, but assign in their [system of] doctrine a production of his own
to the Only-begotten, one of his own also to the Word, another to Christ,
and yet another to the Saviour; so that, according to them, all these
beings are indeed said [in Scripture to be], as it were, one; [while they
maintain], notwithstanding, that each one of them should be understood
[to exist] separately [from the rest], and to have [had] his own special
origin, according to his peculiar conjunction. [It appears], then that their tongues alone, forsooth, have
conceded the unity [of God], while their [real] opinion and their
understanding (by their habit of investigating profundities) have fallen
away from [this doctrine of] unity, and taken up the notion of manifold
deities,—[this, I say, must appear] when they shall be examined
by Christ as to the points [of doctrine] which they have invented. Him,
too, they affirm to have been born at a later period than the Pleroma of
the Æons, and that His production took place after [the occurrence of] a
degeneracy or apostasy; and they maintain that, on account of the passion
which was experienced by Sophia, they themselves were brought to the
birth. But their own special prophet Homer, listening to whom they have
invented such doctrines, shall himself reprove them, when he expresses
himself as follows:— | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p23 | 4. He will judge also the Ebionites; [for] how can they
be saved unless it was God who wrought out their salvation upon earth? Or
how shall man pass into God, unless God has [first] passed into man? And
how shall he (man) escape from the generation subject to death, if not by
means of a new generation,
given in a wonderful and unexpected manner (but as a sign of salvation)
by God—[I mean] that regeneration which flows from the virgin
through faith?
Or how shall they receive adoption from God if they remain in this [kind
of] generation, which is naturally possessed by man in this world? And
how could He (Christ) have been greater than Solomon, or greater than Jonah, or have been the Lord
of David, who was of the same
substance as they were? How, too, could He have subdued him who was stronger
than men, who had not only
overcome man, but also retained him under his power, and conquered him
who had conquered, while he set free mankind who had been conquered,
unless He had been greater than man who had thus been vanquished? But who
else is superior to, and more eminent than, that man who was formed after
the likeness of God, except the Son of God, after whose image man was
created? And for this reason He did in these last days exhibit the similitude; [for] the Son of God was
made man, assuming the ancient production [of His hands] into His own
nature, as I have shown in the
immediately preceding book. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p25 | The Latin
here is, “quæ est ex virgine per fidem regenerationem.”
According to Massuet, “virgine” here refers not to Mary, but
to the Church. Grabe suspects that some words have been lost. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p32 |
5. He shall also judge those who describe
Christ as [having become man] only in [human] opinion. For how can they
imagine that they do themselves carry on a real discussion, when their
Master was a mere imaginary being? Or how can they receive anything
stedfast from Him, if He was a merely imagined being, and not a verity?
And how can these men really be partaken of salvation, if He in whom they
profess to believe, manifested Himself as a merely imaginary being?
Everything, therefore, connected with these men is unreal, and nothing
[possessed of the character of] truth; and, in these circumstances, it
may be made a question whether (since, perchance, they themselves in like
manner are not men, but mere dumb animals) they do not present, in most cases, simply a shadow of
humanity. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p34 | 6. He shall also judge false prophets, who, without
having received the gift of prophecy from God, and not possessed of the
fear of God, but either for the sake of vainglory, or with a view to some
personal advantage, or acting in some other way under the influence of a
wicked spirit, pretend to utter prophecies, while all the time they lie
against God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p35 | 7. He shall also judge those who give rise to schisms,
who are destitute of the love of God, and who look to their own special
advantage rather than to the unity of the Church; and who for trifling
reasons, or any kind of reason which occurs to them, cut in pieces and
divide the great and glorious body of Christ, and so far as in them lies,
[positively] destroy it,—men who prate of peace while they give
rise to war, and do in truth strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel. For no reformation of so great importance can
be effected by them, as will compensate for the mischief arising from
their schism. He shall also judge all those who are beyond the pale of
the truth, that is, who are outside the Church; but he himself shall be
judged by no one. For to him all things are consistent: he has a full
faith in one God Almighty, of whom are all things; and in the Son of God,
Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom are all things, and in the dispensations
connected with Him, by means of which the Son of God became man; and a
firm belief in the Spirit of God, who furnishes us with a knowledge of
the truth, and has set forth the dispensations of the Father and the Son,
in virtue of which He dwells with every generation of men, according to the will of the Father. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p37 | The Greek text here is
σκηνοβατοῦν (lit.
“to tabernacle:” comp. ἐσκήνωσεν,
John i. 14) καθ’ ἐκάστην
γενεὰν ἐν τοῖς ἀνθρώποις: the
Latin is, “Secundum quas (dispositiones) aderat generi
humano.” We have endeavoured to express the meaning of both. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p38 | 8. True knowledge is [that which consists in] the
doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout
all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the
successions of the bishops, by which they have handed down that Church
which exists in every place, and has come even unto us, being guarded and
preserved
without any forging of Scriptures, by a very complete system of
doctrine, and neither receiving addition nor [suffering] curtailment [in
the truths which she believes]; and [it consists in] reading [the word of
God] without falsification, and a lawful and diligent exposition in
harmony with the Scriptures, both without danger and without blasphemy;
and [above all, it consists in] the pre-eminent gift of love, which is more
precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels
all the other gifts [of God]. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p39 | The following section is an important one, but very
difficult to translate with undoubted accuracy. The editors differ
considerably both as to the construction and the interpretation. We have
done our best to represent the meaning in English, but may not have been
altogether successful. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p43 | We follow Harvey’s
text, “tractatione;” others read “tractatio.”
According to Harvey, the creed of the Church is denoted by
“tractatione;” but Massuet renders the clause thus:
[“True knowledge consists in] a very complete tractatio of
the Scriptures, which has come down to us by being preserved
(‘custoditione’ being read instead of
‘custodita’) without falsification.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p45 | 9. Wherefore the Church does in every place, because of
that love which she cherishes towards God, send forward, throughout all
time, a multitude of martyrs to the Father; while all others not only have nothing of this kind to point to among themselves,
but even maintain that such witness-bearing is not at all necessary, for
that their system of doctrines is the true witness [for Christ], with the
exception, perhaps, that one or two among them, during the whole time
which has elapsed since the Lord appeared on earth, have occasionally,
along with our martyrs, borne the reproach of the name (as if he too [the
heretic] had obtained mercy), and have been led forth with them [to
death], being, as it were, a sort of retinue granted unto them. For the
Church alone sustains with purity the reproach of those who suffer
persecution for righteousness’ sake, and endure all sorts of
punishments, and are put to death because of the love which they bear to
God, and their confession of His Son; often weakened indeed, yet
immediately increasing her members, and becoming whole again, after the
same manner as her type, Lot’s wife, who became a pillar
of salt. Thus, too, [she passes through an experience] similar to that of
the ancient prophets, as the Lord declares, “For so persecuted they
the prophets who were before you;” inasmuch as she does indeed, in a new fashion, suffer persecution
from those who do not receive the word of God, while the self-same spirit
rests upon her [as upon these ancient
prophets]. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p50 | 10. And indeed the
prophets, along with other things which they predicted, also foretold
this, that all those on whom the Spirit of God should rest, and who would
obey the word of the Father, and serve Him according to their ability,
should suffer persecution, and be stoned and slain. For the prophets
prefigured in themselves all these things, because of their love to God,
and on account of His word. For since they
themselves were members of Christ, each one of them in his place as a
member did, in accordance with this, set forth the prophecy [assigned
him]; all of them, although many, prefiguring only one, and proclaiming
the things which pertain to one. For just as the working of the whole
body is exhibited through means of our members, while the figure of a
complete man is not displayed by one member, but through means of all
taken together, so also did all the prophets prefigure the one [Christ];
while every one of them, in his special place as a member, did, in
accordance with this, fill up the [established] dispensation, and
shadowed forth beforehand that particular working of Christ which was
connected with that member. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p51 | 11. For some of them, beholding Him in glory, saw His
glorious life (conversationem) at the Father’s right
hand; others beheld
Him coming on the clouds as the Son of man; and those who declared regarding Him, “They shall look on
Him whom they have pierced,”
indicated His [second] advent, concerning which He Himself says,
“Thinkest thou that when the Son of man cometh, He shall find faith
on the earth?” Paul also refers to
this event when he says, “If, however, it is a righteous thing with
God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you that
are troubled rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from
heaven, with His mighty angels, and in a flame of fire.” Others again, speaking of Him as a
judge, and [referring], as if it were a burning furnace, [to] the day of
the Lord, who “gathers the wheat into His barn, but will burn up
the chaff with unquenchable fire,” were
accustomed to threaten those who were unbelieving, concerning whom also
the Lord Himself declares, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, which my Father has prepared for the devil and his
angels.” And the apostle in like
manner says [of them], “Who shall be punished with everlasting
death from the face of the Lord, and from the glory of His power, when He
shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in those who
believe in Him.” There are also some
[of them] who declare, “Thou art fairer than the children of
men;” and, “God, Thy God,
hath anointed Thee with the oil of gladness above Thy
fellows;” and, “Gird Thy sword
upon Thy thigh, O Most Mighty, with Thy beauty and Thy fairness, and go
forward and proceed prosperously; and rule Thou because of truth, and
meekness, and righteousness.” And
whatever other things of a like nature are spoken regarding Him, these
indicated that beauty and splendour which exist in His kingdom, along
with the transcendent and pre-eminent exaltation [belonging] to all who
are under His sway, that those who hear might desire to be found there,
doing such things as are pleasing to God. Again, there are those who say,
“He is a man, and who shall know him?” and,
“I came unto the prophetess, and she bare a son, and His name is
called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God;” and those [of them] who proclaimed Him
as Immanuel, [born] of the Virgin, exhibited the union of the Word of God
with His own workmanship, [declaring] that the Word should become flesh,
and the Son of God the Son of man (the pure One opening purely that pure
womb which regenerates men unto God, and which He Himself made pure); and
having become this which we also are, He [nevertheless] is the Mighty
God, and possesses a generation which cannot be declared. And there are
also some of them who say, “The Lord hath spoken in Zion, and
uttered His voice from Jerusalem;” and,
“In Judah is God known;”—
these indicated His advent which took place in Judea. Those, again, who
declare that “God comes from the south, and from a mountain thick
with foliage,” announced His advent at
Bethlehem, as I have pointed out in the preceding book. From that
place, also, He who rules, and who feeds the people of His Father, has
come. Those, again, who declare that at His coming “the lame man
shall leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall
[speak] plainly, and the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and
the ears of the deaf shall hear,” and
that “the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, shall be
strengthened,” and that “the dead
which are in the grave shall arise,” and that He Himself “shall take [upon Him] our weaknesses,
and bear our sorrows,”—
[all these] proclaimed those works of healing which were accomplished by
Him. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p63 | Jer. xvii. 9 (LXX.).
Harvey here remarks: “The LXX. read אֱנֹושׁ instead
of אָנֹושׁ. Thus, from a text
that teaches us that the heart is deceitful above all things, the
Fathers extract a proof of the manhood of Christ.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p73 | 12. Some of them, moreover—[when they predicted
that] as a weak and inglorious man, and as one who knew what it was to
bear infirmity, and sitting upon the foal
of an ass, He should come to
Jerusalem; and that He should give His back to stripes, and His cheeks to palms [which struck Him]; and that He should be
led as a sheep to the slaughter; and that
He should have vinegar and gall given Him to drink; and that He should be forsaken by His friends and those nearest
to Him; and that He should stretch forth His
hands the whole day long; and that
He should be mocked and maligned by those who looked upon Him; and that His garments should be parted, and
lots cast upon His raiment; and that
He should be brought down to the dust of death with all [the other] things of a like nature—prophesied
His coming in the character of a man as He entered Jerusalem, in which by
His passion and crucifixion He endured all the things which have been
mentioned. Others, again, when they said, “The holy Lord remembered
His own dead ones who slept in the dust, and came down to them to raise
them up, that He might save them,” furnished us with the reason on account of which He suffered all
these things. Those, moreover, who said, “In that day, saith the
Lord, the sun shall go down at noon, and there shall be darkness over the
earth in the clear day; and I will turn your feast days into mourning,
and all your songs into lamentation,” plainly announced that obscuration of the sun
which at the time of His crucifixion took place from the sixth hour
onwards, and that after this event, those days which were their festivals
according to the law, and their songs, should be changed into grief and
lamentation when they were handed over to the Gentiles. Jeremiah, too,
makes this point still clearer, when he thus speaks concerning Jerusalem:
“She that hath born [seven] languisheth; her soul hath become
weary; her sun hath gone down while it was yet noon; she hath been
confounded, and suffered reproach: the remainder of them will I give to
the sword in the sight of their enemies.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p87 | 13. Those of them, again, who spoke of His having
slumbered and taken sleep, and of His having risen again because the Lord
sustained Him, and who enjoined the
principalities of heaven to set open the everlasting doors, that the King
of glory might go in, proclaimed beforehand His
resurrection from the dead through the Father’s power, and His
reception into heaven. And when they expressed themselves thus,
“His going forth is from the height of heaven, and His returning
even to the highest heaven; and there is no one who can hide himself from
His heat,” they announced that very
truth of His being taken up again to the place from which He came down,
and that there is no one who can escape His righteous judgment. And those
who said, “The Lord hath reigned; let the people be enraged: [even]
He who sitteth upon the cherubim; let the earth be moved,” were thus predicting partly that wrath from all
nations which after His ascension came upon those who believed in Him,
with the movement of the whole earth against the Church; and partly the
fact that, when He comes from heaven with His mighty angels, the whole
earth shall be shaken, as He Himself declares, “There shall be a
great earthquake, such as has not been from the beginning.” And again, when one says, “Whosoever is
judged, let him stand opposite; and whosoever is justified, let him draw
near to the servant of God;” and, “Woe unto you, for ye shall wax
old as doth a garment, and the moth shall eat you up;” and,
“All flesh shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in
the highest,”—it is thus
indicated that, after His passion and ascension, God shall cast down
under His feet all who were opposed to Him, and He shall be exalted above
all, and there shall be no one who can be justified or compared to
Him. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p96 | 14. And those of them who declare that God would make a
new covenant with men, not such as
that which He made with the fathers at Mount Horeb, and would give to men
a new heart and a new spirit; and
again, “And remember ye not the things of old: behold, I
make new things which shall now arise, and ye shall know it; and
I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in a dry land, to give drink
to my chosen people, my people whom I have acquired, that they may show
forth my praise,”—plainly
announced that liberty which distinguishes the new covenant, and the new
wine which is put into new bottles, [that
is], the faith which is in Christ, by which He has proclaimed the way of
righteousness sprung up in the desert, and the streams of the Holy Spirit
in a dry land, to give water to the elect people of God, whom He has
acquired, that they might show forth His praise, but not that they might
blaspheme Him who made these things, that is, God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxiv-p101 | 15. And all those other points which I have shown the
prophets to have uttered by means of so long a series of Scriptures, he
who is truly spiritual will interpret by pointing out, in regard to every
one of the things which have been spoken, to what special point in the
dispensation of the Lord is referred, and [by thus exhibiting] the entire
system of the work of the Son of God, knowing always the same God, and
always acknowledging the same Word of God, although He has [but] now been
manifested to us; acknowledging also at all times the same Spirit of God,
although He has been poured out upon us after a new fashion in these last
times, [knowing that He descends] even from the creation of the world to
its end upon the human race simply as such, from whom those who believe
God and follow His word receive that salvation which flows from Him.
Those, on the other hand, who depart from Him, and despise His precepts,
and by their deeds bring dishonour on Him who made them, and by their
opinions blaspheme Him who nourishes them, heap up against themselves
most righteous judgment. He therefore (i.e., the
spiritual man) sifts and tries them all, but he himself is tried by no
man: he neither blasphemes his Father, nor sets
aside His dispensations, nor inveighs against the fathers, nor dishonours
the prophets, by maintaining that they were [sent] from another God [than
he worships], or again, that their prophecies were derived from different
sources. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxv-p1 | 1. Now I shall
simply say, in opposition to all the heretics, and principally against
the followers of Marcion, and against those who are like to these, in
maintaining that the prophets were from another God [than He who is
announced in the Gospel], read with earnest care that Gospel which has
been conveyed to us by the apostles, and read with earnest care the
prophets, and you will find that the whole conduct, and all the doctrine,
and all the sufferings of our Lord, were predicted through them. But if a
thought of this kind should then suggest itself to you, to say, What then
did the Lord bring to us by His advent?—know ye that He brought
all [possible] novelty, by bringing Himself who had been announced. For
this very thing was proclaimed beforehand, that a novelty should come to
renew and quicken mankind. For the advent of the King is previously
announced by those servants who are sent [before Him], in order to the
preparation and equipment of those men who are to entertain their Lord.
But when the King has actually come, and those who are His subjects have
been filled with that joy which was proclaimed beforehand, and have
attained to that liberty which He bestows, and share in the sight of Him,
and have listened to His words, and have enjoyed the gifts which He
confers, the question will not then be asked by any that are possessed of
sense what new thing the King has brought beyond [that proclaimed by]
those who announced His coming. For He has brought Himself, and has
bestowed on men those good things which were announced beforehand, which
things the angels desired to look into. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxv-p3 | 2. But the servants would then have been proved false,
and not sent by the Lord, if Christ on His advent, by being found exactly
such as He was previously announced, had not fulfilled their words.
Wherefore He said, “Think not that I have come to destroy the law
or the prophets; I came not to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say
unto you, Until heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall
not pass from the law and the prophets till all come to pass.” For by His advent He Himself fulfilled all
things, and does still fulfil in the Church the new covenant foretold by
the law, onwards to the consummation [of all things]. To this effect also
Paul, His apostle, says in the Epistle to the Romans, “But
now, without the law, has the righteousness of
God been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; for the
just shall live by faith.” But this
fact, that the just shall live by faith, had been previously
announced by the prophets. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxv-p8 | 3. But whence could the prophets have had
power to predict the advent of the King, and to preach beforehand that
liberty which was bestowed
by Him, and previously to
announce all things which were done by Christ, His words, His works, and
His sufferings, and to predict the new covenant, if they had received
prophetical inspiration from another God [than He who is revealed in the
Gospel], they being ignorant, as ye allege, of the ineffable Father, of
His kingdom, and His dispensations, which the Son of God fulfilled when
He came upon earth in these last times? Neither are ye in a position to
say that these things came to pass by a certain kind of chance, as if
they were spoken by the prophets in regard to some other person, while
like events happened to the Lord. For all the prophets prophesied these
same things, but they never came to pass in the case of any one of the
ancients. For if these things had happened to any man among them of old
time, those [prophets] who lived subsequently would certainly not have
prophesied that these events should come to pass in the last times.
Moreover, there is in fact none among the fathers, nor the prophets, nor
the ancient kings, in whose case any one of these things properly and
specifically took place. For all indeed prophesied as to the sufferings
of Christ, but they themselves were far from enduring sufferings similar
to what was predicted. And the points connected with the passion of the
Lord, which were foretold, were realized in no other case. For neither
did it happen at the death of any man among the ancients that the sun set
at mid-day, nor was the veil of the temple rent, nor did the earth quake,
nor were the rocks rent, nor did the dead rise up, nor was any one of
these men [of old] raised up on the third day, nor received into heaven,
nor at his assumption were the heavens opened, nor did the nations
believe in the name of any other; nor did any from among them, having
been dead and rising again, lay open the new covenant of liberty.
Therefore the prophets spake not of any one else but of the Lord, in whom
all these aforesaid tokens concurred. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxv-p9 | 4. If any one, however, advocating the cause of the
Jews, do maintain that this new covenant consisted in the rearing of that
temple which was built under Zerubbabel after the emigration to Babylon,
and in the departure of the people from thence after the lapse of seventy
years, let him know that the temple constructed of stones was indeed then
rebuilt (for as yet that law was observed which had been made upon tables
of stone), yet no new covenant was given, but they used the Mosaic law
until the coming of the Lord; but from the Lord’s advent, the new
covenant which brings back peace, and the law which gives life, has gone
forth over the whole earth, as the prophets said: “For out of Zion
shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and He
shall rebuke many people; and they shall break down their swords into
ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks, and they shall no
longer learn to fight.” If therefore another law and word, going
forth from Jerusalem, brought in such a [reign of] peace among the
Gentiles which received it (the word), and convinced, through them, many
a nation of its folly, then [only] it appears that the prophets spake of
some other person. But if the law of liberty, that is, the word of God,
preached by the apostles (who went forth from Jerusalem) throughout all
the earth, caused such a change in the state of things, that these
[nations] did form the swords and war-lances into ploughshares, and
changed them into pruning-hooks for reaping the corn, [that is], into
instruments used for peaceful purposes, and that they are now
unaccustomed to fighting, but when smitten, offer also the other
cheek, then the prophets have not spoken these
things of any other person, but of Him who effected them. This person is
our Lord, and in Him is that declaration borne out; since it is He
Himself who has made the plough, and introduced the pruning-hook, that
is, the first semination of man, which was the creation exhibited in
Adam, and the gathering in of the produce in the last
times by the Word; and, for this reason, since He joined the beginning to
the end, and is the Lord of both, He has finally displayed the plough, in
that the wood has been joined on to the iron, and has thus cleansed His
land; because the Word, having been firmly united to flesh, and in its
mechanism fixed with pins, has reclaimed the savage earth. In the beginning, He figured
forth the pruning-hook by means of Abel, pointing out that there should
be a gathering in of a righteous race of men. He says, “For behold
how the just man perishes, and no man considers it; and righteous men are
taken away, and no man layeth it to heart.” These things were acted beforehand in Abel, were also previously
declared by the prophets, but were accomplished in the Lord’s
person; and the same [is still true] with regard to us, the body
following the example of the Head. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxv-p13 | This is following Harvey’s conjectural emendation
of the text, viz., “taleis” for “talis.” He
considers the pins here as symbolical of the nails by which
our Lord was fastened to the cross. The whole passage is almost
hopelessly obscure, though the general meaning may be guessed. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxv-p15 | 5. Such are the arguments proper [to be used] in opposition
to those who maintain that the prophets [were inspired] by a different
God, and that our Lord [came] from another Father, if perchance [these
heretics] may at length desist
from such extreme folly. This
is my earnest object in adducing these Scriptural proofs, that confuting
them, as far as in me lies, by these very passages, I may restrain them
from such great blasphemy, and from insanely fabricating a multitude of
gods. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvi-p1 | 1. Then
again, in opposition to the Valentinians, and the other Gnostics, falsely
so called, who maintain that some parts of Scripture were spoken at one
time from the Pleroma (a summitate) through means of the seed
[derived] from that place, but at another time from the intermediate
abode through means of the audacious mother Prunica, but that many are
due to the Creator of the world, from whom also the prophets had their
mission, we say that it is altogether irrational to bring down the Father
of the universe to such straits, as that He should not be possessed of
His own proper instruments, by which the things in the Pleroma might be
perfectly proclaimed. For of whom was He afraid, so that He should not
reveal His will after His own way and independently, freely, and without
being involved with that spirit which came into being in a state of
degeneracy and ignorance? Was it that He feared that very many would be
saved, when more should have listened to the unadulterated truth? Or, on
the other hand, was He incapable of preparing for Himself those who
should announce the Saviour’s advent? | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvi-p2 | 2. But if, when the Saviour came to this earth, He sent
His apostles into the world to proclaim with accuracy His advent, and to
teach the Father’s will, having nothing in common with the doctrine
of the Gentiles or of the Jews, much more, while yet existing in the
Pleroma, would He have appointed His own heralds to proclaim His future
advent into this world, and having nothing in common with those
prophecies originating from the Demiurge. But if, when within the
Pleroma, He availed Himself of those prophets who were under the law, and
declared His own matters through their instrumentality; much more would
He, upon His arrival hither, have made use of these same teachers, and
have preached the Gospel to us by their means. Therefore let them not any
longer assert that Peter and Paul and the other apostles proclaimed the
truth, but that it was the scribes and Pharisees, and the others, through
whom the law was propounded. But if, at His advent, He sent forth His own
apostles in the spirit of truth, and not in that of error, He did the
very same also in the case of the prophets; for the Word of God was
always the self-same: and if the Spirit from the Pleroma was, according
to these men’s system, the Spirit of light, the Spirit of truth,
the Spirit of perfection, and the Spirit of knowledge, while that from
the Demiurge was the spirit of ignorance, degeneracy, and error, and the
offspring of obscurity; how can it be, that in one and the same being
there exists perfection and defect, knowledge and ignorance, error and
truth, light and darkness? But if it was impossible that such should
happen in the case of the prophets, for they preached the word of the
Lord from one God, and proclaimed the advent of His Son, much more would
the Lord Himself never have uttered words, on one occasion from above,
but on another from degeneracy below, thus becoming the teacher at once
of knowledge and of ignorance; nor would He have ever glorified as Father
at one time the Founder of the world, and at another Him who is above
this one, as He does Himself declare: “No man putteth a piece of a
new garment upon an old one, nor do they put new wine into old
bottles.” Let these men,
therefore, either have nothing whatever to do with the prophets, as with
those that are ancients, and allege no longer that these men, being sent
beforehand by the Demiurge, spake certain things under that new influence
which pertains to the Pleroma; or, on the other hand, let them be
convinced by our Lord, when He declares that new wine cannot be put into
old bottles. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvi-p4 | 3. But from what source could the offspring of their
mother derive his knowledge of the mysteries within the Pleroma, and
power to discourse regarding them? Suppose that the mother, while beyond
the Pleroma, did bring forth this very offspring; but what is beyond the
Pleroma they represent as being beyond the pale of knowledge, that is,
ignorance. How, then, could that seed, which was conceived in ignorance,
possess the power of declaring knowledge? Or how did the mother herself,
a shapeless and undefined being, one cast out of doors as an abortion,
obtain knowledge of the mysteries within the Pleroma, she who was
organized outside it and given a form there, and prohibited by Horos from
entering within, and who remains outside the Pleroma till the
consummation [of all things], that is, beyond the pale of knowledge?
Then, again, when they say that the Lord’s passion is a type of the
extension of the Christ above, which he effected through Horos, and so
imparted a form to their mother, they are refuted in the other
particulars [of the Lord’s passion], for they have no semblance of
a type to show with regard
to them. For when did the Christ
above have vinegar and gall given him to drink? Or when was his raiment
parted? Or when was he pierced, and blood and water came forth? Or when
did he sweat great drops of blood? And [the same may be demanded] as to
the other particulars which happened to the Lord, of which the prophets
have spoken. From whence, then, did the mother or her offspring divine
the things which had not yet taken place, but which should occur
afterwards? | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvi-p5 | 4. They affirm that certain things still, besides
these, were spoken from the Pleroma, but are confuted by those which are
referred to in the Scriptures as bearing on the advent of Christ. But
what these are [that are spoken from the Pleroma] they are not agreed,
but give different answers regarding them. For if any one, wishing to
test them, do question one by one with regard to any passage those who
are their leading men, he shall find one of them referring the passage in
question to the Propator—that is, to Bythus; another attributing
it to Arche—that is, to the Only-begotten; another to the Father
of all—that is, to the Word; while another, again, will say that
it was spoken of that one Æon who was [formed from the joint
contributions] of the Æons in the Pleroma;
others [will regard the passage] as referring to Christ, while another
[will refer it] to the Saviour. One, again, more skilled than these, after a long protracted
silence, declares that it was spoken of Horos; another that it signifies
the Sophia which is within the Pleroma; another that it announces the
mother outside the Pleroma; while another will mention the God who made
the world (the Demiurge). Such are the variations existing among them
with regard to one [passage], holding discordant opinions as to the same
Scriptures; and when the same identical passage is read out, they all
begin to purse up their eyebrows, and to shake their heads, and they say
that they might indeed utter a discourse transcendently lofty, but that
all cannot comprehend the greatness of that thought which is implied in
it; and that, therefore, among the wise the chief thing is silence. For
that Sige (silence) which is above must be typified by that
silence which they preserve. Thus do they, as many as they are, all
depart [from each other], holding so many opinions as to one thing, and
bearing about their clever notions in secret within themselves. When,
therefore, they shall have agreed among themselves as to the things
predicted in the Scriptures, then also shall they be confuted by us. For,
though holding wrong opinions, they do in the meanwhile, however, convict
themselves, since they are not of one mind with regard to the same words.
But as we follow for our teacher the one and only true God, and possess
His words as the rule of truth, we do all speak alike with regard to the
same things, knowing but one God, the Creator of this universe, who sent
the prophets, who led forth the people from the land of Egypt, who in
these last times manifested His own Son, that He might put the
unbelievers to confusion, and search out the fruit of righteousness. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p1 | 1. Which [God] the Lord
does not reject, nor does He say that the prophets [spake] from another
god than His Father; nor from any other essence, but from one and the
same Father; nor that any other being made the things in the world,
except His own Father, when He speaks as follows in His teaching:
“There was a certain householder, and he planted a vineyard, and
hedged it round about, and digged in it a winepress, and built a tower,
and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the
time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants unto the husbandmen,
that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his
servants: they cut one to pieces, stoned another, and killed another.
Again he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them
likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his only son, saying,
Perchance they will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the
son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him,
and we shall possess his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him
out of the vineyard, and slew him. When, therefore, the lord of the
vineyard shall come, what will he do unto these husbandmen? They say unto
him, He will miserably destroy these wicked men, and will let out his
vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their
season.” Again does the
Lord say: “Have ye never read, The stone which the builders
rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the
Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore I say
unto you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” By these words He clearly points out
to His disciples one and the same Householder—that is, one God
the Father, who made all things by Himself; while [He shows] that there
are various husbandmen, some obstinate, and proud, and worthless, and
slayers of the Lord, but others who render Him, with all obedience, the
fruits
in their seasons; and that it is the same Householder
who sends at one time His servants, at another His Son. From that Father,
therefore, from whom the Son was sent to those husbandmen who slew Him,
from Him also were the servants [sent]. But the Son, as coming from the
Father with supreme authority (principali auctoritate), used to
express Himself thus: “But I say unto you.” The servants, again, [who came] as from their Lord, spake after
the manner of servants, [delivering a message]; and they therefore used
to say, “Thus saith the Lord.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p5 | 2. Whom these men did therefore preach to the
unbelievers as Lord, Him did Christ teach to those who obey Him; and the
God who had called those of the former dispensation, is the same as He
who has received those of the latter. In other words, He who at first
used that law which entails bondage, is also He who did in after times
[call His people] by means of adoption. For God planted the vineyard of
the human race when at the first He formed Adam and chose the fathers;
then He let it out to husbandmen when He established the Mosaic
dispensation: He hedged it round about, that is, He gave particular
instructions with regard to their worship: He built a tower, [that is],
He chose Jerusalem: He digged a winepress, that is, He prepared a
receptacle of the prophetic Spirit. And thus did He send prophets prior
to the transmigration to Babylon, and after that event others again in
greater number than the former, to seek the fruits, saying thus to them
(the Jews): “Thus saith the Lord, Cleanse your ways and your
doings, execute just judgment, and look each one with pity and compassion
on his brother: oppress not the widow nor the orphan, the proselyte nor
the poor, and let none of you treasure up evil against his brother in
your hearts, and love not false swearing. Wash you, make you clean, put
away evil from your hearts, learn to do well, seek judgment, protect the
oppressed, judge the fatherless (pupillo), plead for the widow;
and come, let us reason together, saith the Lord.” And
again: “Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no
guile; depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue
it.” In preaching these things, the
prophets sought the fruits of righteousness. But last of all He sent to
those unbelievers His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, whom the wicked
husbandmen cast out of the vineyard when they had slain Him. Wherefore
the Lord God did even give it up (no longer hedged around, but thrown
open throughout all the world) to other husbandmen, who render the fruits
in their seasons,—the beautiful elect tower being also raised
everywhere. For the illustrious Church is [now] everywhere, and
everywhere is the winepress digged: because those who do receive the
Spirit are everywhere. For inasmuch as the former have rejected the Son
of God, and cast Him out of the vineyard when they slew Him, God has
justly rejected them, and given to the Gentiles outside the vineyard the
fruits of its cultivation. This is in accordance with what Jeremiah says,
“The Lord hath rejected and cast off the nation which does these
things; for the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the
Lord.” And again in like
manner does Jeremiah speak: “I set watchmen over you; hearken to
the sound of the trumpet; and they said, We will not hearken. Therefore
have the Gentiles heard, and they who feed the flocks in
them.” It is therefore one and
the same Father who planted the vineyard, who led forth the people, who
sent the prophets, who sent His own Son, and who gave the vineyard to
those other husbandmen that render the fruits in their season. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p10 | 3. And therefore did the Lord say to His disciples, to
make us become good workmen: “Take heed to yourselves, and watch
continually upon every occasion, lest at any time your hearts be
overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and
that day shall come upon you unawares; for as a snare shall it come upon
all dwelling upon the face of the earth.” “Let your loins, therefore, be girded
about, and your lights burning, and ye like to men who wait for their
lord, when he shall return from the wedding.” “For as it was in the days of Noe, they
did eat and drink, they bought and sold, they married and were given in
marriage, and they knew not, until Noe entered into the ark, and the
flood came and destroyed them all; as also it was in the days of Lot,
they did eat and drink, they bought and sold, they planted and builded,
until the time that Lot went out of Sodom; it rained fire from heaven,
and destroyed them all: so shall it also be at the coming of the Son of
man.” “Watch ye
therefore, for ye know not in what day your Lord shall come.” [In these passages] He declares one and the
same Lord, who in the times of Noah brought the deluge because of
man’s disobedience, and who also in the days of Lot rained fire
from heaven because of the multitude of sinners among the Sodomites, and
who, on account of this same disobedience and similar sins, will bring on
the day of judgment at the end of
time (in
novissimo); on which day He declares that it shall be more tolerable
for Sodom and Gomorrah than for that city and house which shall not
receive the word of His apostles. “And thou, Capernaum,” He
said, “is it that thou shalt be exalted to heaven? Thou
shalt go down to hell. For if the mighty works which have been done in
thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day. Verily
I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of
judgment than for you.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p15 | No other of the Greek Fathers quotes this
text as above; from which fact Grabe infers that old Latin translator, or
his transcribers, altered the words of Irenæus [N.B.—From one
example infer the rest] to suit the Latin versions. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p17 | 4. Since the Son of God is always one and the same, He
gives to those who believe on Him a well of water [springing up] to eternal life, but He causes the unfruitful
fig-tree immediately to dry up; and in the days of Noah He justly brought
on the deluge for the purpose of extinguishing that most infamous race of
men then existent, who could not bring forth fruit to God, since the
angels that sinned had commingled with them, and [acted as He did] in
order that He might put a check upon the sins of these men, but [that at
the same time] He might preserve the archetype,
the formation of Adam. And it was He who rained fire and brimstone from
heaven, in the days of Lot, upon Sodom and Gomorrah, “an example of
the righteous judgment of God,” that all
may know, “that every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall
be cut down, and cast into the fire.” And it is He who uses [the words], that it will be more tolerable
for Sodom in the general judgment than for those who beheld His wonders,
and did not believe on Him, nor receive His doctrine. For as He gave by His advent
a greater privilege to those who believed on Him, and who do His will, so
also did He point out that those who did not believe on Him should have a
more severe punishment in the judgment; thus extending equal justice to
all, and being to exact more from those to whom He gives the more; the
more, however, not because He reveals the knowledge of another Father, as
I have shown so fully and so repeatedly, but because He has, by means of
His advent, poured upon the human race the greater gift of paternal
grace. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p19 | This is Massuet’s conjectural
emendation of the text, viz., archetypum for arcætypum.
Grabe would insert per before arcæ, and he thinks the
passage to have a reference to 1 Pet. iii. 20.
Irenæus, in common with the other ancient Fathers, believed that the
fallen angels were the “sons of God” who commingled with
“the daughters of men,” and thus produced a race of spurious
men. [Gen. vi. 1, 2, 3, and Josephus.] | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p23 | 5. If, however, what I have stated be insufficient to
convince any one that the prophets were sent from one and the same
Father, from whom also our Lord was sent, let such a one, opening the
mouth of his heart, and calling upon the Master, Christ Jesus the Lord,
listen to Him when He says, “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a
king who made a marriage for his son, and he sent forth his servants to
call them who were bidden to the marriage.” And when they would not
obey, He goes on to say, “Again he sent other servants, saying,
Tell them that are bidden, Come ye, I have prepared my dinner; my oxen
and all the fatlings are killed, and everything is ready; come unto the
wedding. But they made light of it, and went their way, some to their
farm, and others to their merchandize; but the remnant took his servants,
and some they treated despitefully, while others they slew. But when the
king heard this, he was wroth, and sent his armies and destroyed these
murderers, and burned up their city, and said to his servants, The
wedding is indeed ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go
out therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, gather in
to the marriage. So the servants went out, and collected together as many
as they found, bad and good, and the wedding was furnished with guests.
But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man not
having on a wedding garment; and he said unto him, Friend, how camest
thou hither, not having on a wedding garment? But he was speechless. Then
said the king to his servants, Take him away, hand and foot, and cast him
into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For
many are called, but few are chosen.” Now, by these words of His, does the Lord clearly show
all [these points, viz.,] that there is one King and Lord, the Father of
all, of whom He had previously said, “Neither shalt thou swear by
Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King;” and that He had from the beginning
prepared the marriage for His Son, and used, with the utmost kindness, to
call, by the instrumentality of His servants, the men of the former
dispensation to the wedding feast; and when they would not obey, He still
invited them by sending out other servants, yet that even then they did
not obey Him, but even stoned and slew those who brought them the message
of invitation. He accordingly sent forth His armies and destroyed them,
and burned down their city; but He called together from all the highways,
that is, from all nations, [guests] to the marriage feast of His Son, as
also He says by Jeremiah: “I have sent also unto you my servants
the prophets to say, Return ye now, every man, from
his very
evil way, and amend your doings.” And
again He says by the same prophet: “I have also sent unto you my
servants the prophets throughout the day and before the light; yet they
did not obey me, nor incline their ears unto me. And thou shall speak
this word to them: This is a people that obeyeth not the voice of the
Lord, nor receiveth correction; faith has perished from their
mouth.” The Lord, therefore,
who has called us everywhere by the apostles, is He who called those of
old by the prophets, as appears by the words of the Lord; and although
they preached to various nations, the prophets were not from one God, and
the apostles from another; but, [proceeding] from one and the same, some
of them announced the Lord, others preached the Father, and others again
foretold the advent of the Son of God, while yet others declared Him as
already present to those who then were afar off. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p28 | 6. Still further did He also make it manifest, that we
ought, after our calling, to be also adorned with works of righteousness,
so that the Spirit of God may rest upon us; for this is the wedding
garment, of which also the apostle speaks, “Not for that we would
be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up by
immortality.” But those who have indeed
been called to God’s supper, yet have not received the Holy Spirit,
because of their wicked conduct “shall be,” He declares,
“cast into outer darkness.” He thus
clearly shows that the very same King who gathered from all quarters the
faithful to the marriage of His Son, and who grants them the
incorruptible banquet, [also] orders that man to be cast into outer
darkness who has not on a wedding garment, that is, one who despises it.
For as in the former covenant, “with many of them was He not well
pleased;” so also is it the case
here, that “many are called, but few chosen.” It is not, then, one God who judges, and
another Father who calls us together to salvation; nor one, forsooth, who
confers eternal light, but another who orders those who have not on the
wedding garment to be sent into outer darkness. But it is one and the
same God, the Father of our Lord, from whom also the prophets had their
mission, who does indeed, through His infinite kindness, call the
unworthy; but He examines those who are called, [to ascertain] if they
have on the garment fit and proper for the marriage of His Son, because
nothing unbecoming or evil pleases Him. This is in accordance with what
the Lord said to the man who had been healed: “Behold, thou art
made whole; sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” For he who is good, and righteous, and pure,
and spotless, will endure nothing evil, nor unjust, nor detestable in His
wedding chamber. This is the Father of our Lord, by whose providence all
things consist, and all are administered by His command; and He confers
His free gifts upon those who should [receive them]; but the most
righteous Retributor metes out [punishment] according to their deserts,
most deservedly, to the ungrateful and to those that are insensible of
His kindness; and therefore does He say, “He sent His armies, and
destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.” He says here, “His armies,” because
all men are the property of God. For “the earth is the
Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and all that dwell
therein.” Wherefore also the Apostle
Paul says in the Epistle to the Romans, “For there is no power but
of God; the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever resisteth the
power, resisteth the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive
unto themselves condemnation. For rulers are not for a terror to a good
work, but to an evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that
which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same; for he is the
minister of God to thee for good. But if thou do that which is evil, be
afraid; for he beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of
God, the avenger for wrath upon him that doeth evil. Wherefore ye must
needs be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. For
this cause pay ye tribute also; for they are God’s ministers,
attending continually upon this very thing.” Both the Lord, then, and the apostles
announce as the one only God the Father, Him who gave the law, who sent
the prophets, who made all things; and therefore does He say, “He
sent His armies,” because every man, inasmuch as he is a man, is
His workmanship, although he may be ignorant of his God. For He gives
existence to all; He, “who maketh His sun to rise upon the evil and
the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and unjust.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p38 | 7. And not alone by what
has been stated, but also by the parable of the two sons, the younger of
whom consumed his substance by living luxuriously with harlots, did the
Lord teach one and the same Father, who did not even allow a kid to his
elder son; but for him who had been lost, [namely] his younger son, he
ordered the fatted calf to be killed, and he gave him the best robe.
Also by the parable of the
workmen who were sent into the vineyard at different periods of the day,
one and the same God is declared as
having called some in the beginning, when the world was first created;
but others afterwards, and others during the intermediate period, others
after a long lapse of time, and others again in the end of time; so that
there are many workmen in their generations, but only one householder who
calls them together. For there is but one vineyard, since there is also
but one righteousness, and one dispensator, for there is one Spirit of
God who arranges all things; and in like manner is there one hire, for
they all received a penny each man, having [stamped upon it] the royal
image and superscription, the knowledge of the Son of God, which is
immortality. And therefore He began by giving the hire to those [who were
engaged] last, because in the last times, when the Lord was revealed He
presented Himself to all [as their reward]. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxvii-p41 | 8. Then, in the case of the publican, who excelled the
Pharisee in prayer, [we find] that it was not because he worshipped
another Father that he received testimony from the Lord that he was
justified rather [than the other]; but because with great humility, apart
from all boasting and pride, he made confession to the same God. The parable of the two sons also: those who
are sent into the vineyard, of whom one indeed opposed his father, but
afterwards repented, when repentance profited him nothing; the other,
however, promised to go, at once assuring his father, but he did not go
(for “every man is a liar;” “to
will is present with him, but he finds not means to perform”),—[this parable, I say], points out
one and the same Father. Then, again, this truth was clearly shown forth
by the parable of the fig-tree, of which the Lord says, “Behold,
now these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, but I find
none” (pointing onwards, by the
prophets, to His advent, by whom He came from time to time, seeking the
fruit of righteousness from them, which he did not find), and also by the
circumstance that, for the reason already mentioned, the fig-tree should
be hewn down. And, without using a parable, the Lord said to Jerusalem,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and
stonest those that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered
thy children together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not! Behold, your house shall be left unto you
desolate.” For that which had been said in the parable,
“Behold, for three years I come seeking fruit,” and in clear
terms, again, [where He says], “How often would I have gathered thy
children together,” shall be [found] a falsehood, if we do not
understand His advent, which is [announced] by the prophets—if,
in fact, He came to them but once, and then for the first time. But since
He who chose the patriarchs and those [who lived under the first
covenant], is the same Word of God who did both visit them through the
prophetic Spirit, and us also who have been called together from all
quarters by His advent; in addition to what has been already said, He
truly declared, “Many shall come from the east and from the west,
and shall recline with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of
heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall go into outer darkness;
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” If, then, those who do believe in Him through
the preaching of His apostles throughout the east and west shall recline
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven, partaking with
them of the [heavenly] banquet, one and the same God is set forth as He
who did indeed choose the patriarchs, visited also the people, and called
the Gentiles. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxviii-p1 | 1. This expression [of our
Lord], “How often would I have gathered thy children together, and
thou wouldest not,” set
forth the ancient law of human liberty, because God made man a free
[agent] from the beginning, possessing his own power, even as he does his
own soul, to obey the behests (ad utendum sententia) of God
voluntarily, and not by compulsion of God. For there is no coercion with
God, but a good will [towards us] is present with Him continually. And
therefore does He give good counsel to all. And in man, as well as in
angels, He has placed the power of choice (for angels are rational
beings), so that those who had yielded obedience might justly possess
what is good, given indeed by God, but preserved by themselves. On the
other hand, they who have not obeyed shall, with justice, be not found in
possession of the good, and shall receive condign punishment: for God did
kindly bestow on them what was good; but they themselves did not
diligently keep it, nor deem it something precious, but poured contempt
upon His super-eminent goodness. Rejecting therefore the good, and as it
were spuing it out, they shall all deservedly incur
the just
judgment of God, which also the Apostle Paul testifies in his Epistle to
the Romans, where he says, “But dost thou despise the riches of His
goodness, and patience, and long-suffering, being ignorant that the
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But according to thy hardness
and impenitent heart, thou treasurest to thyself wrath against the day of
wrath, and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
“But glory and honour,” he says, “to every one that
doeth good.” God therefore has
given that which is good, as the apostle tells us in this Epistle, and
they who work it shall receive glory and honour, because they have done
that which is good when they had it in their power not to do it; but
those who do it not shall receive the just judgment of God, because they
did not work good when they had it in their power so to do. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxviii-p4 | 2. But
if some had been made by nature bad, and others good, these latter would
not be deserving of praise for being good, for such were they created;
nor would the former be reprehensible, for thus they were made
[originally]. But since all men are of the same nature, able both to hold
fast and to do what is good; and, on the other hand, having also the
power to cast it from them and not to do it,—some do justly
receive praise even among men who are under the control of good laws (and
much more from God), and obtain deserved testimony of their choice of
good in general, and of persevering therein; but the others are blamed,
and receive a just condemnation, because of their rejection of what is
fair and good. And therefore the prophets used to exhort men to what was
good, to act justly and to work righteousness, as I have so largely
demonstrated, because it is in our power so to do, and because by
excessive negligence we might become forgetful, and thus stand in need of
that good counsel which the good God has given us to know by means of the
prophets. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxviii-p5 | 3. For this reason the Lord also said, “Let your
light so shine before men, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify
your Father who is in heaven.” And,
“Take heed to yourselves, lest perchance your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and worldly cares.” And, “Let your loins be girded about,
and your lamps burning, and ye like unto men that wait for their Lord,
when He returns from the wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they
may open to Him. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when He cometh,
shall find so doing.” And
again, “The servant who knows his Lord’s will, and does it
not, shall be beaten with many stripes.” And, “Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things
which I say?” And again, “But if
the servant say in his heart, The Lord delayeth, and begin to beat his
fellow-servants, and to eat, and drink, and to be drunken, his Lord will
come in a day on which he does not expect Him, and shall cut him in
sunder, and appoint his portion with the hypocrites.”
All such passages demonstrate the independent will of man, and at the same time the counsel which God conveys to
him, by which He exhorts us to submit ourselves to Him, and seeks to turn
us away from [the sin of] unbelief against Him, without, however, in any
way coercing us. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxviii-p13 | 4. No doubt, if any one is unwilling to follow the
Gospel itself, it is in his power [to reject it], but it is not
expedient. For it is in man’s power to disobey God, and to forfeit
what is good; but [such conduct] brings no small amount of injury and
mischief. And on this account Paul says, “All things are lawful to
me, but all things are not expedient;” referring both to the liberty of man, in which respect “all
things are lawful,” God exercising no compulsion in regard to him;
and [by the expression] “not expedient” pointing out that we
“should not use our liberty as a cloak of
maliciousness,” for this is not
expedient. And again he says, “Speak ye every man truth with his
neighbour.” And, “Let no corrupt
communication proceed out of your mouth, neither filthiness, nor foolish
talking, nor scurrility, which are not convenient, but rather giving of
thanks.” And, “For ye were
sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord; walk honestly as
children of the light, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering
and wantonness, not in anger and jealousy. And such were some of you; but
ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified in the name of our
Lord.” If then it were not in our power to
do or not to do these things, what reason had the apostle, and much more
the Lord Himself, to give us counsel to do some things, and to abstain
from others? But because man is possessed of free will from the
beginning, and God is possessed of free will, in whose likeness man was
created, advice is always given to him to keep fast the good, which thing
is done by means of obedience to God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxviii-p19 | 5. And not merely in works, but also in faith, has God
preserved the will of man free and under his own control, saying,
“According to thy faith
be it unto thee;” thus showing that there is a faith specially
belonging to man, since he has an opinion specially his own. And again,
“All things are possible to him that believeth;” and, “Go thy way; and as thou hast
believed, so be it done unto thee.” Now all
such expressions demonstrate that man is in his own power with respect to
faith. And for this reason, “he that believeth in Him has eternal
life while he who believeth not the Son hath not eternal life, but the
wrath of God shall remain upon him.” In the same manner therefore the Lord, both showing His own
goodness, and indicating that man is in his own free will and his own
power, said to Jerusalem, “How often have I wished to gather thy
children together, as a hen [gathereth] her chickens under her wings, and
ye would not! Wherefore your house shall be left unto you
desolate.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxviii-p25 | 6. Those, again, who maintain the opposite to these
[conclusions], do themselves present the Lord as destitute of power, as
if, forsooth, He were unable to accomplish what He willed; or, on the
other hand, as being ignorant that they were by nature
“material,” as these men express it, and such as cannot
receive His immortality. “But He should not,” say they,
“have created angels of such a nature that they were capable of
transgression, nor men who immediately proved ungrateful towards Him; for
they were made rational beings, endowed with the power of examining and
judging, and were not [formed] as things irrational or of a [merely]
animal nature, which can do nothing of their own will, but are drawn by
necessity and compulsion to what is good, in which things there is one
mind and one usage, working mechanically in one groove (inflexibiles
et sine judicio), who are incapable of being anything else except
just what they had been created.” But upon this supposition,
neither would what is good be grateful to them, nor communion with God be
precious, nor would the good be very much to be sought after, which would
present itself without their own proper endeavour, care, or study, but
would be implanted of its own accord and without their concern. Thus it
would come to pass, that their being good would be of no consequence,
because they were so by nature rather than by will, and are possessors of
good spontaneously, not by choice; and for this reason they would not
understand this fact, that good is a comely thing, nor would they take
pleasure in it. For how can those who are ignorant of good enjoy it? Or
what credit is it to those who have not aimed at it? And what crown is it
to those who have not followed in pursuit of it, like those victorious in
the contest? | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxviii-p26 | 7. On this account, too, did the Lord assert that the
kingdom of heaven was the portion of “the violent;” and He
says, “The violent take it by force;” that is, those who by strength and earnest striving are on the
watch to snatch it away on the moment. On this account also Paul the
Apostle says to the Corinthians, “Know ye not, that they who run in
a racecourse, do all indeed run, but one receiveth the prize? So run,
that ye may obtain. Every one also who engages in the contest is
temperate in all things: now these men [do it] that they may obtain a
corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. But I so run, not as
uncertainty; I fight, not as one beating the air; but I make my body
livid, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means, when preaching to
others, I may myself be rendered a castaway.” This able wrestler, therefore,
exhorts us to the struggle for immortality, that we may be crowned, and
may deem the crown precious, namely, that which is acquired by our
struggle, but which does not encircle us of its own accord (sed non
ultro coalitam). And the harder we strive, so much is it the more
valuable; while so much the more valuable it is, so much the more should
we esteem it. And indeed those things are not esteemed so highly which
come spontaneously, as those which are reached by much anxious care.
Since, then, this power has been conferred upon us, both the Lord has
taught and the apostle has enjoined us the more to love God, that we may
reach this [prize] for ourselves by striving after it. For otherwise, no
doubt, this our good would be [virtually] irrational, because not the
result of trial. Moreover, the faculty of seeing would not appear to be
so desirable, unless we had known what a loss it were to be devoid of
sight; and health, too, is rendered all the more estimable by an
acquaintance with disease; light, also, by contrasting it with darkness;
and life with death. Just in the same way is the heavenly kingdom
honourable to those who have known the earthly one. But in proportion as
it is more honourable, so much the more do we prize it; and if we have
prized it more, we shall be the more glorious in the presence of God. The
Lord has therefore endured all these things on our behalf, in order that
we, having been instructed by means of them all, may be in all respects
circumspect for the time to come, and that, having been rationally taught
to love God, we may continue in His perfect love: for God has displayed
long-suffering in the case of man’s apostasy; while man has been
instructed by means of it, as also the prophet says, “Thine own
apostasy shall heal thee;” God thus
determining all things beforehand for the
bringing of man to
perfection, for his edification, and for the revelation of His
dispensations, that goodness may both be made apparent, and righteousness
perfected, and that the Church may be fashioned after the image of His
Son, and that man may finally be brought to maturity at some future time,
becoming ripe through such privileges to see and comprehend God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxix-p1 | 1. If, however, any one say,
“What then? Could not God have exhibited man as perfect from
beginning?” let him know that, inasmuch as God is indeed always the
same and unbegotten as respects Himself, all things are possible to Him.
But created things must be inferior to Him who created them, from the
very fact of their later origin; for it was not possible for things
recently created to have been uncreated. But inasmuch as they are not
uncreated, for this very reason do they come short of the perfect.
Because, as these things are of later date, so are they infantile; so are
they unaccustomed to, and unexercised in, perfect discipline. For as it
certainly is in the power of a mother to give strong food to her infant,
[but she does not do so], as the child is not yet able to receive more
substantial nourishment; so also it was possible for God Himself to have
made man perfect from the first, but man could not receive this
[perfection], being as yet an infant. And for this cause our Lord in
these last times, when He had summed up all things into Himself, came to
us, not as He might have come, but as we were capable of beholding Him.
He might easily have come to us in His immortal glory, but in that case
we could never have endured the greatness of the glory; and therefore it
was that He, who was the perfect bread of the Father, offered Himself to
us as milk, [because we were] as infants. He did this when He appeared as
a man, that we, being nourished, as it were, from the breast of His
flesh, and having, by such a course of milk nourishment, become
accustomed to eat and drink the Word of God, may be able also to contain
in ourselves the Bread of immortality, which is the Spirit of the
Father. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxix-p2 | 2. And on this account does Paul declare to the
Corinthians, “I have fed you with milk, not with meat, for hitherto
ye were not able to bear it.” That is,
ye have indeed learned the advent of our Lord as a man; nevertheless,
because of your infirmity, the Spirit of the Father has not as yet rested
upon you. “For when envying and strife,” he says, “and
dissensions are among you, are ye not carnal, and walk as
men?” That is, that the Spirit of the
Father was not yet with them, on account of their imperfection and
shortcomings of their walk in life. As, therefore, the apostle had the
power to give them strong meat—for those upon whom the apostles
laid hands received the Holy Spirit, who is the food of life [eternal]
—but they were not capable of receiving it, because they had the
sentient faculties of the soul still feeble and undisciplined in the
practice of things pertaining to God; so, in like manner, God had power
at the beginning to grant perfection to man; but as the latter was only
recently created, he could not possibly have received it, or even if he
had received it, could he have contained it, or containing it, could he
have retained it. It was for this reason that the Son of God, although He
was perfect, passed through the state of infancy in common with the rest
of mankind, partaking of it thus not for His own benefit, but for that of
the infantile stage of man’s existence, in order that man might be
able to receive Him. There was nothing, therefore, impossible to and
deficient in God, [implied in the fact] that man was not an uncreated
being; but this merely applied to him who was lately created, [namely]
man. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxix-p5 | 3. With
God there are simultaneously exhibited power, wisdom, and goodness. His
power and goodness [appear] in this, that of His own will He called into
being and fashioned things having no previous existence; His wisdom [is
shown] in His having made created things parts of one harmonious and
consistent whole; and those things which, through His super-eminent
kindness, receive growth and a long period of existence, do reflect the
glory of the uncreated One, of that God who bestows what is good
ungrudgingly. For from the very fact of these things having been created,
[it follows] that they are not uncreated; but by their continuing in
being throughout a long course of ages, they shall receive a faculty of
the Uncreated, through the gratuitous bestowal of eternal existence upon
them by God. And thus in all things God has the pre-eminence, who alone
is uncreated, the first of all things, and the primary cause of the
existence of all, while all other things remain under God’s
subjection. But being in subjection to God is continuance in immortality,
and immortality is the glory of the uncreated One. By this arrangement,
therefore, and these harmonies, and a sequence of this nature, man, a
created and organized being, is rendered after the image and likeness of
the uncreated God,—the Father planning everything well and giving
His commands, the Son carrying these into execution
and
performing the work of creating, and the Spirit nourishing and increasing
[what is made], but man making progress day by day, and ascending towards
the perfect, that is, approximating to the uncreated One. For the
Uncreated is perfect, that is, God. Now it was necessary that man should
in the first instance be created; and having been created, should receive
growth; and having received growth, should be strengthened; and having
been strengthened, should abound; and having abounded, should recover
[from the disease of sin]; and having recovered, should be glorified; and
being glorified, should see his Lord. For God is He who is yet to be
seen, and the beholding of God is productive of immortality, but
immortality renders one nigh unto God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xxxix-p6 | 4. Irrational, therefore, in every respect, are they
who await not the time of increase, but ascribe to God the infirmity of
their nature. Such persons know neither God nor themselves, being
insatiable and ungrateful, unwilling to be at the outset what they have
also been created—men subject to passions; but go beyond the law
of the human race, and before that they become men, they wish to be even
now like God their Creator, and they who are more destitute of reason
than dumb animals [insist] that there is no distinction between the
uncreated God and man, a creature of to-day. For these, [the dumb
animals], bring no charge against God for not having made them men; but
each one, just as he has been created, gives thanks that he has been
created. For we cast blame upon Him, because we have not been made gods
from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods;
although God has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no
one may impute to Him invidiousness or grudgingness. He declares,
“I have said, Ye are gods; and ye are all sons of the
Highest.” But since we could not
sustain the power of divinity, He adds, “But ye shall die like
men,” setting forth both truths—the kindness of His free
gift, and our weakness, and also that we were possessed of power over
ourselves. For after His great kindness He graciously conferred good
[upon us], and made men like to Himself, [that is] in their own power;
while at the same time by His prescience He knew the infirmity of human
beings, and the consequences which would flow from it; but through [His]
love and [His] power, He shall overcome the substance of created
nature. For it was necessary, at first, that nature
should be exhibited; then, after that, that what was mortal should be
conquered and swallowed up by immortality, and the corruptible by
incorruptibility, and that man should be made after the image and
likeness of God, having received the knowledge of good and evil. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xl-p1 | 1. Man has received the
knowledge of good and evil. It is good to obey God, and to believe in
Him, and to keep His commandment, and this is the life of man; as not to
obey God is evil, and this is his death. Since God, therefore, gave [to
man] such mental power (magnanimitatem) man knew both the good of
obedience and the evil of disobedience, that the eye of the mind,
receiving experience of both, may with judgment make choice of the better
things; and that he may never become indolent or neglectful of
God’s command; and learning by experience that it is an evil thing
which deprives him of life, that is, disobedience to God, may never
attempt it at all, but that, knowing that what preserves his life,
namely, obedience to God, is good, he may diligently keep it with all
earnestness. Wherefore he has also had a twofold experience, possessing
knowledge of both kinds, that with discipline he may make choice of the
better things. But how, if he had no knowledge of the contrary, could he
have had instruction in that which is good? For there is thus a surer and
an undoubted comprehension of matters submitted to us than the mere
surmise arising from an opinion regarding them. For just as the tongue
receives experience of sweet and bitter by means of tasting, and the eye
discriminates between black and white by means of vision, and the ear
recognises the distinctions of sounds by hearing; so also does the mind,
receiving through the experience of both the knowledge of what is good,
become more tenacious of its preservation, by acting in obedience to God:
in the first place, casting away, by means of repentance, disobedience,
as being something disagreeable and nauseous; and afterwards coming to
understand what it really is, that it is contrary to goodness and
sweetness, so that the mind may never even attempt to taste disobedience
to God. But if any one do shun the knowledge of both these kinds of
things, and the twofold perception of knowledge, he unawares divests
himself of the character of a human being. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xl-p2 | 2. How, then, shall he be a God, who has not as yet
been made a man? Or how can he be perfect who was but lately created?
How, again, can he be immortal, who in his mortal nature
did
not obey his Maker? For it must be that thou, at the outset, shouldest
hold the rank of a man, and then afterwards partake of the glory of God.
For thou dost not make God, but God thee. If, then, thou art God’s
workmanship, await the hand of thy Maker which creates everything in due
time; in due time as far as thou art concerned, whose creation is being
carried out. Offer to Him thy heart in a soft and tractable
state, and preserve the form in which the Creator has fashioned thee,
having moisture in thyself, lest, by becoming hardened, thou lose the
impressions of His fingers. But by preserving the framework thou shalt
ascend to that which is perfect, for the moist clay which is in thee is
hidden [there] by the workmanship of God. His hand fashioned thy
substance; He will cover thee over [too] within and without with pure
gold and silver, and He will adorn thee to such a degree, that even
“the King Himself shall have pleasure in thy beauty.” But if thou, being obstinately hardened, dost
reject the operation of His skill, and show thyself ungrateful towards
Him, because thou wert created a [mere] man, by becoming thus ungrateful
to God, thou hast at once lost both His workmanship and life. For
creation is an attribute of the goodness of God but to be created is that
of human nature. If then, thou shalt deliver up to Him what is thine,
that is, faith towards Him and subjection, thou shalt receive His
handiwork, and shall be a perfect work of God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xl-p5 | 3. If, however, thou wilt not
believe in Him, and wilt flee from His hands, the cause of imperfection
shall be in thee who didst not obey, but not in Him who called [thee].
For He commissioned [messengers] to call people to the marriage, but they
who did not obey Him deprived themselves of the royal supper. The skill of God, therefore, is not
defective, for He has power of the stones to raise up children to
Abraham; but the man who does not obtain it is the
cause to himself of his own imperfection. Nor, [in like manner], does the
light fail because of those who have blinded themselves; but while it
remains the same as ever, those who are [thus] blinded are involved in
darkness through their own fault. The light does never enslave any one by
necessity; nor, again, does God exercise compulsion upon any one
unwilling to accept the exercise of His skill. Those persons, therefore,
who have apostatized from the light given by the Father, and transgressed
the law of liberty, have done so through their own fault, since they have
been created free agents, and possessed of power over themselves. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xl-p8 | 4. But God, foreknowing all things, prepared fit
habitations for both, kindly conferring that light which they desire on
those who seek after the light of incorruption, and resort to it; but for
the despisers and mockers who avoid and turn themselves away from this
light, and who do, as it were, blind themselves, He has prepared darkness
suitable to persons who oppose the light, and He has inflicted an
appropriate punishment upon those who try to avoid being subject to Him.
Submission to God is eternal rest, so that they who shun the light have a
place worthy of their flight; and those who fly from eternal rest, have a
habitation in accordance with their fleeing. Now, since all good things
are with God, they who by their own determination fly from God, do
defraud themselves of all good things; and having been [thus] defrauded
of all good things with respect to God, they shall consequently fall
under the just judgment of God. For those persons who shun rest shall
justly incur punishment, and those who avoid the light shall justly dwell
in darkness. For as in the case of this temporal light, those who shun it
do deliver themselves over to darkness, so that they do themselves become
the cause to themselves that they are destitute of light, and do inhabit
darkness; and, as I have already observed, the light is not the cause of
such an [unhappy] condition of existence to them; so those who fly from
the eternal light of God, which contains in itself all good things, are
themselves the cause to themselves of their inhabiting eternal darkness,
destitute of all good things, having become to themselves the cause of
[their consignment to] an abode of that nature. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xli-p1 | 1. It is therefore one
and the same God the Father who has prepared good things with Himself for
those who desire His fellowship, and who remain in subjection to Him; and
who has the eternal fire for the ringleader of the apostasy, the devil,
and those who revolted with him, into which [fire] the Lord has declared those men shall be sent who have
been set apart by themselves on His left hand. And this is what has been
spoken by the prophet, “I am a jealous God, making peace, and
creating evil things;” thus
making peace and friendship with those who repent and turn to Him, and
bringing [them to] unity, but preparing for the impenitent, those who
shun the light, eternal fire and outer darkness, which are evils indeed
to those persons who fall into them. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xli-p4 |
2. If, however, it were truly one Father
who confers rest, and another God who has prepared the fire, their sons
would have been equally different [one from the other]; one, indeed,
sending [men] into the Father’s kingdom, but the other into eternal
fire. But inasmuch as one and the same Lord has pointed out that the
whole human race shall be divided at the judgment, “as a shepherd
divideth the sheep from the goats,” and that
to some He will say, “Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the
kingdom which has been prepared for you,” but to others, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting
fire, which My Father has prepared for the devil and his
angels,” one and the same Father
is manifestly declared [in this passage], “making peace and
creating evil things,” preparing fit things for both; as also there
is one Judge sending both into a fit place, as the Lord sets forth in the
parable of the tares and the wheat, where He says, “As therefore
the tares are gathered together, and burned in the fire, so shall it be
at the end of the world. The Son of man shall send His angels, and they
shall gather from His kingdom everything that offendeth, and those who
work iniquity, and shall send them into a furnace of fire: there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the just shine forth as the sun
in the kingdom of their Father.” The Father, therefore, who has prepared the kingdom for the
righteous, into which the Son has received those worthy of it, is He who
has also prepared the furnace of fire, into which these angels
commissioned by the Son of man shall send those persons who deserve it,
according to God’s command. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xli-p9 | 3. The Lord, indeed, sowed good seed in His own
field;
and He says, “The field is the world.” But while men slept,
the enemy came, and “sowed tares in the midst of the wheat, and
went his way.” Hence we learn that this
was the apostate angel and the enemy, because he was envious of
God’s workmanship, and took in hand to render this [workmanship] an
enmity with God. For this cause also God has banished from His presence
him who did of his own accord stealthily sow the tares, that is, him who
brought about the transgression; but He took compassion upon man, who, through want
of care no doubt, but still wickedly [on the part of another], became
involved in disobedience; and He turned the enmity by which [the devil]
had designed to make [man] the enemy of God, against the author of it, by
removing His own anger from man, turning it in another direction, and
sending it instead upon the serpent. As also the Scripture tells us that
God said to the serpent, “And I will place enmity between thee and
the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. He
shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.” And the Lord summed up in Himself this enmity,
when He was made man from a woman, and trod upon his [the
serpent’s] head, as I have pointed out in the preceding book. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xli-p12 | The old Latin translator varies from this (the Greek of
which was recovered by Grabe from two ancient Catenæ Patrum),
making the clause run thus, that is, the transgression which he had
himself introduced, making the explanatory words to refer to the
tares, and not, as in the Greek, to the sower of the
tares. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xlii-p1 | 1. Inasmuch as the Lord has said
that there are certain angels, [viz. those] of the devil, for whom
eternal fire is prepared; and as, again, He declares with regard to the
tares, “The tares are the children of the wicked one,” it must be affirmed that He has ascribed all
who are of the apostasy to him who is the ringleader of this
transgression. But He made neither angels nor men so by nature. For we do
not find that the devil created anything whatsoever, since indeed he is
himself a creature of God, like the other angels. For God made all
things, as also David says with regard to all things of the kind:
“For He spake the word, and they were made; He commanded, and they
were created.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xlii-p4 | 2. Since, therefore, all things were made by God, and
since the devil has become the cause of apostasy to himself and others,
justly does the Scripture always term those who remain in a state of
apostasy “sons of the devil” and “angels of the wicked
one” (maligni). For [the word] “son,” as one
before me has observed, has a twofold meaning: one [is a son] in the
order of nature, because he was born a son; the other, in that he was
made so, is reputed a son, although there be a difference between being
born so and being made so. For the first is indeed born from the person
referred to; but the second is made so by him, whether as respects his
creation or by the teaching of his doctrine. For when any person has been
taught from the mouth of another, he is termed the son of him who
instructs him, and the latter [is called] his father. According to
nature, then—that is, according to creation, so to speak—
we are all sons of God, because we have all been created by God. But with
respect to obedience
and doctrine we are not all the sons of
God: those only are so who believe in Him and do His will. And those who
do not believe, and do not obey His will, are sons and angels of the
devil, because they do the works of the devil. And that such is the case
He has declared in Isaiah: “I have begotten and brought up
children, but they have rebelled against Me.” And again, where He says that these children are aliens:
“Strange children have lied unto Me.” According to nature, then, they are [His] children, because they
have been so created; but with regard to their works, they are not His
children. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xlii-p7 | 3. For as, among men, those sons who disobey their
fathers, being disinherited, are still their sons in the course of
nature, but by law are disinherited, for they do not become the heirs of
their natural parents; so in the same way is it with God,—those
who do not obey Him being disinherited by Him, have ceased to be His
sons. Wherefore they cannot receive His inheritance: as David says,
“Sinners are alienated from the womb; their anger is after the
likeness of a serpent.” And
therefore did the Lord term those whom He knew to be the offspring of men
“a generation of vipers;”
because after the manner of these animals they go about in subtilty, and
injure others. For He said, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
and of the Sadducees.” Speaking
of Herod, too, He says, “Go ye and tell that fox,” aiming at his wicked cunning and deceit.
Wherefore the prophet David says, “Man, being placed in honour, is
made like unto cattle.” And again
Jeremiah says, “They are become like horses, furious about females;
each one neighed after his neighbour’s wife.” And Isaiah, when preaching in Judea, and
reasoning with Israel, termed them “rulers of Sodom” and
“people of Gomorrah;” intimating
that they were like the Sodomites in wickedness, and that the same
description of sins was rife among them, calling them by the same name,
because of the similarity of their conduct. And inasmuch as they were not
by nature so created by God, but had power also to act rightly, the same
person said to them, giving them good counsel, “Wash ye, make you
clean; take away iniquity from your souls before mine eyes; cease from
your iniquities.” Thus, no doubt, since they
had transgressed and sinned in the same manner, so did they receive the
same reproof as did the Sodomites. But when they should be converted and
come to repentance, and cease from evil, they should have power to become
the sons of God, and to receive the inheritance of immortality which is
given by Him. For this reason, therefore, He has termed
those “angels of the devil,” and “children of the
wicked one,” who give heed to the devil, and do his works.
But these are, at the same time, all created by the one and the same God.
When, however, they believe and are subject to God, and go on and keep
His doctrine, they are the sons of God; but when they have apostatized
and fallen into transgression, they are ascribed to their chief, the
devil—to him who first became the cause of apostasy to himself,
and afterwards to others. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vi.xlii-p17 | 4. Inasmuch as the words of the Lord are numerous,
while they all proclaim one and the same Father, the Creator of this
world, it was incumbent also upon me, for their own sake, to refute by
many [arguments] those who are involved in many errors, if by any means,
when they are confuted by many [proofs], they may be converted to the
truth and saved. But it is necessary to subjoin to this composition, in
what follows, also the doctrine of Paul after the words of the Lord, to
examine the opinion of this man, and expound the apostle, and to explain
whatsoever [passages] have received other interpretations from the
heretics, who have altogether misunderstood what Paul has spoken, and to
point out the folly of their mad opinions; and to demonstrate from that
same Paul, from whose [writings] they press questions upon us, that they
are indeed utterers of falsehood, but that the apostle was a preacher of
the truth, and that he taught all things agreeable to the preaching of
the truth; [to the effect that] it was one God the Father who spake with
Abraham, who gave the law, who sent the prophets beforehand, who in the
last times sent His Son, and conferred salvation upon His own handiwork
—that is, the substance of flesh. Arranging, then, in another
book, the rest of the words of the Lord, which He taught concerning the
Father not by parables, but by expressions taken in their obvious meaning
(sed simpliciter ipsis dictionibus), and the exposition of the
Epistles of the blessed apostle, I shall, with God’s aid, furnish
thee with the complete work of the exposure and refutation of knowledge,
falsely so called; thus practising myself and thee in [these] five books
for presenting opposition to all heretics. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.i-p1 | In the
four preceding books, my very dear friend, which I put forth to thee, all
the heretics have been exposed, and their doctrines brought to light, and
these men refuted who have devised irreligious opinions. [I have
accomplished this by adducing] something from the doctrine peculiar to
each of these men, which they have left in their writings, as well as by
using arguments of a more general nature, and applicable to them
all. Then I
have pointed out the truth, and shown the preaching of the Church, which
the prophets proclaimed (as I have already demonstrated), but which
Christ brought to perfection, and the apostles have handed down, from
whom the Church, receiving [these truths], and throughout all the world
alone preserving them in their integrity (bene), has transmitted
them to her sons. Then also—having disposed of all questions
which the heretics propose to us, and having explained the doctrine of
the apostles, and clearly set forth many of those things which were said
and done by the Lord in parables—I shall endeavour, in this the
fifth book of the entire work which treats of the exposure and refutation
of knowledge falsely so called, to exhibit proofs from the rest of the
Lord’s doctrine and the apostolical epistles: [thus] complying with
thy demand, as thou didst request of me (since indeed I have been
assigned a place in the ministry of the word); and, labouring by every
means in my power to furnish thee with large assistance against the
contradictions of the heretics, as also to reclaim the wanderers and
convert them to the Church of God, to confirm at the same time the minds
of the neophytes, that they may preserve stedfast the faith which they
have received, guarded by the Church in its integrity, in order that they
be in no way perverted by those who endeavour to teach them false
doctrines, and lead them away from the truth. It will be incumbent upon
thee, however, and all who may happen to read this writing, to peruse
with great attention what I have already said, that thou mayest obtain a
knowledge of the subjects against which I am contending. For it is thus
that thou wilt both controvert them in a legitimate manner, and wilt be
prepared to receive the proofs brought forward against them, casting away
their doctrines as filth by means of the celestial faith; but following
the only true and stedfast Teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus
Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that
He might bring us to be even what He is Himself. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.ii-p1 | 1. For in no other way could we have
learned the things of God, unless our Master, existing as the Word, had
become man. For no other being had the power of revealing to us the
things of the Father, except His own proper Word. For what other person
“knew the mind of the Lord,” or who else “has become
His counsellor?” Again, we could have
learned in no other way than by seeing our Teacher, and hearing His voice
with our own ears, that, having become imitators of His works as well as
doers of His words, we may have communion with Him, receiving increase
from the perfect One, and from Him who is prior to all creation. We
—who were but lately created by the only best and good Being, by
Him also who has the gift of immortality, having been formed after
His likeness (predestinated, according to the prescience of the
Father, that we, who had as yet no existence, might come into being), and
made the first-fruits of creation—have received, in the times known
beforehand, [the blessings of salvation] according to the ministration of
the Word, who is perfect in all things, as the mighty Word, and very man,
who, redeeming us by His own blood in a manner consonant to reason, gave
Himself as a redemption for those who had been led into captivity. And
since the apostasy tyrannized over us unjustly, and, though we were by
nature the property of the omnipotent God, alienated us contrary to
nature, rendering us its own disciples, the Word of God, powerful in all
things, and not defective with regard to His own justice, did righteously
turn against that apostasy, and redeem from it His own property, not by
violent means, as the [apostasy] had obtained dominion over us at the
beginning, when it insatiably snatched away what was not its own, but by
means of persuasion, as became a God of counsel, who does not use violent
means to obtain what He desires; so that neither should justice be
infringed upon, nor the ancient handiwork of God go to destruction.
Since the
Lord thus has redeemed us through His own blood, giving His soul for our
souls, and His flesh for our flesh, and has also poured out the Spirit of the Father for the union
and communion of God and man, imparting indeed God to men by means of the
Spirit, and, on the other hand, attaching man to God by His own
incarnation, and bestowing upon us at His coming immortality durably and
truly, by means of communion with God,—all the doctrines of the
heretics fall to ruin. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.ii-p5 | 2. Vain indeed are those
who allege that He appeared in mere seeming. For these things were not
done in appearance only, but in actual reality. But if He did appear as a
man, when He was not a man, neither could the Holy Spirit have rested
upon Him,—an occurrence which did actually take place—as
the Spirit is invisible; nor, [in that case], was there any degree of
truth in Him, for He was not that which He seemed to be. But I have
already remarked that Abraham and the other prophets beheld Him after a
prophetical manner, foretelling in vision what should come to pass. If,
then, such a being has now appeared in outward semblance different from
what he was in reality, there has been a certain prophetical vision made
to men; and another advent of His must be looked forward to, in which He
shall be such as He has now been seen in a prophetic manner. And I have
proved already, that it is the same thing to say that He appeared merely
to outward seeming, and [to affirm] that He received nothing from Mary.
For He would not have been one truly possessing flesh and blood, by which
He redeemed us, unless He had summed up in Himself the ancient formation
of Adam. Vain therefore are the disciples of Valentinus who put forth
this opinion, in order that they may exclude the flesh from salvation, and
cast aside what God has fashioned. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.ii-p6 | 3. Vain also are the Ebionites, who do not receive
by faith into their soul the union of God and man, but who remain in the
old leaven of [the natural] birth, and who do not choose to understand
that the Holy Ghost came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High did
overshadow her: wherefore also what was
generated is a holy thing, and the Son of the Most High God the Father of
all, who effected the incarnation of this being, and showed forth a new
[kind of] generation; that as by the former generation we inherited
death, so by this new generation we might inherit life. Therefore do these
men reject the commixture of the heavenly wine, and
wish it to be water of the world only, not receiving God so as to have
union with Him, but they remain in that Adam who had been conquered and
was expelled from Paradise: not considering that as, at the beginning of
our formation in Adam, that breath of life which proceeded from God,
having been united to what had been fashioned, animated the man, and
manifested him as a being endowed with reason; so also, in [the times of]
the end, the Word of the Father and the Spirit of God, having become
united with the ancient substance of Adam’s formation, rendered man
living and perfect, receptive of the perfect Father, in order that as in
the natural [Adam] we all were dead, so in the spiritual we may all be
made alive. For never at any time did Adam escape
the hands of God, to whom the Father speaking,
said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness.” And
for this reason in the last times (fine), not by the will of the
flesh, nor by the will of man, but by the good pleasure of the
Father, His hands formed a living man, in order that
Adam might be created [again] after the image and likeness of God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.ii-p8 | In allusion to the mixture of water in the
eucharistic cup, as practised in these primitive times. The Ebionites and
others used to consecrate the element of water alone. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iii-p1 | 1. And vain likewise are those who say that
God came to those things which did not belong to Him, as if
covetous of another’s property; in order that He might deliver up
that man who had been created by another, to that God who had neither
made nor formed anything, but who also was deprived from the beginning of
His own proper formation of men. The advent, therefore, of Him
whom these men represent as coming to the things of others, was not
righteous; nor did He truly redeem us by His own blood, if He did not
really become man, restoring to His own handiwork what was said [of it]
in the beginning, that man was made after the image and likeness of God;
not snatching away by stratagem the property of another, but taking
possession of His own in a righteous and gracious manner. As far as
concerned the apostasy, indeed, He redeems us righteously from it by His
own blood; but as regards us who have been redeemed, [He does this]
graciously. For we have given nothing to Him previously, nor does He
desire anything from us, as if He stood in need of it; but we do stand in
need of fellowship with Him. And for this reason it was that He
graciously poured Himself out, that He might gather us into the bosom of
the Father. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iii-p2 | 2. But vain in
every respect are they who despise the entire dispensation of God, and
disallow the salvation of the flesh, and treat with contempt its
regeneration, maintaining that it is not capable of incorruption. But if
this indeed do not attain salvation, then neither did the Lord redeem us
with His blood, nor is the cup of the Eucharist the communion of His
blood, nor the bread which we break the communion of His body. For blood can only come from veins and flesh,
and whatsoever else makes up the substance of man, such as the Word of
God was actually made. By His own blood he redeemed us, as also His
apostle declares, “In whom we have redemption through His blood,
even the remission of sins.” And as we
are His members, we are also nourished by means of the creation (and He
Himself grants the creation to us, for He causes His sun to rise, and
sends rain when He wills). He has acknowledged the
cup (which is a part of the creation) as His own blood, from which He
bedews our blood; and the bread (also a part of the creation) He has
established as His own body, from which He gives increase to our
bodies. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iii-p7 | 3. When, therefore, the mingled cup
and the manufactured bread receives the Word of God, and the Eucharist of
the blood and the body of Christ is made, from which things the substance of our flesh
is increased and supported, how can they affirm that the flesh is
incapable of receiving the gift of God, which is life eternal, which
[flesh] is nourished from the body and blood of the Lord, and is a member
of Him?—even as the blessed Paul declares in his Epistle to the
Ephesians, that “we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of
His bones.” He does not speak these
words of some spiritual and invisible man, for a spirit has not bones nor
flesh; but [he refers to] that dispensation [by
which the Lord became] an actual man, consisting of flesh, and nerves,
and bones,—that [flesh] which is nourished by the cup which is
His blood, and receives increase from the bread which is His body. And
just as a cutting from the vine planted in the ground fructifies in its
season, or as a corn of wheat falling into the earth and becoming
decomposed, rises with manifold increase by the Spirit of God, who
contains all things, and then, through the wisdom of God, serves for the
use of men, and having received the Word of God, becomes the Eucharist,
which is the body and blood of Christ; so also our bodies, being
nourished by it, and deposited in the earth, and suffering decomposition
there, shall rise at their appointed time, the Word of God granting them
resurrection to the glory of God, even the Father, who freely gives to
this mortal immortality, and to this corruptible incorruption, because the strength of God is made perfect in
weakness, in order that we may never become
puffed up, as if we had life from ourselves, and exalted against God, our
minds becoming ungrateful; but learning by experience that we possess
eternal duration from the excelling power of this Being, not from our own
nature, we may neither undervalue that glory which surrounds God as He
is, nor be ignorant of our own nature, but that we may know what God can
effect, and what benefits man receives, and thus never wander from the
true comprehension of things as they are, that is, both with regard to
God and with regard to man. And might it not be the case, perhaps, as I
have already observed, that for this purpose God permitted our resolution
into the common dust of mortality, that we, being instructed by every
mode, may be accurate in all things for the future, being ignorant
neither of God nor of ourselves? | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iii-p13 | This is Harvey’s free rendering of the passage,
which is in the Greek (as preserved in the Catena of John of Damascus):
καὶ διὰ τοῦτο ἠνέσχετο ὁ Θεὸς τὴν εἰς τὴν γῆν ἡμῶν ἀνάλυσιν. In
the Latin: Propter hoc passus est Deus fieri in nobis resolutionem. See
Book iii. cap. xx. 2. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iv-p1 | 1. The
Apostle Paul has, moreover, in the most lucid manner, pointed out that
man has been delivered over to his own infirmity, lest, being uplifted,
he might fall away from the truth. Thus he says in the second [Epistle]
to the Corinthians: “And lest I should be lifted up by the
sublimity of the revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in the
flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me. And upon this I besought the
Lord three times, that it might depart from me. But he said unto me, My
grace is sufficient for thee; for strength is made perfect in weakness.
Gladly therefore shall I rather glory in infirmities, that the power of
Christ may dwell in me.”
What, therefore? (as some may exclaim:) did the Lord wish, in that case,
that His apostles should thus undergo buffeting, and that he should
endure such infirmity? Even so it was; the word says it. For strength is
made perfect in weakness, rendering him a better man who by means of his
infirmity becomes acquainted with the power of God. For how could a man
have learned that he is himself an infirm being, and mortal by nature,
but that God is immortal and powerful, unless he had learned by
experience what is in both? For there is nothing evil in learning
one’s infirmities by endurance; yea, rather, it has even the
beneficial effect of preventing him from forming an undue opinion of his
own nature (non aberrare in natura sua). But the being lifted up
against God, and taking His glory to one’s self, rendering man
ungrateful, has brought much evil upon him. [And thus, I say, man must
learn both things by experience], that he may not be destitute of truth
and love either towards himself or his Creator. But the experience
of both confers upon him the true knowledge as to God and man, and
increases his love towards God. Now, where there exists an increase of
love, there a greater glory is wrought out by the power of God for those
who love Him. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iv-p3 | We have adopted here the explanation of
Massuet, who considers the preceding period as merely parenthetical. Both
Grabe and Harvey, however, would make conjectural emendations in the
text, which seem to us to be inadmissible. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iv-p4 | 2. Those men, therefore, set aside the
power of God, and do not consider what the word declares, when they dwell
upon the infirmity of the flesh, but do not take into consideration the
power of Him who raises it up from the dead. For if He does not vivify
what is mortal, and does not bring back the corruptible to incorruption,
He is not a God of power. But that He is powerful in all these respects,
we ought to perceive from our origin, inasmuch as God, taking dust from
the earth, formed man. And surely it is much more difficult and
incredible, from non-existent bones, and nerves, and veins, and the rest
of man’s organization, to bring it about that all this should be,
and to make man an animated and rational creature, than to reintegrate
again that which had been created and then afterwards decomposed into
earth (for the reasons already mentioned), having thus passed into those
[elements] from which man, who had no previous existence, was formed. For
He who in the beginning caused him to have being who as yet was not, just
when He pleased, shall much more reinstate again those who had a former
existence, when it is His will [that they should inherit] the life
granted by Him. And that flesh shall also be found fit for and capable of
receiving the power of God, which at the beginning received the skilful
touches of God; so that one part became the eye for seeing; another, the
ear for hearing; another, the hand for feeling and working; another, the
sinews stretched out everywhere, and holding the limbs together; another,
arteries and veins, passages for the blood and the air; another, the various internal organs;
another, the blood, which is the bond of union between soul and body. But
why go [on in this strain]? Numbers would fail to express the
multiplicity of parts in the human frame, which was made in no other way
than by the great wisdom of God. But those things which partake of the
skill and wisdom of God, do also partake of His power. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iv-p5 | The ancients erroneously supposed that the
arteries were air-vessels, from the fact that these organs, after
death, appear quite empty, from all the blood stagnating in the veins
when death supervenes. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.iv-p6 | 3. The flesh, therefore, is not destitute [of
participation] in the constructive wisdom and power of God. But if the
power of Him who is the bestower of life is made perfect in weakness
—that is, in the flesh—let them inform us, when they
maintain the incapacity of flesh to receive the life granted by God,
whether they do say these things as being living men at present, and
partakers of life, or acknowledge that, having no part in life whatever,
they are at the present moment dead men. And if they really are dead men,
how is it that they move about, and speak, and perform those other
functions which are not the actions of the dead, but of the living? But
if they are now alive, and if their whole body partakes of life, how can
they venture the assertion that the flesh is not qualified
to be a partaker of life, when they do confess that they have
life at the present moment? It is just as if anybody were to take up a
sponge full of water, or a torch on fire, and to declare that the sponge
could not possibly partake of the water, or the torch of the fire. In
this very manner do those men, by alleging that they are alive and bear
life about in their members, contradict themselves afterwards, when they
represent these members as not being capable of [receiving] life. But if
the present temporal life, which is of such an inferior nature to eternal
life, can nevertheless effect so much as to quicken our mortal members,
why should not eternal life, being much more powerful than this, vivify
the flesh, which has already held converse with, and been accustomed to
sustain, life? For that the flesh can really partake of life, is shown
from the fact of its being alive; for it lives on, as long as it is
God’s purpose that it should do so. It is manifest, too, that God
has the power to confer life upon it, inasmuch as He grants life to us
who are in existence. And, therefore, since the Lord has power to infuse
life into what He has fashioned, and since the flesh is capable of being
quickened, what remains to prevent its participating in incorruption,
which is a blissful and never-ending life granted by God? | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.v-p1 | 1. Those persons who feign the
existence of another Father beyond the Creator, and who term him the good
God, do deceive themselves; for they introduce him as a feeble,
worthless, and negligent being, not to say malign and full of envy,
inasmuch as they affirm that our bodies are not quickened by him. For
when they say of things which it is manifest to all do remain immortal,
such as the spirit and the soul, and such other things, that they are
quickened by the Father, but that another thing [viz. the body] which is
quickened in no different manner than by God granting [life] to it, is
abandoned by life,—[they must either confess] that this proves
their Father to be weak and powerless, or else envious and malignant. For
since the Creator does even here quicken our mortal bodies, and promises
them resurrection by the prophets, as I have pointed out; who [in that
case] is shown to be more powerful, stronger, or truly good? Whether is
it the Creator who vivifies the whole man, or is it their Father, falsely
so called? He feigns to be the quickener of those things which are
immortal by nature, to which things life is always present by their very
nature; but he does not benevolently quicken those things which required
his assistance, that they might live, but leaves them carelessly to fall
under the power of death. Whether is it the case, then, that their Father
does not bestow life upon them when he has the power of so doing, or is
it that he does not possess the power? If, on the one hand, it is because
he cannot, he is, upon that supposition, not a powerful being, nor is he
more perfect than the Creator; for the Creator grants, as we must
perceive, what He is unable to afford. But if, on the other hand,
[it be that he does not grant this] when he has the power of so doing,
then he is proved to be not a good, but an envious and malignant
Father. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.v-p2 | 2. If, again, they refer to any cause on account of
which their Father does not impart life to bodies, then that cause must
necessarily appear superior to the Father, since it restrains Him from
the exercise of His benevolence; and His benevolence will thus be proved
weak, on account of that cause which they bring forward. Now every one
must perceive that bodies are capable of receiving life. For they live to
the extent that God pleases that they should live; and that being so, the
[heretics] cannot maintain that [these bodies] are utterly incapable of
receiving life. If, therefore, on account of necessity and any other
cause, those [bodies] which are capable of participating in life are not
vivified, their Father shall be the slave of necessity and that cause,
and not therefore a free agent, having His will under His own
control. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.vi-p1 | 1. [In order to learn]
that bodies did continue in existence for a lengthened period, as long as
it was God’s good pleasure that they should flourish, let [these
heretics] read the Scriptures, and they will find that our predecessors
advanced beyond seven hundred, eight hundred, and nine hundred years of
age; and that their bodies kept pace with the protracted length of their
days, and participated in life as long as God willed that they should
live. But why do I refer to these men? For Enoch, when he
pleased God, was translated in the same body in which he did please Him,
thus pointing out by anticipation the translation of the just. Elijah, too, was caught up [when he was yet] in the
substance of the [natural] form; thus exhibiting in prophecy the
assumption of those who are spiritual, and that nothing stood in
the way of their body being translated and caught up. For by means of the
very same hands through which they were moulded at the beginning, did
they receive this translation and assumption. For in Adam the hands of
God had become accustomed to set in order, to rule, and to sustain His
own workmanship, and to bring it and place it where they pleased. Where, then, was the
first man placed? In paradise certainly, as the Scripture declares
“And God planted a garden [paradisum] eastward in Eden, and
there He placed the man whom He had formed.” And then afterwards when [man] proved disobedient, he was cast
out thence into this world. Wherefore also the elders who were disciples
of the apostles tell us that those who were translated were transferred
to that place (for paradise has been prepared for righteous men, such as
have the Spirit; in which place also Paul the apostle, when he was caught
up, heard words which are unspeakable as regards us in our present
condition), and that there shall they who have
been translated remain until the consummation [of all things], as a
prelude to immortality. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.vi-p4 | 2. If, however, any one imagine it impossible that men
should survive for such a length of time, and that Elias was not caught
up in the flesh, but that his flesh was consumed in the fiery chariot,
let him consider that Jonah, when he had been cast into the deep, and
swallowed down into the whale’s belly, was by the command of God
again thrown out safe upon the land. And then, again, when Ananias, Azarias, and Mishael were cast
into the furnace of fire sevenfold heated, they sustained no harm
whatever, neither was the smell of fire perceived upon them. As,
therefore, the hand of God was present with them, working out marvellous
things in their case—[things] impossible [to be accomplished] by
man’s nature—what wonder was it, if also in the case of
those who were translated it performed something wonderful, working in
obedience to the will of God, even the Father? Now this is the Son of
God, as the Scripture represents Nebuchadnezzar the king as having said,
“Did not we cast three men bound into the furnace? and, lo, I do
see four walking in the midst of the fire, and the fourth is like the Son
of God.” Neither the
nature of any created thing, therefore, nor the weakness of the flesh,
can prevail against the will of God. For God is not subject to created
things, but created things to God; and all things yield obedience to His
will. Wherefore also the Lord declares, “The things which are
impossible with men, are possible with God.” As, therefore, it might seem to the men of the present day, who
are ignorant of God’s appointment, to be a thing incredible and
impossible that any man could live for such a number of years, yet those
who were before us did live [to such an age], and those who were
translated do live as an earnest of the future length of days; and [as it
might also appear impossible] that from the whale’s belly and from
the fiery furnace men issued forth unhurt, yet they nevertheless did so,
led forth as it were by the hand of God, for the purpose of declaring His
power: so also now, although some, not knowing the power and promise of
God, may oppose their own salvation, deeming it impossible for God, who
raises up the dead; to have power to confer upon them eternal duration,
yet the scepticism of men of this stamp shall not render the faithfulness
of God of none effect. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.vii-p1 | 1. Now God
shall be glorified in His handiwork, fitting it so as to be conformable
to, and modelled after, His own Son. For by the hands of the Father, that
is, by the Son and the Holy Spirit, man, and not [merely] a part of man,
was made in the likeness of God. Now the soul and the spirit are
certainly a part of the man, but certainly not the man; for
the perfect man consists in the commingling and the union of the soul
receiving the spirit of the Father, and the admixture of that fleshly
nature which was moulded after the image of God. For this reason does the
apostle declare, “We speak wisdom among them that are
perfect,” terming those persons
“perfect” who have received the Spirit of God, and who
through the Spirit of God do speak in all languages, as he used Himself
also to speak. In like manner we do also hear many brethren in the Church, who possess
prophetic gifts, and who through the Spirit speak all kinds of languages,
and bring to light for the general benefit the hidden things of men, and
declare the mysteries of God, whom also the apostle terms
“spiritual,” they being spiritual because they partake of the
Spirit, and not because their flesh has been stripped off and taken away,
and because they have become purely spiritual. For if any one take away
the substance
of flesh, that is, of the handiwork [of God],
and understand that which is purely spiritual, such then would not be a
spiritual man but would be the spirit of a man, or the Spirit of God. But
when the spirit here blended with the soul is united to [God’s]
handiwork, the man is rendered spiritual and perfect because of the
outpouring of the Spirit, and this is he who was made in the image and
likeness of God. But if the Spirit be wanting to the soul, he who is such
is indeed of an animal nature, and being left carnal, shall be an
imperfect being, possessing indeed the image [of God] in his formation
(in plasmate), but not receiving the similitude through the
Spirit; and thus is this being imperfect. Thus also, if any one take away
the image and set aside the handiwork, he cannot then understand this as
being a man, but as either some part of a man, as I have already said, or
as something else than a man. For that flesh which has been moulded is
not a perfect man in itself, but the body of a man, and part of a man.
Neither is the soul itself, considered apart by itself, the man; but it
is the soul of a man, and part of a man. Neither is the spirit a man, for
it is called the spirit, and not a man; but the commingling and union of
all these constitutes the perfect man. And for this cause does the
apostle, explaining himself, make it clear that the saved man is a
complete man as well as a spiritual man; saying thus in the first Epistle
to the Thessalonians, “Now the God of peace sanctify you perfect
(perfectos); and may your spirit, and soul, and body be preserved
whole without complaint to the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ.” Now what was
his object in praying that these three—that is, soul, body, and
spirit—might be preserved to the coming of the Lord, unless he
was aware of the [future] reintegration and union of the three, and [that
they should be heirs of] one and the same salvation? For this cause also
he declares that those are “the perfect” who present unto the
Lord the three [component parts] without offence. Those, then, are the
perfect who have had the Spirit of God remaining in them, and have
preserved their souls and bodies blameless, holding fast the faith of
God, that is, that faith which is [directed] towards God, and maintaining
righteous dealings with respect to their neighbours. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.vii-p5 | 2. Whence also he says, that this
handiwork is “the temple of God,” thus declaring: “Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth
in you? If any man, therefore, will defile the temple of God, him will
God destroy: for the temple of God is holy, which [temple] ye
are.” Here he manifestly declares the body
to be the temple in which the Spirit dwells. As also the Lord speaks in
reference to Himself, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I
will raise it up. He spake this, however,” it is said, “of
the temple of His body.”
And not only does he (the apostle) acknowledge our bodies to be a temple,
but even the temple of Christ, saying thus to the Corinthians,
“Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then
take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an
harlot?” He speaks these things,
not in reference to some other spiritual man; for a being of such a
nature could have nothing to do with an harlot: but he declares
“our body,” that is, the flesh which continues in sanctity
and purity, to be “the members of Christ;” but that when it
becomes one with an harlot, it becomes the members of an harlot. And for
this reason he said, “If any man defile the temple of God, him will
God destroy.” How then is it not the utmost blasphemy to allege,
that the temple of God, in which the Spirit of the Father dwells, and the
members of Christ, do not partake of salvation, but are reduced to
perdition? Also, that our bodies are raised not from their own substance,
but by the power of God, he says to the Corinthians, “Now the body
is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. But
God hath both raised up the Lord, and shall raise us up by His own
power.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.viii-p1 | 1. In the same manner,
therefore, as Christ did rise in the substance of flesh, and pointed out
to His disciples the mark of the nails and the opening in His side (now these are the tokens of that
flesh which rose from the dead), so “shall He also,” it is
said, “raise us up by His own power.” And again to the Romans he says, “But if the Spirit of Him
that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ
from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies.” What, then, are mortal bodies? Can they be
souls? Nay, for souls are incorporeal when put in comparison with mortal
bodies; for God “breathed into the face of man the breath of life,
and man became a living soul.” Now the breath of life is an
incorporeal
thing. And certainly they cannot maintain that
the very breath of life is mortal. Therefore David says, “My soul
also shall live to Him,” just
as if its substance were immortal. Neither, on the other hand, can they
say that the spirit is the mortal body. What therefore is there left to
which we may apply the term “mortal body,” unless it be the
thing that was moulded, that is, the flesh, of which it is also said that
God will vivify it? For this it is which dies and is decomposed, but not
the soul or the spirit. For to die is to lose vital power, and to become
henceforth breathless, inanimate, and devoid of motion, and to melt away
into those [component parts] from which also it derived the commencement
of [its] substance. But this event happens neither to the soul, for it is
the breath of life; nor to the spirit, for the spirit is simple and not
composite, so that it cannot be decomposed, and is itself the life of
those who receive it. We must therefore conclude that it is in reference
to the flesh that death is mentioned; which [flesh], after the
soul’s departure, becomes breathless and inanimate, and is
decomposed gradually into the earth from which it was taken. This, then,
is what is mortal. And it is this of which he also says, “He shall
also quicken your mortal bodies.” And therefore in reference to it
he says, in the first [Epistle] to the Corinthians: “So also is the
resurrection of the dead: it is sown in corruption, it rises in
incorruption.” For he declares,
“That which thou sowest cannot be quickened, unless first it
die.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.viii-p8 | 2. But what is that which, like a grain of wheat, is
sown in the earth and decays, unless it be the bodies which are laid in
the earth, into which seeds are also cast? And for this reason he said,
“It is sown in dishonour, it rises in glory.” For what is more ignoble than dead flesh? Or,
on the other hand, what is more glorious than the same when it arises and
partakes of incorruption? “It is sown in weakness, it is raised in
power:” in its own weakness certainly,
because since it is earth it goes to earth; but [it is quickened] by the
power of God, who raises it from the dead. “It is sown an animal
body, it rises a spiritual body.” He has
taught, beyond all doubt, that such language was not used by him, either
with reference to the soul or to the spirit, but to bodies that have
become corpses. For these are animal bodies, that is, [bodies] which
partake of life, which when they have lost, they succumb to death; then,
rising through the Spirit’s instrumentality, they become spiritual
bodies, so that by the Spirit they possess a perpetual life. “For
now,” he says, “we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but
then face to face.” And this it is which
has been said also by Peter: “Whom having not seen, ye love; in
whom now also, not seeing, ye believe; and believing, ye shall rejoice
with joy unspeakable.” For our
face shall see the face of the Lord
and shall rejoice with joy unspeakable,—that is to say, when it
shall behold its own Delight. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.ix-p1 | 1. But we do now receive a certain
portion of His Spirit, tending towards perfection, and preparing us for
incorruption, being little by little accustomed to receive and bear God;
which also the apostle terms “an earnest,” that is, a part of
the honour which has been promised us by God, where he says in the
Epistle to the Ephesians, “In which ye also, having heard the word
of truth, the Gospel of your salvation, believing in which we have been
sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our
inheritance.” This earnest,
therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now, and the
mortal is swallowed up by immortality. “For
ye,” he declares, “are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,
if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.” This, however, does not take place by a casting away of the flesh,
but by the impartation of the Spirit. For those to whom he was writing
were not without flesh, but they were those who had received the Spirit
of God, “by which we cry, Abba, Father.” If therefore, at the present time, having the earnest, we do cry,
“Abba, Father,” what shall it be when, on rising again, we
behold Him face to face; when all the members shall burst out into a
continuous hymn of triumph, glorifying Him who raised them from the dead,
and gave the gift of eternal life? For if the earnest, gathering man into
itself, does even now cause him to cry, “Abba, Father,” what
shall the complete grace of the Spirit effect, which shall be given to
men by God? It will render us like unto Him, and accomplish the will of the Father; for it shall make man
after the image and likeness of God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.ix-p7 |
2. Those persons, then, who possess the
earnest of the Spirit, and who are not enslaved by the lusts of the
flesh, but are subject to the Spirit, and who in all things walk
according to the light of reason, does the apostle properly term
“spiritual,” because the Spirit of God dwells in them. Now,
spiritual men shall not be incorporeal spirits; but our substance, that
is, the union of flesh and spirit, receiving the Spirit of God, makes up
the spiritual man. But those who do indeed reject the Spirit’s
counsel, and are the slaves of fleshly lusts, and lead lives contrary to
reason, and who, without restraint, plunge headlong into their own
desires, having no longing after the Divine Spirit, do live after the
manner of swine and of dogs; these men, [I say], does the apostle very
properly term “carnal,” because they have no thought of
anything else except carnal things. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.ix-p8 | 3. For the same reason, too, do the prophets compare
them to irrational animals, on account of the irrationality of their
conduct, saying, “They have become as horses raging for the
females; each one of them neighing after his neighbour’s
wife.” And again, “Man, when
he was in honour, was made like unto cattle.” This denotes that, for his own fault, he is likened to cattle, by
rivalling their irrational life. And we also, as the custom is, do
designate men of this stamp as cattle and irrational beasts. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.ix-p11 | 4. Now the law has figuratively predicted all
these, delineating man by the [various] animals: whatsoever of these,
says [the Scripture], have a double hoof and ruminate, it proclaims as
clean; but whatsoever of them do not possess one or other of these
[properties], it sets aside by themselves as unclean. Who then are the
clean? Those who make their way by faith steadily towards the Father and
the Son; for this is denoted by the steadiness of those which divide the
hoof; and they meditate day and night upon the words of God, that they may be adorned with good works: for
this is the meaning of the ruminants. The unclean, however, are those
which do neither divide the hoof nor ruminate; that is, those persons who
have neither faith in God, nor do meditate on His words: and such is the
abomination of the Gentiles. But as to those animals which do indeed chew
the cud, but have not the double hoof, and are themselves unclean, we
have in them a figurative description of the Jews, who certainly have the
words of God in their mouth, but who do not fix their rooted stedfastness
in the Father and in the Son; wherefore they are an unstable generation.
For those animals which have the hoof all in one piece easily slip; but
those which have it divided are more sure-footed, their cleft hoofs
succeeding each other as they advance, and the one hoof supporting the
other. In like manner, too, those are unclean which have the double hoof
but do not ruminate: this is plainly an indication of all heretics, and
of those who do not meditate on the words of God, neither are adorned
with works of righteousness; to whom also the Lord says, “Why call
ye Me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say to you?” For men of this stamp do indeed say that they
believe in the Father and the Son, but they never meditate as they should
upon the things of God, neither are they adorned with works of
righteousness; but, as I have already observed, they have adopted the
lives of swine and of dogs, giving themselves over to filthiness, to
gluttony, and recklessness of all sorts. Justly, therefore, did the
apostle call all such “carnal” and “animal,”
—[all those, namely], who through their own unbelief and luxury do
not receive the Divine Spirit, and in their various phases cast out from
themselves the life-giving Word, and walk stupidly after their own lusts:
the prophets, too, spake of them as beasts of burden and wild beasts;
custom likewise has viewed them in the light of cattle and irrational
creatures; and the law has pronounced them unclean. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.x-p1 | 1. Among the other [truths] proclaimed by the apostle,
there is also this one, “That flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God.” This is [the passage]
which is adduced by all the heretics in support of their folly, with an
attempt to annoy us, and to point out that the handiwork of God is not
saved. They do not take this fact into consideration, that there are
three things out of which, as I have shown, the complete man is composed
—flesh, soul, and spirit. One of these does indeed preserve and
fashion [the man]—this is the spirit; while as to another it is
united and formed—that is the flesh; then [comes] that which is
between these two—that is the soul, which sometimes indeed, when
it follows the spirit, is raised up by it, but sometimes it sympathizes
with the flesh, and falls into carnal lusts. Those then, as many as they
be, who have not that which saves and forms [us] into life [eternal],
shall be, and shall be called, [mere] flesh and blood; for these are they
who have not the Spirit of God in themselves. Wherefore men
of this stamp are spoken of by the Lord as “dead;” for, says
He, “Let the dead bury their dead,” because they have not the Spirit which quickens man. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.x-p4 | 2. On the other hand, as many as fear God and trust in
His Son’s advent, and who through faith do establish the Spirit of
God in their hearts,—such men as these shall be properly called
both “pure,” and “spiritual,” and “those
living to God,” because they possess the Spirit of the Father, who
purifies man, and raises him up to the life of God. For as the Lord has
testified that “the flesh is weak,” so [does He also say]
that “the spirit is willing.” For
this latter is capable of working out its own suggestions. If, therefore,
any one admix the ready inclination of the Spirit to be, as it were, a
stimulus to the infirmity of the flesh, it inevitably follows that what
is strong will prevail over the weak, so that the weakness of the flesh
will be absorbed by the strength of the Spirit; and that the man in whom
this takes place cannot in that case be carnal, but spiritual, because of
the fellowship of the Spirit. Thus it is, therefore, that the martyrs
bear their witness, and despise death, not after the infirmity of the
flesh, but because of the readiness of the Spirit. For when the infirmity
of the flesh is absorbed, it exhibits the Spirit as powerful; and again,
when the Spirit absorbs the weakness [of the flesh], it possesses the
flesh as an inheritance in itself, and from both of these is formed a
living man,—living, indeed, because he partakes of the Spirit,
but man, because of the substance of flesh. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.x-p6 | 3. The flesh, therefore, when destitute of the Spirit
of God, is dead, not having life, and cannot possess the kingdom of God:
[it is as] irrational blood, like water poured out upon the ground. And
therefore he says, “As is the earthy, such are they that are
earthy.” But where the Spirit of
the Father is, there is a living man; [there is] the rational blood
preserved by God for the avenging [of those that shed it]; [there is] the
flesh possessed by the Spirit, forgetful indeed of what belongs to it,
and adopting the quality of the Spirit, being made conformable to the
Word of God. And on this account he (the apostle) declares, “As we
have borne the image of him who is of the earth, we shall also bear the
image of Him who is from heaven.” What,
therefore, is the earthly? That which was fashioned. And what is the
heavenly? The Spirit. As therefore he says, when we were destitute of the
celestial Spirit, we walked in former times in the oldness of the flesh,
not obeying God; so now let us, receiving the Spirit, walk in newness of
life, obeying God. Inasmuch, therefore, as without the Spirit of God we
cannot be saved, the apostle exhorts us through faith and chaste
conversation to preserve the Spirit of God, lest, having become
non-participators of the Divine Spirit, we lose the kingdom of heaven;
and he exclaims, that flesh in itself, and blood, cannot possess the
kingdom of God. | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.x-p9 | 4. If, however, we must speak strictly, [we would say
that] the flesh does not inherit, but is inherited; as also
the Lord declares, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess
the earth by inheritance;” as if in
the [future] kingdom, the earth, from whence exists the substance of our
flesh, is to be possessed by inheritance. This is the reason for His
wishing the temple (i.e., the flesh) to be clean, that the Spirit of God
may take delight therein, as a bridegroom with a bride. As, therefore,
the bride cannot [be said] to wed, but to be wedded, when the bridegroom
comes and takes her, so also the flesh cannot by itself possess the
kingdom of God by inheritance; but it can be taken for an
inheritance into the kingdom of God. For a living person inherits the
goods of the deceased; and it is one thing to inherit, another to be
inherited. The former rules, and exercises power over, and orders the
things inherited at his will; but the latter things are in a state of
subjection, are under order, and are ruled over by him who has obtained
the inheritance. What, therefore, is it that lives? The Spirit of God,
doubtless. What, again, are the possessions of the deceased? The various
parts of the man, surely, which rot in the earth. But these are inherited
by the Spirit when they are translated into the kingdom of heaven. For
this cause, too, did Christ die, that the Gospel covenant being
manifested and known to the whole world, might in the first place set
free His slaves; and then afterwards, as I have already shown, might
constitute them heirs of His property, when the Spirit possesses them by
inheritance. For he who lives inherits, but the flesh is inherited. In
order that we may not lose life by losing that Spirit which possesses us,
the apostle, exhorting us to the communion of the Spirit, has said,
according to reason, in those words already quoted, “That flesh and
blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.” Just as if he were to
say, “Do not err; for unless the Word of God dwell with, and the
Spirit of the Father be in you, and if ye shall live frivolously and
carelessly as if ye were this only, viz., mere flesh and blood, ye cannot
inherit the kingdom of God.” | null |
ccel/s/schaff/anf01.xml:ix.vii.xi-p1 | 1. This truth,
therefore, [he declares], in order that we may not reject the engrafting
of the Spirit while pampering the flesh. “But thou, being a wild
olive-tree,” he says, “hast been grafted into the good
olive-tree, and been made a partaker of the fatness of the
olive-tree.” As, therefore, when the
wild olive has been engrafted, if it remain in its former condition,
viz., a wild olive, it is “cut off, and cast into the
fire;” but if it takes kindly to
the graft, and is changed into the good olive-tree, it becomes a
fruit-bearing olive, planted, as it were, in a king’s park
(paradiso): so likewise men, if they do truly progress by faith
towards better things, and receive the Spirit of God, and bring forth the
fruit thereof, shall be spiritual, as being planted in the paradise of
God. But if they cast out the Spirit, and remain in their former
condition, desirous of being of the flesh rather than of the Spirit, then
it is very justly said with regard to men of this stamp, “That
flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God;” just as if any one were to say that the wild
olive is not received into the paradise of God. Admirably therefore does
the apostle exhibit our nature, and God’s universal appointment, in
his discourse about flesh and blood and the wild olive. For as the good
olive, if neglected for a certain time, if left to grow wild and to run
to wood, does itself become a wild olive; or again, if the wild olive be
carefully tended and grafted, it naturally reverts to its former
fruit-bearing condition: so men also, when they become careless, and
bring forth for fruit the lusts of the flesh like woody produce, are
rendered, by their own fault, unfruitful in righteousness. For when men
sleep, the enemy sows the material of tares; and for this cause did the Lord command His disciples to be on
the watch. And again, those persons
who are not bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, and are, as it
were, covered over and lost among brambles, if they use diligence, and
receive the word of God as a graft, arrive at
the pristine nature of man—that which was created after the image
and likeness of God. | null |
Subsets and Splits