But God’s will is especially obeyed by the free-will of good men.

Since many advantages are common to good and bad men: yet they are

nevertheless advantageous only to men of goodness and probity, for

whose sake God created them. For it was for the use of good men that

the influence which is in God’s gifts was originated. Besides, the

thoughts of virtuous men are produced through the inspiration[1173]

of God; the soul being disposed in the way it is, and the divine will

being conveyed to human souls, particular divine ministers contributing

to such services. For regiments of angels are distributed over the

nations and cities.[1174] And, perchance, some are assigned to

individuals.[1175]

The Shepherd, then, cares for each of his sheep; and his closest

inspection is given to those who are excellent in their natures, and

are capable of being most useful. Such are those fit to lead and teach,

in whom the action of Providence is conspicuously seen; whenever

either by instruction, or government, or administration, God wishes

to benefit. But He wishes at all times. Wherefore He moves those who

are adapted to useful exertion in the things which pertain to virtue,

and peace, and beneficence. But all that is characterized by virtue

proceeds from virtue, and leads back to virtue. And it is given either

in order that men may become good, or that those who are so may make

use of their natural advantages. For it co-operates both in what is

general and what is particular. How absurd, then, is it, in those

who attribute disorder and wickedness to the devil, to make him the

bestower of philosophy, a virtuous thing! For he is thus all but made

more benignant to the Greeks, in respect of making men good, than the

divine providence and mind.

Again, I reckon it is the part of law and of right reason to assign

to each one what is appropriate to him, and belongs to him, and falls

to him. For as the lyre is only for the harper, and the flute for

the flute-player; so good things are the possessions of good men. As

the nature of the beneficent is to do good, as it is of the fire to

warm, and the light to give light, and a good man will not do evil, or

light produce darkness, or fire cold; so, again, vice cannot do aught

virtuous. For its activity is to do evil, as that of darkness to dim

the eyes.

Philosophy is not, then, the product of vice, since it makes men

virtuous; it follows, then, that it is the work of God, whose work

it is solely to do good. And all things given by God are given and

received well.

Further, if the practice of philosophy does not belong to the wicked,

but was accorded to the best of the Greeks, it is clear also from what

source it was bestowed--manifestly from Providence, which assigns to

each what is befitting in accordance with his deserts.

Rightly, then, to the Jews belonged the Law, and to the Greeks

Philosophy, until the Advent; and after that came the universal calling

to be a peculiar people of righteousness, through the teaching which

flows from faith, brought together by one Lord, the only God of both

Greeks and Barbarians, or rather of the whole race of men. We have

often called by the name philosophy that portion of truth attained

through philosophy, although but partial.

Now, too, what is good in the arts as arts,[1176] have their beginning

from God. For as the doing of anything artistically is embraced in the

rules of art, so also acting sagaciously is classed under the head of

sagacity (φρόνησις). Now sagacity is virtue, and it is its function to

know other things, but much more especially what belongs to itself. And

Wisdom (_Σοφία_) being power, is nothing but the knowledge of good

things, divine and human.

But “the earth is God’s, and the fulness thereof,”[1177] says the

Scripture, teaching that good things come from God to men; it being

through divine power and might that the distribution of them comes to

the help of man.

Now the modes of all help and communication from one to another are

three. One is, by attending to another, as the master of gymnastics,

in training the boy. The second is, by assimilation, as in the case of

one who exhorts another to benevolence by practising it before. The one

co-operates with the learner, and the other benefits him who receives.

The third mode is that by command, when the gymnastic master, no longer

training the learner, nor showing in his own person the exercise for

the boy to imitate, prescribes the exercise by name to him, as already

proficient in it.

The Gnostic, accordingly, having received from God the power to be of

service, benefits some by disciplining them, by bestowing attention

on them; others, by exhorting them, by assimilation; and others, by

training and teaching them, by command. And certainly he himself is

equally benefited by the Lord. Thus, then, the benefit that comes

from God to men becomes known--angels at the same time lending

encouragement. For by angels, whether seen or not, the divine power

bestows good things. Such was the mode adopted in the advent of the

Lord. And sometimes also the power “breathes” in men’s thoughts and

reasonings, and “puts in” their hearts “strength” and a keener

perception, and furnishes “prowess” and “boldness of alacrity”[1178]

both for researches and deeds.

But exposed for imitation and assimilation are truly admirable and

holy examples of virtue in the actions put on record. Further, the

department of action is most conspicuous both in the testaments of

the Lord, and in the laws in force among the Greeks, and also in the

precepts of philosophy.

And to speak comprehensively, all benefit appertaining to life, in its

highest reason, proceeding from the Sovereign God, the Father who is

over all, is consummated by the Son, who also on this account “is the

Saviour of all men,” says the apostle, “but especially of those who

believe.”[1179] But in respect of its immediate reason, it is from

those next to each, in accordance with the command and injunction of

Him who is nearest the First Cause, that is, the Lord.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE USE OF PHILOSOPHY TO THE GNOSTIC.

_Greek philosophy the recreation of the Gnostic._

Now our Gnostic always occupies himself with the things of highest

importance. But if at any time he has leisure and time for relaxation

from what is of prime consequence, he applies himself to Hellenic

philosophy in preference to other recreation, feasting on it as a

kind of dessert at supper. Not that he neglects what is superior; but

that he takes this in addition, as long as proper, for the reasons I

mentioned above. But those who give their mind to the unnecessary and

superfluous points of philosophy, and addict themselves to wrangling

sophisms alone, abandon what is necessary and most essential, pursuing

plainly the shadows of words.

It is well indeed to know all. But the man whose soul is destitute

of the ability to reach to acquaintance with many subjects of study,

will select the principal and better subjects alone. For real science

(ἐπιστήμη, which we affirm the Gnostic alone possesses) is a sure

comprehension (κατάληψις), leading up through true and sure reasons to

the knowledge (γνῶσις) of the cause. And he, who is acquainted with

what is true respecting any one subject, becomes of course acquainted

with what is false respecting it.

_Philosophy necessary._

For truly it appears to me to be a proper point for discussion, Whether

we ought to philosophize: for its terms are consistent.

But if we are not to philosophize, what then? (For no one can condemn a

thing without first knowing it): the consequence, even in that case, is

that we must philosophize.[1180]

_First of all, idols are to be rejected._

Such, then, being the case, the Greeks ought by the Law and the

Prophets to learn to worship one God only, the only Sovereign; then

to be taught by the apostle, “but to us an idol is nothing in the

world,”[1181] since nothing among created things can be a likeness of

God; and further, to be taught that none of those images which they

worship can be similitudes: for the race of souls is not in form such

as the Greeks fashion their idols. For souls are invisible; not only

those that are rational, but those also of the other animals. And their

bodies never become parts of the souls themselves, but organs--partly

as seats, partly as vehicles--and in other cases possessions in various

ways. But it is not possible to copy accurately even the likenesses of

the organs; since, were it so, one might model the sun, as it is seen,

and take the likeness of the rainbow in colours.

After abandoning idols, then, they will hear the Scripture, “Unless

your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and

Pharisees”[1182] (who justified themselves in the way of abstinence

from what was evil),--so as, along with such perfection as they

evinced, and “the loving of your neighbour,” to be able also to do

good,--you shall not “be kingly.”[1183]

For intensification of the righteousness which is according to the law

shows the Gnostic. So one who is placed in the head, which is that

which rules its own body--and who advances to the summit of faith,

which is the knowledge (_gnosis_) itself, for which all the organs

of perception exist--will likewise obtain the highest inheritance.

The primacy of knowledge the apostle shows to those capable of

reflection, in writing to those Greeks of Corinth, in the following

terms: “But having hope, when your faith is increased, that we shall be

magnified in you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the gospel

beyond you.”[1184] He does not mean the extension of his preaching

locally: for he says also that in Achaia faith abounded; and it is

related also in the Acts of the Apostles that he preached the word in

Athens.[1185] But he teaches that knowledge (_gnosis_), which

is the perfection of faith, goes beyond catechetical instruction, in

accordance with the magnitude of the Lord’s teaching and the rule of

the church. Wherefore also he proceeds to add, “And if I am rude in

speech, yet I am not in knowledge.”[1186]

_Whence is the knowledge of truth?_

But let those who vaunt on account of having apprehended the truth

tell us from whom they boast of having heard it. They will not say

from God, but will admit that it was from men. And if so, it is

either from themselves that they have learned it lately, as some of

them arrogantly boast, or from others like them. But human teachers,

speaking of God, are not reliable, as men. For he that is man cannot

speak worthily the truth concerning God: the feeble and mortal [cannot

speak worthily] of the Unoriginated and Incorruptible--the work, of the

Workman. Then he who is incapable of speaking what is true respecting

himself, is he not much less reliable in what concerns God? For just as

far as man is inferior to God in power, so much feebler is man’s speech

than Him; although he do not declare God, but only speak about God and

the divine word. For human speech is by nature feeble, and incapable of

uttering God. I do not say His name. For to name it is common, not to

philosophers only, but also to poets. Nor [do I say] His essence; for

this is impossible, but the power and the works of God.

Those even who claim God as their teacher, with difficulty attain to a

conception of God, grace aiding them to the attainment of their modicum

of knowledge; accustomed as they are to contemplate the will [of God]

by the will, and the Holy Spirit by the Holy Spirit. “For the Spirit

searches the deep things of God. But the natural man receiveth not the

things of the Spirit.”[1187]

The only wisdom, therefore, is the God-taught wisdom we possess; on

which depend all the sources of wisdom, which make conjectures at the

truth.

_Intimations of the Teacher’s advent._

Assuredly of the coming of the Lord, who has taught us, to men, there

were a myriad indicators, heralds, preparers, precursors, from the

beginning, from the foundation of the world, intimating beforehand by

deeds and words, prophesying that He would come, and where, and how,

what should be the signs. From afar certainly Law and Prophecy kept Him

in view beforehand. And then the precursor pointed Him out as present.

After whom the heralds point out by their teaching the virtue of His

manifestation.

_Universal diffusion of the gospel a contrast to philosophy._

The philosophers, however, chose to [teach philosophy] to the Greeks

alone,[1188] and not even to all of them; but Socrates to Plato, and

Plato to Xenocrates, Aristotle to Theophrastus, and Zeno to Cleanthes,

who persuaded their own followers alone.

But the word of our Teacher remained not in Judea alone, as philosophy

did in Greece; but was diffused over the whole world, over every

nation, and village, and town, bringing already over to the truth whole

houses, and each individual of those who heard it by him himself, and

not a few of the philosophers themselves.

And if any one ruler whatever prohibit the Greek philosophy, it

vanishes forthwith. But our doctrine on its very first proclamation

was prohibited by kings and tyrants together, as well as particular

rulers and governors, with all their mercenaries, and in addition by

innumerable men, warring against us, and endeavouring as far as they

could to exterminate it. But it flourishes the more. For it dies not,

as human doctrine dies, nor fades as a fragile gift. For no gift of God

is fragile. But it remains unchecked, though prophesied as destined to

be persecuted to the end. Thus Plato writes of poetry: “A poet is a

light and a sacred thing, and cannot write poetry till he be inspired

and lose his senses.” And Democritus similarly: “Whatever things a

poet writes with divine afflatus, and with a sacred spirit, are very

beautiful.” And we know what sort of things poets say. And shall no one

be amazed at the prophets of God Almighty becoming the organs of the

divine voice?

Having then moulded, as it were, a statue of the Gnostic, we have now

shown who he is; indicating in outline, as it were, both the greatness

and beauty of his character. What he is as to the study of physical

phenomena shall be shown afterwards, when we begin to treat of the

creation of the world.

BOOK VII.

CHAPTER I.

THE GNOSTIC A TRUE WORSHIPPER OF GOD, AND UNJUSTLY

CALUMNIATED BY UNBELIEVERS AS AN ATHEIST.

It is now time to show the Greeks that the Gnostic alone is truly

pious; so that the philosophers, learning of what description the

true Christian is, may condemn their own stupidity in rashly and

inconsiderately persecuting the [Christian] name, and without reason

calling those impious who know the true God. And clearer arguments must

be employed, I reckon, with the philosophers, so that they may be able,

from the exercise they have already had through their own training,

to understand, although they have not yet shown themselves worthy to

partake of the power of believing.

The prophetic sayings we shall not at present advert to, as we are to

avail ourselves of the Scriptures subsequently at the proper places.

But we shall point out summarily the points indicated by them, in our

delineation of Christianity, so that by taking the Scriptures at once

(especially as they do not yet comprehend their utterances), we may not

interrupt the continuity of the discourse. But after pointing out the

things indicated, proofs shall be shown in abundance to those who have

believed.

But if the assertions made by us appear to certain of the multitude

to be different from the Scriptures of the Lord, let it be known that

it is from that source that they have breath and life; and taking

their rise from them, they profess to adduce the sense only, not the

words. For further treatment, not being seasonable, will rightly appear

superfluous. Thus, not to look at what is urgent would be excessively

indolent and defective; and “blessed, in truth, are they who,

investigating the testimonies of the Lord, shall seek Him with their

whole heart.”[1189] And the law and the prophets witness of the Lord.

It is, then, our purpose to prove that the Gnostic alone is holy and

pious, and worships the true God in a manner worthy of Him; and that

worship meet for God is followed by loving and being loved by God. He

accordingly judges all excellence to be honourable according to its

worth; and judges that among the objects perceived by our senses, we

are to esteem rulers, and parents, and every one advanced in years;

and among subjects of instruction, the most ancient philosophy and

primeval prophecy; and among intellectual ideas, what is oldest in

origin, the timeless and unoriginated First Principle, and Beginning

of existences--the Son--from whom we are to learn the remoter Cause,

the Father of the universe, the most ancient and the most beneficent

of all; not capable of expression by the voice, but to be reverenced

with reverence, and silence, and holy wonder, and supremely venerated;

declared by the Lord, as far as those who learned were capable of

comprehending, and understood by those chosen by the Lord to knowledge;

“whose senses,” says the apostle, “were exercised.”[1190]

The service of God, then, in the case of the Gnostic, is his soul’s

continual study[1191] and occupation, bestowed on the Deity in

ceaseless love. For of the service bestowed on men, one kind is that

whose aim is improvement, the other ministerial. The improvement of

the body is the object of the medical art, of the soul of philosophy.

Ministerial service is rendered to parents by children, to rulers by

subjects.

Similarly, also, in the church, the elders attend to the department

which has improvement for its object; and the deacons to the

ministerial. In both these ministries the angels serve God, in the

management of earthly affairs; and the Gnostic himself ministers to

God, and exhibits to men the scheme of improvement, in the way in

which he has been appointed to discipline men for their amendment. For

he is alone pious that serves God rightly and unblameably in human

affairs. For as that treatment of plants is best through which their

fruits are produced and gathered in, through knowledge and skill

in husbandry, affording men the benefit accruing from them; so the

piety of the Gnostic, taking to itself the fruits of the men who by

his means have believed, when not a few attain to knowledge and are

saved by it, achieves by his skill the best harvest. And as godliness

(θεοπρέπεια) is the habit which preserves what is becoming to God, the

godly man is the only lover of God. And such will he be who knows what

is becoming, both in respect of knowledge and of the life which must be

lived by him, who is destined to be divine (θεῷ), and is already being

assimilated to God. So then he is in the first place a lover of God.

For as he who honours his father is a lover of his father, so he who

honours God is a lover of God.

Thus also it appears to me that there are three effects of gnostic

power: the knowledge of things; second, the performance of whatever the

Word suggests; and the third, the capability of delivering, in a way

suitable to God, the secrets veiled in the truth.

He, then, who is persuaded that God is omnipotent, and has learned the

divine mysteries from His only-begotten Son, how can he be an atheist

(ἄθεος)? For he is an atheist who thinks that God does not exist. And

he is superstitious who dreads the demons; who deifies all things, both

wood and stone; and reduces to bondage spirit, and man who possesses

the life of reason.[1192]

CHAPTER II.

THE SON THE RULER AND SAVIOUR OF ALL.

To know[1193] God is, then, the first step of faith; then, through

confidence in the teaching of the Saviour, to consider the doing of

wrong in any way as not suitable to the knowledge of God.

So the best thing on earth is the most pious man; and the best thing in

heaven, the nearer in place and purer, is an angel, the partaker of the

eternal and blessed life. But the nature of the Son, which is nearest

to Him who is alone the Almighty One, is the most perfect, and most

holy, and most potent, and most princely, and most kingly, and most

beneficent. This is the highest excellence, which orders all things in

accordance with the Father’s will, and holds the helm of the universe

in the best way, with unwearied and tireless power, working all things

in which it operates, keeping in view its hidden designs. For from

His own point of view the Son of God is never displaced; not being

divided, not severed, not passing from place to place; being always

everywhere, and being contained nowhere; complete mind, the complete

paternal light; all eyes, seeing all things, hearing all things,

knowing all things, by His power scrutinizing the powers. To Him is

placed in subjection all the host of angels and gods; He, the paternal

Word, exhibiting[1194] the holy administration for Him who put [all] in

subjection to Him.

Wherefore also all men are His; some through knowledge, and others

not yet so; and some as friends, some as faithful servants, some

as servants merely. This is the Teacher, who trains the Gnostic by

mysteries, and the believer by good hopes, and the hard of heart

by corrective discipline through sensible operation. Thence His

providence is in private, in public, and everywhere.

And that He whom we call Saviour and Lord is the Son of God, the

prophetic Scriptures explicitly prove. So the Lord of all, of Greeks

and of Barbarians, persuades those who are willing. For He does not

compel him[1195] who (through choosing and fulfilling, from Him, what

pertains to laying hold of it the hope) is able to receive salvation

from Him.

It is He who also gave philosophy to the Greeks by means of the

inferior angels. For by an ancient and divine order the angels are

distributed among the nations.[1196] But the glory of those who believe

is “the Lord’s portion.” For either the Lord does not care for all

men; and this is the case either because He is unable (which is not

to be thought, for it would be a proof of weakness), or because He

is unwilling, which is not the attribute of a good being. And He who

for our sakes assumed flesh capable of suffering, is far from being

luxuriously indolent. Or He does care for all, which is befitting for

Him who has become Lord of all. For He is Saviour; not [the Saviour]

of some, and of others not. But in proportion to the adaptation

possessed by each, He has dispensed His beneficence both to Greeks

and Barbarians, even to those of them that were predestinated, and in

due time called, the faithful and elect. Nor can He who called all

equally, and assigned special honours to those who have believed in a

specially excellent way, ever envy any. Nor can He who is the Lord of

all, and serves above all the will of the good and almighty Father,

ever be hindered by another. But neither does envy touch the Lord, who

without beginning was impassible; nor are the things of men such as to

be envied by the Lord. But it is another, he whom passion hath touched,

who envies. And it cannot be said that it is from ignorance that the

Lord is not willing to save humanity, because He knows not how each

one is to be cared for. For ignorance applies not to the God who,

before the foundation of the world, was the counsellor of the Father.

For He was the Wisdom “in which” the Sovereign God “delighted.”[1197]

For the Son is the power of God, as being the Father’s most ancient

Word before the production of all things, and His Wisdom. He is then

properly called the Teacher of the beings formed by Him. Nor does He

ever abandon care for men, by being drawn aside from pleasure, who,

having assumed flesh, which by nature is susceptible of suffering,

trained it to the condition of impassibility.

And how is He Saviour and Lord, if not the Saviour and Lord of all? But

He is the Saviour of those who have believed, because of their wishing

to know; and the Lord of those who have not believed, till, being

enabled to confess Him, they obtain the peculiar and appropriate boon

which comes by Him.

Now the energy of the Lord has a reference to the Almighty; and the Son

is, so to speak, an energy of the Father. Therefore, a hater of man,

the Saviour can never be; who, for His exceeding love to human flesh,

despising not its susceptibility to suffering, but investing Himself

with it, came for the common salvation of men; for the faith of those

who have chosen it, is common. Nay more, He will never neglect His

own work, because man alone of all the other living creatures was in

his creation endowed with a conception of God. Nor can there be any

other better and more suitable government for men than that which is

appointed by God.

It is then always proper for the one who is superior by nature to be

over the inferior, and for him who is capable of managing aught well to

have the management of it assigned to him. Now that which truly rules

and presides is the Divine Word and His providence, which inspects all

things, and despises the care of nothing belonging to it.

Those, then, who choose to belong to Him, are those who are perfected

through faith. He, the Son, is, by the will of the Almighty Father,

the cause of all good things, being the first efficient cause of

motion--a power incapable of being apprehended by sensation. For

what He was, was not seen by those who, through the weakness of the

flesh, were incapable of taking in [the reality]. But, having assumed

sensitive flesh, He came to show man what was possible through

obedience to the commandments. Being, then, the Father’s power, He

easily prevails in what He wishes, leaving not even the minutest point

of His administration unattended to. For otherwise the whole would not

have been well executed by Him.

But, as I think, characteristic of the highest power is the accurate

scrutiny of all the parts, reaching even to the minutest, terminating

in the first Administrator of the universe, who by the will of the

Father directs the salvation of all; some overlooking, who are set

under others, who are set over them, till you come to the great High

Priest. For on one original first Principle, which acts according to

the [Father’s] will, the first and the second and the third depend.

Then at the highest extremity of the visible world is the blessed band

of angels; and down to ourselves there are ranged, some under others,

those who, from One and by One, both are saved and save.

As, then, the minutest particle of steel is moved by the spirit of

the Heraclean stone,[1198] when diffused[1199] over many steel rings;

so also, attracted by the Holy Spirit, the virtuous are added by

affinity to the first abode, and the others in succession down to

the last. But those who are bad from infirmity, having fallen from

vicious insatiableness into a depraved state, neither controlling nor

controlled, rush round and round, whirled about by the passions, and

fall down to the ground.

For this was the law from the first, that virtue should be the object

of voluntary choice. Wherefore also the commandments, according to the

Law, and before the Law, not given to the upright (for the law is not

appointed for a righteous man[1200]), ordained that he should receive

eternal life and the blessed prize, who chose them.

But, on the other hand, they allowed him who had been delighted with

vice to consort with the objects of his choice; and, on the other hand,

that the soul, which is ever improving in the acquisition[1201] of

virtue and the increase of righteousness, should obtain a better place

in the universe, as tending in each step of advancement towards the

habit of impassibility, till “it come to a perfect man,”[1202] to the

excellence at once of knowledge and of inheritance.

These salutary revolutions, in accordance with the order of change, are

distinguished both by times, and places, and honours, and cognitions,

and heritages, and ministries, according to the particular order of

each change, up to the transcendent and continual contemplation of the

Lord in eternity.

Now that which is lovable leads, to the contemplation of itself,

each one who, from love of knowledge, applies himself entirely to

contemplation. Wherefore also the Lord, drawing the commandments, both

the first which He gave, and the second, from one fountain, neither

allowed those who were before the law to be without law, nor permitted

those who were unacquainted with the principles of the Barbarian

philosophy to be without restraint. For, having furnished the one with

the commandments, and the other with philosophy, He shut up unbelief to

the Advent. Whence[1203] every one who believes not is without excuse.

For by a different process of advancement, both Greek and Barbarian, He

leads to the perfection which is by faith.

And if any one of the Greeks, passing over the preliminary training

of the Hellenic philosophy, proceeds directly to the true teaching,

he distances others, though an unlettered man, by choosing[1204] the

compendious process of salvation by faith to perfection.

Everything, then, which did not hinder a man’s choice from being free,

He made and rendered auxiliary to virtue, in order that there might be

revealed somehow or other, even to those capable of seeing but dimly,

the one only almighty, good God---from eternity to eternity saving by

His Son.

And, on the other hand, He is in no respect whatever the cause of

evil. For all things are arranged with a view to the salvation of the

universe by the Lord of the universe, both generally and particularly.

It is then the function of the righteousness of salvation to improve

everything as far as practicable. For even minor matters are arranged

with a view to the salvation of that which is better, and for an

abode suitable for people’s character. Now everything that is

virtuous changes for the better; having as the proper[1205] cause of

change the free choice of knowledge, which the soul has in its own

power. But necessary corrections, through the goodness of the great

overseeing Judge, both by the attendant angels, and by various acts of

anticipative judgment, and by the perfect judgment, compel egregious

sinners to repent.

CHAPTER III.

THE GNOSTIC AIMS AT THE NEAREST LIKENESS POSSIBLE

TO GOD AND HIS SON.

Now I pass over other things in silence, glorifying the Lord.

But I affirm that gnostic souls, that surpass in the grandeur of

contemplation the mode of life of each of the holy ranks, among whom

the blessed abodes of the gods are allotted by distribution, reckoned

holy among the holy, transferred entire from among the entire, reaching

places better than the better places, embracing the divine vision not

in mirrors or by means of mirrors, but in the transcendently clear and

absolutely pure insatiable vision which is the privilege of intensely

loving souls, holding festival through endless ages, remain honoured

with the identity of all excellence. Such is the vision attainable by

“the pure in heart.”[1206] This is the function of the Gnostic, who

has been perfected, to have converse with God through the great High

Priest, being made like the Lord, up to the measure of his capacity,

in the whole service of God, which tends to the salvation of men,

through care of the beneficence which has us for its object; and on the

other side through worship, through teaching and through beneficence

in deeds. The Gnostic even forms and creates himself; and besides

also, he, like to God, adorns those who hear him; assimilating as

far as possible the moderation which, arising from practice, tends

to impassibility, to Him who by nature possesses impassibility; and

especially having uninterrupted converse and fellowship with the Lord.

Mildness, I think, and philanthropy, and eminent piety, are the rules

of gnostic assimilation. I affirm that these virtues “are a sacrifice

acceptable in the sight of God;”[1207] Scripture alleging that “the

humble heart with right knowledge is the holocaust of God;”[1208]

each man who is admitted to holiness being illuminated in order to

indissoluble union.

For “to bring themselves into captivity,” and to slay themselves,

putting to death “the old man, who is through lusts corrupt,” and

raising the new man from death, “from the old conversation,” by

abandoning the passions, and becoming free of sin, both the Gospel and

the apostle enjoin.[1209]

It was this, consequently, which the Law intimated, by ordering the

sinner to be cut off, and translated from death to life, to the

impassibility that is the result of faith; which the teachers of

the Law, not comprehending, inasmuch as they regarded the law as

contentious, they have given a handle to those who attempt idly to

calumniate the Law. And for this reason we rightly do not sacrifice to

God, who, needing nothing, supplies all men with all things; but we

glorify Him who gave Himself in sacrifice for us, we also sacrificing

ourselves; from that which needs nothing to that which needs nothing,

and to that which is impassible from that which is impassible. For

in our salvation alone God delights. We do not therefore, and with

reason too, offer sacrifice to Him who is not overcome by pleasures,

inasmuch as the fumes of the smoke stop far beneath, and do not even

reach the thickest clouds; but those they reach are far from them. The

Deity neither is, then, in want of aught, nor loves pleasure, or gain,

or money, being full, and supplying all things to everything that has

received being and has wants. And neither by sacrifices nor offerings,

nor on the other hand by glory and honour, is the Deity won over; nor

is He influenced by any such things; but He appears only to excellent

and good men, who will never betray justice for threatened fear, nor by

the promise of considerable gifts.

But those who have not seen the self-determination of the human soul,

and its incapability of being treated as a slave in what respects the

choice of life, being disgusted at what is done through rude injustice,

do not think that there is a God. On a par with these in opinion, are

they who, falling into licentiousness in pleasures, and grievous pains,

and unlooked-for accidents, and bidding defiance to events, say that

there is no God, or that, though existing, He does not oversee all

things. And others there are, who are persuaded that those they reckon

gods are capable of being prevailed upon by sacrifices and gifts,

favouring, so to speak, their profligacies; and will not believe that

He is the only true God, who exists in the invariableness of righteous

goodness.

The Gnostic, then, is pious, who cares first for himself, then for his

neighbours, that they may become very good. For the son gratifies a

good father, by showing himself good and like his father; and in like

manner the subject, the governor. For believing and obeying are in our

own power.

But should any one suppose the cause of evils to be the weakness

of matter, and the involuntary impulses of ignorance, and (in his

stupidity) irrational necessities; he who has become a Gnostic has

through instruction superiority over these, as if they were wild

beasts; and in imitation of the divine plan, he does good to such as

are willing, as far as he can. And if ever placed in authority, like

Moses, he will rule for the salvation of the governed; and will tame

wildness and faithlessness, by recording honour for the most excellent,

and punishment for the wicked, in accordance with reason for the sake

of discipline.

For pre-eminently a divine image, resembling God, is the soul of a

righteous man; in which, through obedience to the commands, as in a

consecrated spot, is enclosed and enshrined the Leader of mortals and

of immortals, King and Parent of what is good, who is truly law, and

right, and eternal Word, being the one Saviour individually to each,

and in common to all.

He is the true Only-begotten, the express image of the glory of the

universal King and Almighty Father, who impresses on the Gnostic the

seal of the perfect contemplation, according to His own image; so that

there is now a third divine image, made as far as possible like the

Second Cause, the Essential Life, through which we live the true life;

the Gnostic, as we regard him, being described as moving amid things

sure and wholly immutable.

Ruling, then, over himself and what belongs to him, and possessing

a sure grasp of divine science, he makes a genuine approach to the

truth. For the knowledge and apprehension of intellectual objects must

necessarily be called certain scientific knowledge, whose function in

reference to divine things is to consider what is the First Cause, and

what that “by whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was

made;”[1210] and what things, on the other hand, are as pervasive,

and what as comprehensive; what conjoined, what disjoined; and what

is the position which each one of them holds, and what power and what

service each contributes. And again, among human things, what man

himself is, and what he has naturally or preternaturally; and how,

again, it becomes him to do or to suffer; and what are his virtues and

what his vices; and about things good, bad, and indifferent; also about

fortitude, and prudence, and self-restraint, and the virtue which is in

all respects complete, namely, righteousness.

Further, he employs prudence and righteousness in the acquisition of

wisdom, and fortitude, not only in the endurance of circumstances, but

also in restraining[1211] pleasure and desire, grief and anger; and,

in general, to withstand[1212] everything which either by any force or

fraud entices us. For it is not necessary to endure vices and virtues,

but it is to be persuaded to bear things that inspire fear.

Accordingly, pain is found beneficial in the healing art, and in

discipline, and in punishment; and by it men’s manners are corrected

to their advantage. Forms of fortitude are endurance, magnanimity,

high spirit, liberality, and grandeur. And for this reason he neither

meets with the blame or the bad opinion of the multitude; nor is he

subjected to opinions or flatteries. But in the endurance of toils and

at the same time[1213] in the discharge of any duty, and in his manly

superiority to all circumstances, he appears truly a man (ἀνήρ) among

the rest of human beings. And, on the other hand, maintaining prudence,

he exercises moderation in the calmness of his soul; receptive of what

is commanded, as of what belongs to him, entertaining aversion to what

is base, as alien to him; become decorous and supramundane,[1214] he

does everything with decorum and in order, and transgresses in no

respect, and in nothing. Rich he is in the highest degree in desiring

nothing, as having few wants; and being in the midst of abundance

of all good through the knowledge of the good. For it is the first

effect of his righteousness, to love to spend his time and associate

with those of his own race both in earth and heaven. So also he is

liberal of what he possesses. And being a lover of men, he is a hater

of the wicked, entertaining a perfect aversion to all villainy. He

must consequently learn to be faithful both to himself and to his

neighbours, and obedient to the commandments. For he is the true

servant of God who spontaneously subjects himself to His commands. And

he who already, not through the commandments, but through knowledge

itself, is pure in heart, is the friend of God. For neither are we

born by nature possessing virtue, nor after we are born does it grow

naturally, as certain parts of the body; since then it would neither

be voluntary nor praiseworthy. Nor is virtue, like speech, perfected

by the practice that results from every-day occurrences (for this is

very much the way in which vice originates). For it is not by any art,

either those of acquisition, or those which relate to the care of the

body, that knowledge is attained. No more is it from the curriculum of

instruction. For that is satisfied if it can only prepare and sharpen

the soul. For the laws of the state are perchance able to restrain bad

actions; but persuasive words, which but touch the surface, cannot

produce a scientific permanence of the truth.

Now the Greek philosophy, as it were, purges the soul, and prepares it

beforehand for the reception of faith, on which the Truth builds up the

edifice of knowledge.

This is the true athlete--he who in the great stadium, the fair world,

is crowned for the true victory over all the passions. For He who

prescribes the contest is the Almighty God, and He who awards the

prize is the only-begotten Son of God. Angels and gods are spectators;

and the contest, embracing all the varied exercises, is “not against

flesh and blood,”[1215] but against the spiritual powers of inordinate

passions that work through the flesh. He who obtains the mastery in

these struggles, and overthrows the tempter, menacing, as it were, with

certain contests, wins immortality. For the sentence of God in most

righteous judgment is infallible. The spectators[1216] are summoned to

the contest, and the athletes contend in the stadium; the one, who has

obeyed the directions of the trainer, wins the day. For to all, all

rewards proposed by God are equal; and He Himself is unimpeachable.

And he who has power receives mercy, and he that has exercised will is

mighty.

So also we have received mind, that we may know what we do. And the

maxim “Know thyself” means here to know for what we are born. And we

are born to obey the commandments, if we choose to be willing to be

saved. Such is the Nemesis,[1217] through which there is no escaping

from God. Man’s duty, then, is obedience to God, who has proclaimed

salvation manifold by the commandments. And confession is thanksgiving.

For the beneficent first begins to do good. And he who on fitting

considerations readily receives and keeps the commandments, is faithful

(πιστός); and he who by love requites benefits as far as he is able,

is already a friend. One recompense on the part of men is of paramount

importance--the doing of what is pleasing to God. As being His own

production, and a result akin to Himself, the Teacher and Saviour

receives acts of assistance and of improvement on the part of men as a

personal favour and honour; as also He regards the injuries inflicted

on those who believe on Him as ingratitude and dishonour to Himself.

For what other dishonour can touch God? Wherefore it is impossible to

render a recompense at all equivalent to the boon received from the

Lord.

And as those who maltreat property insult the owners, and those who

maltreat soldiers insult the commander, so also the ill-usage of His

consecrated ones is contempt for the Lord.

For, just as the sun not only illumines heaven and the whole world,

shining over land and sea, but also through windows and small chinks

sends his beams into the innermost recesses of houses, so the Word

diffused everywhere casts His eye-glance on the minutest circumstances

of the actions of life.

CHAPTER IV.

THE HEATHENS MADE GODS LIKE THEMSELVES, WHENCE

SPRINGS ALL SUPERSTITION.

Now, as the Greeks represent the gods as possessing human forms, so

also do they as possessing human passions. And as each of them depict

their forms similar to themselves, as Xenophanes says, “Ethiopians as

black and apes, the Thracians ruddy and tawny;” so also they assimilate

their souls to those who form them: the Barbarians, for instance,

who make them savage and wild; and the Greeks, who make them more

civilised, yet subject to passion.

Wherefore it stands to reason, that the ideas entertained of God by

wicked men must be bad, and those by good men most excellent. And

therefore he who is in soul truly kingly and gnostic, being likewise

pious and free from superstition, is persuaded that He who alone is God

is honourable, venerable, august, beneficent, the doer of good, the

author of all good things, but not the cause of evil. And respecting

the Hellenic superstition we have, as I think, shown enough in the book

entitled by us _The Exhortation_, availing ourselves abundantly of

the history bearing on the point. There is no need, then, again to make

a long story of what has already been clearly stated. But in as far as

necessity requires to be pointed out on coming to the topic, suffice it

to adduce a few out of many considerations in proof of the impiety of

those who make the Divinity resemble the worst men. For either those

gods of theirs are injured by men, and are shown to be inferior to men

on being injured by us; or, if not so, how is it that they are incensed

at those by whom they are not injured, like a testy old wife roused to

wrath?

As they say that Artemis was enraged at the Ætolians on account of

Œneus.[1218] For how, being a goddess, did she not consider that he had

neglected to sacrifice, not through contempt, but out of inadvertence,

or under the idea that he had sacrificed?

And Latona,[1219] arguing her case with Athene, on account of the

latter being incensed at her for having brought forth in the temple,

says:

“Man-slaying spoils

Torn from the dead you love to see. And these

To you are not unclean. But you regard

My parturition here a horrid thing,

Though other creatures in the temple do

No harm by bringing forth their young.”

It is natural, then, that having a superstitions dread of those

irascible [gods], they imagine that all events are signs and causes of

evils. If a mouse bore through an altar built of clay, and for want

of something else gnaw through an oil flask; if a cock that is being

fattened crow in the evening, they determine this to be a sign of

something.

Of such a one Menander gives a comic description in _The

Superstitious Man_:

“_A._ Good luck be mine, ye honoured gods!

Tying my right shoe’s string,

I broke it.”

“_B._ Most likely, silly fool,

For it was rotten, and you, niggard, you

Would not buy new ones.”[1220]

It was a clever remark of Antiphon, who (when one regarded it as an ill

omen that the sow had eaten her pigs), on seeing her emaciated through

the niggardliness of the person that kept her, said, Congratulate

yourself on the omen that, being so hungry, she did not eat your own

children.

“And what wonder is it,” says Bion, “if the mouse, finding nothing to

eat, gnaws the bag?” For it were wonderful if (as Arcesilaus argued in

fun) “the bag had eaten the mouse.”

Diogenes accordingly remarked well to one who wondered at finding a

serpent coiled round a pestle: “Don’t wonder; for it would have been

more surprising if you had seen the pestle coiled round the serpent,

and the serpent straight.”

For the irrational creatures must run, and scamper, and fight, and

breed, and die; and these things being natural to them, can never be

unnatural to us.

“And many birds beneath the sunbeams walk.”[1221]

And the comic poet Philemon treats such points in comedy:

“When I see one who watches who has sneezed,

Or who has spoke; or looking, who goes on,

I straightway in the market sell him off.

Each one of us walks, talks, and sneezes too,

For his own self, not for the citizens:

According to their nature things turn out.”

Then by the practice of temperance men seek health; and by cramming

themselves, and wallowing in potations at feasts, they attract diseases.

There are many, too, that dread inscriptions set up. Very cleverly

Diogenes, on finding in the house of a bad man the inscription,

“Hercules, for victory famed, dwells here; let nothing bad enter,”

remarked, “And how shall the master of the house go in?”

The same people, who worship every stick and greasy stone, as the

saying is, dread tufts of tawny wool, and lumps of salt, and torches,

and squills, and sulphur, bewitched by sorcerers, in certain impure

rites of expiation. But God, the true God, recognises as holy only the

character of the righteous man,--as unholy, wrong and wickedness.

You may see the eggs,[1222] taken from those who have been purified,

hatched if subjected to the necessary warmth. But this could not take

place if they had had transferred to them the sins of the man that had

undergone purification. Accordingly the comic poet Diphilus facetiously

writes, in comedy, of sorcerers, in the following words:

“Purifying Prœtus’ daughters, and their father

Prœtus Abantades, and fifth, an old wife to boot,

So many people’s persons with one torch, one squill,

With sulphur and asphalt of the loud-sounding sea,

From the placid-flowing, deep-flowing ocean.

But blest air through the clouds send Anticyra

That I may make this bug into a drone.”

For well Menander remarks:[1223]

“Had you, O Phidias, any real ill,

You needs must seek for it a real cure;

Now ’tis not so. And for the unreal ill

I’ve found an unreal cure. Believe that it

Will do thee good. Let women in a ring

Wipe thee, and from three fountains water bring.

Add salt and lentils; sprinkle then thyself.

Each one is pure, who’s conscious of no sin.”

For instance, the tragedy says:

_Menelaus._ “What disease, Orestes, is destroying thee?”

_Orestes._ “Conscience. For horrid deeds I know I’ve done.”[1224]

For in reality there is no other purity but abstinence from sins.

Excellently then Epicharmus says:

“If a pure mind thou hast,

In thy whole body thou art pure.”

Now also we say that it is requisite to purify the soul from corrupt

and bad doctrines by right reason; and so thereafter to the

recollection of the principal heads of doctrine. Since also before the

communication of the mysteries they think it right to apply certain

purifications to those who are to be initiated; so it is requisite for

men to abandon impious opinion, and thus turn to the true tradition.

CHAPTER V.

THE HOLY SOUL A MORE EXCELLENT TEMPLE THAN ANY

EDIFICE BUILT BY MAN.

For is it not the case that rightly and truly we do not circumscribe

in any place that which cannot be circumscribed; nor do we shut up in

temples made with hands that which contains all things? What work of

builders, and stonecutters, and mechanical art can be holy? Superior to

these are not they who think that the air, and the enclosing space, or

rather the whole world and the universe, are meet for the excellency of

God?

It were indeed ridiculous, as the philosophers themselves say, for

man, the plaything[1225] of God, to make God, and for God to be the

plaything[1226] of art; since what is made is similar and the same to

that of which it is made, as that which is made of ivory is ivory,

and that which is made of gold golden. Now the images and temples

constructed by mechanics are made of inert matter; so that they too

are inert, and material, and profane; and if you perfect the art, they

partake of mechanical coarseness. Works of art cannot then be sacred

and divine.

And what can be localized, there being nothing that is not localized?

Since all things are in a place. And that which is localized having

been formerly not localized, is localized by something. If, then, God

is localized by men, He was once not localized, and did not exist at

all. For the nonexistent is what is not localized; since whatever does

not exist is not localized. And what exists cannot be localized by

what does not exist; nor by another entity. For it is also an entity.

It follows that it must be by itself. And how shall anything generate

itself? Or how shall that which exists place itself as to being?

Whether, being formerly not localized, has it localized itself? But it

was not in existence; since what exists not is not localized. And its

localization being supposed, how can it afterwards make itself what it

previously was?

But how can He, to whom the things that are belong, need anything?

But were God possessed of a human form, He would need, equally with

man, food, and shelter, and house, and the attendant incidents. Those

who are like in form and affections will require similar sustenance.

And if sacred (τὸ ἱερόν) has a twofold application, designating both

God Himself and the structure raised to His honour,[1227] how shall

we not with propriety call the church holy, through knowledge, made

for the honour of God, sacred (ἱερόν) to God, of great value, and

not constructed by mechanical art, nor embellished by the hand of an

impostor, but by the will of God fashioned into a temple? For it is not

now the place, but the assemblage of the elect,[1228] that I call the

church. This temple is better for the reception of the greatness of the

dignity of God. For the living creature which is of high value, is made

sacred by that which is worth all, or rather which has no equivalent,

in virtue of the exceeding sanctity of the latter. Now this is the

Gnostic, who is of great value, who is honoured by God, in whom God

is enshrined, that is, the knowledge respecting God is consecrated.

Here, too, we shall find the divine likeness and the holy image in the

righteous soul, when it is blessed in being purified and performing

blessed deeds. Here also we shall find that which is localized, and

that which is being localized,--the former in the case of those who

are already Gnostics, and the latter in the case of those capable of

becoming so, although not yet worthy of receiving the knowledge of

God. For every being destined to believe is already faithful in the

sight of God, and set up for His honour, an image, endowed with virtue,

dedicated to God.

CHAPTER VI.

PRAYERS AND PRAISE FROM A PURE MIND, CEASELESSLY

OFFERED, FAR BETTER THAN SACRIFICES.

As, then, God is not circumscribed by place, neither is ever

represented by the form of a living creature; so neither has He

similar passions, nor has He wants like the creatures, so as to desire

sacrifice, from hunger, by way of food. Those creatures which are

affected by passion are all mortal. And it is useless to bring food to

one who is not nourished.

And that comic poet Pherecrates, in _The Fugitives_, facetiously

represents the gods themselves as finding fault with men on the score

of their sacred rites:

“When to the gods you sacrifice,

Selecting what our portion is,

’Tis shame to tell, do ye not take,

And both the thighs, clean to the groins,

The loins quite bare, the backbone, too,

Clean scrape as with a file,

Them swallow, and the remnant give

To us as if to dogs? And then,

As if of one another ’shamed,

With heaps of salted barley hide.”[1229]

And Eubulus, also a comic poet, thus writes respecting sacrifices:

“But to the gods the tail alone

And thigh, as if to pæderasts you sacrifice.”

And introducing Dionysus in Semele, he represents him disputing:

“First if they offer aught to me, there are

Who offer blood, the bladder, not the heart

Or caul. For I no flesh do ever eat

That’s sweeter than the thigh.”[1230]

And Menander writes:

“The end of the loin,

The bile, the bones uneatable, they set

Before the gods; the rest themselves consume.”

For is not the savour of the holocausts avoided by the beasts? And

if in reality the savour is the guerdon of the gods of the Greeks,

should they not first deify the cooks, who are dignified with equal

happiness, and worship the chimney itself, which is closer still to the

much-prized savour?

And Hesiod says that Zeus, cheated in a division of flesh by

Prometheus, received the white bones of an ox, concealed with cunning

art, in shining fat:

“Whence to the immortal gods the tribes of men

The victim’s white bones on the altars burn.”

But they will by no means say that the Deity, enfeebled through the

desire that springs from want, is nourished. Accordingly, they will

represent Him as nourished without desire like a plant, and like beasts

that burrow. They say that these grow innoxiously, nourished either by

the density in the air, or from the exhalations proceeding from their

own body. Though if the Deity, though needing nothing, is according

to them nourished, what necessity has He for food, wanting nothing?

But if, by nature needing nothing, He delights to be honoured, it is

not without reason that we honour God in prayer; and thus the best

and holiest sacrifice with righteousness we bring, presenting it as

an offering to the most righteous Word, by whom we receive knowledge,

giving glory by Him for what[1231] we have learned.

The altar, then, that is with us here, the terrestrial one, is the

congregation of those who devote themselves to prayers, having as it

were one common voice and one mind.

Now, if nourishing substances taken in by the nostrils are diviner than

those taken in by the mouth, yet they infer respiration. What, then, do

they say of God? Whether does He exhale like the tribe of oaks?[1232]

Or does He only inhale, like the aquatic animals, by the dilatation of

their gills? Or does He breathe all round, like the insects, by the

compression of the section by means of their wings? But no one, if he

is in his senses, will liken God to any of these.

And the creatures that breathe by the expansion of the lung towards

the thorax draw in the air. Then if they assign to God viscera, and

arteries, and veins, and nerves, and parts, they will make Him in

nothing different from man.[1233]

Now breathing together (σύμπνοια) is properly said of the church. For

the sacrifice of the church is the word breathing as incense from

holy souls, the sacrifice and the whole mind being at the same time

unveiled to God. Now the very ancient altar in Delos they celebrated

as holy; which alone, being undefiled by slaughter and death, they say

Pythagoras approached. And will they not believe us when we say that

the righteous soul is the truly sacred altar, and that incense arising

from it is holy prayer? But I believe sacrifices were invented by men

to be a pretext for eating flesh. But without such idolatry he who

wished might have partaken of flesh.

For the sacrifices of the Law express figuratively the piety which we

practise, as the turtle-dove and the pigeon offered for sins point out

that the cleansing of the irrational part of the soul is acceptable

to God. But if any one of the righteous does not burden his soul by

the eating of flesh, he has the advantage of a rational reason, not as

Pythagoras and his followers dream of the transmigration of the soul.

Now Xenocrates, treating by himself of “the food derived from animals,”

and Polemon in his work _On Life according to Nature_, seem

clearly to say that animal food is unwholesome, inasmuch as it has

already been elaborated and assimilated to the souls of the irrational

creatures.

So also, in particular, the Jews abstain from swine’s flesh on the

ground of this animal being unclean; since more than the other animals

it roots up, and destroys the productions of the ground. But if they

say that the animals were assigned to men--and we agree with them--yet

it was not entirely for food. Nor was it all animals, but such as do

not work. Wherefore the comic poet Plato says not badly in the drama of

_The Feasts_:

“For of the quadrupeds we should not slay

In future aught but swine. For these have flesh

Most toothsome; and about the pig is nought

For us, excepting bristles, mud, and noise.”

Whence Æsop said not badly, that “swine squeaked out very loudly,

because, when they were dragged, they knew that they were good for

nothing but for sacrifice.”

Wherefore also Cleanthes says, “that they have soul[1234] instead

of salt,” that their flesh may not putrefy. Some, then, eat them as

useless, others as destructive of fruits. And others do not eat them,

because the animal has a strong propensity for coition.

So, then, the law sacrifices not the goat, except in the sole case

of the banishment of sins;[1235] since pleasure is the metropolis

of vice. It is to the point also that it is said that the eating of

goat’s flesh contributes to epilepsy. And they say that the greatest

increase is produced by swine’s flesh. Wherefore it is beneficial to

those who exercise the body; but to those who devote themselves to

the development of the soul it is not so, on account of the hebetude

that results from the eating of flesh. Perchance also some Gnostic

will abstain from the eating of flesh for the sake of training, and in

order that the flesh may not grow wanton in amorousness. “For wine,”

says Androcydes, “and gluttonous feeds of flesh make the body strong,

but the soul more sluggish.” Accordingly such food, in order to clear

understanding, is to be rejected.

Wherefore also the Egyptians, in the purifications practised among

them, do not allow the priests to feed on flesh; but they use chickens,

as lightest; and they do not touch fish, on account of certain fables,

but especially on account of such food making the flesh flabby. But

now terrestrial animals and birds breathe the same air as our vital

spirits, being possessed of a vital principle cognate with the air.

But it is said that fishes do not breathe this air, but that which was

mixed with the water at the instant of its first creation, as well as

with the rest of the elements, which is also a sign of the permanence

of matter.[1236]

Wherefore we ought to offer to God sacrifices not costly, but such as

He loves. And that compounded incense which is mentioned in the Law,

is that which consists of many tongues and voices in prayer, or rather

of different nations and natures, prepared by the gift vouchsafed in

the dispensation for “the unity of the faith,” and brought together in

praises, with a pure mind, and just and right conduct, from holy works

and righteous prayer. For

“Who is so great a fool,”

in the elegant language of poetry,

“And among men

So very easy of belief, as think

The gods, with fraud of fleshless bones and bile

All burnt, not fit for hungry dogs to eat,

Delighted are, and take this as their prize,

And favour show to those who treat them thus,”

though they happen to be tyrants and robbers?

But we say that the fire sanctifies[1237] not flesh, but sinful souls;

meaning not the all-devouring vulgar fire, but that of wisdom, which

pervades the soul which passes through the fire.

CHAPTER VII.

WHAT SORT OF PRAYER THE GNOSTIC EMPLOYS, AND HOW

IT IS HEARD BY GOD.

Now we are commanded to reverence and to honour the same one, being

persuaded that He is Word, Saviour, and Leader, and by Him, the Father,

not on special days, as some others, but doing this continually in our

whole life, and in every way. Certainly the elect race justified by the

precept says, “Seven times a day have I praised Thee.”[1238] Whence

not in a specified place, or selected temple, or at certain festivals

and on appointed days, but during his whole life, the Gnostic in every

place, even if he be alone by himself, and wherever he has any of those

who have exercised the like faith, honours God, that is, acknowledges

his gratitude for the knowledge of the way to live.

And if the presence of a good man, through the respect and reverence

which he inspires, always improves him with whom he associates,

with much more reason does not he who always holds uninterrupted

converse with God by knowledge, life, and thanksgiving, grow at every

step superior to himself in all respects--in conduct, in words, in

disposition? Such an one is persuaded that God is ever beside him, and

does not suppose that he is confined in certain limited places; so

that under the idea that at times he is without him, he may indulge in

excesses night and day.

Holding festival, then, in our whole life, persuaded that God is

altogether on every side present, we cultivate our fields, praising; we

sail the sea, hymning; in all the rest of our conversation we conduct

ourselves according to rule. The Gnostic, then, is very closely allied

to God, being at once grave and cheerful in all things,--grave on

account of the bent of his soul towards the Divinity, and cheerful on

account of his consideration of the blessings of humanity which God

hath given us.

Now the excellence of knowledge is evidently presented by the prophet

when he says, “Benignity, and instruction, and knowledge teach

me,”[1239] magnifying the supremacy of perfection by a climax.

He is, then, the truly kingly man; he is the sacred high priest of

God. And this is even now observed among the most sagacious of the

Barbarians, in advancing the sacerdotal caste to the royal power. He,

therefore, never surrenders himself to the rabble that rules supreme

over the theatres, and gives no admittance even in a dream to the

things which are spoken, done, and seen for the sake of alluring

pleasure; neither, therefore, to the pleasures of sight, nor the

various pleasures which are found in other enjoyments, as costly

incense and odours, which bewitch the nostrils, or preparations of

meats, and indulgences in different wines, which ensnare the palate, or

fragrant bouquets of many flowers, which through the senses effeminate

the soul. But always tracing up to God the grave enjoyment of all

things, he offers the first-fruits of food, and drink, and unguents to

the Giver of all, acknowledging his thanks in the gift and in the use

of them by the Word given to him. He rarely goes to convivial banquets

of all and sundry, unless the announcement to him of the friendly and

harmonious character of the entertainment induce him to go. For he is

convinced that God knows and perceives all things--not the words only,

but also the thought; since even our sense of hearing, which acts

through the passages of the body, has the apprehension [belonging to

it] not through corporeal power, but through a psychical perception,

and the intelligence which distinguishes significant sounds. God

is not, then, possessed of human form, so as to hear; nor needs He

senses, as the Stoics have decided, “especially hearing and sight; for

He could never otherwise apprehend.” But the susceptibility of the

air, and the intensely keen perception of the angels, and the power

which reaches the soul’s consciousness, by ineffable power and without

sensible hearing, know all things at the moment of thought. And should

any one say that the voice does not reach God, but is rolled downwards

in the air, yet the thoughts of the saints cleave not the air only,

but the whole world. And the divine power, with the speed of light,

sees through the whole soul. Well! Do not also volitions speak to God,

uttering their voice? And are they not conveyed by conscience? And

what voice shall He wait for, who, according to His purpose, knows the

elect already, even before his birth, knows what is to be as already

existent? Does not the light of power shine down to the very bottom

of the whole soul; “the lamp of knowledge,” as the Scripture says,

searching “the recesses?” God is all ear and all eye, if we may be

permitted to use these expressions.

In general, then, an unworthy opinion of God preserves no piety,

either in hymns, or discourses, or writings, or dogmas, but diverts to

grovelling and unseemly ideas and notions. Whence the commendation of

the multitude differs nothing from censure, in consequence of their

ignorance of the truth. The objects, then, of desires and aspirations,

and, in a word, of the mind’s impulses, are the subjects of prayers.

Wherefore no man desires a draught, but to drink what is drinkable;

and no man desires an inheritance, but to inherit. And in like manner

no man desires knowledge, but to know; or a right government, but to

take part in the government. The subjects of our prayers, then, are the

subjects of our requests, and the subjects of requests are the objects

of desires. Prayer, then, and desire, follow in order, with the view of

possessing the blessings and advantages offered.

The Gnostic, then, who is such by possession, makes his prayer and

request for the truly good things which appertain to the soul, and

prays, he himself also contributing his efforts to attain to the habit

of goodness, so as no longer to have the things that are good as

certain lessons belonging to him, but to be good.

Wherefore also it is most incumbent on such to pray, knowing as they

do the Divinity rightly, and having the moral excellence suitable to

him; who know what things are really good, and what are to be asked,

and when and how in each individual case. It is the extremest stupidity

to ask of them who are no gods, as if they were gods; or to ask those

things which are not beneficial, begging evils for themselves under the

appearance of good things.

Whence, as is right, there being only one good God, that some good

things be given from Him alone, and that some remain, we and the angels

pray. But not similarly. For it is not the same thing to pray that the

gift remain, and to endeavour to obtain it for the first time.

The averting of evils is a species of prayer; but such prayer is never

to be used for the injury of men, except that the Gnostic, in devoting

attention to righteousness, may make use of this petition in the case

of those who are past feeling.

Prayer is, then, to speak more boldly, converse with God. Though

whispering, consequently, and not opening the lips we speak in

silence, yet we cry inwardly. For God hears continually all the inward

converse. So also we raise the head and lift the hands to heaven,

and set the feet in motion at the closing utterance of the prayer,

following the eagerness of the spirit directed towards the intellectual

essence; and endeavouring to abstract the body from the earth, along

with the discourse, raising the soul aloft, winged with longing for

better things, we compel it to advance to the region of holiness,

magnanimously despising the chain of the flesh. For we know right well,

that the Gnostic willingly passes over the whole world, as the Jews

certainly did over Egypt, showing clearly, above all, that he will be

as near as possible to God.

Now, if some assign definite hours for prayer--as, for example, the

third, and sixth, and ninth--yet the Gnostic prays throughout his whole

life, endeavouring by prayer to have fellowship with God. And, briefly,

having reached to this, he leaves behind him all that is of no service,

as having now received the perfection of the man that acts by love. But

the distribution of the hours into a threefold division, honoured with

as many prayers, those are acquainted with, who know the blessed triad

of the holy abodes.

Having got to this point, I recollect the doctrines about there being

no necessity to pray, introduced by certain of the heterodox, that

is, the followers of the heresy of Prodicus. That they may not then

be inflated with conceit about this godless wisdom of theirs, as if

it were strange, let them learn that it was embraced before by the

philosophers called Cyrenaics. Nevertheless, the unholy knowledge

(_gnosis_) of those falsely called [Gnostics] shall meet with

confutation at a fitting time; so that the assault on them, by no

means brief, may not, by being introduced into the commentary, break

the discourse in hand, in which we are showing that the only really

holy and pious man is he who is truly a Gnostic according to the rule

of the church, to whom alone the petition made in accordance with the

will of God is granted,[1240] on asking and on thinking. For as God

can do all that He wishes, so the Gnostic receives all that he asks.

For, universally, God knows those who are and those who are not worthy

of good things; whence He gives to each what is suitable. Wherefore to

those that are unworthy, though they ask often, He will not give; but

He will give to those who are worthy.

Nor is petition superfluous, though good things are given without claim.

Now thanksgiving and request for the conversion of our neighbours is

the function of the Gnostic; as also the Lord prayed, giving thanks for

the accomplishment of His ministry, praying that as many as possible

might attain to knowledge; that in the saved, by salvation, through

knowledge, God might be glorified, and He who is alone good and alone

Saviour might be acknowledged through the Son from age to age. But also

faith, that one will receive, is a species of prayer gnostically laid

up in store.

But if any occasion of converse with God becomes prayer, no opportunity

of access to God ought to be omitted. Without doubt, the holiness of

the Gnostic, in union with [God’s] blessed Providence, exhibits in

voluntary confession the perfect beneficence of God. For the holiness

of the Gnostic, and the reciprocal benevolence of the friend of God,

are a kind of corresponding movement of providence. For neither is God

involuntarily good, as the fire is warming; but in Him the imparting of

good things is voluntary, even if He receive the request previously.

Nor shall he who is saved be saved against his will, for he is not

inanimate; but he will above all voluntarily and of free choice speed

to salvation. Wherefore also man received the commandments in order

that he might be self-impelled, to whatever he wished of things to be

chosen and to be avoided. Wherefore God does not do good by necessity,

but from His free choice benefits those who spontaneously turn. For the

Providence which extends to us from God is not ministerial, as that

service which proceeds from inferiors to superiors. But in pity for our

weakness, the continual dispensations of Providence work, as the care

of shepherds towards the sheep, and of a king towards his subjects; we

ourselves also conducting ourselves obediently towards our superiors,

who take the management of us, as appointed, in accordance with the

commission from God with which they are invested.

Consequently those who render the most free and kingly service, which

is the result of a pious mind and of knowledge, are servants and

attendants of the Divinity. Each place, then, and time, in which we

entertain the idea of God, is in reality sacred.

When, then, the man who chooses what is right, and is at the same time

of thankful heart, makes his request in prayer, he contributes to the

obtaining of it, gladly taking hold in prayer of the thing desired. For

when the Giver of good things perceives the susceptibility on our part,

all good things follow at once the conception of them. Certainly in

prayer the character is sifted, how it stands with respect to duty.

But if voice and expression are given us, for the sake of

understanding, how can God not hear the soul itself, and the mind,

since assuredly soul hears soul, and mind, mind? Whence God does not

wait for loquacious tongues, as interpreters among men, but knows

absolutely the thoughts of all; and what the voice intimates to us,

that our thought, which even before the creation He knew would come

into our mind, speaks to God. Prayer, then, may be uttered without the

voice, by concentrating the whole spiritual nature within on expression

by the mind, in undistracted turning towards God.

And since the dawn is an image of the day of birth, and from that

point the light which has shone forth at first from the darkness

increases, there has also dawned on those involved in darkness a day

of the knowledge of truth. In correspondence with the manner of the

sun’s rising, prayers are made looking towards the sunrise in the east.

Whence also the most ancient temples looked towards the west, that

people might be taught to turn to the east when facing the images. “Let

my prayer be directed before Thee as incense, the uplifting of my hands

as the evening sacrifice,”[1241] say the Psalms.

In the case of wicked men, therefore, prayer is most injurious, not

to others alone, but to themselves also. If, then, they should ask

and receive what they call pieces of good fortune, these injure them

after they receive them, being ignorant how to use them. For they pray

to possess what they have not, and they ask things which seem, but

are not, good things. But the Gnostic will ask the permanence of the

things he possesses, adaptation for what is to take place, and the

eternity of those things which he shall receive. And the things which

are really good, the things which concern the soul, he prays that they

may belong to him, and remain with him. And so he desires not anything

that is absent, being content with what is present. For he is not

deficient in the good things which are proper to him; being already

sufficient for himself, through divine grace and knowledge. But having

become sufficient in himself, he stands in no want of other things.

But knowing the sovereign will, and possessing as soon as he prays,

being brought into close contact with the almighty power, and earnestly

desiring to be spiritual, through boundless love, he is united to the

Spirit.

Thus he, being magnanimous, possessing, through knowledge, what is

the most precious of all, the best of all, being quick in applying

himself to contemplation, retains in his soul the permanent energy of

the objects of his contemplation, that is the perspicacious keenness

of knowledge. And this power he strives to his utmost to acquire, by

obtaining command of all the influences which war against the mind; and

by applying himself without intermission to speculation, by exercising

himself in the training of abstinence from pleasures, and of right

conduct in what he does; and besides, furnished with great experience

both in study and in life, he has freedom of speech, not the power of

a babbling tongue, but a power which employs plain language, and which

neither for favour nor fear conceals aught of the things which may be

worthily said at the fitting time, in which it is highly necessary to

say them. He, then, having received the things respecting God from the

mystic choir of the truth itself, employs language which urges the

magnitude of virtue in accordance with its worth; and shows its results

with an inspired elevation of prayer, being associated gnostically, as

far as possible, with intellectual and spiritual objects.

Whence he is always mild and meek, accessible, affable, long-suffering,

grateful, endued with a good conscience. Such a man is rigid, not

alone so as not to be corrupted, but so as not to be tempted. For

he never exposes his soul to submission, or capture at the hands of

Pleasure and Pain. If the Word, who is Judge, call; he, having grown

inflexible, and not indulging a whit the passions, walks unswervingly

where justice advises him to go; being very well persuaded that all

things are managed consummately well, and that progress to what is

better goes on in the case of souls that have chosen virtue, till they

come to the Good itself, to the Father’s vestibule, so to speak, close

to the great High Priest. Such is our Gnostic, faithful, persuaded that

the affairs of the universe are managed in the best way. Particularly,

he is well pleased with all that happens. In accordance with reason,

then, he asks for none of those things in life required for necessary

use; being persuaded that God, who knows all things, supplies the good

with whatever is for their benefit, even though they do not ask.

For my view is, that as all things are supplied to the man of art

according to the rules of art, and to the Gentile in a Gentile way,

so also to the Gnostic all things are supplied gnostically. And the

man who turns from among the Gentiles will ask for faith, while he

that ascends to knowledge will ask for the perfection of love. And the

Gnostic, who has reached the summit, will pray that contemplation may

grow and abide, as the common man will for continual good health.

Nay, he will pray that he may never fall from virtue; giving his most

strenuous co-operation in order that he may become infallible. For

he knows that some of the angels, through carelessness, were hurled

to the earth, not having yet quite reached that state of oneness, by

extricating themselves from the propensity to that of duality.

But him, who from this has trained himself to the summit of knowledge

and the elevated height of the perfect man, all things relating to

time and place help on, now that he has made it his choice to live

infallibly, and subjects himself to training in order to the attainment

of the stability of knowledge on each side. But in the case of those

in whom there is still a heavy corner, leaning downwards, even that

part which has been elevated by faith is dragged down. In him, then,

who by gnostic training has acquired virtue which cannot be lost,

habit becomes nature. And just as weight in a stone, so the knowledge

of such an one is incapable of being lost. Not without, but through

the exercise of will, and by the force of reason, and knowledge, and

Providence, is it brought to become incapable of being lost. Through

care it becomes incapable of being lost. He will employ caution so as

to avoid sinning, and consideration to prevent the loss of virtue.

Now knowledge appears to produce consideration, by teaching to perceive

the things that are capable of contributing to the permanence of

virtue. The highest thing is, then, the knowledge of God; wherefore

also by it virtue is so preserved as to be incapable of being lost. And

he who knows God is holy and pious. The Gnostic has consequently been

demonstrated by us to be the only pious man.

He rejoices in good things present, and is glad on account of those

promised, as if they were already present. For they do not elude his

notice, as if they were still absent, because he knows by anticipation

what sort they are. Being then persuaded by knowledge how each future

thing shall be, he possesses it. For want and defect are measured with

reference to what appertains to one. If, then, he possesses wisdom,

and wisdom is a divine thing, he who partakes of what has no want

will himself have no want. For the imparting of wisdom does not take

place by activity and receptivity moving and stopping each other, or

by aught being abstracted or becoming defective. Activity is therefore

shown to be undiminished in the act of communication. So, then,

our Gnostic possesses all good things, as far as possible; but not

likewise in number; since otherwise he would be incapable of changing

his place through the due inspired stages of advancement and acts of

administration.

Him God helps, by honouring him with closer oversight. For were not

all things made for the sake of good men, for their possession and

advantage, or rather salvation? He will not then deprive, of the things

which exist for the sake of virtue, those for whose sake they were

created. For, evidently in honour of their excellent nature and their

holy choice, he inspires those who have made choice of a good life

with strength for the rest of their salvation; exhorting some, and

helping others, who of themselves have become worthy. For all good is

capable of being produced in the Gnostic; if indeed it is his aim to

know and do everything intelligently. And as the physician ministers

health to those who co-operate with him in order to health, so also God

ministers eternal salvation to those who co-operate for the attainment

of knowledge and good conduct; and since what the commandments enjoin

are in our own power, along with the performance of them, the promise

is accomplished.

And what follows seems to me to be excellently said by the Greeks. An

athlete of no mean reputation among those of old, having for a long

time subjected his body to thorough training in order to the attainment

of manly strength, on going up to the Olympic games, cast his eye on

the statue of the Pisæan Zeus, and said: “O Zeus, if all the requisite

preparations for the contest have been made by me, come, give me the

victory, as is right.” For so, in the case of the Gnostic, who has

unblameably and with a good conscience fulfilled all that depends

on him, in the direction of learning, and training, and well-doing,

and pleasing God, the whole contributes to carry salvation on to

perfection. From us, then, are demanded the things which are in our own

power, and of the things which pertain to us, both present and absent,

the choice, and desire, and possession, and use, and permanence.

Wherefore also he who holds converse with God must have his soul

immaculate and stainlessly pure, it being essential to have made

himself perfectly good.

But also it becomes him to make all his prayers gently along with

the good. For it is a dangerous thing to take part in others’ sins.

Accordingly the Gnostic will pray along with those who have more

recently believed, for those things in respect of which it is their

duty to act together. And his whole life is a holy festival. His

sacrifices are prayers, and praises, and readings in the Scriptures

before meals, and psalms and hymns during meals and before bed, and

prayers also again during night. By these he unites himself to the

divine choir, from continual recollection, engaged in contemplation

which has everlasting remembrance.

And what? Does he not also know the other kind of sacrifice, which

consists in the giving both of doctrines and of money to those who

need? Assuredly. But he does not use wordy prayer by his mouth;

having learned to ask of the Lord what is requisite. In every place,

therefore, but not ostensibly and visibly to the multitude, he will

pray. But while engaged in walking, in conversation, while in silence,

while engaged in reading and in works according to reason, he in every

mood prays. If he but form the thought in the secret chamber of his

soul, and call on the Father “with unspoken groanings,”[1242] He is

near, and is at his side, while yet speaking. Inasmuch as there are but

three ends of all action, he does everything for its excellence and

utility; but doing aught for the sake of pleasure,[1243] he leaves to

those who pursue the common life.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE GNOSTIC SO ADDICTED TO TRUTH AS NOT TO NEED

TO USE AN OATH.

The man of proved character in such piety is far from being apt to

lie and to swear. For an oath is a decisive affirmation, with the

taking of the divine name. For how can he, that is once faithful, show

himself unfaithful, so as to require an oath; and so that his life may

not be a sure and decisive oath? He lives, and walks, and shows the

trustworthiness of his affirmation in an unwavering and sure life

and speech. And if the wrong lies in the judgment of one who does

and says [something], and not in the suffering of one who has been

wronged,[1244] he will neither lie nor commit perjury so as to wrong

the Deity, knowing that it by nature is incapable of being harmed.

Nor yet will he lie or commit any transgression, for the sake of the

neighbour whom he has learned to love, though he be not on terms of

intimacy. Much more, consequently, will he not lie or perjure himself

on his own account, since he never with his will can be found doing

wrong to himself.

But he does not even swear, preferring to make averment, in affirmation

by “yea,” and in denial by “nay.” For it is an oath to swear, or to

produce[1245] anything from the mind in the way of confirmation in the

shape of an oath. It suffices then, with him, to add to an affirmation

or denial the expression “I say truly,” for confirmation to those who

do not perceive the certainty of his answer. For he ought, I think,

to maintain a life calculated to inspire confidence towards those

without, so that an oath may not even be asked; and towards himself and

those with whom he associates,[1246] good feeling, which is voluntary

righteousness.

The Gnostic swears truly, but is not apt to swear, having rarely

recourse to an oath, just as we have said. And his speaking truth on

oath arises from his accord with the truth. This speaking truth on

oath, then, is found to be the result of correctness in duties. Where,

then, is the necessity for an oath to him who lives in accordance

with the extreme of truth? He, then, that does not even swear will be

far from perjuring himself. And he who does not transgress in what is

ratified by compacts, will never swear; since the ratification of the

violation and of the fulfilment is by actions; as certainly lying and

perjury in affirming and swearing are contrary to duty. But he who

lives justly, transgressing in none of his duties, when the judgment

of truth is scrutinized, swears truth by his acts. Accordingly,

testimony by the tongue is in his case superfluous.

Therefore, persuaded always that God is everywhere, and fearing not to

speak the truth, and knowing that it is unworthy of him to lie, he is

satisfied with the divine consciousness and his own alone. And so he

lies not, nor does ought contrary to his compacts. And so he swears not

even when asked for his oath; nor does he ever deny, so as to speak

falsehood, though he should die by tortures.

CHAPTER IX.

THOSE WHO TEACH OTHERS, OUGHT TO EXCEL IN VIRTUES.

The gnostic dignity is augmented and increased by him who has

undertaken the first place in the teaching of others, and received

the dispensation by word and deed of the greatest good on earth, by

which he mediates contact and fellowship with the Divinity. And as

those who worship terrestrial things pray to them as if they heard,

confirming compacts before them; so, in men who are living images, the

true majesty of the Word is received by the trustworthy teacher; and

the beneficence exerted towards them is carried up to the Lord, after

whose image he who is a true man by instruction creates and harmonizes,

renewing to salvation the man who receives instruction. For as the

Greeks called steel _Ares_, and wine _Dionysus_, on account

of a certain relation; so the Gnostic, considering the benefit of his

neighbours as his own salvation, may be called a living image of the

Lord, not as respects the peculiarity of form, but the symbol of power

and similarity of preaching.

Whatever, therefore, he has in his mind, he bears on his tongue, to

those who are worthy to hear, speaking as well as living from assent

and inclination. For he both thinks and speaks the truth; unless at any

time, medicinally, as a physician for the safety of the sick, he may

lie or tell an untruth, according to the Sophists.

For instance, the noble apostle circumcised Timothy, though loudly

declaring and writing that circumcision made with hands profits

nothing.[1247] But that he might not, by dragging all at once away from

the law to the circumcision of the heart through faith those of the

Hebrews who were reluctant listeners, compel them to break away from

the synagogue, he, “accommodating himself to the Jews, became a Jew

that he might gain all.”[1248] He, then, who submits to accommodate

himself merely for the benefit of his neighbours, for the salvation

of those for whose sake he accommodates himself, not partaking in any

dissimulation through the peril impending over the just from those who

envy them, such an one by no means acts with compulsion.[1249] But for

the benefit of his neighbours alone, he will do things which would

not have been done by him primarily, if he did not do them on their

account. Such an one gives himself for the Church, for the disciples

whom he has begotten in faith; for an example to those who are capable

of receiving the supreme economy of the philanthropic and God-loving

Instructor, for confirmation of the truth of his words, for the

exercise of love to the Lord. Such an one is unenslaved by fear, true

in word, enduring in labour, never willing to lie by uttered word, and

in it always securing sinlessness; since falsehood, being spoken with a

certain deceit, is not an inert word, but operates to mischief.

On every hand, then, the Gnostic alone testifies to the truth in deed

and word. For he always does rightly in all things, both in word and

action, and in thought itself.

Such, then, to speak cursorily, is the piety of the Christian. If,

then, he does these things according to duty and right reason, he does

them piously and justly. And if such be the case, the Gnostic alone is

really both pious, and just, and God-fearing.

The Christian is not impious. For this was the point incumbent on us to

demonstrate to the philosophers; so that he will never in any way do

aught bad or base (which is unjust). Consequently, therefore, he is not

impious; but he alone fears God, holily and dutifully worshipping the

true God, the universal Ruler, and King, and Sovereign, with the true

piety.

CHAPTER X.

STEPS TO PERFECTION.

For knowledge (_gnosis_), to speak generally, a perfecting of man as

man, is consummated by acquaintance with divine things, in character,

life, and word, accordant and conformable to itself and to the divine

Word. For by it faith is perfected, inasmuch as it is solely by it

that the believer becomes perfect. Faith is an internal good, and

without searching for God, confesses His existence, and glorifies Him

as existent. Whence by starting from this faith, and being developed

by it, through the grace of God, the knowledge respecting Him is to be

acquired as far as possible.

Now we assert that knowledge (_gnosis_) differs from the wisdom

(σοφία), which is the result of teaching. For as far as anything is

knowledge, so far is it certainly wisdom; but in as far as aught is

wisdom, it is not certainly knowledge. For the term wisdom appears only

in the knowledge of the uttered word.

But it is not doubting in reference to God, but believing, that is the

foundation of knowledge. But Christ is both the foundation and the

superstructure, by whom are both the beginning and the ends. And the

extreme points, the beginning and the end--I mean faith and love--are

not taught. But knowledge, conveyed from communication through the

grace of God as a deposit, is entrusted to those who show themselves

worthy of it; and from it the worth of love beams forth from light to

light. For it is said, “To him that hath shall be given:”[1250] to

faith, knowledge; and to knowledge, love; and to love, the inheritance.

And this takes place, whenever one hangs on the Lord by faith, by

knowledge, by love, and ascends along with Him to where the God and

guard of our faith and love is. Whence at last (on account of the

necessity for very great preparation and previous training in order

both to hear what is said, and for the composure of life, and for

advancing intelligently to a point beyond the righteousness of the

law) it is that knowledge is committed to those fit and selected for

it. It leads us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us beforehand

the future life that we shall lead, according to God, and with gods;

after we are freed from all punishment and penalty which we undergo,

in consequence of our sins, for salutary discipline. After which

redemption the reward and the honours are assigned to those who

have become perfect; when they have got done with purification, and

ceased from all service, though it be holy service, and among saints.

Then become pure in heart, and near to the Lord, there awaits them

restoration to everlasting contemplation; and they are called by the

appellation of gods, being destined to sit on thrones with the other

gods that have been first put in their places by the Saviour.

Knowledge is therefore quick in purifying, and fit for that acceptable

transformation to the better. Whence also with ease it removes [the

soul] to what is akin to the soul, divine and holy, and by its own

light conveys man through the mystic stages of advancement; till it

restores the pure in heart to the crowning place of rest; teaching to

gaze on God, face to face, with knowledge and comprehension. For in

this consists the perfection of the gnostic soul, in its being with the

Lord, where it is in immediate subjection to Him, after rising above

all purification and service.

Faith is then, so to speak, a comprehensive knowledge of the

essentials; and knowledge is the strong and sure demonstration of

what is received by faith, built upon faith by the Lord’s teaching,

conveying [the soul] on to infallibility, science, and comprehension.

And, in my view, the first saving change is that from heathenism to

faith, as I said before; and the second, that from faith to knowledge.

And the latter terminating in love, thereafter gives the loving to

the loved, that which knows to that which is known. And, perchance,

such an one has already attained the condition of “being equal to

the angels.”[1251] Accordingly, after the highest excellence in the

flesh, changing always duly to the better, he urges his flight to the

ancestral hall, through the holy septenniad [of heavenly abodes] to the

Lord’s own mansion; to be a light, steady, and continuing eternally,

entirely and in every part immutable.

The first mode of the Lord’s operation mentioned by us is an exhibition

of the recompense resulting from piety. Of the very great number

of testimonies that there are, I shall adduce one, thus summarily

expressed by the prophet David: “Who shall ascend to the hill of the

Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He who is guiltless in

his hands, and pure in his heart; who hath not lifted up his soul

to vanity, or sworn deceitfully to his neighbour. He shall receive

blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour. This is the

generation of them that seek the Lord, that seek the face of the God of

Jacob.”[1252] The prophet has, in my opinion, concisely indicated the

Gnostic. David, as appears, has cursorily demonstrated the Saviour to

be God, by calling Him “the face of the God of Jacob,” who preached and

taught concerning the Spirit. Wherefore also the apostle designates as

“the express image (χαρακτῆρα) of the glory of the Father”[1253] the

Son, who taught the truth respecting God, and expressed the fact that

the Almighty is the one and only God and Father, “whom no man knoweth

but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him.”[1254] That God

is one is intimated by those “who seek the face of the God of Jacob;”

whom being the only God, our Saviour and God characterizes as the Good

Father. And “the generation of those that seek Him” is the elect race,

devoted to inquiry after knowledge. Wherefore also the apostle says, “I

shall profit you nothing, unless I speak to you, either by revelation,

or by knowledge, or by prophecy, or by doctrine.”[1255]

Although even by those who are not Gnostics some things are done

rightly, yet not according to reason; as in the case of fortitude.

For some who are naturally high-spirited, and have afterwards without

reason fostered this disposition, rush to many things, and act like

brave men, so as sometimes to succeed in achieving the same things;

just as endurance is easy for mechanics. But it is not from the same

cause, or with the same object; not were they to give their whole body.

“For they have not love,” according to the apostle.[1256]

All the action, then, of a man possessed of knowledge is right action;

and that done by a man not possessed of knowledge is wrong action,

though he observe a plan; since it is not from reflection that he acts

bravely, nor does he direct his action in those things which proceed

from virtue to virtue, to any useful purpose.

The same holds also with the other virtues. So too the analogy is

preserved in religion. Our Gnostic, then, not only is such in reference

to holiness; but corresponding to the piety of knowledge are the

commands respecting the rest of the conduct of life. For it is our

purpose at present to describe the life of the Gnostic, not to present

the system of dogmas, which we shall afterwards explain at the fitting

time, preserving the order of topics.

CHAPTER XI.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC’S LIFE.

Respecting the universe, he conceives truly and grandly in virtue of

his reception of divine teaching. Beginning, then, with admiration of

the Creation, and affording of himself a proof of his capability for

receiving knowledge, he becomes a ready pupil of the Lord. Directly

on hearing of God and Providence, he believed in consequence of the

admiration he entertained. Through the power of impulse thence derived

he devotes his energies in every way to learning, doing all those

things by means of which he shall be able to acquire the knowledge

of what he desires. And desire blended with inquiry arises as faith

advances. And this is to become worthy of speculation, of such a

character, and such importance. So shall the Gnostic taste of the

will of God. For it is not his ears, but his soul, that he yields up

to the things signified by what is spoken. Accordingly, apprehending

essences and things through the words, he brings his soul, as is fit,

to what is essential; apprehending [_e.g._] in the peculiar way

in which they are spoken to the Gnostic, the commands, “Do not commit

adultery,” “Do not kill;” and not as they are understood by other

people. Training himself, then, in scientific speculation, he proceeds

to exercise himself in larger generalizations and grander propositions;

knowing right well that “He that teacheth man knowledge,” according to

the prophet, is the Lord, the Lord acting by man’s mouth. So also He

assumed flesh.

As is right, then, he never prefers the pleasant to the useful; not

even if a beautiful woman were to entice him, when overtaken by

circumstances, by wantonly urging him: since Joseph’s master’s wife was

not able to seduce him from his stedfastness; but as she violently held

his coat, divested himself of it,--becoming bare of sin, but clothed

with seemliness of character. For if the eyes of the master--the

Egyptian, I mean--saw not Joseph, yet those of the Almighty looked on.

For we hear the voice, and see the bodily forms; but God scrutinizes

the thing itself, from which the speaking and the looking proceed.

Consequently, therefore, though disease, and accident, and what is most

terrible of all, death, come upon the Gnostic, he remains inflexible in

soul,--knowing that all such things are a necessity of creation, and

that, also by the power of God, they become the medicine of salvation,

benefiting by discipline those who are difficult to reform; allotted

according to desert, by Providence, which is truly good.

Using the creatures, then, when the Word prescribes, and to the extent

it prescribes, in the exercise of thankfulness to the Creator, he

becomes master of the enjoyment of them.

He never cherishes resentment or harbours a grudge against any one,

though deserving of hatred for his conduct. For he worships the Maker,

and loves him, who shares life, pitying and praying for him on account

of his ignorance. He indeed partakes of the affections of the body, to

which, susceptible as it is of suffering by nature, he is bound. But in

sensation he is not the primary subject of it.

Accordingly, then, in involuntary circumstances, by withdrawing himself

from troubles to the things which really belong to him, he is not

carried away with what is foreign to him. And it is only to things that

are necessary for him that he accommodates himself, in so far as the

soul is preserved unharmed. For it is not in supposition or seeming

that he wishes to be faithful; but in knowledge and truth, that is,

in sure deed and effectual word. Wherefore he not only praises what

is noble, but endeavours himself to be noble; changing by love from

a good and faithful servant into a friend, through the perfection of

habit, which he has acquired in purity from true instruction and great

discipline.

Striving, then, to attain to the summit of knowledge (_gnosis_);

decorous in character; composed in mien; possessing all those

advantages which belong to the true Gnostic; fixing his eye on fair

models, on the many patriarchs who have lived rightly, and on very many

prophets and angels reckoned without number, and above all, on the

Lord, who taught and showed it to be possible for him to attain that

highest life of all,--he therefore loves not all the good things of

the world, which are within his grasp, that he may not remain on the

ground, but the things hoped for, or rather already known, being hoped

for so as to be apprehended.

So then he undergoes toils, and trials, and afflictions, not as those

among the philosophers who are endowed with manliness, in the hope of

present troubles ceasing, and of sharing again in what is pleasant; but

knowledge has inspired him with the firmest persuasion of receiving the

hopes of the future. Wherefore he contemns not alone the pains of this

world, but all its pleasures.

They say, accordingly, that the blessed Peter, on seeing his wife led

to death, rejoiced on account of her call and conveyance home, and

called very encouragingly and comfortingly, addressing her by name,

“Remember thou the Lord.” Such was the marriage of the blessed, and

their perfect disposition towards those dearest to them.

Thus also the apostle says, “that he who marries should be as though he

married not,” and deem his marriage free of inordinate affection, and

inseparable from love to the Lord; to which the true husband exhorted

his wife to cling on her departure out of this life to the Lord.

Was not then faith in the hope after death conspicuous in the case of

those who gave thanks to God even in the very extremities of their

punishments? For firm, in my opinion, was the faith they possessed,

which was followed by works of faith.

In all circumstances, then, is the soul of the Gnostic strong, in a

condition of extreme health and strength, like the body of an athlete.

For he is prudent in human affairs, in judging what ought to be done

by the just man; having obtained the principles from God from above,

and having acquired, in order to the divine resemblance, moderation

in bodily pains and pleasures. And he struggles against fears

boldly, trusting in God. Certainly, then, the gnostic soul, adorned

with perfect virtue, is the earthly image of the divine powers:

its development being the joint result of nature, of training, of

reason, all together. This beauty of the soul becomes a temple of

the Holy Spirit, when it acquires a disposition in the whole of life

corresponding to the gospel. Such an one consequently withstands all

fear of everything terrible, not only of death, but also poverty and

disease, and ignominy, and things akin to these; being unconquered by

pleasure, and lord over irrational desires. For he well knows what

is and what is not to be done; being perfectly aware what things are

really to be dreaded, and what not. Whence he bears intelligently what

the Word intimates to him to be requisite and necessary; intelligently

discriminating what is really safe (that is, good), from what appears

so; and things to be dreaded from what seem so, such as death, disease,

and poverty; which are rather so in opinion than in truth.

This is the really good man, who is without passions; having, through

the habit or disposition of a soul endued with virtue, transcended

the whole life of passion. He has everything dependent on himself

for the attainment of the end. For those accidents which are called

terrible are not formidable to the good man, because they are not evil.

And those which are really to be dreaded are foreign to the gnostic

Christian, being diametrically opposed to what is good, because evil;

and it is impossible for contraries to meet in the same person at the

same time. He, then, who faultlessly acts the drama of life which God

has given him to play, knows both what is to be done and what is to be

endured.

Is it not then from ignorance of what is and what is not to be dreaded

that cowardice arises? Consequently the only man of courage is the

Gnostic, who knows both present and future good things; along with

these, knowing, as I have said, also the things which are in reality

not to be dreaded. Because, knowing vice alone to be hateful, and

destructive of what contributes to knowledge, protected by the armour

of the Lord, he makes war against it.

For if anything is caused through folly, and the operation or rather

co-operation of the devil, this thing is not straightway the devil or

folly. For no action is wisdom. For wisdom is a habit. And no action

is a habit. The action, then, that arises from ignorance, is not

already ignorance, but an evil through ignorance, but not ignorance.

For neither perturbations of mind nor sins are vices, though proceeding

from vice.

No one, then, who is irrationally brave is a Gnostic; since one might

call children brave, who, through ignorance of what is to be dreaded,

undergo things that are frightful. So they touch fire even. And the

wild beasts that rush close on the points of spears, having a brute

courage, might be called valiant. And such people might perhaps call

jugglers valiant, who tumble on swords with a certain dexterity,

practising a mischievous art for sorry gain. But he who is truly

brave, with the peril arising from the bad feeling of the multitude

before his eyes, courageously awaits whatever comes. In this way he

is distinguished from others that are called martyrs, inasmuch as some

furnish occasions for themselves, and rush into the heart of dangers,

I know not how (for it is right to use mild language); while they, in

accordance with right reason, protect themselves; then, on God really

calling them, promptly surrender themselves, and confirm the call, from

being conscious of no precipitancy, and present the man to be tested in

the exercise of true rational fortitude. Neither, then, enduring lesser

dangers from fear of greater, like other people, nor dreading censure

at the hands of their equals, and those of like sentiments, do they

continue in the confession of their calling; but from love to God they

willingly obey the call, with no other aim in view than pleasing God,

and not for the sake of the reward of their toils.

For some suffer from love of glory, and others from fear of some other

sharper punishment, and others for the sake of pleasures and delights

after death, being children in faith; blessed indeed, but not yet

become men in love to God, as the Gnostic is. For there are, as in

the gymnastic contests, so also in the Church, crowns for men and for

children. But love is to be chosen for itself, and for nothing else.

Therefore in the Gnostic, along with knowledge, the perfection of

fortitude is developed from the discipline of life, he having always

studied to acquire mastery over the passions.

Accordingly, love makes its own athlete fearless and dauntless, and

confident in the Lord, anointing and training him; as righteousness

secures for him truthfulness in his whole life. For it was a compendium

of righteousness to say, “Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay.”

And the same holds with self-control. For it is neither for love

of honour, as the athletes for the sake of crowns and fame; nor,

on the other hand, for love of money, as some pretend to exercise

self-control, pursuing what is good with terrible suffering. Nor is

it from love of the body for the sake of health. Nor any more is any

man who is temperate from rusticity, who has not tasted pleasures,

truly a man of self-control. Certainly those who have led a laborious

life, on tasting pleasures, forthwith break down the inflexibility of

temperance into pleasures. Such are they who are restrained by law and

fear. For on finding a favourable opportunity they defraud the law, by

giving what is good the slip. But self-control, desirable for its own

sake, perfected through knowledge, abiding ever, makes the man lord and

master of himself; so that the Gnostic is temperate and passionless,

incapable of being dissolved by pleasures and pains, as they say

adamant is by fire.

The cause of these, then, is love, of all science the most sacred and

most sovereign.

For by the service of what is best and most exalted, which is

characterized by unity, it renders the Gnostic at once friend and

son, having in truth grown “a perfect man, up to the measure of full

stature.”[1257]

Further, agreement in the same thing is consent. But what is the same

is one. And friendship is consummated in likeness; the community lying

in oneness. The Gnostic, consequently, in virtue of being a lover of

the one true God, is the really perfect man and friend of God, and

is placed in the rank of son. For these are names of nobility and

knowledge, and perfection in the contemplation of God; which crowning

step of advancement the gnostic soul receives, when it has become quite

pure, reckoned worthy to behold everlastingly God Almighty, “face,” it

is said, “to face.” For having become wholly spiritual, and having in

the spiritual Church gone to what is of kindred nature, it abides in

the rest of God.

CHAPTER XII.

THE TRUE GNOSTIC IS BENEFICENT, CONTINENT, AND

DESPISES WORLDLY THINGS.

Let these things, then, be so.

And such being the attitude of the Gnostic towards the body and the

soul--towards his neighbours, whether it be a domestic, or a lawful

enemy, or whosoever--he is found equal and like. For he does not

“despise his brother,” who, according to the divine law, is of the

same father and mother. Certainly he relieves the afflicted, helping

him with consolations, encouragements, and the necessaries of life;

giving to all that need, though not similarly, but justly, according

to desert; furthermore, to him who persecutes and hates, even if he

need it; caring little for those who say to him that he has given out

of fear, if it is not out of fear that he does so, but to give help.

For how much more are those, who towards their enemies are devoid of

love of money, and are haters of evil, animated with love to those who

belong to them?

Such an one from this proceeds to the accurate knowledge of whom he

ought chiefly to give to, and how much, and when, and how.

And who could with any reason become the enemy of a man who gives no

cause for enmity in any way? And is it not just as in the case of God?

We say that God is the adversary of no one, and the enemy of no one

(for He is the Creator of all, and nothing that exists is what He wills

it not to be; but we assert that the disobedient, and those who walk

not according to His commandments, are enemies to Him, as being those

who are hostile to His covenant). We shall find the very same to be

the case with the Gnostic, for he can never in any way become an enemy

to any one; but those may be regarded enemies to him who turn to the

contrary path.

In particular, the habit of liberality which prevails among us is

called “righteousness;” but the power of discriminating according to

desert, as to greater and less, with reference to those who are proper

subjects of it, is a form of the very highest righteousness.

There are things practised in a vulgar style by some people, such as

control over pleasures. For as, among the heathen, there are those

who, from the impossibility of obtaining what one sees,[1258] and from

fear of men, and also for the sake of greater pleasures, abstain from

the delights that are before them; so also, in the case of faith, some

practise self-restraint, either out of regard to the promise or from

fear of God. Well, such self-restraint is the basis of knowledge, and

an approach to something better, and an effort after perfection. For

“the fear of the Lord,” it is said, “is the beginning of wisdom.”[1259]

But the perfect man, out of love, “beareth all things, endureth all

things,”[1260] “as not pleasing man, but God.”[1261] Although praise

follows him as a consequence, it is not for his own advantage, but for

the imitation and benefit of those who praise him.

According to another view, it is not he who merely controls his

passions that is called a continent man, but he who has also achieved

the mastery over good things, and has acquired surely the great

accomplishments of science, from which he produces as fruits the

activities of virtue. Thus the Gnostic is never, on the occurrence

of an emergency, dislodged from the habit peculiar to him. For the

scientific possession of what is good is firm and unchangeable, being

the knowledge of things divine and human. Knowledge, then, never

becomes ignorance; nor does good change into evil. Wherefore also he

eats, and drinks, and marries, not as principal ends of existence, but

as necessary. I name marriage even, if the Word prescribe, and as is

suitable. For having become perfect, he has the apostles for examples;

and one is not really shown to be a man in the choice of single life;

but he surpasses men, who, disciplined by marriage, procreation of

children, and care for the house, without pleasure or pain, in his

solicitude for the house has been inseparable from God’s love, and

withstood all temptation arising through children, and wife, and

domestics, and possessions. But he that has no family is in a great

degree free of temptation. Caring, then, for himself alone, he is

surpassed by him who is inferior, as far as his own personal salvation

is concerned, but who is superior in the conduct of life, preserving

certainly, in his care for the truth, a minute image.

But we must as much as possible subject the soul to varied preparatory

exercise, that it may become susceptible to the reception of knowledge.

Do you not see how wax is softened and copper purified, in order to

receive the stamp applied to it? Just as death is the separation of

the soul from the body, so is knowledge as it were the rational death

urging the spirit away, and separating it from the passions, and

leading it on to the life of well-doing, that it may then say with

confidence to God, “I live as Thou wishest.” For he who makes it his

purpose to please men cannot please God, since the multitude choose

not what is profitable, but what is pleasant. But in pleasing God, one

as a consequence gets the favour of the good among men. How, then, can

what relates to meat, and drink, and amorous pleasure, be agreeable to

such an one? since he views with suspicion even a word that produces

pleasure, and a pleasant movement and act of the mind. “For no one

can serve two masters, God and Mammon,”[1262] it is said; meaning not

simply money, but the resources arising from money bestowed on various

pleasures. In reality, it is not possible for him who magnanimously and

truly knows God, to serve antagonistic pleasures.

There is one alone, then, who from the beginning was free of

concupiscence--the philanthropic Lord, who for us became man. And

whosoever endeavour to be assimilated to the impress given by Him,

strive, from exercise, to become free of concupiscence. For he who

has exercised concupiscence and then restrained himself, is like a

widow who becomes again a virgin by continence. Such is the reward of

knowledge, rendered to the Saviour and Teacher, which He Himself asked

for,--abstinence from what is evil, activity in doing good, by which

salvation is acquired.

As, then, those who have learned the arts procure their living by what

they have been taught, so also is the Gnostic saved, procuring life

by what he knows. For he who has not formed the wish to extirpate the

passion of the soul, kills himself. But, as seems, ignorance is the

starvation of the soul, and knowledge its sustenance.

Such are the gnostic souls, which the Gospel likened to the consecrated

virgins who wait for the Lord. For they are virgins, in respect of

their abstaining from what is evil. And in respect of their waiting out

of love for the Lord, and kindling their light for the contemplation of

things, they are wise souls, saying, “Lord, for long we have desired

to receive Thee; we have lived according to what Thou hast enjoined,

transgressing none of Thy commandments. Wherefore also we claim the

promises. And we pray for what is beneficial, since it is not requisite

to ask of Thee what is most excellent. And we shall take everything for

good; even though the exercises that meet us, which Thine arrangement

brings to us for the discipline of our stedfastness, appear to be evil.”

The Gnostic, then, from his exceeding holiness, is better prepared to

fail when he asks, than to get when he does not ask.

His whole life is prayer and converse with God. And if he be pure from

sins, he will by all means obtain what he wishes. For God says to the

righteous man, “Ask, and I will give thee; think, and I will do.” If

beneficial, he will receive it at once; and if injurious, he will never

ask it, and therefore he will not receive it. So it shall be as he

wishes.

But if one say to us, that some sinners even obtain according to their

requests, [we should say] that this rarely takes place, by reason of

the righteous goodness of God. And it is granted to those who are

capable of doing others good. Whence the gift is not made for the sake

of him that asked it; but the divine dispensation, foreseeing that one

would be saved by his means, renders the boon again righteous. And to

those who are worthy, things which are really good are given, even

without their asking.

Whenever, then, one is righteous, not from necessity or out of fear or

hope, but from free choice, this is called the royal road, which the

royal race travel. But the byways are slippery and precipitous. If,

then, one take away fear and honour, I do not know if the illustrious

among the philosophers, who use such freedom of speech, will any longer

endure afflictions.

Now lusts and other sins are called “briars and thorns.” Accordingly

the Gnostic labours in the Lord’s vineyard, planting, pruning,

watering; being the divine husbandman of what is planted in faith.

Those, then, who have not done evil, think it right to receive the

wages of ease. But he who has done good out of free choice, demands

the recompense as a good workman. He certainly shall receive double

wages--both for what he has not done, and for what good he has done.

Such a Gnostic is tempted by no one except with God’s permission, and

that for the benefit of those who are with him; and he strengthens them

for faith, encouraging them by manly endurance. And assuredly it was

for this end, for the establishment and confirmation of the churches,

that the blessed apostles were brought into trial and to martyrdom.

The Gnostic, then, hearing a voice ringing in his ear, which says,

“Whom I shall strike, do thou pity,” beseeches that those who hate him

may repent. For the punishment of malefactors, to be consummated in the

highways, is for children to witness;[1263] for there is no possibility

of the Gnostic, who has from choice trained himself to be excellent and

good, ever being instructed or delighted with such spectacles.[1264]

And so, having become incapable of being softened by pleasures, and

never falling into sins, he is not corrected by the examples of other

men’s sufferings. And far from being pleased with earthly pleasures and

spectacles is he who has shown a noble contempt for the prospects held

out in this world, although they are divine.

“Not every one,” therefore, “that says Lord, Lord, shall enter into

the kingdom of God; but he that doeth the will of God.”[1265] Such

is the gnostic labourer, who has the mastery of worldly desires even

while still in the flesh; and who, in regard to things future and

still invisible, which he knows, has a sure persuasion, so that he

regards them as more present than the things within reach. This able

workman rejoices in what he knows, but is cramped on account of his

being involved in the necessities of life; not yet deemed worthy of the

active participation in what he knows. So he uses this life as if it

belonged to another,--so far, that is, as is necessary.

He knows also the enigmas of the fasting of those days--I mean the

Fourth and the Preparation. For the one has its name from Hermes,

and the other from Aphrodite. He fasts in his life, in respect of

covetousness and voluptuousness, from which all the vices grow. For

we have already often above shown the three varieties of fornication,

according to the apostle--love of pleasure, love of money, idolatry.

He fasts, then, according to the Law, abstaining from bad deeds,

and, according to the perfection of the Gospel, from evil thoughts.

Temptations are applied to him, not for his purification, but, as we

have said, for the good of his neighbours, if, making trial of toils

and pains, he has despised and passed them by.

The same holds of pleasure. For it is the highest achievement for one

who has had trial of it, afterwards to abstain. For what great thing is

it, if a man restrains himself in what he knows not? He, in fulfilment

of the precept, according to the Gospel, keeps the Lord’s day, when

he abandons an evil disposition, and assumes that of the Gnostic,

glorifying the Lord’s resurrection in himself. Further also, when he

has received the comprehension of scientific speculation, he deems that

he sees the Lord, directing his eyes towards things invisible, although

he seems to look on what he does not wish to look on; chastising the

faculty of vision, when he perceives himself pleasurably affected by

the application of his eyes; since he wishes to see and hear that alone

which concerns him.

In the act of contemplating the souls of the brethren, he beholds

the beauty of the flesh also, with the soul itself, which has become

habituated to look solely upon that which is good, without carnal

pleasure. And they are really brethren; inasmuch as, by reason of their

elect creation, and their oneness of character, and the nature of their

deeds, they do, and think, and speak the same holy and good works, in

accordance with the sentiments with which the Lord wished them as elect

to be inspired.

For faith shows itself in their making choice of the same things; and

knowledge, in learning and thinking the same things; and hope, in

desiring[1266] the same things.

And if, through the necessity of life, he spend a small portion of

time about his sustenance, he thinks himself defrauded, being diverted

by business. Thus not even in dreams does he look on aught that is

unsuitable to an elect man. For thoroughly[1267] a stranger and

sojourner in the whole of life is every such one, who, inhabiting the

city, despises the things in the city which are admired by others, and

lives in the city as in a desert, so that the place may not compel him,

but his mode of life show him to be just.

This Gnostic, to speak compendiously, makes up for the absence of the

apostles, by the rectitude of his life, the accuracy of his knowledge,

by benefiting his relations, by “removing the mountains” of his

neighbours, and putting away the irregularities of their soul. Although

each of us is his[1268] own vineyard and labourer.

He, too, while doing the most excellent things, wishes to elude the

notice of men, persuading the Lord along with himself that he is living

in accordance with the commandments, preferring these things from

believing them to exist. “For where any one’s mind is, there also is

his treasure.”[1269]

He impoverishes himself, in order that he may never overlook a

brother[1270] who has been brought into affliction, through the

perfection that is in love, especially if he know that he will bear

want himself easier than his brother. He considers, accordingly, the

other’s pain his own grief; and if, by contributing from his own

indigence in order to do good, he suffer any hardship, he does not fret

at this, but augments his beneficence still more. For he possesses in

its sincerity the faith which is exercised in reference to the affairs

of life, and praises the gospel in practice and contemplation. And, in

truth, he wins his praise “not from men, but from God,”[1271] by the

performance of what the Lord has taught.

He, attracted by his own hope, tastes not the good things that are

in the world, entertaining a noble contempt for all things here;

pitying those that are chastised after death, who through punishment

unwillingly make confession; having a clear conscience with reference

to his departure, and being always ready, as “a stranger and pilgrim,”

with regard to the inheritances here; mindful only of those that

are his own, and regarding all things here as not his own; not only

admiring the Lord’s commandments, but, so to speak, being by knowledge

itself partaker of the divine will; a truly chosen intimate of the

Lord and His commands in virtue of being righteous; and princely and

kingly as being a Gnostic; despising all the gold on earth and under

the earth, and dominion from shore to shore of ocean, so that he may

cling to the sole service of the Lord. Wherefore also, in eating, and

drinking, and marrying (if the Word enjoin), and even in seeing dreams,

he does and thinks what is holy.

So is he always pure for prayer. He also prays in the society of

angels, as being already of angelic rank, and he is never out of

their holy keeping; and though he pray alone, he has the choir of the

saints[1272] standing with him.

He recognises a twofold [element in faith], both the activity of him

who believes, and the excellence of that which is believed according

to its worth; since also righteousness is twofold, that which is out

of love, and that from fear. Accordingly it is said, “The fear of the

Lord is pure, remaining for ever and ever.”[1273] For those that from

fear turn to faith and righteousness, remain for ever. Now fear works

abstinence from what is evil; but love exhorts to the doing of good, by

building up to the point of spontaneousness; that one may hear from the

Lord, “I call you no longer servants, but friends,” and may now with

confidence apply himself to prayer.

And the form of his prayer is thanksgiving for the past, for the

present, and for the future as already through faith present. This

is preceded by the reception of knowledge. And he asks to live the

allotted life in the flesh as a Gnostic, as free from the flesh, and

to attain to the best things, and flee from the worse. He asks, too,

relief in those things in which we have sinned, and conversion to the

acknowledgment of them.

He follows, on his departure, Him who calls, as quickly, so to speak,

as He who goes before calls, hasting by reason of a good conscience to

give thanks; and having got there with Christ, shows himself worthy,

through his purity, to possess, by a process of blending, the power

of God communicated by Christ. For he does not wish to be warm by

participation in heat, or luminous by participation in flame, but to be

wholly light.

He knows accurately the declaration, “Unless ye hate father and

mother, and besides your own life, and unless ye bear the sign [of

the cross].”[1274] For he hates the inordinate affections of the

flesh, which possess the powerful spell of pleasure; and entertains

a noble contempt for all that belongs to the creation and nutriment

of the flesh. He also withstands the corporeal[1275] soul, putting a

bridle-bit on the restive irrational spirit: “For the flesh lusteth

against the Spirit.”[1276] And “to bear the sign of [the cross]” is to

bear about death, by taking farewell of all things while still alive;

since there is not equal love in “having sown the flesh,”[1277] and in

having formed the soul for knowledge.

He having acquired the habit of doing good, exercises beneficence well,

quicker than speaking; praying that he may get a share in the sins of

his brethren, in order to confession and conversion on the part of

his kindred; and eager to give a share to those dearest to him of his

own good things. And so these are to him, friends. Promoting, then,

the growth of the seeds deposited in him, according to the husbandry

enjoined by the Lord, he continues free of sin, and becomes continent,

and lives in spirit with those who are like him, among the choirs of

the saints, though still detained on earth.

He, all day and night, speaking and doing the Lord’s commands, rejoices

exceedingly, not only on rising in the morning and at noon, but

also when walking about, when asleep, when dressing and undressing;

and he teaches his son, if he has a son. He is inseparable from the

commandment and from hope, and is ever giving thanks to God, like the

living creatures figuratively spoken of by Esaias, and submissive

in every trial, he says, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken

away.”[1278] For such also was Job; who after the spoiling of his

effects, along with the health of his body, resigned all through love

to the Lord. For “he was,” it is said, “just, holy, and kept apart from

all wickedness.”[1279] Now the word “holy” points out all duties toward

God, and the entire course of life. Knowing which, he was a Gnostic.

For we must neither cling too much to such things, even if they are

good, seeing they are human, nor on the other hand detest them, if they

are bad; but we must be above both [good and bad], trampling the latter

under foot, and passing on the former to those who need them. But the

Gnostic is cautious in accommodation, lest he be not perceived, or lest

the accommodation become disposition.

CHAPTER XIII.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC CONTINUED.

He never remembers those who have sinned against him, but forgives

them. Wherefore also he righteously prays, saying, “Forgive us; for

we also forgive.”[1280] For this also is one of the things which God

wishes, to covet nothing, to hate no one. For all men are the work

of one will. And is it not the Saviour, who wishes the Gnostic to be

perfect as “the heavenly Father,”[1281] that is, Himself, who says,

“Come, ye children, hear from me the fear of the Lord?”[1282] He wishes

him no longer to stand in need of help by angels, but to receive it

from Himself, having become worthy, and to have protection from Himself

by obedience.

Such an one demands from the Lord, and does not merely ask. And in the

case of his brethren in want, the Gnostic will not ask himself for

abundance of wealth to bestow, but will pray that the supply of what

they need may be furnished to them. For so the Gnostic gives his prayer

to those who are in need, and by his prayer they are supplied, without

his knowledge, and without vanity.

Penury and disease, and such trials, are often sent for admonition, for

the correction of the past, and for care for the future. Such an one

prays for relief from them, in virtue of possessing the prerogative of

knowledge, not out of vainglory; but from the very fact of his being

a Gnostic, he works beneficence, having become the instrument of the

goodness of God.

They say in the traditions that Matthew the apostle constantly said,

that “if the neighbour of an elect man sin, the elect man has sinned.

For had he conducted himself as the Word prescribes, his neighbour also

would have been filled with such reverence for the life he led as not

to sin.”

What, then, shall we say of the Gnostic himself? “Know ye not,” says

the apostle, “that ye are the temple of God?”[1283] The Gnostic is

consequently divine, and already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne. Now

the Scripture, showing that sinning is foreign to him, sells those who

have fallen away to strangers, saying, “Look not on a strange woman, to

lust,”[1284] plainly pronounces sin foreign and contrary to the nature

of the temple of God. Now the temple is great, as the Church, and it is

small, as the man who preserves the seed of Abraham. He, therefore, who

has God resting in him will not desire aught else. At once leaving all

hindrances, and despising all matter which distracts him, he cleaves

the heaven by knowledge. And passing through the spiritual Essences,

and all rule and authority, he touches the highest thrones, hasting to

that alone for the sake of which alone he knew.

Mixing, then, “the serpent with the dove,”[1285] he lives at once

perfectly and with a good conscience, mingling faith with hope,

in order to the expectation of the future. For he is conscious of

the boon he has received, having become worthy of obtaining it;

and is translated from slavery to adoption, as the consequence of

knowledge; knowing God, or rather known of Him, for the end, he puts

forth energies corresponding to the worth of grace. For works follow

knowledge, as the shadow the body.

Rightly, then, he is not disturbed by anything which happens; nor does

he suspect those things, which, through divine arrangement, take place

for good. Nor is he ashamed to die, having a good conscience, and being

fit to be seen by the Powers. Cleansed, so to speak, from all the

stains of the soul, he knows right well that it will be better with him

after his departure.

Whence he never prefers pleasure and profit to the divine arrangement,

since he trains himself by the commands, that in all things he may be

well pleasing to the Lord, and praiseworthy in the sight of the world,

since all things depend on the one Sovereign God. The Son of God, it

is said, came to His own, and His own received Him not. Wherefore

also in the use of the things of the world he not only gives thanks

and praises the creation, but also, while using them as is right, is

praised; since the end he has in view terminates in contemplation by

gnostic activity in accordance with the commandments.

Thence now, by knowledge collecting materials to be the food of

contemplation, having embraced nobly the magnitude of knowledge, he

advances to the holy recompense of translation hence. For he has heard

the Psalm which says: “Encircle Zion, and encompass it, tell upon its

towers.”[1286] For it intimates, I think, those who have sublimely

embraced the Word, so as to become lofty towers, and to stand firmly in

faith and knowledge.

Let these statements concerning the Gnostic, containing the germs of

the matter in as brief terms as possible, be made to the Greeks. But

let it be known that if the [mere] believer do rightly one or a second

of these things, yet he will not do so in all nor with the highest

knowledge, like the Gnostic.

CHAPTER XIV.

DESCRIPTION OF THE GNOSTIC FURNISHED BY AN

EXPOSITION OF 1 COR. VI. 1, ETC.

Now, of what I may call the passionlessness which we attribute to the

Gnostic (in which the perfection of the believer, “advancing by love,

comes to a perfect man, to the measure of full stature,”[1287] by

being assimilated to God, and by becoming truly angelic), many other

testimonies from the Scripture occur to me to adduce. But I think it

better, on account of the length of the discourse, that such an honour

should be devolved on those who wish to take pains, and leave it to

them to elaborate the dogmas by the selection of scriptures.

One passage, accordingly, I shall in the briefest terms advert to, so

as not to leave the topic unexplained.

For in the first Epistle to the Corinthians the divine apostle says:

“Dare any of you, having a matter against the other, go to law before

the unrighteous, and not before the saints? Know ye not that the saints

shall judge the world?”[1288] and so on.

The section being very lengthy, we shall exhibit the meaning of the

apostle’s utterance by employing such of the apostolic expressions

as are most pertinent, and in the briefest language, and in a sort

of cursory way, interpreting the discourse in which he describes the

perfection of the Gnostic. For he does not merely instance the Gnostic

as characterized by suffering wrong rather than do wrong; but he

teaches that he is not mindful of injuries, and does not allow him even

to pray against the man who has done him wrong. For he knows that the

Lord expressly enjoined “to pray for enemies.”[1289]

To say, then, that the man who has been injured goes to law before

the unrighteous, is nothing else than to say that he shows a wish to

retaliate, and a desire to injure the second in return, which is also

to do wrong likewise himself.

And his saying, that he wishes “some to go to law before the saints,”

points out those who ask by prayer that those who have done wrong

should suffer retaliation for their injustice, and intimates that the

second are better than the former; but they are not yet obedient,[1290]

if they do not, having become entirely free of resentment, pray even

for their enemies.

It is well, then, for them to receive right dispositions from

repentance, which results in faith. For if the truth seems to get

enemies who entertain bad feeling, yet it is not hostile to any one.

“For God makes His sun to shine on the just and on the unjust,”[1291]

and sent the Lord Himself to the just and the unjust. And he that

earnestly strives to be assimilated to God, in the exercise of great

absence of resentment, forgives seventy times seven times, as it were

all his life through, and in all his course in this world (that being

indicated by the enumeration of sevens) shows clemency to each and

any one; if any during the whole time of his life in the flesh do the

Gnostic wrong. For he not only deems it right that the good man should

resign his property alone to others, being of the number of those who

have done him wrong; but also wishes that the righteous man should ask

of those judges forgiveness for the offences of those who have done him

wrong. And with reason, if indeed it is only in that which is external

and concerns the body, though it go to the extent of death even, that

those who attempt to wrong him take advantage of him; none of which

truly belong to the Gnostic.

And how shall one “judge” the apostate “angels,” who has become himself

an apostate from that forgetfulness of injuries, which is according to

the Gospel? “Why do ye not rather suffer wrong?” he says; “why are ye

not rather defrauded? Yea, ye do wrong and defraud,”[1292] manifestly

by praying against those who transgress in ignorance, and deprive of

the philanthropy and goodness of God, as far as in you lies, those

against whom you pray, “and these your brethren,”--not meaning those

in the faith only, but also the proselytes. For whether he who now

is hostile shall afterwards believe, we know not as yet. From which

the conclusion follows clearly, if all are not yet brethren to us,

they ought to be regarded in that light. And now it is only the man

of knowledge who recognises all men to be the work of one God, and

invested with one image in one nature, although some may be more turbid

than others; and in the creatures he recognises the operation, by which

again he adores the will of God.

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of

God?”[1293] He acts unrighteously who retaliates, whether by deed or

word, or by the conception of a wish, which, after the training of the

Law, the Gospel rejects.

“And such were some of you”--such manifestly as those still are whom

you do not forgive; “but ye are washed,”[1294] not simply as the rest,

but with knowledge; ye have cast off the passions of the soul, in order

to become assimilated, as far as possible, to the goodness of God’s

providence by long-suffering, and by forgiveness “towards the just and

the unjust,” casting on them the gleam of benignity in word and deeds,

as the sun.

The Gnostic will achieve this either by greatness of mind, or by

imitation of what is better. And that is a third cause. “Forgive, and

it shall be forgiven you;” the commandment, as it were, compelling to

salvation through superabundance of goodness.

“But ye are sanctified.” For he who has come to this state is in a

condition to be holy, falling into none of the passions in any way, but

as it were already disembodied and already grown holy without[1295]

this earth.

“Wherefore,” he says, “ye are justified in the name of the Lord.” Ye

are made, so to speak, by Him to be righteous as He is, and are blended

as far as possible with the Holy Spirit. For “are not all things lawful

to me? yet I will not be brought under the power of any,”[1296] so as

to do, or think, or speak aught contrary to the gospel. “Meats for the

belly, and the belly for meats, which God shall destroy,”[1297]--that

is, such as think and live as if they were made for eating, and do

not eat that they may live as a consequence, and apply to knowledge

as the primary end. And does he not say that these are, as it were,

the fleshy parts of the holy body? As a body, the church of the Lord,

the spiritual and holy choir, is symbolized. Whence those, who are

merely called, but do not live in accordance with the word, are the

fleshy parts. “Now” this spiritual “body,” the holy Church, “is not

for fornication.” Nor are those things which belong to heathen life to

be adopted by apostasy from the gospel. For he who conducts himself

heathenishly in the Church, whether in deed, or word, or even in

thought, commits fornication with reference to the Church and his own

body. He who in this way “is joined to the harlot,” that is, to conduct

contrary to the Covenant, becomes another “body,” not holy, “and one

flesh,” and has a heathenish life and another hope. “But he that is

joined to the Lord in spirit” becomes a spiritual body by a different

kind of conjunction.

Such an one is wholly a son, an holy man, passionless, gnostic,

perfect, formed by the teaching of the Lord; in order that in deed, in

word, and in spirit itself, being brought close to the Lord, he may

receive the mansion that is due to him who has reached manhood thus.

Let the specimen suffice to those who have ears. For it is not required

to unfold the mystery, but only to indicate what is sufficient for

those who are partakers in knowledge to bring it to mind; who also

will comprehend how it was said by the Lord, “Be ye perfect as your

Father, perfectly,”[1298] by forgiving sins, and forgetting injuries,

and living in the habit of passionlessness. For as we call a physician

perfect, and a philosopher perfect, so also, in my view, do we call a

Gnostic perfect. But not one of those points, although of the greatest

importance, is assumed in order to the likeness of God. For we do not

say, as the Stoics do most impiously, that virtue in man and God is

the same. Ought we not then to be perfect, as the Father wills? For it

is utterly impossible for any one to become perfect as God is. Now the

Father wishes us to be perfect by living blamelessly, according to the

obedience of the gospel.

If, then, the statement being elliptical, we understand what is

wanting, in order to complete the section for those who are incapable

of understanding what is left out, we shall both know the will of God,

and shall walk at once piously and magnanimously, as befits the dignity

of the commandment.

CHAPTER XV.

THE OBJECTION TO JOIN THE CHURCH ON ACCOUNT OF THE

DIVERSITY OF HERESIES ANSWERED.

Since it comes next to reply to the objections alleged against us

by Greeks and Jews; and since, in some of the questions previously

discussed, the sects also who adhere to other teaching give their

help, it will be well first to clear away the obstacles before us, and

then, prepared thus for the solution of the difficulties, to advance to

the succeeding Miscellany.

First, then, they make this objection to us, saying, that they ought

not to believe on account of the discord of the sects. For the truth is

warped when some teach one set of dogmas, others another.

To whom we say, that among you who are Jews, and among the most famous

of the philosophers among the Greeks, very many sects have sprung up.

And yet you do not say that one ought to hesitate to philosophize

or Judaize, because of the want of agreement of the sects among you

between themselves. And then, that heresies should be sown among the

truth, as “tares among the wheat,” was foretold by the Lord; and what

was predicted to take place could not but happen. And the cause of

this is, that everything that is fair is followed by a foul blot. If

one, then, violate his engagements, and go aside from the confession

which he makes before us, are we not to stick to the truth because he

has belied his profession? But as the good man must not prove false

or fail to ratify what he has promised, although others violate their

engagements; so also are we bound in no way to transgress the canon

of the church. And especially do we keep our profession in the most

important points, while they traverse it.

Those, then, are to be believed, who hold firmly to the truth. And we

may broadly make use of this reply, and say to them, that physicians

holding opposite opinions according to their own schools, yet equally

in point of fact treat patients. Does one, then, who is ill in body and

needing treatment, not have recourse to a physician, on account of the

different schools in medicine? No more, then, may he who in soul is

sick and full of idols, make a pretext of the heresies, in reference to

the recovery of health and conversion to God.

Further, it is said that it is on account of “those that are approved

that heresies exist.”[1299] [The apostle] calls “approved,” either

those who in reaching faith apply to the teaching of the Lord with

some discrimination (as those are called skilful[1300] money-changers,

who distinguish the spurious coin from the genuine by the false stamp),

or those who have already become approved both in life and knowledge.

For this reason, then, we require greater attention and consideration

in order to investigate how precisely we ought to live, and what is the

true piety. For it is plain that, from the very reason that truth is

difficult and arduous of attainment, questions arise from which spring

the heresies, savouring of self-love and vanity, of those who have not

learned or apprehended truly, but only caught up a mere conceit of

knowledge. With the greater care, therefore, are we to examine the real

truth, which alone has for its object the true God. And the toil is

followed by sweet discovery and reminiscence.

On account of the heresies, therefore, the toil of discovery must be

undertaken; but we must not at all abandon [the truth]. For, on fruit

being set before us, some real and ripe, and some made of wax, as like

the real as possible, we are not to abstain from both on account of the

resemblance. But by the exercise of the apprehension of contemplation,

and by reasoning of the most decisive character, we must distinguish

the true from the seeming.

And as, while there is one royal highway, there are many others, some

leading to a precipice, some to a rushing river or to a deep sea, no

one will shrink from travelling by reason of the diversity, but will

make use of the safe, and royal, and frequented way; so, though some

say this, some that, concerning the truth, we must not abandon it; but

must seek out the most accurate knowledge respecting it. Since also

among garden-grown vegetables weeds also spring up, are the husbandmen,

then, to desist from gardening?

Having then from nature abundant means for examining the statements

made, we ought to discover the sequence of the truth. Wherefore also we

are rightly condemned, if we do not assent to what we ought to obey,

and do not distinguish what is hostile, and unseemly, and unnatural,

and false, from what is true, consistent, and seemly, and according to

nature. And these means must be employed in order to attain to the

knowledge of the real truth.

This pretext is then, in the case of the Greeks, futile; for those who

are willing may find the truth. But in the case of those who adduce

unreasonable excuses, their condemnation is unanswerable. For whether

do they deny or admit that there is such a thing as demonstration? I

am of opinion that all will make the admission, except those who take

away the senses. There being demonstration, then, it is necessary to

condescend to questions, and to ascertain by way of demonstration by

the Scriptures themselves how the heresies erred, and how in the truth

alone and in the ancient church is both the exactest knowledge, and the

truly best set of principles (αἵρεσις).

Now, of those who diverge from the truth, some attempt to deceive

themselves alone, and some also their neighbours. Those, then, who are

called (δοξόσοφοι) wise in their own opinions, who think that they have

found the truth, but have no true demonstration, deceive themselves

in thinking that they have reached a resting-place. And of whom there

is no inconsiderable multitude, who avoid investigations for fear of

refutations, and shun instruction for fear of condemnation. But those

who deceive those who seek access to them are very astute; who, aware

that they know nothing, yet darken the truth with plausible arguments.

But, in my opinion, the nature of plausible arguments is of one

character, and that of true arguments of another. And we know that it

is necessary that the appellation of the heresies should be expressed

in contradistinction to the truth; from which the Sophists, drawing

certain things for the destruction of men, and burying them in human

arts invented by themselves, glory rather in being at the head of a

School than presiding over the Church.

CHAPTER XVI.

SCRIPTURE THE CRITERION BY WHICH TRUTH AND HERESY

ARE DISTINGUISHED.

But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will

not desist from the search after truth, till they get the demonstration

from the Scriptures themselves.

There are certain criteria common to men, as the senses; and others

that belong to those who have employed their wills and energies in what

is true,--the methods which are pursued by the mind and reason, to

distinguish between true and false propositions.

Now, it is a very great thing to abandon opinion, by taking one’s stand

between accurate knowledge and the rash wisdom of opinion, and to know

that he who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance

to it is toilsome “and strait.” And let him who has once received the

gospel, even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge

of salvation, “not turn back, like Lot’s wife,” as is said; and let

him not go back either to his former life, which adheres to the things

of sense, or to heresies. For they form the character, not knowing

the true God. “For he that loveth father or mother more than me,” the

Father and Teacher of the truth, who regenerates and creates anew, and

nourishes the elect soul, “is not worthy of me”--He means, to be a son

of God and a disciple of God, and at the same time also to be a friend,

and of kindred nature. “For no man who looks back, and puts his hand to

the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God.”[1301]

But, as appears, many even down to our own time regard Mary, on account

of the birth of her child, as having been in the puerperal state,

although she was not. For some say that, after she brought forth, she

was found, when examined, to be a virgin.

Now such to us are the Scriptures of the Lord, which give birth to the

truth and continue virgin, in the concealment of the mysteries of

the truth. “And she brought forth, and yet brought not forth,”[1302]

says the Scripture; as having conceived of herself, and not from

conjunction. Wherefore the Scriptures have conceived to Gnostics; but

the heresies, not having learned them, dismiss them as not having

conceived.

Now all men, having the same judgment, some, following the Word

speaking, frame for themselves proofs; while others, giving themselves

up to pleasures, wrest Scripture, in accordance with their lusts. And

the lover of truth, as I think, needs force of soul. For those who make

the greatest attempts must fail in things of the highest importance;

unless, receiving from the truth itself the rule of the truth, they

cleave to the truth. But such people, in consequence of falling away

from the right path, err in most individual points; as you might expect

from not having the faculty for judging of what is true and false,

strictly trained to select what is essential. For if they had, they

would have obeyed the Scriptures.

As, then, if a man should, similarly to those drugged by Circe, become

a beast; so he, who has spurned the ecclesiastical tradition, and

darted off to the opinions of heretical men, has ceased to be a man of

God and to remain faithful to the Lord. But he who has returned from

this deception, on hearing the Scriptures, and turned his life to the

truth, is, as it were, from being a man made a God.

For we have, as the source of teaching, the Lord, both by the prophets,

the Gospel, and the blessed apostles, “in divers manners and at sundry

times,”[1303] leading from the beginning of knowledge to the end. But

if one should suppose that another origin was required, then no longer

truly could an origin be preserved.

He, then, who of himself believes the Scripture and voice of the Lord,

which by the Lord acts to the benefiting of men, is rightly [regarded]

reliable. Certainly we use it as a criterion in the discovery of

things. What is subjected to criticism is not believed till it is so

subjected; so that what needs criticism cannot be a first principle.

Therefore, as is reasonable, grasping by faith the indemonstrable first

principle, and receiving in abundance, from the first principle itself,

demonstrations in reference to the first principle, we are by the voice

of the Lord trained up to the knowledge of the truth.

For we may not give our adhesion to men on a bare statement by them,

who might equally state the opposite. But if it is not enough merely

to state the opinion, but if what is stated must be confirmed, we do

not wait for the testimony of men, but we establish the matter that

is in question by the voice of the Lord, which is the surest of all

demonstrations, or rather is the only demonstration; in which knowledge

those who have merely tasted the Scriptures are believers; while those

who, having advanced further, and become correct expounders of the

truth, are Gnostics. Since also, in what pertains to life, craftsmen

are superior to ordinary people, and model what is beyond common

notions; so, consequently, we also, giving a complete exhibition of

the Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves, from faith persuade by

demonstration.

And if those also who follow heresies venture to avail themselves of

the prophetic Scriptures; in the first place they will not make use of

all the Scriptures, and then they will not quote them entire, nor as

the body and texture of prophecy prescribe. But, selecting ambiguous

expressions, they wrest them to their own opinions, gathering a few

expressions here and there; not looking to the sense, but making use

of the mere words. For in almost all the quotations they make, you

will find that they attend to the names alone, while they alter the

meanings; neither knowing, as they affirm, nor using the quotations

they adduce, according to their true nature.

But the truth is not found by changing the meanings (for so people

subvert all true teaching), but in the consideration of what perfectly

belongs to and becomes the Sovereign God, and in establishing each

one of the points demonstrated in the Scriptures again from similar

Scriptures. Neither, then, do they want to turn to the truth, being

ashamed to abandon the claims of self-love; nor are they able to

manage their opinions, by doing violence to the Scriptures. But having

first promulgated false dogmas to men; plainly fighting against almost

the whole Scriptures, and constantly confuted by us who contradict

them; for the rest, even now partly they hold out against admitting the

prophetic Scriptures, and partly disparage us as of a different nature,

and incapable of understanding what is peculiar to them. And sometimes

even they deny their own dogmas, when these are confuted, being ashamed

openly to own what in private they glory in teaching. For this may be

seen in all the heresies, when you examine the iniquities of their

dogmas. For when they are overturned by our clearly showing that they

are opposed to the Scriptures, one of two things may be seen to have

been done by those who defend the dogma. For they either despise the

consistency of their own dogmas, or despise the prophecy itself, or

rather their own hope. And they invariably prefer what seems to them

to be more evident to what has been spoken by the Lord through the

prophets and by the Gospel, and, besides, attested and confirmed by the

apostles.

Seeing, therefore, the danger that they are in (not in respect of one

dogma, but in reference to the maintenance of the heresies) of not

discovering the truth; for while reading the books we have ready at

hand, they despise them as useless, but in their eagerness to surpass

common faith, they have diverged from the truth. For, in consequence

of not learning the mysteries of ecclesiastical knowledge, and not

having capacity for the grandeur of the truth, too indolent to descend

to the bottom of things, reading superficially, they have dismissed

the Scriptures. Elated, then, by vain opinion, they are incessantly

wrangling, and plainly care more to _seem_ than to _be_ philosophers.

Not laying as foundations the necessary first principles of things;

and influenced by human opinions, then making the end to suit them,

by compulsion; on account of being confuted, they spar with those who

are engaged in the prosecution of the true philosophy, and undergo

everything, and, as they say, ply every oar, even going the length of

impiety, by disbelieving the Scriptures, rather than be removed from

the honours of the heresy and the boasted first seat in their churches;

on account of which also they eagerly embrace that convivial couch of

honour in the Agape, falsely so called.

The knowledge of the truth among us from what is already believed,

produces faith in what is not yet believed; which [faith] is, so to

speak, the essence of demonstration. But, as appears, no heresy has

at all ears to hear what is useful, but opened only to what leads to

pleasure. Since also, if one of them would only obey the truth, he

would be healed.

Now the cure of self-conceit (as of every ailment) is threefold: the

ascertaining of the cause, and the mode of its removal; and thirdly,

the training of the soul, and the accustoming it to assume a right

attitude to the judgments come to. For, just like a disordered eye,

so also the soul that has been darkened by unnatural dogmas cannot

perceive distinctly the light of truth, but even overlooks what is

before it.

They say, then, that in muddy water eels are caught by being blinded.

And just as knavish boys bar out the teacher, so do these shut out the

prophecies from their church, regarding them with suspicion by reason

of rebuke and admonition. In fact, they stitch together a multitude

of lies and figments, that they may appear acting in accordance with

reason in not admitting the Scriptures. So, then, they are not pious,

inasmuch as they are not pleased with the divine commands, that is,

with the Holy Spirit. And as those almonds are called empty in which

the contents are worthless, not those in which there is nothing; so

also we call those heretics empty, who are destitute of the counsels

of God and the traditions of Christ; bitter, in truth, like the wild

almond, their dogmas originating with themselves, with the exception of

such truths as they could not, by reason of their evidence, discard and

conceal.

As, then, in war the soldier must not leave the post which the

commander has assigned him, so neither must we desert the post assigned

by the Word, whom we have received as the guide of knowledge and of

life. But the most have not even inquired, if there is one that we

ought to follow, and who this is, and how he is to be followed. For as

is the Word, such also must the believer’s life be, so as to be able

to follow God, who brings all things to end from the beginning by the

right course.

But when one has transgressed against the Word, and thereby against

God; if it is through becoming powerless in consequence of some

impression being suddenly made, he ought to see to have the impressions

of reasons at hand. And if it is that he has become “common,” as the

Scripture[1304] says, in consequence of being overcome by the habits

which formerly had sway over him, the habits must be entirely put a

stop to, and the soul trained to oppose them. And if it appears that

conflicting dogmas draw some away, these must be taken out of the way,

and recourse is to be had to those who reconcile dogmas, and subdue

by the charm of the Scriptures such of the untutored as are timid, by

explaining the truth by the connection of the Testaments.

But, as appears, we incline to ideas founded on opinion, though they

be contrary, rather than to the truth. For it is austere and grave.

Now, since there are three states of the soul--ignorance, opinion,

knowledge--those who are in ignorance are the Gentiles, those in

knowledge, the true Church, and those in opinion, the Heretics.

Nothing, then, can be more clearly seen than those, who know, making

affirmations about what they know, and the others respecting what they

hold on the strength of opinion, as far as respects affirmation without

proof.

They accordingly despise and laugh at one another. And it happens

that the same thought is held in the highest estimation by some, and

by others condemned for insanity. And, indeed, we have learned that

voluptuousness, which is to be attributed to the Gentiles, is one

thing; and wrangling, which is preferred among the heretical sects,

is another; and joy, which is to be appropriated to the church,

another; and delight, which is to be assigned to the true Gnostic,

another. And as, if one devote himself to Ischomachus, he will make

him a farmer; and to Lampis, a mariner; and to Charidemus, a military

commander; and to Simon, an equestrian; and to Perdices, a trader;

and to Crobylus, a cook; and to Archelaus, a dancer; and to Homer, a

poet; and to Pyrrho, a wrangler; and to Demosthenes, an orator; and

to Chrysippus, a dialectician; and to Aristotle, a naturalist; and to

Plato, a philosopher: so he who listens to the Lord, and follows the

prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the

teacher--made a god going about in flesh.

Accordingly, those fall from this eminence who follow not God whither

He leads. And He leads us in the inspired Scriptures.

Though men’s actions are ten thousand in number, the sources of all sin

are but two, ignorance and inability. And both depend on ourselves;

inasmuch as we will not learn, nor, on the other hand, restrain lust.

And of these, the one is that, in consequence of which people do not

judge well, and the other that, in consequence of which they cannot

comply with right judgments. For neither will one who is deluded in his

mind be able to act rightly, though perfectly able to do what he knows;

nor, though capable of judging what is requisite, will he keep himself

free of blame, if destitute of power in action. Consequently, then,

there are assigned two kinds of correction applicable to both kinds of

sin: for the one, knowledge and clear demonstration from the testimony

of the Scriptures; and for the other, the training according to the

Word, which is regulated by the discipline of faith and fear. And both

develope into perfect love. For the end of the Gnostic here is, in my

judgment, twofold,--partly scientific contemplation, partly action.

Would, then, that these heretics would learn and be set right by these

notes, and turn to the sovereign God! But if, like the deaf serpents,

they listen not to the song called new, though very old, may they be

chastised by God, and undergo paternal admonitions previous to the

Judgment, till they become ashamed and repent, but not rush through

headlong unbelief, and precipitate themselves into judgment.

For there are partial corrections, which are called chastisements,

which many of us who have been in transgression incur, by falling

away from the Lord’s people. But as children are chastised by their

teacher, or their father, so are we by Providence. But God does not

punish; for punishment is retaliation for evil. He chastises, however,

for good to those who are chastised, collectively and individually.

I have adduced these things from a wish to avert those, who are eager

to learn, from the liability to fall into heresies, and out of a

desire to stop them from superficial ignorance, or stupidity, or bad

disposition, or whatever it should be called. And in the attempt to

persuade and lead to the truth those who are not entirely incurable,

I have made use of these words. For there are some who cannot bear at

all to listen to those who exhort them to turn to the truth; and they

attempt to trifle, pouring out blasphemies against the truth, claiming

for themselves the knowledge of the greatest things in the universe,

without having learned, or inquired, or laboured, or discovered the

consecutive train of ideas,--whom one should pity rather than hate for

such perversity.

But if one is curable, able to bear (like fire or steel) the

outspokenness of the truth, which cuts away and burns their false

opinions, let him lend the ears of the soul. And this will be the case,

unless, through the propensity to sloth, they push truth away, or

through the desire of fame, endeavour to invent novelties. For those

are slothful who, having it in their power to provide themselves with

proper proofs for the divine Scriptures from the Scriptures themselves,

select only what contributes to their own pleasures. And those have

a craving for glory who voluntarily evade, by arguments of a diverse

sort, the things delivered by the blessed apostles and teachers, which

are wedded to inspired words; opposing the divine tradition by human

teachings, in order to establish the heresy. For, in truth, what

remained to be said--in ecclesiastical knowledge I mean--by such men,

Marcion, for example, or Prodicus, and such like, who did not walk in

the right way? For they could not have surpassed their predecessors in

wisdom, so as to discover anything in addition to what had been uttered

by them; for they would have been satisfied had they been able to learn

the things laid down before.

Our Gnostic then alone, having grown old in the Scriptures, and

maintaining apostolic and ecclesiastic orthodoxy in doctrines, lives

most correctly in accordance with the gospel, and discovers the proofs,

for which he may have made search (sent forth as he is by the Lord),

from the law and the prophets. For the life of the Gnostic, in my

view, is nothing but deeds and words corresponding to the tradition

of the Lord. But “all have not knowledge. For I would not have you

to be ignorant, brethren,” says the apostle, “that all were under

the cloud, and partook of spiritual meat and drink;”[1305] clearly

affirming that all who heard the word did not take in the magnitude

of knowledge in deed and word. Wherefore also he added: “But with all

of them He was not well pleased.” Who is this? He who said, “Why do

ye call me Lord, and do not the will of my Father?”[1306] That is the

Saviour’s teaching, which to us is spiritual food, and drink that knows

no thirst, the water of gnostic life. Further it is said, knowledge is

said “to puff up.” To whom we say: Perchance seeming knowledge is said

to puff up, if one[1307] suppose the expression means “to be swollen

up.” But if, as is rather the case, the expression of the apostle

means, “to entertain great and true sentiments,” the difficulty is

solved. Following, then, the Scriptures, let us establish what has

been said: “Wisdom,” says Solomon, “has inflated her children.” For

the Lord did not work conceit by the particulars of His teaching; but

He produces trust in the truth and expansion of mind, in the knowledge

that is communicated by the Scriptures, and contempt for the things

which drag into sin, which is the meaning of the expression “inflated.”

It teaches the magnificence of the wisdom implanted in her children

by instruction. Now the apostle says, “I will know not the speech of

those that are puffed up, but the power;”[1308] if ye understand the

Scriptures magnanimously (which means truly; for nothing is greater

than truth). For in that lies the power of the children of wisdom

who are puffed up. He says, as it were, I shall know if ye rightly

entertain great thoughts respecting knowledge. “For God,” according

to David, “is known in Judea,” that is, those that are Israelites

according to knowledge. For Judea is interpreted “Confession.” It

is, then, rightly said by the apostle, “This, _Thou shalt not commit

adultery_, _Thou shalt not steal_, _Thou shalt not covet_; and if there

be any other commandment, it is comprehended in this word, _Thou shalt

love thy neighbour as thyself_.”[1309]

For we must never, as do those who follow the heresies, adulterate

the truth, or steal the canon of the church, by gratifying our own

lusts and vanity, by defrauding our neighbours; whom above all it

is our duty, in the exercise of love to them, to teach to adhere

to the truth. It is accordingly expressly said, “Declare among the

heathen His statutes,” that they may not be judged, but that those

who have previously given ear may be converted. But those who speak

treacherously with their tongues have the penalties that are on record.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE TRADITION OF THE CHURCH PRIOR TO THAT OF THE

HERESIES.

Those, then, that adhere to impious words, and dictate them to others,

inasmuch as they do not make a right but a perverse use of the divine

words, neither themselves enter into the kingdom of heaven, nor permit

those whom they have deluded to attain the truth. But not having the

key of entrance, but a false (and as the common phrase expresses it), a

counterfeit key (ἀντικλεῖς), by which they do not enter in as we enter

in, through the tradition of the Lord, by drawing aside the curtain;

but bursting through the side-door, and digging clandestinely through

the wall of the church, and stepping over the truth, they constitute

themselves the Mystagogues[1310] of the soul of the impious.

For that the human assemblies which they held were posterior to the

Catholic Church, requires not many words to show.

For the teaching of our Lord at His advent, beginning with Augustus and

Tiberius, was completed in the middle of the times of Tiberius.[1311]

And that of the apostles, embracing the ministry of Paul, ends with

Nero. It was later, in the times of Adrian the king, that those who

invented the heresies arose; and they extended to the age of Antoninus

the elder, as, for instance, Basilides, though he claims (as they

boast) for his master, Glaucias, the interpreter of Peter.

Likewise they allege that Valentinus was a hearer of Theudas.[1312] And

he was the pupil of Paul. For Marcion, who arose in the same age with

them, lived as an old man with the younger[1313] [heretics]. And after

him Simon heard for a little the preaching of Peter.

Such being the case, it is evident, from the high antiquity and

perfect truth of the church, that these later heresies, and those yet

subsequent to them in time, were new inventions falsified [from the

truth].

From what has been said, then, it is my opinion that the true Church,

that which is really ancient, is one, and that in it those who

according to God’s purpose are just, are enrolled. For from the very

reason that God is one, and the Lord one, that which is in the highest

degree honourable is lauded in consequence of its singleness, being an

imitation of the one first principle. In the nature of the One, then,

is associated in a joint heritage the one Church, which they strive to

cut asunder into many sects.

Therefore in substance and idea, in origin, in pre-eminence, we say

that the ancient and universal Church is alone, collecting as it does

into the unity of the one faith--which results from the peculiar

Testaments, or rather the one Testament in different times by the will

of the one God, through one Lord--those already ordained, whom God

predestinated, knowing before the foundation of the world that they

would be righteous.

But the pre-eminence of the Church, as the principle of union, is, in

its oneness, in this surpassing all things else, and having nothing

like or equal to itself. But of this afterwards.

Of the heresies, some receive their appellation from a [person’s] name,

as that which is called after Valentinus, and that after Marcion, and

that after Basilides, although they boast of adducing the opinion of

Matthew [without truth]; for as the teaching, so also the tradition

of the apostles was one. Some take their designation from a place, as

the Peratici; some from a nation, as the [heresy] of the Phrygians;

some from an action, as that of the Encratites; and some from peculiar

dogmas, as that of the Docetæ, and that of the Hæmatites; and some

from suppositions, and from individuals they have honoured, as those

called Cainists, and the Ophians; and some from nefarious practices and

enormities, as those of the Simonians called Entychites.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE DISTINCTION BETWEEN CLEAN AND UNCLEAN ANIMALS

IN THE LAW SYMBOLICAL OF THE DISTINCTION

BETWEEN THE CHURCH, AND JEWS, AND HERETICS.

After showing a little peep-hole to those who love to contemplate the

Church from the law of sacrifices respecting clean and unclean animals

(inasmuch as thus the common Jews and the heretics are distinguished

mystically from the divine church), let us bring the discourse to a

close.

For such of the sacrifices as part the hoof, and ruminate, the

Scripture represents as clean and acceptable to God; since the just

obtain access to the Father and to the Son by faith. For this is the

stability of those who part the hoof, those who study the oracles of

God night and day, and ruminate them in the soul’s receptacle for

instructions; which gnostic exercise the Law expresses under the figure

of the rumination of the clean animal. But such as have neither the one

nor the other of those qualities it separates as unclean.

Now those that ruminate, but do not part the hoof, indicate the

majority of the Jews, who have indeed the oracles of God, but have

not faith, and the step which, resting on the truth, conveys to the

Father by the Son. Whence also this kind of cattle are apt to slip, not

having a division in the foot, and not resting on the twofold support

of faith. For “no man,” it is said, “knoweth the Father, but he to whom

the Son shall reveal Him.”[1314]

And again, those also are likewise unclean that part the hoof, but do

not ruminate. For these point out the heretics, who indeed go upon the

name of the Father and the Son, but are incapable of triturating and

grinding down the clear declaration of the oracles, and who, besides,

perform the works of righteousness coarsely, and not with precision, if

they perform them at all. To such the Lord says, “Why call ye me Lord,

Lord, and do not the things which I say?”[1315]

And those that neither part the hoof nor chew the cud are entirely

unclean.

“But ye Megareans,” says Theognis, “are neither third, nor fourth,

Nor twelfth, neither in reckoning nor in number,”

“but as chaff which the wind drives away from the face of the

earth,”[1316] “and as a drop from a vessel.”[1317]

These points, then, having been formerly thoroughly treated, and the

department of ethics having been sketched summarily in a fragmentary

way, as we promised; and having here and there interspersed the dogmas

which are the germs of true knowledge, so that the discovery of the

sacred traditions may not be easy to any one of the uninitiated, let us

proceed to what we promised.

Now the Miscellanies are not like parks laid out, planted in regular

order for the delight of the eye, but rather like an umbrageous and

shaggy hill, planted with laurel, and ivy, and apples, and olives,

and figs; the planting being purposely a mixture of fruit-bearing and

fruitless trees, since the composition aims at concealment, on account

of those that have the daring to pilfer and steal the ripe fruits; from

which, however, the husbandmen, transplanting shoots and plants, will

adorn a beautiful park and a delightful grove.

The Miscellanies, then, study neither arrangement nor diction; since

there are even cases in which the Greeks on purpose wish that ornate

diction should be absent, and imperceptibly cast in the seed of dogmas,

not according to the truth, rendering such as may read laborious and

quick at discovery. For many and various are the baits for the various

kinds of fishes.

And now, after this seventh Miscellany of ours, we shall give the

account of what follows in order from another commencement.

BOOK VIII.

CHAPTER I.

THE OBJECT OF PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL

INQUIRY--THE DISCOVERY OF TRUTH.

But the most ancient of the philosophers were not carried away to

disputing and doubting, much less are we, who are attached to the

really true philosophy, on whom the Scripture enjoins examination and

investigation. For it is the more recent of the Hellenic philosophers

who, by empty and futile love of fame, are led into useless babbling in

refuting and wrangling. But, on the contrary, the Barbarian philosophy,

expelling all contention, said, “Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it

shall be opened unto you; ask, and it shall be given you.”[1318]

Accordingly, by investigation, the point proposed for inquiry and

answer knocks at the door of truth, according to what appears. And

on an opening being made through the obstacle in the process of

investigation, there results scientific contemplation. To those who

thus knock, according to my view, the subject under investigation is

opened.

And to those who thus ask questions, in the Scriptures, there is given

from God (that at which they aim) the gift of the God-given knowledge,

by way of comprehension, through the true illumination of logical

investigation. For it is impossible to find, without having sought; or

to have sought, without having examined; or to have examined, without

having unfolded and opened up the question by interrogation, to produce

distinctness; or again, to have gone through the whole investigation,

without thereafter receiving as the prize the knowledge of the point in

question.

But it belongs to him who has sought, to find; and to him to seek,

who thinks previously that he does not know. Hence drawn by desire to

the discovery of what is good, he seeks thoughtfully, without love

of strife or glory, asking, answering, and besides considering the

statements made. For it is incumbent, in applying ourselves not only

to the divine Scriptures, but also to common notions, to institute

investigations, the discovery ceasing at some useful end.

For another place and crowd await turbulent people, and forensic

sophistries. But it is suitable for him, who is at once a lover and

disciple of the truth, to be pacific even in investigations, advancing

by scientific demonstration, without love of self, but with love of

truth, to comprehensive knowledge.

CHAPTER II.

THE NECESSITY OF PERSPICUOUS DEFINITION.

What better or clearer method, for the commencement of instruction

of this nature, can there be than discussion of the term advanced,

so distinctly, that all who use the same language may follow it? Is

the term for demonstration of such a kind as the word Blityri, which

is a mere sound, signifying nothing? But how is it that neither does

the philosopher, nor the orator,--no more does the judge,--adduce

demonstration as a term that means nothing; nor is any of the

contending parties ignorant of the fact, that the meaning does not

exist?