From all these places then it is evident, that they were not teaching the being of another Father, but were giving the New Testament of liberty to such as in a new way believed in God by the Holy Ghost. Themselves also by their inquiry, whether the disciples ought still to be circumcised or no? proved clearly that they had not had any other God in their minds.

§ 15. Moreover they would not have had such fear concerning the first Testament,⁸⁵⁴* as to be unwilling even to eat with the Gentiles. For even Peter, though sent to instruct them, and terrified by such a vision, yet spake to them with much fear,⁸⁵⁵* saying, Ye yourselves know that it is not dutiful for a man that is a Jew to join himself, or to keep company with a stranger. But to me God hath shewed, not to call any man common or unclean; wherefore I came without gainsaying. By these words signifying, that he should not have gone to them, had he not been commanded; for perhaps, as it was, he would not easily have given them Baptism, if he had not heard them prophesying while the Holy Ghost rested upon them.⁸⁵⁶* And therefore he said, Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? Whereby while he satisfies his companions, he also signifies, that had not the Holy Spirit rested upon them, there wanted not one to keep them back from Baptism.

James too and the Apostles which were with him,⁸⁵⁷* while they permitted the Gentiles to act freely, giving us over to the Spirit of God, did themselves persist in the old observances, acknowledging the same God. So that even Peter with others, fearing lest he should be blamed by them, though before he ate with the Gentiles, because of the Vision, and of the Spirit which had rested on them:—yet on certain coming from James,⁸⁵⁸* he separated himself, and did not eat with them. And the very same thing,⁸⁵⁹* Paul saith, was also done by Barnabas.

Thus those Apostles, whom our Lord made witnesses of all His doing and all His teaching,⁸⁶⁰* (for every where are found present with Him Peter and James and John) had reverence for the tenor of the Law which was given by Moses; implying that it comes of one and the same God. Which surely (as we before said) they would not have done, had they learned from our Lord of another Father, besides Him Who framed the Economy of the Law.

Chap. XIII. § 1. But as for those who say, that Paul alone knew the Truth, to whom by Revelation the Mystery was made known,⁸⁶¹* let them be refuted by Paul himself, where he says,⁸⁶²* that one and the same God wrought for Peter unto the Apostleship of the Circumcision, and for himself towards the Gentiles.⁸⁶³* Peter therefore was the Apostle of the same God as Paul; and Whom Peter preached in the Circumcision as God, and the Son of God, Him Paul also preached unto the Gentiles. For our Lord came not surely to save Paul alone; nor was God so poor as to have one Apostle only, who may know the Economy of His Son. Paul too himself, where he says,⁸⁶⁴* How beautiful are the feet of them who preach glad tidings of good things, who preach the Gospel of Peace, hath made it plain, that the preachers of the Gospel were not one, but several. And again in the Epistle to the Corinthians, after making mention of all who saw God after His Resurrection he concludes,⁸⁶⁵* But whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed; confessing that their preaching is all one and the same, who saw God after His Resurrection from the dead.

§ 2. And the Lord also to Philip, when he wished to see the Father, made answer,⁸⁶⁶* Am I so long time with you, and hast thou not known Me?⁸⁶⁷* O Philip, he that seeth Me, seeth also the Father. How sayest thou, Shew us the Father? I am in the Father, and the Father in Me, and from henceforth ye have known and seen Him.⁸⁶⁸* Those then, to whom the Lord gave testimony, that in Him they both knew and saw the Father (now the Father is Truth), to say that they knew not the Truth, belongs to false witnesses, and to such as are alienated from the doctrine of Christ.⁸⁶⁹* For to what end sent the Lord the 12 Apostles to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, if they knew not the truth! And how did the seventy preach, except they had themselves first known the virtue of their preaching? Or how could Peter be ignorant,⁸⁷⁰* to whom the Lord gave testimony, that flesh and blood revealed it not unto him, but the Father which is in Heaven?

As therefore Paul was an Apostle not of men nor by man,⁸⁷¹* but by Jesus, and God the Father, [so were the other Apostles]; the Son both leading them to the Father and the Father revealing to them the Son.

§ 3. But that Paul, to content those who summoned him before the Apostles on the question,⁸⁷²* went up to them with Barnabas unto Jerusalem, not without purpose, but that the liberty of the Gentiles might receive confirmation from them, he saith himself in the Epistle to the Galatians:⁸⁷³* Then 14 years afterwards I went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking also Titus with me. And I went up by revelation, and compared with them the Gospel which I preach among the Gentiles. And again he saith,⁸⁷⁴ⁿ For an hour we yielded to be subject,⁸⁷⁵* that the truth of the Gospel might remain with you. If accordingly one will diligently search out of the Acts of the Apostles the time of which it is written, I went up to Jerusalem on account of the aforesaid question: he will see that the years, above stated by Paul, harmonize. Thus is there agreement, and almost sameness, between the preaching of Paul on the one hand, and Luke’s witness touching the Apostles on the other.

Chap. XIV. § 1. Further: that this Luke was inseparable from Paul, and his fellow-workman in the Gospel, he makes plain himself,⁸⁷⁶* not as boasting, but led on to it by the simple truth. For, after Barnabas and John who was called Mark were separated from Paul, they having sailed into Cyprus,⁸⁷⁷* we came, saith he, unto Troas: and when Paul had seen in a dream a man of Macedonia,⁸⁷⁸* saying, Come into Macedonia and help us,⁸⁷⁹* O Paul; straightway, saith he, we sought to go into Macedonia, understanding that the Lord called us forth to preach the Gospel unto them. Sailing therefore from Troas, we steered for Samothracia: and so he goes on to set forth accurately the whole of what remains, appertaining to their arrival at Philippi, and how they spake their first discourse,⁸⁸⁰* viz., We sat down, saith he, and spake unto the women that had come together: and who believed, and how many.

And again he saith,⁸⁸¹* But we sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came to Troas, where also we tarried seven days. And all the rest he relates orderly, with Paul, with all care pointing out places and cities, and the number of days, until they went up to Jerusalem; and what befel Paul there, how he was sent bound to Rome, and the name of the Centurion who took charge of him, and the ensigns of the ships, and how they were wrecked, and in what island they were delivered, and how they received kindness there, Paul healing the chief man of that island, and how they sailed from thence to Puteoli, and thence came to Rome, and how long they staid at Rome. Luke being present at all this, diligently wrote it down; so that he cannot be convicted either of falsehood or of vainglory: since all these things are well established; as also that he is elder than all those who now teach otherwise and is not ignorant of the Truth.

That he was not only an attendant but even a fellow-worker with the Apostles,⁸⁸²* and chiefly of Paul, Paul too himself hath shewn in his epistles,⁸⁸³* saying, Demas hath forsaken me, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia: only Luke is with me. Whereby he shews that he was always joined with him, and inseparable from him. And again in the Epistle to the Colossians,⁸⁸⁴* he saith, Luke the beloved physician greeteth you.

Now if even Luke, who always preached with Paul,⁸⁸⁵* and was called by him Beloved, and preached the Gospel with him, and was trusted to report the Gospel to us—if he learned nothing else from him, as has been shewn from his words; how do these who never had intercourse with Paul boast that they have learned hidden and unspeakable mysteries?

§ 2. But that what things Paul knew, those also he simply taught, not only to his own companions,⁸⁸⁶* but to all his hearers, he himself makes evident. For in Miletus, having called together the Bishops and Presbyters which were of Ephesus, and of the other towns in the neighbourhood,⁸⁸⁷*—because he himself was hastening to spend Pentecost at Jerusalem,—testifying unto them at large, and telling them what must befal him at Jerusalem, he added, I know that ye shall see my face no more;⁸⁸⁸* I testify therefore to you this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not kept back from declaring unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore to yourselves and to the whole flock, wherein the Holy Ghost hath set you over them as Bishops, to rule the Church of the Lord which He formed to Himself by His own Blood. Then pointing out the evil teachers that would be, he said,⁸⁸⁹* I know that after my departure grievous wolves shall come unto you, not sparing the flock: and of yourselves shall men arise speaking perverse things, to attract disciples after them.

I have not kept back,⁸⁹⁰* saith he, from declaring unto you the whole Counsel of God. Thus the Apostles, simply, and without grudging any, used to deliver unto all those things which they had themselves learned of the Lord. And so accordingly Luke, grudging no man, delivered unto us what he had learned of them, as he himself testifieth,⁸⁹¹* saying, As they delivered them unto us, who from the beginning were eye witnesses and ministers of The Word.

§ 3. But should any one reject⁸⁹²⁷ Luke, as though he had not known the Truth, he will he evidently casting away the Gospel, whereof he claims to be a disciple. For there are very many, and those the more essential, parts of the Gospel, which we have known through him; as the birth of John, and the history concerning Zacharias, and the coming of the Angel to Mary, and the exclamation of Elizabeth, and the descent of the Angels to the Shepherds, and what they said, and the witness of Anna and Simeon to Christ, and that at twelve years old He was left in Jerusalem, and the Baptism of John, and at what age the Lord was baptized, and that it was in the fifteenth year of Tiberius Cæsar. And in His teaching, that which was said to the rich:⁸⁹³* Woe unto you, ye rich men, for ye are receiving your consolation:⁸⁹⁴* And, Woe unto you who are filled,⁸⁹⁵* for ye shall hunger, and who laugh now, for ye shall weep: And, Woe unto you when all men shall bless you; for so did your fathers also to the false Prophets.

As we have known all the aforesaid by Luke alone, so we have learned by him very many doings of the Lord, whereof also all avail themselves: as the multitude of the fishes,⁸⁹⁶* which Peter and his companions inclosed: when the Lord commanded them to cast the nets.⁸⁹⁷* And the things which a certain woman had suffered for eighteen years, and then was healed on the Sabbath day.⁸⁹⁸* And concerning the dropsical person, whom the Lord healed on the Sabbath day, and how He reasoned about His healing on that day:⁸⁹⁹* and how He taught His disciples not to seek the highest rooms to sit down in; and how one ought to invite the poor and feeble, who have nought to repay. And of him who knocks at the door by night to receive some loaves and because of his earnest importunity does receive them,⁹⁰⁰* and how,⁹⁰¹* when He was sitting at meat in the Pharisee’s house, a woman that was a sinner kissed His Feet, and anointed them with ointment, and all that our Lord said to Simon because of her concerning the two debtors; and of the parable of that rich man who stored up what had been produced for him, to whom also it was said, In this night they will require thy soul of thee:⁹⁰²* then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?—as also of that rich man who was clothed with purple,⁹⁰³* and enjoyed himself elegantly; and touching the poor Lazarus: and the answer which He spake to His disciples, when they said to Him, Increase our faith:⁹⁰⁴* and the conversation which took place with Zacchæus the Publican;⁹⁰⁵* and about the Pharisee and the Publican who were worshipping together in the Temple.⁹⁰⁶* And of the ten lepers, whom He cleansed together in the way:⁹⁰⁷* and how from the streets and lanes He commanded the lame and the blind to be gathered to the wedding,⁹⁰⁸* and the Parable of the Judge who feared not God,⁹⁰⁹* whom the earnestness of the widow caused to avenge her.⁹¹⁰* And of the fig-tree which was in the vineyard, which bare no fruit. And there are many other things, which may be found spoken by Luke alone: made use of both by Marcion and Valentinus. And besides all these, what He said in the way to His disciples after His Resurrection,⁹¹¹* and how they knew Him in breaking of bread⁹¹²*.

§ 4. It follows then of course that they must either receive the remaining part also of what he said,⁹¹³* or give up even this. For it is not allowed them by men of understanding, while they receive some of Luke’s sayings, as belonging to the truth, to reject others as if he had not known the truth.

And if on the one hand Marcsion’s party reject these, they will have no Gospel, (for this Gospel according to Luke, as we have before said, mutilated, is the Gospel which they glory in possessing); and Valentine’s School again will have to leave off very much of their vain talk (for from Luke they have received in many instances the occasion of their subtle discourse, daring to interpret ill what he said well): But if they be constrained to accept the rest also, earnestly regarding the perfect Gospel, and the Apostles’ doctrine; they must do penance, in order to be saved from their danger.

Chap. XV. § 1. And the same we say again of those also who do not acknowledge Paul the Apostle:—that they ought either to renounce the remaining words of the Gospel,⁹¹⁴* those which by Luke alone have come to our knowledge, and not to use them: or, if they receive them all, they must perforce receive also his testimony of Paul: wherein he says, first that the Lord spake to him from Heaven: Saul,⁹¹⁵* Saul, why persecutest thou Me? I am Jesus Christ, Whom thou persecutest: then that He spake to Ananias of him,⁹¹⁶* Go, for this is a vessel of election unto Me, to bear My Name among nations and kings, and the Sons of Israel. For I will tell him henceforth, how great things he must suffer for My Name’s sake. Such therefore as receive not him who was chosen of God in order to bear His Name with confidence, as being sent to the aforesaid Gentiles—they despise the Lord’s election, and separate themselves from the assembly of the Apostles. For neither can they maintain Paul not to be an Apostle, since for this he was chosen, nor can they make out Luke to be a Liar, who declares unto us the truth with all diligence. For perhaps for this very purpose the Lord brought it to pass, that many circumstances of the Gospel, which all must of necessity make use of, are set forth by Luke:—that all, following his subsequent testimony which he offers concerning the Acts and doctrine of the Apostles, and keeping the Rule of the Truth, inadulterate, may be saved. Wherefore his testimony is true, and the doctrine of the Apostles evident and firm and withdraws nothing: nor is it one in those who teach openly and another in those who teach secretly.

§ 2. For this is the contrivance of pretenders and evil seducers, and hypocrites;⁹¹⁷* after the practice of the Valentinians. For these introduce modes of speech for the multitude, with a view to those who are of the Church, whom they themselves call ordinary Churchmen: whereby they captivate the more simple, and by affecting our way of discussion, allure them to more frequent hearing. They also complain of us, that although their sentiments agree with ours, we causelessly abstain from communicating with them, and style them heretics, while their language and their doctrine is the same. And when by their disputations they have cast any down from the faith, and have made unresisting disciples of them, they speak out to them apart the unspeakable mystery of their Pleroma. And they all are deceived, who think themselves able to distinguish^918o from the Truth, that which in words resembles it. For Error is persuasive, and like the Truth, and seeks out false colours: but Truth is without false colouring, and therefore is entrusted to children.

And should any one of their hearers ask for explanations, or dispute with them, of him they speak positively as not capable of^919p the Truth, nor having his seed from their Mother from the higher regions, and so say nothing at all to him, declaring him to be of the middle regions, i.e., one of those who are merely animal⁹²⁰⁸. But if any one surrender and give himself up to them, like a lamb, imitating them and so obtaining their redemption: such an one is puffed up, and thinks of himself as neither in heaven nor in earth, but as having entered into the Pleroma, and already embraced his Angel; he paces on with the air of a Foreman, and a haughty look, having the pride of a game-cook.

But there are some among them, who say, that it must be by good conversation that we obtain that Man who cometh from above: and accordingly they enact gravity by a sort of haughty look. And very many of them having actually become despisers, as though they were already perfect—though living without reverence, and in habitual scorn, yet call themselves spiritual, and say that now they know that place of refreshment which is within their Pleroma.

§ 3. But let us return to the same discussion. It having then been clearly set forth, that no other was called God or denominated Lord, by those who were preachers of Truth and Apostles of liberty, except the only true God the Father and His Word, Who in all things hath the pre-eminence: the proof will have been clear, that the Maker of Heaven and Earth, Who spake with Moses and gave him the Economy of the Law, Who called the Fathers together, Him they acknowledge to be the Lord God, and know of no other. The view therefore both of the Apostles and of their scholars concerning God is made evident from their own words.

Chap. XVI. § 1. But because there are some who say that Jesus is but the receptacle of Christ, on whom Christ descended like a dove from on high,⁹²¹* and having made known to him the Unnameable Father did incomprehensibly and invisibly enter into the Pleroma, (for that not only men, but the very Powers and Virtues which are in Heaven, failed to apprehend him) and that Jesus is the Son, and the Father, Christ, and that Christ’s Father is God: others again that He suffered in appearance only, being by nature impassible: and the Valentinians again, that Jesus, who cometh of the Economy, He it is alone who passed through Mary, and upon him that other Saviour descended from above, who is also called Christ, as having the titles of all who sent him forth, and that he shared with the one who cometh of the Economy his own virtue and his own name, that by this latter death might be abolished, and the Father be known in some sort by that Saviour who had descended from above, who they say was also a resting-place⁹²²⁹ of Christ and of the whole Pleroma: whereby they acknowledge indeed with the tongue one Christ Jesus, but are divided in opinion: (for this is their rule, as we said before, to maintain that there is one person of Christ, who was sent forward by the Only Begotten for reformation of the Pleroma; and another of the Saviour sent to glorify the Father; and a third by Economy, who they say did also suffer, while the Saviour, who bare with him the Christ, hastened back to the Pleroma:)—All which being so, we consider it requisite to alledge the whole view of the Apostles touching our Lord Jesus Christ, and to shew that far from having any such thought of Him, they went on to point out by the Holy Ghost the beginners of such doctrine, as being privily sent by Satan to overturn the faith of some, and withdraw them from life.

§ 2 Now that John knows but of one and the same Person as being the Word of God,⁹²³* and that He is the Only Begotten and was incarnate for our salvation, even Jesus Christ our Lord:—we have sufficiently proved from John’s own way of speaking. But Matthew likewise, knowing but of one and the same Jesus Christ, where he is relating His human birth of the Virgin, according to God’s promise to David, that of the fruit of his loins He would raise up an eternal King (which same promise He made long before to Abraham)—saith, The Book of the generation of Jesus Christ,⁹²⁴* the Son of David, the Son of Abraham. Afterwards to free our mind from what might be suspected concerning Joseph, he saith, Now the birth of Christ was on this wise.⁹²⁵* His Mother Mary being espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then when Joseph was thinking to send away Mary, because she was with child, there was an Angel of the Lord standing by him,⁹²⁶* and saying, Fear not to take to thee Mary thy wife, for That which she hath in the womb is of the Holy Ghost; and she shall bear a Son, and thou shall call His Name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. But this was done that it might be fulfilled which was said by the Lord through the Prophet, Behold a Virgin shall conceive in the womb and bear a Son and they shall call His Name Emmanuel, which is God with us; evidently meaning both that the promise made to the fathers is fulfilled—the Son of God born of a Virgin—and that this is that very Saviour Christ, Whom the Prophets preached: not, as they say, that He who is born of Mary is Jesus only, and Christ the Person who came down from on high. We may add, Matthew might have said, The Birth of Jesus was on this wise; but the Holy Spirit foreseeing corrupters, and providing bulwarks against their deceitfulness, saith by Matthew, The Birth of Christ was so and so; and that this is Emmanuel, lest haply we should think Him a Man only (for not of the will of the flesh,⁹²⁷* nor of the will of Man, but of the will of God, was the Word made flesh) or suspect that Jesus is one Person and Christ another, but that we might know Him to be one and the same.

§ 3. This same passage Paul has expounded, writing to the Romans,⁹²⁸* Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ, predestined to the Gospel of God, which He promised by His Prophets in the holy Scriptures concerning His Son, Who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh, and predestined to be Son of God with power, through the Spirit of Sanctification, by the Resurrection of the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. And again to the Romans writing of Israel, he saith,⁹²⁹* Whose are the Fathers, and of whom is Christ after the flesh, Who is God over all blessed for ever. And again in the epistle to the Galatians,⁹³⁰* he saith, But when the fulness of time came, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the Law, to redeem them that were under the Law, that we might receive adoption; evidently setting forth, first, one only God, Who by the Prophets made the promise of the Son; then one Jesus Christ our Lord, Who is of the seed of David by His Birth from Mary;—Him, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, predestined with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, by the Resurrection from the dead, to be the first-born of the dead, (as He is also the first-born in the whole creation); the Son of God, made Son of man, that by Him we may receive adoption, Man bearing, and receiving, and embracing, the Son of God.

On this account Mark also says,⁹³¹* The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God,⁹³²* as it is written in the Prophets; recognizing one only and the same Son of God, Jesus Christ, Who was proclaimed by the Prophets, Who of the fruit of the body of David is Emmanuel,⁹³³* the messenger of the Father’s great Counsel, by Whom God caused to arise to the house of David Him Who is the East and the righteous, and raised up unto it a horn of salvation,⁹³⁴* and stirred up a witness in Jacob, as David saith, where he sets forth the causes of Jacob’s line of descent:⁹³⁵* And He made a law in Jacob, that another generation may know; the sons which shall be born of them, they too will arise and declare it to their children; that they may put their trust in God, and search out His Commandments.

And again the Angel bringing good tidings to Mary,⁹³⁶* saith, He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest,⁹³⁷* and the Lord shall give unto Him the throne of His Father David; wherein He Who is the Son of the Highest, the very same is confessed to be also Son of David.

David also, by the Spirit,⁹³⁸* knowing the Economy of His coming, whereby He is Ruler of all the living and the dead, owned Him Lord, having His Seat at the Right Hand of the Most High Father.

§ 4. And that Simeon too, who had received an answer from the Holy Ghost,⁹³⁹* that he should not see death, till he had seen Christ Jesus; taking in his hands this first-born of the Virgin,⁹⁴⁰* blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant go in peace, according to Thy word: for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation; which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people Israel: confessing the Infant Whom he had in his arms, Jesus, born of Mary, to be the very Christ, the Son of God, the light of men, and the glory of His Israel, and the peace and refreshment of those who have gone to rest. For by this time He was despoiling men,⁹⁴¹* taking away their ignorance, and giving them the knowledge of Himself, and making a separation of those that knew Him: as saith Esaias,⁹⁴²* Call His Name, Spoil quickly, divide rapidly. But these are the works of Christ. Christ therefore Himself it was, Whom Simeon bearing, blessed the Most High; at sight of Whom the Shepherds glorified God; Whom John being yet in his mother’s womb, and the other in Mary’s, recognized as his Lord, and saluted Him, leaping up; Whom the Wise men saw and adored, and bringing the gifts which we before mentioned and casting themselves down to the Eternal King, departed along another way, not now returning by the road of the Assyrians.⁹⁴³* For before the child shall know how to call father or mother, He shall receive the might of Damascus, and the spoils of Samaria, against the King of the Assyrians;⁹⁴⁴* covertly, but authoritatively indicating, that with secret hand the Lord was overcoming Amalek.⁹⁴⁵* For this cause also He delivered the children who were in the house of David, whose happy lot it was to be born at that time; that He might send them before into His Kingdom; in His own infancy providing Himself martyrs; the infant children of men, those who according to the Scriptures were slain for Christ, Who was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the city of David.

§ 5. To the same effect also after His Resurrection the Lord said unto His disciples,⁹⁴⁶* Oh fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken: ought not Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory? And again He saith unto them,⁹⁴⁷* These are the words that I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning Me.^948* Then opened He their understanding⁹⁴⁹¹ that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, That thus it is written for Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead, and that remission of sins should be preached in His Name unto all nations. But this is He Who was born of Mary.⁹⁵⁰* For the Son of Man, saith He, must suffer many things, and be rejected, and be crucified, and rise again the third day.

The Gospel then knows not of any other Son of Man, besides Him Who is of Mary, Who also suffered; nor yet of any Christ flying away from Jesus before His Passion.⁹⁵¹* But Him Who was born, the same it recognizes as Jesus Christ the Son of God, and that He and no other suffered and rose again: as John the Lord’s disciple affirms, saying,⁹⁵²* But these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and believing might have eternal life in His name: foreseeing these blasphemous Creeds, which as much as in them lies, divide the Lord, saying that He is made of one substance and of another.

Wherefore also in his epistle he hath borne this witness unto us:⁹⁵³* Little children, it is the last hour: and as ye have heard that Antichrist cometh, now have many become Antichrists, whereby we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for had they been of us, of course they would have remained with us; but that they might be manifested as not being of us.⁹⁵⁴* Know ye therefore that every lie is foreign, and is not of the Truth. Who is a Liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? this is an Antichrist.

§ 6. Now in proof that all the aforesaid, though in tongue they confess one Jesus Christ, do but mock themselves, thinking one thing and saying another:—for^955q their arguments are various as we have shewn:)—they tell us that one is he who suffered and was born, and [that this is Jesus; another he who came down upon him and that] this is Christ, [who did also ascend again:] and that the one is of their Demiurge, either he that is of the Œconomy or he that is of Joseph, and whom they infer to be capable of suffering: but that the other person whom they talk of descended from invisible and unutterable regions; and they declare him to be invisible, and incomprehensible, and impassible; erring^956r from the truth because their mind strays from Him Who is truly God: not knowing that His Word, the Only Begotten, Who is ever present with mankind, united and blended with His own creature, according to the Father’s good pleasure, and made Flesh—He is Jesus Christ our Lord, Who suffered for us and rose again for us, and again shall come in the glory of the Father, to raise up all flesh, and make manifest salvation, and to declare the rule of just judgment unto all who are put under Him.

There is therefore one God the Father,⁹⁵⁷* as we have declared; and one Christ Jesus our Lord, coming throughout the Economy,⁹⁵⁸* and gathering up all things into Himself. Now among those All is Man also, the creature of God; therefore He is gathering man also into Himself, He, the Invisible made visible, and the Incomprehensible made comprehensible, and the Impassible made capable of suffering, and the Word made Man, gathering up all unto Himself; that as in the things which are above the heavens, and spiritual and invisible, the Word of God is chief, so also among things visible and corporeal He may have the chiefly, taking the first place to Himself; and that assigning to Himself the station of Head to the Church, He may attract all things to Himself in convenient season.

§ 7. For with Him there is nothing disorderly or unseasonable,⁹⁵⁹* as neither is there any incongruity with the Father. For as all things are foreknown by the Father, so are they accomplished by the Son, as is convenient and suitable, in due time. For this cause when Mary was hurrying on to the admirable miracle of the wine, and would fain before the time participate in the cup provided in that summary way, the Lord to check her unseasonable haste,⁹⁶⁰* said, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come; awaiting the hour which was foreknown by the Father.

For this cause repeatedly when men would seize Him, No man,⁹⁶¹* saith the Scripture, laid hands on Him, for not as yet had come the hour of His apprehension, nor the time of His Passion, which had been foreknown by the Father;⁹⁶²* as saith also the Prophet Habakkuk; When the years shall have drawn near, Thou shalt be known, at the approach of the time Thou shalt be discovered; when my soul is troubled in anger, Thou wilt be reminded of Thy mercy.⁹⁶³* And Paul too saith, But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent His Son. Whereby it is evident, that all things which were foreknown of the Father, our Lord fulfilled, in order, and time, and hour, as they were foreknown and appointed; being on the one hand, One and the same; on the other, abundant and manifold. For He obeys the abundant and manifold will of the Father, being Himself the Saviour of them who are saved, and the Lord of those who are under dominion, and the God of those things which are created, and the Only Begotten of the Father, and the Christ Who was preached, and the Word of God, Who was made Flesh when the fulness of time had come, wherein it was meet that the Son of God should be made Son of Man.

§ 8. All therefore are without the Œconomy,⁹⁶⁴* who under pretence of more perfect knowledge consider Jesus to be one person, and Christ another, and the Only Begotten another, (and from him again they say comes the Word): and the Saviour another; which last is an Emanation of those Æons who have come to decay, by the account of these disciples of error. Outwardly they are sheep, (for by the language which they ostensibly hold, they seem like us, speaking our very words), but inwardly they are wolves.⁹⁶⁵* For their doctrine is murderous, first inventing many Gods, and feigning many Fathers, then crumbling and making manifold partitions of the Son of God. These both our Lord forewarned us of, and His Disciple John in the aforementioned Epistle bade us fly from them,⁹⁶⁶* saying, Many deceivers have gone out into this world who confess not Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an Antichrist; Look to them, lest ye lose that which ye have wrought: And again in an epistle he saith,⁹⁶⁷* Many false Prophets are gone out of the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every Spirit which confesseth Jesus Christ to have come in the flesh, is of God. And every Spirit which disuniteth Jesus, is not of God, but is of Antichrist. Now these things are like what is said in the Gospel, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.⁹⁶⁸* Wherefore in his Epistle again he cries out,⁹⁶⁹* Every one who believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God: knowing as he does one only and the same Jesus Christ to Whom the gates of Heaven were opened, because of His Assumption in the flesh: Who also in the very same flesh wherein He suffered, will come, revealing the Glory of the Father.

§ 9. And Paul too, in accordance with these, speaking to the Romans saith,⁹⁷⁰* Much more they which receive abundance of grace and righteousness unto life, shall reign by One, Jesus Christ. He knows not then of that Christ who soared away from Jesus; nor is he acquainted with that Saviour who is above, who they say is impassible. For if while the one suffered, the other remained incapable of suffering; if the one was born, and the other descended on him who was born, and afterwards left him: then not one only but two are clearly indicated.

Now as to the Apostle’s recognizing that one only Christ Jesus, Who was both born and suffered; he saith again in the same Epistle,⁹⁷¹* Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? that as Christ rose again from the dead, so we also may walk in newness of life. And again meaning that Christ Who suffered, the very same is the Son of God, Who died for us, and redeemed us by His blood at the appointed time, he saith,⁹⁷²* For why did Christ, when we were yet weak, in due time die for the ungodly?⁹⁷³* But God commendeth His Love in our case, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us: much more, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. The very same Who was taken, and suffered, and shed His blood for us, Him he most evidently declares to be Christ, Him the Son of God; Who also arose and was taken up into the Heavens, as he saith himself,⁹⁷⁴* at the same time, Christ died, yea rather, rose again, Who is at the Right Hand of God: And again, Knowing that Christ rising from the dead, dieth no more⁹⁷⁵*. (For he likewise, foreseeing by the Spirit the subdivisions of evil teachers, and desiring to cut off all cause of disunion, as far as they were concerned, saith what I have before repeated.)⁹⁷⁶* But if the Spirit of Him Who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised Christ from the dead, shall quicken also your mortal bodies.

He all but cries out to those who will hear, Do not err; there is one and the same Christ Jesus, the Son of God, Who by His Passion reconciled us to God, and rose from the dead^977s, Who is on the Right Hand of the Father, and perfect in all things, Who being beaten, smote not again,⁹⁷⁸* Who when He suffered, threatened not, and when He was enduring tyranny, besought the Father to forgive those who had crucified Him. For He truly saved, He is the Word of God, He the Only Begotten of the Father, Christ Jesus our Lord.

Chap. XVII. § 1. So too the Apostles might have said, that Christ descended on Jesus, or that higher Saviour upon the one who belongs to the Economy; or he who is of the Invisible regions, on him who belongs to the Demiurge. But no such thing did they either know or say: for if they had known it,^979* of course they would have said it. But what was the fact, that also they said, That the Spirit of God descended like a Dove upon Him; that Spirit,⁹⁸⁰* of Whom it was said by Isaiah, And the Spirit of God shall rest upon Him: as we said before. And again,⁹⁸¹* The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me. The same Spirit of Whom our Lord saith, For it is not ye that speak,⁹⁸²* but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you. And again giving His disciples power to regenerate into God,⁹⁸³* He said unto them, Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.⁹⁸⁴* For Him He promised by the Prophets to pour out in the last times upon servants and handmaidens, that they may prophesy.⁹⁸⁵* Whence also He came down upon the Son of God, made Son of Man, using Himself to dwell with Him in mankind and to rest among men, and to reside in the work of God’s Hands, working the will of the Father in them, and renewing them out of old age into the newness of Christ.

§ 2. This Spirit David sought for mankind,⁹⁸⁶* saying, And stablish me with Thy principal Spirit. Of whom Luke also saith, that after the Ascension of the Lord, He came down on the disciples in Pentecost, having power as concerning all nations, that they should enter into life, and to open the new Testament. For which cause also they breathed out in all languages one harmonious hymn unto God, the Spirit bringing back distant tribes into unity, and offering to the Father the first-fruits of all nations. Wherefore also the Lord promised to send the Paraclete, to unite us to God. For as out of dry wheat one mass or one loaf cannot be made without moisture; so neither could we many be made one in Christ Jesus, without the water which is from Heaven.⁹⁸⁷* And as dry earth, except it receive moisture, bears no fruit; so we also, being in the first place a dry tree, could never have become fruitful of life, without the spontaneous rain from above.⁹⁸⁸* For our bodies by the Laver received that Unity which leads to incorruption, but our souls by the Spirit. And so both are necessary, since both are profitable for the Life of God^989t: even as the Lord had pity on that sinful woman of Samaria, who abode not with one husband, but played the whore in many marriages: and pointed out to her and promised Living Water, that she might thirst no longer, nor be busied about the refreshment of that hard-won water,⁹⁹⁰* while she had in herself the drink which springs out to eternal life. This, the Lord receiving as a gift from the Father, gave Himself also to those who participate of Him, when He sent the Holy Spirit into the whole earth.

§ 3. This grace of the Free Gift, Gideon foreseeing,⁹⁹¹*—that Israelite, whom the Lord chose, to save the people of Israel from the power of the aliens—made that variation in his prayers:—when also he prophesied of drought which should come upon the fleece of wool,⁹⁹²* on which alone the dew had been at first, which fleece was a type of the people. This means, that they should no longer receive the Holy Ghost from God,⁹⁹³* (as saith Esaias, I will also command the clouds, that they rain not on it:) but that on all the earth there should be dew, i.e., the Spirit of God Who descended upon the Lord,⁹⁹⁴*—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, and the Spirit of knowledge and godliness, the Spirit of the fear of God. And This same Spirit He again gave to the Church, sending the Paraclete from Heaven into all the Earth:⁹⁹⁵* whither also the Devil, as lightning, was cast out, as the Lord saith. Wherefore the dew of God is needed by us, that we be not scorched, nor made unfruitful, and that where we have an accuser, there also we may have an advocate. Even as the Lord commits to the Holy Ghost that man of His, who had fallen among thieves; whom He did Himself pity, and bound up his wounds,⁹⁹⁶* giving two royal pennies, that we receiving by the Spirit the image and inscription of the Father and the Son, might cause the penny entrusted to us to bear fruit, accounting for it^997u to the Lord with manifold increase.

§ 4. The Spirit then having come down because of the foreordained Economy, and the only begotten Son of God, Who is also the Word of the Father, having, when the fulness of the time came, been incarnate in a human being for man’s sake, and having fulfilled His whole Economy as Man;⁹⁹⁸*—I mean our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is one and the same, as the Lord Himself witnesses, and the Apostles confess and the Prophets proclaim:—all the doctrines are proved false of those who have devised the Ogdoads and Quaternions, and unreal imaginations and subdivisions: who while they^999v kill the Spirit consider that Christ is one and Jesus another, and teach that Christ is not one but many. And though they affirm them to have been united, yet again they make it out that one^1000w indeed shared in the Passion, while the other remained impassive; and that the one ascended into the Pleroma, while the other abode in the middle place: and that while the one feasts and delights himself among the things invisible and unnameable, the other sits with the Creator, emptying Him of strength.

Wherefore it will be your duty and that of all who consider this writing,¹⁰⁰¹* and are careful of their own salvation, not to yield voluntarily, upon hearing their discourses without. For although their talk is like that of the faithful, as we have said before, their sentiments are not only unlike, but even contrary, and throughout full of blasphemies:¹⁰⁰²* whereby they kill those, who through the resemblance of their words take up into themselves the poison of their feelings, far unlike. As, if one should mix water with gypsum, and give it for milk, he would mislead by the resemblance of colour: as was said by one above us, concerning all who in any way deprave the things of God, and adulterate the truths, It is evil mingling gypsum^1003x in the milk of God.

Chap. XVIII. § 1. It having been clearly shewn, that the Word which was in the beginning with God, by Whom all things were made, Who also was ever present with mankind;—that He in the last times according to the time foreordained by the Father, was united to His own creation and made a Man capable of suffering: we have shut out all the gainsaying of those who say, “Why, if He was then born, He was not Christ until then.”¹⁰⁰⁴* For we have shewn that the Son of God hath not then His beginning, Who is for ever with the Father: but when He was incarnate and made man, He summed up in Himself the long explanations of men, in one brief work achieving salvation for us; that what we had lost in Adam, i.e., our being in the image and likeness of God, that we might recover in Christ Jesus^1005y.

§ 2. Thus,¹⁰⁰⁶* because it was not possible for that man who had once been conquered, and thrust out by disobedience, to be new moulded and obtain the prize of victory, and again it was impossible for him to obtain salvation, who had fallen under sin: The Son accomplished both, being the Word of God, coming down from the Father, and made flesh and descending even unto death and fulfilling the Economy of our salvation^1007z: wherein when he would exhort us to believe without doubt, he saith again,¹⁰⁰⁸* Say not in thine heart, Who hath gone up into Heaven? that is to bring down Christ, or, Who hath gone down into the deep? that is to free Christ from the dead.¹⁰⁰⁹* Then he concludes, That if thou confess in thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And he hath assigned a reason for these doings of the Word of God,¹⁰¹⁰* saying, For to this end Christ both lived and died and rose again, that He might be Lord of quick and dead. And again writing to the Corinthians he saith,¹⁰¹¹* But we preach Christ Jesus crucified:¹⁰¹²* and he concludes, The Cup of Blessing which we bless, is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ?

§ 3. And who is He that hath imparted to us of His nourishment? Whether is he that Christ whom they feign to be above, stretched out upon Horus, i.e., The End, who also framed their Mother: or rather Emmanuel Who is of the Virgin,¹⁰¹³* Who did eat butter and honey, concerning Whom the Prophet saith,¹⁰¹⁴* And there is a man and who shall know Him? This same was announced by Paul:¹⁰¹⁵* For I delivered unto you, saith he, among the first, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.¹⁰¹⁶*

It is clear then, that Paul knows no other Christ but this One, Who both suffered and was buried and rose again, and was born: Whom also he calls Man. For having said,¹⁰¹⁷* Now if Christ be preached, that He rose from the dead, he subjoins, rendering the reason of His Incarnation,¹⁰¹⁸* For since by man is death, by man is also resurrection from the dead. And every where regarding the Passion of our Lord, and His Manhood, and His Death, he uses the Name of Christ: as in the following;¹⁰¹⁹* Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died:¹⁰²⁰* And again, But now in Christ ye which were sometime afar off were made nigh by the Blood of Christ; and again,¹⁰²¹* Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.¹⁰²²* And again, And by thy knowledge shall the weak brother perish for whom Christ died: implying that there came not down on Jesus a Christ incapable of suffering, but that He Himself, being Jesus Christ, suffered for us: Who lay down and rose up again; Who descended and ascended, The Son of God, made Son of man:¹⁰²³* as the very Name too signifies. For in the Name of Christ is understood, He who did anoint, and He who was anointed, and the Unction itself wherewith He was anointed. And as the Father did anoint, so the Son was anointed, with the Spirit, which is the anointing: as speaketh the Word by Esaias;¹⁰²⁴* The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me: signifying both the anointing Father and the anointed Son, and the anointing which is the Spirit.

§ 4. And the Lord too Himself makes known Who it was that^1025a suffered. For when He had asked His Disciples, Whom do men say that I,¹⁰²⁶* the Son of Man, am? when Peter answered,¹⁰²⁷* Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God, and when he received from Him this praise, That Flesh and Blood revealed it not unto him,¹⁰²⁸* but the Father Who is in Heaven; he made it plain, that this Son of Man is Christ the Son of the Living God.¹⁰²⁹* For from that time He began, we read, to tell His disciples, that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the Chief Priests,¹⁰³⁰* and be rejected and crucified, and the third day rise again. The same Christ Who was acknowledged by Peter, Who called him blessed, because the Father revealed unto him the Son of the Living God, said, that He must Himself suffer many things, and be crucified: and then He rebuked Peter, for thinking Him Christ after the opinion of men and for turning away from His Passion:¹⁰³¹* and He said to His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose it for My sake, shall save it. For these words Christ spake openly, He Who is Himself the Saviour of such as for confessing Him should be delivered unto death, and lose their lives.

§ 5. But if He was not Himself to suffer, but to soar away from Jesus, why did He withal exhort His Disciples to take up the Cross and follow Him? which Cross, by their account, He was not Himself taking up, but was forsaking the Economy of the Passion^1032b? For in proof that He speaks not this of acknowledging some Cross on high (as certain persons dare to expound it) but of the Passion which He was Himself to suffer, and which His disciples in their own persons were hereafter to suffer,¹⁰³³* He concluded, For whosoever will save his life, shall lose it; but whosoever will lose, shall find it. And of the future sufferings of His disciples for His sake, He said to the Jews,¹⁰³⁴* Behold, I send unto you Prophets, and wise men, and teachers, and some of them shall ye kill and crucify.¹⁰³⁵* And to the disciples He said, Ye shall stand before Governors and Kings for My sake,¹⁰³⁶* and some of you they shall scourge and kill, and persecute from city to city. He knew therefore both those, who should suffer persecution, and those who had to be scourged and slain because of Him. And plainly His speech was not of any other^1037c cross, but of the Passion which He was first Himself to suffer, then afterwards His disciples, when He added this exhortation to them:¹⁰³⁸* Fear not them which kill the body, but the soul they cannot kill; but rather fear Him which hath power to cast both soul and body into Hell: and to uphold whatsoever confessions may be made unto Him. For indeed He promised to confess before His Father those who should confess His Name before men, and to deny those who should deny Him, and be ashamed of those who should be ashamed to confess Him.

Now for all this,¹⁰³⁹* some have gone so far in audacity, as to scorn the very Martyrs, and revile those who are slain for confessing the Lord, and who bear all that the Lord foretold, and so far endeavour to attain to the footsteps of the Lord’s Passion, being made Martyrs of One Who was capable of suffering. But these we leave to the Martyrs themselves. For when their blood shall be required, and they shall obtain glory, then shall all those who have done dishonour to their martyrdom be put to confusion by Christ. And by that also which the Lord said on the Cross,¹⁰⁴⁰* Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, the long-suffering, and patience, and mercy, and goodness of Christ is declared: in that He should both suffer Himself,¹⁰⁴¹* and Himself plead for those who had used Him ill. For that which the Word of God spake unto us,¹⁰⁴²* Love your enemies, and pray for them that hate you, the same He did Himself practise upon the Cross, loving mankind so well, as even to pray for those who were putting Him to death.

But should any one judge of these as though they were two persons, He will prove much the better of the two, and more patient, and truly good, Who in the midst even of wounds and blows and the rest of their ill usage, is full of kind actions, nor remembers the wrong done to Him—better, I say, than he who soared away without enduring any injury or reproach.

§ 6. And this same objection holds against those also, who say that He suffered only in appearance. For if He did not really suffer, no thanks to Him, there having been no suffering; and when we shall begin really to suffer, it will seem as though He were beguiling us, exhorting us to receive blows,¹⁰⁴³* and to turn the other cheek, if He did not first in reality suffer this Himself. And as He misled them, so as Himself to appear to them that which He was not, so He also misleads us, exhorting us to endure to the end the things which He Himself endured not. And so we shall even be above our Master, by suffering and enduring things which our Master neither suffered nor endured.

But even as our Lord is alone our Master indeed, so is He indeed the Son of God, good and patient, the Word of God the Father, made Son of Man. For He wrestled and overcame:¹⁰⁴⁴* being as He was a Man contending for His fathers, and by obedience paying the debt of disobedience:¹⁰⁴⁵* yea, He hath bound the strong man, and unbinds the weak and hath given salvation to His creature, by destroying sin. For He is the most gracious and merciful Lord and the lover of mankind.

§ 7. And thus,¹⁰⁴⁶* as we said before, He hath bound and united man to God. For if man had not overcome man’s antagonist, the Enemy would not have been fairly conquered. And on the other hand, were not God the giver of our Salvation, we should not have firm hold of it. And except man were united unto God, he could not have partaken of incorruption. Thus it became the Mediator between God and man, by His connexion with either side, to gather both into friendship and concord; and while He presented man unto God, to make God known unto men. For how could we be partakers of His adoption of sons,¹⁰⁴⁷* had we not received from Him by the Son, the Communion which is with Him;—had not His Word made Flesh, come into Communion with us? through which cause also He passed through every age, restoring all to the Communion which is with God.

Wherefore such as say that He was manifested only in appearance, and not born in the flesh, nor really made man, are yet under the old condemnation, giving their aid to the side of sin, Death, by their account, being yet unconquered:¹⁰⁴⁸* which reigned from Adam to Moses, even over such as sinned not after the likeness of Adam’s transgression.¹⁰⁴⁹* Then came the Law, which was given by Moses, and testified of sin, that it is a sinner: whereby it destroyed indeed sin’s kingdom, convicting it of being a thief and not a king, and proved it a murderer; but upon man it laid a burthen, who had sin in himself; in that it declared him guilty of death.

Thus the Law being spiritual, displayed sin only, but did not destroy it. And whereas not the Spirit, but Man, was subject to sin: it was meet that the person who undertook to slay sin, and to redeem Man, when guilty of death, should become that very thing which the other party was, i.e., Man: that as Man had been by sin dragged into slavery, and was holden of death, so sin might be slain by man, and man go out free from death.

Thus as through the disobedience of that one man,¹⁰⁵⁰* who in the first instance was moulded out of unwrought earth, the many were made sinners, and lost their lives: so also it was meet that by the obedience of one Man Who in the first instance was born of a Virgin, many should be justified and obtain salvation.

Thus then the Word of God was made man; as Moses also saith,¹⁰⁵¹* Our God, true are His works. But if, not being made flesh, He shewed Himself as flesh: His work was not true. However what He appeared, that indeed He was,¹⁰⁵²* God summing up anew in Himself the old formation of man, that He might first slay sin, then abolish death, and give life to man: and therefore His works are true.

Chap. XIX. § 1. And again those who call Him merely a man born of Joseph, die abiding in the slavery of their old disobedience, not yet blended with the Word of God the Father, nor receiving Liberty by the Son, according to His own saying,¹⁰⁵³* If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. But they knowing not that Emmanuel Who is of the Virgin, are bereft of His gift, which is eternal Life. And not receiving the Word of incorruption, they continue in mortal flesh, and are bound by death as a debt, failing to take the antidote of life. To whom the Word saith,¹⁰⁵⁴* setting forth His own gift of grace, I said, Ye are the sons of the Most High, all of you, and Gods; but ye die as men. These things He saith doubtless against those who have not received the gift of adoption, but dishonour the Incarnation which takes place by the pure generation of the Word of God, and defraud man of his ascent unto God, and are unthankful to the Word of God, Who for them was made flesh. For to this end, the Word of God was made man, and He Who is the Son of God, Son of Man, that man blended^1055d with God’s Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the Son of God. Since we could no otherwise receive incorruption and immortality, but by being united to Incorruption and Immortality. And how could we be united to incorruption and immortality, without Incorruption and Immortality being first made that which we are? that the corruptible might be swallowed up by Incorruption, and the mortal by Immortality;¹⁰⁵⁶* that we might receive the adoption of Sons.

§ 2. Therefore, Who shall declare His generation?¹⁰⁵⁷* for He is a Man,¹⁰⁵⁸* and who will acknowledge Him? But that man knoweth Him, to whom the Father which is in Heaven hath revealed Him,¹⁰⁵⁹* to make him understand, that that Son of Man, who is born not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, That is Christ the Son of the Living God.

For that no one at all of the Sons of Adam is called God in the same sense as He is, or named Lord, we have shewn from the Scriptures.¹⁰⁶⁰* But that He, in the proper sense of the words, apart from all men that ever were, is God, and Lord, and King eternal, and the Only Begotten, and the Incarnate Word, and so proclaimed by all the Prophets and Apostles, and by the Spirit Himself:—this all may see, who touch ever so slightly on the truth. But such would not be the witness of the Scriptures concerning Him, were He a man only, just as other men. But because He had in Himself that origin, noble above all, which is of the Most High Father; and wrought out also the admirable Birth which is of the Virgin: therefore the divine Scriptures testify both concerning Him;¹⁰⁶¹* how that He is both a Man, uncomely and apt to suffer, and sitting on the fole of an ass, and is drenched with vinegar and gall, and was despised among the people, and descended even unto death:¹⁰⁶²* and yet also the Holy Lord and the wonderful Counsellor, and fair to look upon, and the Mighty God, coming in the Clouds to judge all: all this, I say, the Scriptures prophesied concerning Him.

§ 3. For as He was Man, that He might be tempted, so was He also the Word, that He might be glorified: the Word remaining inactive in His temptation and dishonour and crucifixion and death, but going along with the Man in His victory and endurance, and works of goodness, and resurrection and ascension.

He therefore, the Son of God, our Lord, being the Word of the Father:—and also Son of Man,—became Son of Man in that He had His human birth of Mary, who had her origin from among men, who herself also was a human being.

Wherefore the Lord also Himself hath given us a sign in the depth,¹⁰⁶³* in the height above, such as man did not require, because neither had he any hope that a virgin might be with child, and bring forth a Son, and that this progeny should be God with us, and should descend into the lower parts of the earth,¹⁰⁶⁴* seeking the sheep which was lost,¹⁰⁶⁵* (which indeed was His own creature); and then that He should ascend up on high, offering and commending to His Father that Man who had been found; offering in Himself the first-fruits of man’s resurrection: That as the Head rose again from the dead, so also the rest of the body of the whole Man, such as he is found in life, may rise again, the time of his condemnation for disobedience being fulfilled:¹⁰⁶⁶* growing up by joints and bands, and strengthened by the increase of God, each single member having its proper and suitable position in the Body. For there are many mansions in the Father’s House,¹⁰⁶⁷* even as there are many members in the Body.

Chap. XX. § 1. Thus we see that God was forbearing when Man fell away: foreseeing that he would have restored to him that victory which should be wrought by the Word.¹⁰⁶⁸* For when strength was made perfect in weakness, it exhibited the benignity of God, and His most admirable power.¹⁰⁶⁹* Thus, as He patiently endured Jonas’ being swallowed up by the whale, not that being swallowed he should perish for ever, but that being vomited forth, he might the more submit himself to God, and give more glory to Him Who had bestowed on him safety beyond hope; and might cause steady penitence in the Ninevites, they turning to the Lord for deliverance from death, in alarm at the sign which was wrought about Jonas;—as the Scripture saith of them,¹⁰⁷⁰* And they turned back every one from his evil way and from the iniquity which was in their hands, saying, Who knoweth if God will repent, and turn His anger away from us, that we perish not?—so also in the beginning God patiently endured that man should be swallowed up by the great whale, who was the author of transgression:—not that he might be swallowed up and perish entirely, but it was in providing and preparing for the discovery of salvation, which was made by the Word through the sign of Jonas, to such as had the same mind as Jonas concerning the Lord; who confessed and said,¹⁰⁷¹* I am a Servant of the Lord, and I worship the Lord God of Heaven Who made the sea and the dry land. And so men, receiving of God salvation beyond hope, might rise from the dead and glorify God, and utter the saying which Jonas prophetically spake,¹⁰⁷²* I cried unto the Lord my God in my tribulation, and He heard me from the belly of Hell. So may he always continue glorifying God, and incessantly giving thanks for the salvation which he hath obtained from Him:¹⁰⁷³* That no flesh may glory before the Lord, nor man ever entertain the contrary thought concerning God, so as to account the incorruption which he has to be his own by nature, and to be tossed about by empty arrogance, not holding the truth,—as though he by nature resembled God. For this, rather making him ungrateful to his Maker, did both obscure the love which God had towards man and blind his understanding that he might not think worthily of God; comparing and judging himself equal to God.

§ 2. This therefore was God’s long suffering,¹⁰⁷⁴* in order that Man passing through all things, and acquiring moral knowledge,¹⁰⁷⁵* and so coming to the resurrection from the dead, and learning by actual assay what he was delivered from, might ever be grateful to the Lord: having won of Him the gift of incorruption, that he might love Him more;¹⁰⁷⁶* (for he to whom more is forgiven loveth more:)—again, that he might know himself, his mortality and weakness, and might understand concerning God, how that He is in such sort immortal and powerful, as to give both immortality to the mortal being, and to the temporal eternity: and that he might understand also the other powers of God, as displayed all of them towards himself: and being thereby fully instructed, might understand concerning God, how great a God He is. For as the Glory of Man is God, so the sum of the works of God, and the recipient of all His Wisdom and Power, is Man. As the physician is proved in such as are sick, so is God made manifest in men. For which cause Paul also saith,¹⁰⁷⁷* God hath shut up all in unbelief, that He may have mercy upon all:¹⁰⁷⁸² and this He saith, not of spiritual Æons, but of Man, who having been disobedient to God, and cast out of immortality, did afterwards obtain mercy, receiving through the Son of God the adoption which is by Him.

For such an one, holding without elation and vain glory, the true opinion both of the Creatures, and of the Creator, (Who is God mighty over all, and Who gave being to all,) abiding also in His Love, and in submission to Him, and in thanksgiving, will obtain more glory from Him, receiving continual increase, until he become like unto Him Who died for him. Since He for His part was made in the likeness of sinful flesh,¹⁰⁷⁹* that He might condemn sin, and so cast it out, as a condemned thing, from the flesh; and might provoke man to resemble Himself, appointing him to be the Imitator of God, and inserting him in His Father’s List, that he might see God, and granting unto him to comprehend the Father:—He the Word of God Which dwelt in man, and was made Son of Man, that He might inure man to receive God, and God to dwell in Man:—according to the good pleasure of the Father.

§ 3. To this end accordingly that sign of our salvation, which is Emmanuel born of the Virgin, is the Lord Himself: since it was the Lord Himself Who was saving those who of themselves had no means to be saved. And therefore Paul setting forth the infirmity of man saith, For I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing:¹⁰⁸⁰* implying that not of ourselves but of God cometh the blessing of our Salvation.¹⁰⁸¹* And again, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Then he introduces the Deliverer;¹⁰⁸²* The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so too Esaias saith,¹⁰⁸³* Be comforted, ye weak hands, and ye feeble knees; be encouraged, ye of timorous heart, be strong, fear not: behold, our God repayeth judgement, and will recompense, Himself will come and save us: i.e., that we had not salvation of ourselves, but of God’s help.

§ 4. Again, to shew that He Who saveth us is neither to be a mere man, nor yet without flesh (for Angels are without flesh) He hath proclaimed it, you see, as follows:¹⁰⁸⁴* Neither elder, nor Angel, but the Lord Himself shall save them, because He loveth them and will spare them, He will deliver them. And as concerning that this same Person should begin to be a true visible man, while He is the Saving Word,¹⁰⁸⁵* Esaias saith again, Behold, thou city Sion, thine eyes shall see our salvation. And that He was not only Man Who died for us, Esaias saith, And^1086e the holy Lord of Israel remembered His dead, who had slept in the land of burial; and went down to them to preach the good tidings of the salvation which is of Him, that He might save them. And this same thing the Prophet Amos saith also:¹⁰⁸⁷* Himself will turn and have mercy upon us: He will do away our iniquities, and cast our sins into the depth of the sea. And again, signifying the place of His advent,¹⁰⁸⁸* he saith, The Lord spake from Sion, and from Jerusalem He uttered His voice. And to shew that from the southern part of the heritage of Judah will come the Son of God, Who is God; and that He Who was of Bethlehem (where the Lord was born) shall send forth His praise into all the Earth: as saith the Prophet Habakkuk,¹⁰⁸⁹* God shall come from the South wind, and the Holy One from Mount Ephraim. His Power covered the Heavens, and the earth is full of His praise. Before His Face shall go forth the Word,¹⁰⁹⁰* and His Feet shall go forth in the fields. Evidently meaning that He is God, and that His coming is unto Bethlehem, and from Mount Ephraim, which is part of the inheritance towards the South, and that He is Man. For His Feet, saith He, shall go forth in the fields: now this is the proper mark of a man.

Chap. XXI. § 1. God therefore became Man, and the Lord Himself saved us, giving the sign of the Virgin. Untrue therefore is the interpretation of certain who venture thus to interpret the Scripture:¹⁰⁹¹* “Behold the damsel shall be with child, and shall bear a son;” as Theodotion of Ephesus translated it, and Aquila of Pontus, both of them Jewish Proselytes: whom the Ebionites following, say that He was born of Joseph: whereby to the best of their power they undo this so great Economy of God; making void the witness of the Prophets, which is God’s work. For the Prophecy was given, in the first place, before the removal of the people to Babylon took place, i.e., before the Medes and Persians received the dominion: and next, it was translated in Greek by the Jews themselves, long before the times of our Lord’s Advent; that no suspicion may be left, whether haply it was in deference to us that the Jews so translated the words. Whereas, had they foreknown our existence, and our use of these testimonies out of the Scriptures, they would never have hesitated themselves to throw their own Scriptures into the fire; as proving both that all other nations partake of life, and demonstrating that those who boast to be the house of Jacob and the people of Israel, are even disinherited from the grace of God.

§ 2. For before the Romans strengthened their dominion, the Macedonians being yet owners of Asia,—Ptolemy the Son of Lagus, ambitious of adorning the Library which he had founded in Alexandria with the writings of all, as many at least as were good for any thing, requested of the people of Jerusalem, that he might have their scriptures translated into the Greek language. But they (for they were then yet subject to the Macedonians) sent unto Ptolemy those among them who were best versed in the Scriptures, and in both the languages, being seventy elders: wherein God wrought the thing which He would. But he, desiring to make trial of them separately, and fearing lest haply they should upon some compact hide by their translation the truth as it is in the Scriptures, separated them one from another, and bade them all write the same passage translated; and this he did in all the books. And when they came together in Ptolemy’s palace, and offered for comparison each his own translation, both God was glorified, and the Scriptures proved truly divine, all of them having set forth the same things in the same sentences and the same terms from beginning to end: so that the very Gentiles which were present might know, that the Scriptures were translated by inspiration of God. And no wonder surely that God should have wrought this; even as, when the Scriptures were corrupted in the captivity of the people under Nebuchadnezzar, and the Jews after 70 years had returned unto their own land, He did afterwards in the times of Artaxerxes King of the Persians inspire Esdras, the Priest of the tribe of Levi, to arrange all the sayings of the Prophets which went before, and restore to the people the Code which came by Moses.

§ 3. The truth then and the grace of God, having been so great in the translation of those Scriptures out of which God prepared and new-formed our Faith which is in His Son; and preserved them to us unadulterated in Egypt; wherein both the House of Jacob throve, flying from the famine which was in Canaan, and also our Lord was there preserved, flying the persecution which arose from Herod:—Moreover, this version of those Scriptures having been made before our Lord came down, and finished before any Christians were to be seen; (for our Lord was born about the forty first year of Augustus’ reign, but Ptolemy, under whom the Scriptures were translated, was much more ancient;) truly shameless and bold are they proved, who would fain now translate otherwise, upon our refuting them out of the very Scriptures and shutting them up unto the faith of the coming of the Son of God.¹⁰⁹²* But firm, and unfeigned, and alone true, is the Faith which we have, clearly evidenced by those Scriptures the translation of which was conducted in the aforesaid manner: and the Church’s message is without interpolation. Yea, and the Apostles too, who are more ancient than all these, agree with the aforesaid translation, and the translation harmonizes with the Apostolical tradition. Peter, I say, and John, and Matthew, and Paul, and the rest in order, and their followers, have put forth all Prophetic sayings according to the tenor of the translation of the Elders.

§ 4. Because one and the same Spirit of God, Who in the Prophets first was as a Herald of the Coming of the Lord and the manner thereof, and then in the Elders did well translate what had been well prophesied: He did also in the Apostles proclaim that the fulness of the times of adoption had come, and that the Kingdom of Heaven had drawn near, and is abiding within such men as believe in Him Who was born of a Virgin, even Emmanuel; As they themselves bear witness, that before Joseph and Mary came together (of course while she was abiding in virginity) she was found with child of the Holy Ghost;¹⁰⁹³* and that the Angel Gabriel said unto her,¹⁰⁹⁴* The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the Power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: wherefore also that Holy Thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the Son of God; and that the Angel in sleep said unto Joseph, But this was done,¹⁰⁹⁵* that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Prophet Esaias, Behold a Virgin shall be with Child.

Now the Elders have translated Esaias as having said, And the Lord spake again unto Ahaz,¹⁰⁹⁶* Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God, in the deep beneath or in the height above. And Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor tempt the Lord. And he said, It is no small thing for you to offer a contes unto men, and how doth the Lord insure your contest? Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold a Virgin shall conceive, and bring forth a Son and ye shall call His name Emmanuel. Butter and honey shall He eat: before He shall know or chuse the evil, He shall deal in the good: For before the infant may know good or evil, He shall not consent unto wickedness, that He may chuse the good.¹⁰⁹⁷* We see, the Holy Ghost hath diligently signified by these sayings, His Birth, that it is of the Virgin, and His Substance, that He is God (for this the Name Emmanuel implies): and He declares Him to be Man by saying, Butter and honey shall He eat: and by terming Him on infant, and before He know good and evil: for all these are signs of a human infant. But as to His not consenting to iniquity, that He may chuse the good, this properly belongs to God; that we might not understand Him to be only a mere man, by His having to eat butter and honey; nor again by the name Emmanuel, suspect Him to be God without Flesh.

§ 5. And in saying, Ye shall hear now, O House of David: it was as one signifying, that He Whom God promised to David,¹⁰⁹⁸* to raise up from the fruit of his womb to be an everlasting King, He it is Who is born of the Virgin the daughter of David. For, for this cause too did He promise a King to be of the fruit of his womb^1099f, an expression proper to a Virgin with child; and not, of the fruit of his loins, nor, of the fruit of his reins, which properly belongs to a man begetting, and to a woman conceiving by a man. Thus Scripture in its promise hath excluded the man’s generative powers: yea, he is not even mentioned, because the Child that was being born was not of the will of man. But it hath established and confirmed the fruit of the womb, so as to declare His generation, Who was to be of the Virgin; as Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Ghost, testified, saying to Mary,¹¹⁰⁰* Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb; the Holy Ghost signifying to such as will hear, that the Promise which God made, of the fruit of his womb to raise up a King, was fulfilled in the delivery of the Virgin, i.e., of Mary.

Wherefore such as change the passage in Esaias, Behold, a Damsel shall be with child, and will have Him to be the Son of Joseph; let them change the word of promise which is set down in David, where God promised him, of the fruit of his womb to raise up a horn, even Christ’s Kingdom. But they understood it not; otherwise they would have dared again to change this also.

§ 6. And as to Esaias’ saying,¹¹⁰¹* In the depth below, or in the height above, it was as much as to say, that He that descended, is the same also that ascended. And as to his saying, The Lord Himself shall give a sign; it meant the unlooked for nature of His Birth; which could not even have taken place, otherwise than by God, the Lord God of all, Himself giving the sign in the House of David. For what great thing or what sign would ensue by this, that a young woman should conceive by a man and bring forth; which happens to all who become mothers? But because an unlooked for salvation was beginning by God’s aid to be wrought for men, there was wrought also the unlooked for travail of the Virgin, God giving this sign, and not man working it.

§ 7. And for this cause Daniel also,¹¹⁰²* in foresight of His coming, signified that as a stone cut out without hands He came into this world: I mean, that the saying, Without hands,¹¹⁰³* meant that without work of human hands, i.e., of those who are used to cut stones, was His coming into this world: Joseph, namely, not contributing at all to it, but only Mary coöperating with the Economy. For this stone of the Earth is formed by God’s power and skill.¹¹⁰⁴* And therefore Esaias saith, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I cast into the foundations of Sion a precious stone, elect, chief, a corner-stone, an honourable stone; that we may understand His coming as Man to be not of the will of man but of the will of God.

§ 8. For this cause again Moses also,¹¹⁰⁵* exhibiting a Type, cast the rod on the ground, that it, becoming incarnate, might put to shame and swallow up all the rebellion of the Egyptians which was rising up against God’s Economy: and that the Egyptians themselves might bear witness that it is the the finger of God which is working salvation for the people,¹¹⁰⁶* and not the Son of Joseph. For were He the Son of Joseph, how could he have more than Solomon,¹¹⁰⁷* or more than Jonas, or be something more than David, born as He must have been of the same seed, and their actual offspring? And why again did He call Peter blessed,¹¹⁰⁸* for knowing Him to be the Son of the Living God?

§ 9. And besides this, neither could He be King, if at least, He were Son of Joseph;¹¹⁰⁹* nor heir, as Jeremiah saith For Joseph is set forth as the son of Joacim and Jechonias, as Matthew also expounds his origin. But Jechonias and his issue were all degraded from the Kingdom,¹¹¹⁰* Jeremiah thus speaking; As I live, saith the Lord, though Jeconias the son of Joacim King of Juda were the signet on my right hand, I will take him off thence, and deliver him into the hand of them that seek thy life. And again,¹¹¹¹* Jeconias is dishonoured, as a vessel whereof is no use, in that he is cast out into a land which he knew not. O Earth, hear the word of the Lord: write thou this man a degraded person, for there shall not grow up of his seed one sitting upon the throne of David, a Prince in Juda. And again, God saith of Joacim his father,¹¹¹²* Wherefore thus saith the Lord of Joacim [his father] King of Judæa; that there shall not be of him one sitting on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out in the heat of the day and in the frost of the night; and I will look upon him and upon his sons, and I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, upon the land of Juda, all the evils which I have spoken of them.

Such therefore as say that He was born of Joseph, and hath His hope therein, make themselves out to be degraded from the Kingdom, falling under the curse and reproach which was directed against Jechonias and his seed. Yea, to this end were these words spoken of Jechonias, the Spirit foreknowing the sayings of these evil teachers: to teach them that He shall not be born of his seed, i.e., of Joseph, but according to God’s Promise from the womb of David is raised up an Eternal King,¹¹¹³* Who sums up all in Himself; yea! the old work of Creation He hath summed up in Himself.¹¹¹⁴*

§ 10. Because as by the disobedience of one man sin had entrance, and by sin death prevailed;¹¹¹⁵* so also by the obedience of one man should righteousness be brought in, and bear the fruit of life to those men who were long ago dead. And as that first-formed Adam had his substance of the rude and yet virgin Earth (for God had not yet rained and man had not tilled the earth)¹¹¹⁶* and was moulded by the Hand of God, i.e., by His Word (for all things were made by Him);¹¹¹⁷* and the Lord took clay from the earth, and moulded man:—so when the Word Himself, being of Mary who was yet a Virgin, was gathering into Himself what relates to Adam, it was meet that He should receive a birth suitable to this gathering up of Adam.

And so, if the first Adam had a man for his father, and was born of a man’s seed, it were meet to say that the second Adam was also born of Joseph. But if the former was taken out of earth and God was his Framer, it was meet that He also, being summed up as part of Adam, I mean that the Man framed by the Almighty, should have the same resemblance of birth with him. Why then did not God a second time take dust, but wrought so that the formation should be of Mary? That it might not be another formation, nor another being to be saved, but He the very same, might be gathered in, the similitude being kept up.

Chap. XXII. § 1. Wherefore they also fail exceedingly, who say that He received nothing of the Virgin, desiring to cast out the inheritance of the Flesh,¹¹¹⁸* and to reject that similitude. For if the one had his formation and substance of the earth, and by the hand and workmanship of God, but the other not by the hand and workmanship of God: of course He kept not the likeness of man, made though¹¹¹⁹³ He were after his image and similitude: and it will seem an incongruous piece of work, having nought wherein He may display His Wisdom. And it comes to this, whether one say that He appeared but in shew as man, not being man; or that He was made a Man, taking to Him nothing from mankind. For if He received not from man the substance of flesh, He was neither made Man, nor the Son of Man: and if He was not made the same that we were, He did no great thing in that He suffered and endured. Now, that we consist of a body received of the earth, and of a soul receiving breath from God, every person whatever will confess. This therefore the Word of God was made, gathering up the work of His own Hands into Himself: and therefore He confesseth Himself the Son of Man, and blesseth the meek, that they shall inherit the Earth.¹¹²⁰* And the Apostle Paul too in the Epistle to the Galatians saith expressly, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman.¹¹²¹* And again in that to the Romans he says,¹¹²²* Concerning His Son Who was made indeed of the seed of David according to the flesh, Who is foreordained the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Sanctification by the Resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

§ 2. Yea, superfluous also were His coming down into Mary. For why did He at all descend unto her, if He were not to receive anything of her? And again, had He taken nothing from Mary, He would not have been capable of those refreshments derived from the earth, whereby the earthborn body is nourished; neither when He had fasted 40 days, like Moses and Elias, would He have hungered, the body craving its proper food; nor would John,¹¹²³* His disciple, writing of Him, have said, But Jesus, wearied with His journey, sat down; nor would David before have cried concerning Him,¹¹²⁴* They have added also to the pain of My wounds^1125g; nor would He have wept over Lazarus; nor have sweated great drops of blood;¹¹²⁶* nor have said, My soul is exceeding sorrowful; nor, when His side was pierced, would there have come forth blood and water. For all these are signs of the flesh which He took of the earth; which He gathered into Himself, saving His own handywork.

§ 3. For this cause Luke points out that the genealogy,¹¹²⁷* which extends from our Lord’s Birth unto Adam, has 72 generations, conjoining the end to the beginning, and implying, that it is He Who in Himself gathered up all nations, dispersed as they were even from Adam, and all languages and the race of men together with Adam himself. Whence also by Paul the same Adam is called the figure of Him which is to come:¹¹²⁸* as though the Word, Who framed all things, had formed beforehand with a view to Himself that Economy of Mankind, which was to centre in the Son of God; God forming first of all the natural^1129h man, to the end that he might be saved by the spiritual. For whereas He Who saves existed before, there must needs be something made that should be saved, lest He that saveth prove a superfluous thing.

§ 4. And in agreement herewith the Virgin Mary also is found obedient,¹¹³⁰* where she saith, Behold Thine Handmaid, O Lord; be it unto me according to Thy Word.¹¹³¹* But Eve is found disobedient. For she did not obey, being yet a virgin. As she, having indeed a husband, i.e., Adam, yet being still a virgin (for they were both naked in Paradise,¹¹³²* and were not ashamed, because, having been a short while created, they had no knowledge of the procreation of children; for they were first to grow up and thereupon afterwards to be multiplied) as Eve I say proving disobedient became the cause of death both to herself and to all mankind; so also Mary having a husband fore-appointed, and nevertheless a virgin, being obedient, became both to herself and to all mankind the cause of salvation. And therefore the Law calls her which was espoused to a man, though still a virgin, the wife of him who had espoused her, pointing to the reaction¹¹³³⁴ which should come round from Mary to Eve; since in no other way can that which is knotted be undone, but by the bending the loops of the knot in a reverse order: that the first tie may be undone by the second, the second again disengage the first. And it ensues that one has to undo the first loop by means of the second tie, and that the second tie comes in place to be first undone.

And on this account the Lord said,¹¹³⁴* The last indeed shall be first, and the first last, and the Prophet too implies this very same,¹¹³⁵* where he saith, Instead of thy Fathers are born to thee children. For our Lord being born, the First-born of the Dead, and receiving the old Fathers into His Bosom, regenerated them to the Life of God: becoming Himself the beginning of those that live, because Adam became the beginning of the dying.

Wherefore also Luke beginning from the Lord the first step in That Descent brought it back to Adam; to signify that not He was regenerated by them, but they by Him to the Gospel of life. And so too the knot of Eve’s disobedience received its solution by the obedience of Mary. For what the Virgin Eve bound by unbelief, that the Virgin Mary loosed by faith.

Chap. XXIII. § 1. It was therefore necessary that the Lord, coming after the lost sheep and gathering in one so vast an Economy,¹¹³⁶* and seeking the work of His own Hands, should save that very man, who had been made in His image and likeness, i.e., Adam, fulfilling the times of his condemnation, passed on him for disobedience, which times the Father hath put in His own power;¹¹³⁷* (inasmuch as the whole Economy of Salvation regarding man took place according to the good pleasure of the Father;) that God might not be overcome, nor His plan made void. For if the man who had been made by God that he might live, should lose his life, hurt by the Serpent who had corrupted him, and no more return to life, but be quite abandoned unto death: God would have been overcome, and the wickedness of the Serpent would have prevailed against His will. But God being unconquered and long-suffering, shewed Himself in the first place long-suffering to reprove men and to put all on their trial, as we have said before;¹¹³⁸* for the other, He bound by the second Man him that was strong,¹¹³⁹* and spoiled his goods, and abolished death, quickening the man who had received a deadly hurt. For Adam was the chief of the goods in his possession; him he actually held within his power; I mean that he was unjustly filling him with transgression, and on pretence of immortality working that which bringeth death in him. For so, by the promise that they should be as Gods, (a thing altogether impossible to him), he wrought death in them. And justly therefore did God make him in his turn a captive, who had led man captive; and loose from the chains of Condemnation, Man, who had been so led away.

§ 2. And this, if one must speak the truth, is Adam:—that first-formed Man, of whom Scripture tells us that the Lord said,¹¹⁴⁰* Let us make Man after our image and likeness; and we all are of him; and because we are of him, therefore also we have inherited his proper name.

Now upon the salvation of man it follows that the first-formed man should be saved. It being too absurd to say, that he who was grievously hurt by the enemy, and first suffered captivity, is not rescued by the Conqueror of that enemy, while his sons are rescued whom he begat in that captivity. Neither again will the foe seem conquered, the very same old spoils abiding with him. As if enemies had taken certain in war, bound them, and led them away captive, and kept them a long time in slavery, so as to have families while in their possession, and another, vexed on behalf of the enslaved, should overcome the said enemies: yet will he not act fairly, if while he deliver the children of those who were led away captive from the power of those who had reduced their fathers to slavery, he leave the persons themselves who bore that captivity, and of whose cause too he undertook the pleading, subject to their enemies. Thus, while the children have obtained their liberty on the ground of their father’s redress, the fathers themselves are not abandoned, upon whom the captivity itself came. For God is not impotent, nor unjust; Who hath holpen man, and recovered him to his proper freedom.

§ 3. For which cause also in the beginning of Adam’s transgression,¹¹⁴¹* as Scripture relates, He cursed not Adam himself, but the ground in his works: as one of the Ancients saith, “God for His part transferred the curse unto the earth, that it might not continue in the man.” And for the sentence on his transgression man received wearisomeness and labour in the earth, and to eat bread in the sweat of his face, and to be turned into the earth from which he was taken: and the woman in like manner the wearisomeness, and labours, and groanings, and sorrows of child-birth, and servitude, i.e., to be a slave to her husband: that neither might they perish utterly, accursed of God; nor abide without correction, and contemn God. But the whole curse discharged itself on the Serpent who had beguiled them.¹¹⁴²* And the Lord, we are told, said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above all the beasts of the earth. Now the very same the Lord also saith in the Gospel, to those who are found on the left hand:¹¹⁴³* Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which My Father hath prepared for the Devil and his Angels: implying that not for man in the first place was prepared the eternal fire, but for him who beguiled man and caused him to offend; him I say, who is chief of the Apostacy, chief of the separation¹¹⁴⁴⁵, and for his Angels who became Apostates with him: However these too will justly receive it, who, like them, persevere in works of wickedness without repentance and without return.

§ 4. Cain, for example, having received counsel from God,¹¹⁴⁵* to be satisfied with not having rightly apportioned the friendly offices due to his brother;¹¹⁴⁶* yet was he, enviously and maliciously imagining that he might rule over him, so far from being satisfied therewith, that he rather added sin unto sin, shewing his mind by his works. For what he thought, that also he brought to pass; he tyrannized and slew him, God subjecting the just to the unjust, so that the one might be proved righteous by his sufferings, the other by his doings convicted of unrighteousness. Yet not even so was he soothed, nor did he rest from his evil deed;¹¹⁴⁷* but when asked where his brother was, I know not, saith he; am I my brother’s keeper? extending and multiplying the evil by his way of replying. For bad as it is to slay a brother, it is much worse to reply so boldly and irreverently to the all-knowing God, as though he could evade Him. And for this very cause he bore the curse in his own person, because he moved the sin off from himself, not revering God, nor ashamed in the murder of his brother.

§ 5. But in Adam’s case no such thing happened,¹¹⁴⁸* but all contrariwise. For being beguiled by another under pretext of immortality, he is presently seized with fear, and hides himself; not as though he might escape from God, but for shame, because after transgressing His commandment,¹¹⁴⁹* he is unworthy to come to the sight and speech of God. But the fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding; and the understanding of his sin caused penitence; and to the penitent, God grants His loving-kindness. Yea, for by his girdle he professed his penitence in deed, covering himself with fig-leaves,^1150* although there were many leaves besides, such as might less annoy his body. However, he made him a garb suited to his disobedience, being smitten¹¹⁵¹ⁱ with the fear of God, and beating down the wanton eagerness of the flesh;—inasmuch as he had lost the mind and thoughts of little children, and had come to have worse things in his imagination;—he guarded himself and his wife with the curb of continence, fearing God, and looking for His coming, and implying somewhat like what follows; I mean, saith he, that the robe of holiness, which I had from the Spirit, I have lost by disobedience, and now I know^1152k that I am worthy of this kind of covering, which gives no delight, but pricks and goads the body. And apparently he would always have had this for his apparel, humbling himself, except the Lord,¹¹⁵³* Who is merciful, had clothed them with coats of skins instead of the fig-leaves. Yea, and therefore also He questions them, that the charge might pass to the woman; and her again He questions, that she may transfer the cause to the serpent. For she said what had been done:¹¹⁵⁴* The Serpent, saith she, beguiled me, and I did eat. But the Serpent He questioned not; for He knew that he had been the chief in the transgression: but the curse He launched at him in the first place, the second reproof being to come upon the man. For him God hated, who beguiled the man: but on him who was beguiled, by slow degrees He took pity.

§ 6. Wherefore also He cast him out of Paradise,¹¹⁵⁵* and moved him to a distance from the Tree of Life: not grudging him the Tree of Life, as some dare to say, but in pity to him, that he might not last for ever as a sinner; and that the sin which was in him might not be immortal, and an infinite and incurable evil.¹¹⁵⁶* But He forbade him to transgress, bringing in death as a check, and causing sin to cease, in that He put an end to it by the dissolution of the flesh which should take place on earth: that man, ceasing some day to live unto sin, and dying thereunto, might begin to live unto God.

§ 7. For which cause He put enmity between the serpent,¹¹⁵⁷* and the woman with her seed, the two watching one another suspiciously: so that on the one part, He whose foot is bitten, hath power even to trample on the head of the enemy: and that the other should bite, and slay, and impede the man’s approaches, until the coming of the seed predestined to trample on his head: which seed was the offspring of Mary; concerning Whom the Prophet saith,¹¹⁵⁸* Thou shalt walk upon the asp and cockatrice, and thou shalt tread on the lion and the dragon; meaning that that which was raising and enlarging itself against Man, viz. sin;—that which made him cold,—should be abolished, together with Death who now reigneth: and that He should in the last times tread down the Lion who should leap upon the race of Man,¹¹⁵⁹* i.e., Antichrist: both binding the Dragon,¹¹⁶⁰* that old Serpent, and putting him under the power of man, who had been conquered, so as to trample on all his might.

Now Adam was overcome,¹¹⁶¹* when all life was taken away from him: wherefore, when the enemy in his turn was overcome, Adam recovered life. Death however, which had first gotten hold of man,¹¹⁶²* is the last enemy to be abolished. And so,¹¹⁶³* man being delivered, that shall be brought to pass which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory: O Death, where is thy victory? O Death, where is thy sting? But this it will be impossible to say justly, if he shall not prove to be delivered, over whom death first tyrannized. For his salvation is the abolishing of death. When therefore the Lord gave life to man, i.e., to Adam, Death also was abolished.

§ 8. It follows, that all they are liars who deny his salvation; excluding themselves for ever from life, in that they believe not that the sheep is found which was lost. Whereas, if this is not found, the whole race of man is still holden of perdition.

He then is a deceiver, who first brought in this view, or rather, this ignorance and blindness, I mean Tatian; who having come to be a combination of all heretics, as we have shewn, did however of himself invent this: in order that introducing somewhat new, apart from the rest, he might according to the emptiness of his speech provide for himself hearers empty of faith; affecting to be counted a teacher¹¹⁶⁴⁶; endeavouring also from time to time to avail himself of this sort of expression, so frequent in¹¹⁶⁵¹ Paul,¹¹⁶⁶* That “in Adam we all die;” and not knowing, that where sin abounded,¹¹⁶⁷* grace did much more abound.

So much then being clearly proved,¹¹⁶⁸* let all blush who are on his side, and who dispute about Adam, as though his not being saved were some great gain to them: since they do but fail the more entirely: even as the Serpent gained nothing by mispersuading man, save that he proved him¹¹⁶⁹⁷ a transgressor, having man as the spring and subject-matter of his own revolt: But God he overcame not. Even so these who deny Adam’s Salvation, gain nothing but this, that they make themselves heretics and apostates from the truth, and shew themselves pleaders on the Serpent’s and on Death’s side.

Chap. XXIV. §1. Thus we have exposed all, who introduce wicked opinions of our Maker and Framer, Who was also the Framer of this world, above Whom is no other God: and by absolute proofs we have overthrown those who teach falsely concerning the substance of our Lord, and the Economy contrived by Him for the sake of His creature man: while the preaching of the Church is on all sides consistent and continues like itself, and hath its testimony from the Prophets and Apostles and from all disciples: as we have traced out our proof through the beginning and middle and end, and through the whole Economy of God, and His ordinary way of working for the salvation of man, which is by our Faith. Which Faith, received in the Church, we guard, and which, coming of the Spirit of God, is like some noble treasure in a precious vessel, continually reviving its youth, and causing the very vessel which holds it to revive in like manner. For the Church is entrusted with this gift of God, for the inspiration (so to speak) of that which He hath made, that all her members, partaking thereof, may be quickened. And in the same gift is dispensed the communion of Christ, i.e., the Holy Spirit—the earnest of incorruption, and confirmation of our faith, and the ladder whereby to ascend to God.¹¹⁷⁰* For in Church it, is said, God hath set Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, and all the other working of the Spirit: whereof none are partakers, who run not unto the Church; rather they defraud themselves of life, by their evil views and intolerable doings. For where the Church is, there also is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church,¹¹⁷¹* and all grace: but the Spirit is Truth. Wherefore they who do not partake of Him neither have nourishment unto life from their Mother’s breasts, nor receive of that purest fountain proceeding from the Body of Christ,¹¹⁷²* but hew unto themselves broken cisterns from earthly ditches and drink water which is foul with clay: flying from the Faith^1173m of the Church, to avoid exposure, and rejecting the Spirit, that they may not receive instruction.

§2. And being alienated from the truth, worthily do they wallow in all error, tossed thereby as with a tempest, judging of the same things according to the time, now one way now another, and never having any settled view. For they chuse rather to be sophists about words than disciples of the Truth: not being founded upon the One Rock, but upon sand, having in it many stones. Wherefore also they feign to themselves many Gods, and ever they have as their pretence that they are seeking (for they are blind) but to find they never are able. For they blaspheme the Maker, Him, namely, Who is truly God, Who also gives them power to find: thinking that they have discovered another God above God, or another Pleroma,¹¹⁷⁴* or another Economy. And therefore the Light which is of God shineth not unto them, because they have dishonoured and scorned God; accounting Him very insignificant, because for His love’s sake and His infinite graciousness He came within men’s knowledge:—(within their knowledge, I mean, not in magnitude, nor in substance; for no one hath measured, nor handled Him; but in respect of our knowing that He Who made and fashioned them, and breathed into them the breathing of life, and Who by His creatures nourisheth us, by His Word confirming and by His Wisdom cementing all things, He it is Who is the only true God:)—and they further dream of one who is not, as being above Him; that they may be thought to have discovered a great God, whom no one can know, as communicating with mankind, or as administering earthly things: inventing forsooth an Epicurean God, such as achieves nothing either for himself or for others, i.e., who hath providence over nothing.

Chap. XXV. § 1. God however hath providence over all things; wherefore also He gives counsel, and with counsel He is present to all who have care of their conduct.¹¹⁷⁵* It cannot then be, but that the subjects of foresight and government should know their proper guide: such, I mean, as are not irrational nor vain, but have distinct power of perceiving the Providence of God. And therefore certain of the Gentiles, who were less enslaved to allurements and pleausres, and were not so far led away by the superstition towards idols: being moved by His Providence, though faintly, yet so far they were changed, as to say that the Framer of this universe is a Father providing for all things, and ordering this world of ours.

§ 2. In the next place,¹¹⁷⁶* that they may take away from the Father the function of rebuking and judging, which they account unworthy of God; and imagining themselves to have found out a God exempt from wrath, and merely good, they have said that one judges and another saves; in their ignorance depriving both of understanding and righteousness. For if He that judgeth is not also good, that He may both give to whom He ought, and reprove whom He ought, He will neither seem a just nor a wise judge. On the other hand, He that is good, if He be nothing but good, and not a Trier of those on whom He sends His goodness; He will be beyond the limit of justice and goodness, and it will seem lack of power in His goodness, not to save all men, if its exercise be not joined with judgment.

§ 3. Wherefore Marcion, who takes upon him to divide God into Two Beings,¹¹⁷⁷* and to call the one good, and the other apt to judge, doth on both sides annul the Deity. For the one who judges, if He be not also good, is not God, because He is not God, to whom goodness is wanting; and He on the other hand who is good, if He be not apt to judge, it will follow of Him as of the other, that His Godhead is taken from Him.

And how again will they call the Father of all wise,¹¹⁷⁸* if they do not attribute to Him withal a judicial function? For if He be wise, He is also a discriminator, but in that term is implied the function of a judge: but it is by Justice that this function obtains power rightly to discriminate. Justice provokes judgment, and judgment being wrought with justice will refer things to Wisdom. Accordingly the Father will excell in Wisdom beyond all Wisdom of men and Angels, because He is Lord, and Judge, and righteous and a Sovereign over all. For He is both good and merciful and patient, and saves whom He ought: neither doth His goodness fail from being wrought justly, nor is His Wisdom diminished. For He saves whom He ought to save, and judges those who deserve judgment. Neither is His Justice proved cruel, I mean, when goodness is supposed to precede and lead the way.

§ 4. God therefore, Who in His Loving kindness maketh His sun to rise upon all,¹¹⁷⁹* and raineth upon just and unjust, He will judge those who having their share of His kindness, have not behaved themselves suitably to the gifts vouchsafed by Him, but have spent their time in delights and luxuries, opposing His gracious Will, yea, and blaspheming Him Who hath wrought so great benefits for them.

§ 5. Evidently Plato is more devout than these,¹¹⁸⁰* who acknowledged the same God both just and good, having power over all, and Himself exercising judgment:—when he said,¹¹⁸¹* “And God indeed, as also the old saying is, being owner of all beings, their beginning, end, and middle, fulfils a straight course, visiting all according to His Nature: and on Him ever attends Justice, working vengeance on such as fall from the Divine Law.” And again he declares the Maker and Framer of this world to be good:¹¹⁸²* “But in Him that is good,” saith he, “never from any cause ariseth any grudging:” thereby laying down the beginning and cause of the Creation of the world to be the goodness of God; not ignorance, nor an Æon that hath erred, nor the fruit of decay, nor a Mother weeping and lamenting, nor another God or Father.

§ 6. But well may their Mother deplore them, when such are their thoughts and inventions: yea, meetly have they framed and forged lies against their own heads;¹¹⁸³* as that their Mother is without the Pleroma, i.e., excluded from the knowledge of God; and their reasoning is become an abortion, without form or kind: for it apprehends nothing of the truth; it falls away into emptiness and shade, for empty is their doctrine and covered with darkness; and Horus permitted it not to enter the Pleroma, i.e., the spirit received them not into refreshment. For their very own Father, generating ignorance, wrought in them deadly passions.

These are not calumnies of ours, but they themselves affirm, themselves teach, themselves glory in them: they have high thoughts of that Mother, who they say was born without a Father, i.e., without God—a Female of a Female—i.e., of Error, Corruption.

§ 7. But our prayer is that they may not continue in the pit which they have themselves digged,¹¹⁸⁴* but may be separated from the aforesaid Mother, and come out of the Deep, and withdraw from the Void, and forsake the Shadow; and may obtain a lawful birth, upon turning to the Church of God, and that Christ may be formed in them, and that they may know the Framer and Maker of this Universe, the only true God and Lord of all. This we pray for them, with a more profitable love than that wherewith they think to love themselves. For the love on our side being real, is wholesome to them: if at least they will receive it. For it resembles a severe application in surgery, consuming the less natural and superfluous flesh of the wound, in that it annihilates their high and swelling thoughts. For which cause we will not be weary of endeavouring with all our might to reach forth the hand to them.

Now we will proceed in the following book to adduce certain discourses of our Lord in addition to what has been said; if haply convincing some of them by the very doctrine of Christ, we may persuade them to cease from that kind of error, and withdraw from the blasphemy which is directed against their Maker, Who is both God Alone, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.