Chapter 19

§ 1.

And what sort of talk is it about their so-called Seed? that it was conceived by their Mother on representing to herself the Angels which belong to the Saviour,¹ shapeless, and without form, and imperfect; and lodged with the Framer of the World without his knowledge, that being sown by his means in the soul which was from him, it might receive perfection and form.

In the first place one may say, that these Angels which belong to their Saviour are imperfect, without figure or form; since that sort of thing was produced on conception after their kind.

§ 2.

And next, as to their saying that the Framer of the world knew not of the lodgment of the seed in himself, nor again the sowing of it in man which took place by him:² it is a futile and empty word, incapable of any proof. For how was he ignorant of it, if the same seed had any substance and quality of its own? To be sure, if it was without substance or quality, i.e., nothing, he was of course ignorant of it. But things which have any motion or quality of their own, or difference, in respect of any heat, or velocity, or sweetness, or brightness, cannot be hidden even from men, when they exist among men, far less from the Framer of this Universe, God; although He may well be ignorant of the seed they talk of, void as it is of all useful qualities, and of all real energy, and being absolutely nothing. And with a view to this the Lord Himself appears to me to have said,³ Every idle word that man shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment: i.e., all such persons, who now pour their idle discourses into men’s ears, shall be present in the judgment, to give an account of their vain conjectures, and lyings against God: of their saying even, that while themselves, because of the substance of that seed, recognize the spiritual Pleroma, the man who is within shewing them the true Father (for the natural man, they say, needs to be first taught through the senses); the Maker of the world on the other hand even when receiving into himself the whole of this seed, lodged there by his Mother, knew nothing at all about it, nor had any sense of the things which belong to the Pleroma.

§ 3.

And that they themselves are spiritual,⁴ because a certain particle of the Father’s entire nature is lodged in their soul, they having their souls of the same substance as the Framer of the World, by their own account; while he, having once for all received the entire seed from his mother, and retaining it in himself, continued merely animal in his nature, and had no understanding at all of the higher order of things, which these men boast that themselves understand while yet on the earth:—how is not this beyond every thing irrational? Surely, to imagine that one and the same seed communicated to their souls knowledge and perfection, but to the God Who made them, ignorance,—this belongs to men truly frantic, and altogether deprived of understanding.

§ 4.

And this is again a most empty saying of theirs,⁵ that in this its lodging this aforesaid seed receives form and increase, and becomes prepared to admit the perfect reason. For so the mixture of matter, which they say had its being from ignorance and decay, will prove meeter and better for that purpose, than was the Paternal Light they speak of, since that which was born after the contemplation of this latter was without form and shape, but from the former it received regularity, and figure, and growth, and completeness. For if the light from the Pleroma caused the spiritual being to have neither form nor figure⁶ nor size of its own; but the descent hither added all these things unto it, and led it to perfection, the abode here, which they also call darkness, will be made out much more efficacious and profitable, than was the paternal Light they speak of. And how is it not ridiculous, to say that while their Mother was in danger of almost choking, and within a very little of utterly decaying into Matter, had she not, though hardly, at that moment overstrained herself, and sprung out of herself, receiving aid from the Father:—her seed on the other hand in this same matter grows, and acquires form, and is completed into aptness for receiving the Perfect Word? and that among essences unlike itself, and unaccustomed, boiling up [after its manner]: according to their own saying, that the earthly is contrary to the spiritual, and the spiritual to the earthly? How then among contrary and unwonted essences, being small in size when produced (by their report), was it able both to grow, and be formed, and come to perfection?

§ 5.

Yet further: on what hath been said the question will be asked,⁷ Whether the Mother was once for all delivered of this seed of theirs, on sight of the Angels, or at several times? If it were but once for all, then the produce of such conception will ere now have ceased to be a childish thing: its descending therefore upon the present race of men will be needless. But if at several times, then she did not conceive after the likeness of the Angels whom she saw, for so once for all seeing them, and conceiving, she should have travailed but once of those whose figures she had thereupon conceived once for all.

§ 6.

Again, how is it, that seeing the angels together with the Saviour,⁸ she conceived their images, but not that of the Saviour, who is more beautiful than they? Did he not please her, and did she therefore not conceive by his pattern? And how was the Framer of the world, whom they call merely natural, produced, by their account, perfect according to his being, having a magnitude and form of his own; while that which is spiritual, requiring as it does more efficacy than the merely animal, was produced in imperfection; and had need to descend into the soul, to be formed therein, and so becoming perfect, might prove ready to receive the perfect Word? If accordingly it is formed in men of the earth, and in mere animal men, it no longer follows the likeness of the Angels, whom they call Lights, but of the men who are here. Because it will not have the likeness and image of the Angels, but of the souls in whom it is actually formed: as water put into a vessel will have the form of that vessel, and if it go on to freeze therein, will have the figure of the vessel in which it froze: since our souls themselves have the figure of the body; for they are fitted to the same as to a vessel: as we said before. If then the aforesaid seed too receives consistency and form here, it will be the figure of a man, it will not have Angels’ form. How then is that seed after the images of Angels, which is shaped in the likeness of men? And being spiritual, what need had it to come down into the flesh? For the flesh indeed needs that which is spiritual (i.e., if it is to be saved) in order to be sanctified and purified thereby,⁹ and for the mortal to be swallowed up of immortality: but the spiritual has no need at all of the things which are here. For we do not improve it, but it improves us.

§ 7.

And yet more evidently is their discourse about their seed proved false,¹⁰ and may be seen through by any one, in their saying that those souls, which have the seed from their Mother, become better than the rest: for which cause also they are honoured by the Framer of the world, and rank as Princes, and Kings, and Priests. For if this were true, of course Caiaphas first, the High Priest, and Annas, and the other Chief Priests and Doctors of the Law and Princes of the people, would have believed our Lord, hastening to acknowledge that kindred: and before them even, King Herod. But since neither he nor the chief Priests, nor the rulers nor distinguished ones of the people ran to Him, but contrariwise those who sat begging in the roads, the deaf and blind, and trampled on, and despised by all:—as Paul also saith,¹¹ For behold your calling, brethren,¹² that not many are wise among you, nor noble, nor brave; but the dispised things of the world God hath chosen:—it follows, that such souls were not better because of the seed’s lodging within, nor were they on that account honoured by the Maker of the World.

§ 8.

Now for the weakness, and incongruity, and also the futility, of their rule, what hath been said is sufficient:¹³ there being no need (as the saying is) to drink up all the sea, in order to convince one’s self that its water is salt. But it is as if there were a statue of clay with a coloured surface, to make the clay accounted gold: whoever will take any little portion of it, and lay it open, and shew it to be clay, will rid the enquirers after truth of the false notion: so we too, analysing no small part, but those heads which are the very principal matters of their rule, have exhibited to all but those who wish to be led knowingly into error, what guilt and fraud and insidiousness and fatal tendency belongs to the school of the Valentinians, and of the rest of the Heretics, as many as deal amiss with the Demiurge, i.e., the Framer and Maker of this universe, Who is in fact the only God:—we have shewn how their way is to be refuted.

§ 9.

For who that hath understanding, and that touches the truth ever so little,¹⁴ will endure them saying, that there is another Father above God the Framer of the world: and that there is both another Only Begotten, and another Word of God, whom also they affirm to have been produced in inferiority; and another Christ, who they say was made, with the Holy Ghost, later than the other Æons; and another Saviour who is not even of the Father of all, but is contributed to and put together by those Æons who were made in inferiority, and was produced by a kind of fatality, because of their low estate; so that had the Æons not been in ignorance and inferiority, by their account neither would Christ have emanated, nor the Holy Ghost, nor the Power of Order, nor the Saviour, nor the Angels, nor their Mother, nor her seed, nor the rest of the framing of the world, but all had been deserted and destitute of so many blessings. Not only therefore do they deal irreligiously with the Creator, calling Him the offspring of decay, but also with Christ and with the Holy Ghost, saying that Decay caused them to be produced; and that the Saviour as well came after decay. Yea, who can bear the rest of their futile talk, which they cunningly endeavour to adapt to the Parables, whereby they have perverted both themselves and such as believe them into very great impiety?