Chapter 33

§ 1.

Such a truly spiritual disciple, receiving the Spirit of God, Who from the beginning was present with men in all the arrangements which God made, Who announced things future, and declares things present, and relates things past—such an one,¹ I say, while he judges all men, is himself judged of none.

Thus he judges the Gentiles,² who serve the creature more than the Creator, and with a reprobate mind waste all His work upon vanity.

Again,³ he judges also the Jews, who discern not the Word of liberty, and are unwilling to go away free, though they have their deliverer at hand, but feign to serve God, Who needs nothing, out of season, without the pale of the Law; who know not the coming of Christ, which He wrought for the salvation of man, and will not understand that the Prophets announced two advents of His: the one in which He became a Man in affliction,⁴ knowing how to bear weakness, and sitting on the fole of an ass;⁵ the stone set at nought by the builders,⁶ and as a sheep led to the slaughter, and by the stretching out of His hands scattering Amalek,⁷ and gathering His dispersed sons from the ends of the earth into His Father’s sheep-fold,⁸ and calling to mind His dead who had before fallen asleep, and going down to them, to deliver them and save them:—the second, again, in which He will come on the clouds,⁹ bringing on the Day which is as a burning oven,¹⁰ and smiting the earth with the Word of His Mouth, and with the Spirit from His lips slaying the wicked;¹¹ and having the fan in His Hand, and throughly purging His floor, and gathering the wheat into the garner, but burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

§ 2.

And he will weigh also the doctrine of Marcion, in what sense he holds that there are two Gods, by an infinite distance separated one from another: Or how He is to be good, who draws away from their Maker men who are not His own, and calls them into His own Kingdom: or how His goodness fails, in not saving all: and why towards men indeed He seems good, but towards the Maker of Men Himself most unjust, taking from Him what is His own. And how, if this creation with which we are concerned belongs to another Father, did the Lord deal justly,¹² in taking Bread which is part of it, and professing it to be His own Body; or in declaring the mixture in the Chalice to be His own Blood?¹³ And why did He avow Himself the Son of Man, if He had not undergone the generation which is of man? And how again could He forgive us our sins, which are debts due to our own Maker and God? And how again, if He were not flesh, but appeared as it were a man,¹⁴ was He crucified, the blood and water flowing out of His pierced Side? And what Body did those inter, who were concerned in the Burial? And what was His rising from the Dead?

§ 3.

Again he will also judge all those who belong to Valentinus, because while with tongue they confess one God the Father, and all things of Him, they nevertheless say that this Maker of all things is Himself the fruit of defection or decay: and in like manner, confessing with their tongue One Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, while yet in their doctrine they allow one special emanation to the Only Begotten, another to the Word, one to the Christ, another to the Saviour; so that by their account all things are said indeed to be as one, yet each of these beings is considered as apart from the rest, and has its own emanation, answering to the union from which it springs.¹⁵ It follows, that their tongues alone tended towards Unity, while their view and thought, searching out all deep things, falls away from Unity, and incurs God’s manifold judgment, when they shall be enquired of by Christ about their own inventions:—by Him who they say was born after the Pleroma of the Æons, and that his Emanation took place after diminution or decay, and that the cause of their being themselves brought, as by a midwife, into the light, was that which happened to Wisdom. But they shall be accused by a Prophet of their own, even Homer, by whom they were trained to such inventions:¹⁶ his words are, For he is hateful to me even as the gates of Hell, who hides one thing in his heart, and utters another.

And he will also judge the vain talk of the wicked Gnostics, shewing them to be disciples of Simon the Sorcerer.

§ 4.

And he will also judge the Ebionites:¹⁷ how can they be saved, if He was not God, who wrought their salvation upon earth?¹⁸ And how shall man pass into God, if God had not been caused to pass into man¹⁹? And how shall he leave his birth, which is unto death, but for a new birth, wondrously and unexpectedly given by God, and that in sign of salvation: I mean the birth²⁰ which is of the Virgin by faith? Or what adoption will they receive from God, so long as they abide in this birth, which is after the manner of man in this world? And how had He more than Solomon,²¹ and more than Jonah, and was Lord of David, being of the same substance with them? And how obtained He the victory over him who was strong against men,²²—him who not only overcame man, but also kept him under his power,—and how did He conquer him who had conquered, and set free that Man who had been conquered, except he were superior to that man who had been conquered? But who other can be better and more excellent, than that man who was made in the likeness of God, besides the Son of God, in whose likeness man was created? and therefore in the end He Himself declared the resemblance; the Son of God was made man, taking upon Himself the old way of Creation: as we have explained in the Book before this.

§ 5.

And he shall judge those also who bring in an unreal Christ.²³ For how think they to argue truly themselves, when their Master was unreal? Or how can they have from Him any thing to be depended on, if He was imaginary, and not the Truth? And how can they themselves truly partake of salvation, if He in whom they say they believe, exhibited Himself in appearance only? With them, therefore, all is unreal, and not the Truth: and the question shall now be added, whether haply they are bearing about in the sight of the many shadows of men, being themselves not men, but dumb creatures?

§ 6.

Again, he will judge also the false Prophets, who not having received of God prophetic grace, and not in the fear of God, but either through vain glory, or for some profit, or in some other way by the operation of an evil spirit, pretend to prophesy, lying against God.

§ 7.

Again, he will judge also all the workers of schisms, as void of the Love of God,²⁴ and seeking their own profit, not the union of the Church; who moreover, for light and ordinary causes, sever and distract Christ’s great and glorious Body, and as far as in them lies, make away with it:²⁵ who speak peace and work war, truly straining at the gnat, and swallowing the camel. But no Reformation can ensue by their means, so great as the mischief of the Schism.

Again, he will judge also all those who are outside of the Truth, i.e., outside of the Church. But he himself will be judged of no man.²⁶ For to him all is consistent: in one God Almighty, of whom are all things, his faith is entire; and in the Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom are all things; and in His Dispensations, whereby the Son of God became Man, his reliance is sure; and in the Spirit of God, Who vouchsafes the knowledge of the Truth; Who in every generation, according to the Father’s will, displays among men the Dispensations both of the Father and of the Son.

§ 8.

True knowledge, is the teaching of the Apostles, and the original system of the Church in the whole world, and the mark of Christ’s Body in the several successions of the Bishops,²⁷ to whom they committed that Church, which is in each several place: a very full mode of teaching of the Scriptures, which has come down to us by uncorrupt guardianship, admitting neither of addition nor diminution, and reading without adulteration, and exposition according to the Scriptures, legitimate, and diligent, without peril and without blasphemy; and the most eminent gift of Love,²⁸ which is more precious than knowledge, and more glorious than prophecy, and more exalted than all other gifts.

§ 9.

Wherefore the Church in every place, by reason of the love which she hath toward God,²⁹ is at all times sending forward a multitude of martyrs to the Father; while all the rest on the other hand are so far from having such a thing to shew among themselves, that they do not even allow that such martyrdom is necessary; for true martyrdom, they say, is being of their mind: except that one or two now and then, in all the time since the Lord appeared in the earth, have together with our martyrs, as though they too had obtained mercy, borne the reproach of the Name, and have been led out with them, as it were a kind of appendage granted unto them. For the reproach of those who suffer persecution for righteousness’ sake,³⁰ and endure all punishments, and are put to death for their love towards God and their confession of His Son—this the Church alone purely sustains, (often maimed, and straightway putting forth new members, and becoming entire; even as her type, the wife of the aforesaid Lot, the statue of salt);³¹ like the old Prophets enduring persecution,³² according to the Lord’s saying, For so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you: implying that although the manner be new, yet it is the same Spirit resting upon her, and suffering persecution from those who receive not the Word of God.

§ 10.

And we may observe that the Prophets, with the rest of their predictions foretold this also: that they upon whomsoever the Spirit of God shall have rested, and who shall have obeyed the Word of the Father, and served Him with their might, shall suffer persecution, and be stoned, and slain.³³ The Prophets, I say, typified all these things in themselves, for the love of God, and for His Word’s sake. That is, being themselves also members of Christ, each one of them according to the kind of member that he was, exhibited a corresponding mode of prophecy: they all, many as they were, shadowing out One beforehand, and announcing matters which relate to One. Thus, as by our limbs the operation of the whole body is discerned, yet is not the form of the whole man discerned by one only member, but by all: so the Prophets did all indeed typify One, yet each of them, according to the particular member that he was, had a corresponding purpose to fulfil, and a particular operation of Christ to typify, corresponding with that member.

§ 11.

For some of those who beheld Him in glory, saw His glorious abode on the Right Hand of the Father; others saw Him coming in the clouds, as the Son of man, and saying of Him,³⁴ They shall see Him Whom they have pierced, gave signification of His coming, concerning which He saith Himself, When the Son of man cometh,³⁵ thinkest thou He will find faith on the earth? Of which Paul also saith, If however it is just with God,³⁶ to recompense tribulation to them which trouble you, and to you who are troubled, rest with us, in the revelation of the Lord Jesus from Heaven with the Angels of His might, and in a flame of Fire.

Others again speaking of Him as a Judge, and of the day of the Lord as of a burning oven;³⁷—Who gathereth the wheat into garners,³⁸ but the chaff He will burn with fire unquenchable;—threatened such as were unbelieving: of whom the Lord also saith Himself,³⁹ Depart from Me, ye cursed, into the everlasting fire, which My Father hath prepared for the Devil and his angels. And the Apostle too in like manner saith,⁴⁰ Who shall be punished with destruction for ever from the face of the Lord, and the glory of His power, when He shall have come to be glorified in His Saints, and to become admirable to those who believe in Him.

And those who say, He is beautiful in form before the children of men,⁴¹⁴² and, God hath anointed Thee, even Thy God, with the oil of gladness above Thy fellows;⁴³ and, Gird Thee with Thy sword upon Thy thigh, O Thou most mighty: in Thy fairness and in Thy beauty do Thou both press on, and ride prosperously, and reign, for truth’s sake, and meekness and righteousness: and all other such things as are said concerning Him:—signified that beauty of His, and grace, which is in His Kingdom, and His joy most dazzling, and most eminent above all that are governed by Him: to make the Hearers desire to be there found, doing what pleases God.

They again who say,⁴⁴ He is a Man, and who shall know Him?⁴⁵ and, I came unto the Prophetess, and she bare a Son,⁴⁶ and His name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God; and who announce Emmanuel born of a Virgin; they were signifying the union of the Word of God with His creature: how that the Word shall be flesh, and the Son of God the Son of Man; pure, and in pureness opening a pure womb, that same womb which gives men a new birth into God, which womb Himself made pure: and that, being made what we too are, He is the mighty God, and hath a generation which cannot be declared⁴⁷.

And those who say,⁴⁸ The Lord spake in Sion, and uttered His voice from Jerusalem, and, In Jewry is God known:—they who said, In Judea,⁴⁹ were signifying His advent. Those again who say that God comes from the South,⁵⁰ and from the shady and thick mountain, were speaking of His coming from Bethlehem, (as we have shewn in the Book before this): whence also He comes, Who rules and feeds the people of His Father.

Those again who say that at His coming the lame man shall leap as a hart,⁵¹ and the tongue of the dumb shall he plain,⁵² and the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall hear,⁵³ and the dissolved hands, and the feeble knees shall be strengthened: and, The dead who are in the tomb shall rise again:⁵⁴ and, Himself shall take our infirmities,⁵⁵ and bear our sicknesses:—these announced the cures that were wrought by Him.

§ 12.

Some again prophesied of a man weak and inglorious, and knowing how to bear infirmity,⁵⁶ and sitting on an Ass’s colt, how that He should come to Jerusalem; offering His back to the stripes,⁵⁷ and His jaws to the palms of the hands—how that He is led as a sheep to the slaughter,⁵⁸ and hath vinegar and gall given Him to drink,⁵⁹ and is forsaken by His friends,⁶⁰ and by those who are nearest, and that, while He stretches out His Hands through the whole day;⁶¹ and is scorned and reproached by those who looked on Him,⁶² and His garments divided, and the lot cast upon His clothing,⁶³ and that He is brought down into the dust of death;⁶⁴ and all such things. All these spake of His coming as man, how He entered into Jerusalem, wherein by His suffering and crucifixion He endured all that was foretold.

Others again saying, The Holy Lord hath remembered His that be dead, who slumbered before Him in the clay earth, and He went down to them, to raise them up and save them.

But those who said,⁶⁵ In that day, saith the Lord, shall the sun set at noonday, and there shall be darkness over the earth in the day of light, and I will turn your feast days into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; evidently announced that sunset, which ensued on His crucifixion from the sixth hour: and how that after this was done, their feast days which they held after the Law, and their songs, would be turned into mourning and lamentation, on their beginning to be delivered to the Gentiles. Yet more manifestly, again, doth Jeremias also signify the same,⁶⁶ thus speaking: She who travaileth is made void, her soul was weary: her sun hath set while it is yet noon, she was confounded, and hath suffered reproach: the rest of them will I give to the sword in the sight of their enemies.

§ 13.

And those who said that He slumbered and slept and rose up again, for the Lord sustained Him:⁶⁷ bidding also the princes of the Heavens to open the eternal gates,⁶⁸ that the King of Glory may enter:—these were heralds of His Resurrection from the dead through the Father, and of His reception into Heaven.⁶⁹ And in saying, His going forth is from the highest Heaven; and His running about unto the height of Heaven, and there is none who hideth himself from the heat thereof:—because He was taken up to that place from which also He came down, and there is none who can escape His just judgment: this was the very subject of their message. And they who said,⁷⁰ The Lord hath reigned, let the people be angry: He who sitteth on the Cherubim, let the earth be moved:—were prophesying partly of the wrath of all people, excited after His Ascension against those who believed in Him, and of the movement of the whole Earth against the Church: partly again of the whole earth being shaken, when He cometh from Heaven with the Angels of His might;⁷¹ as He saith Himself, There shall be a great earthquake, such as was not from the beginning.⁷² And again, in that He saith,⁷³ Whoso is judged, let him stand against Me: and whoso is justified, let him draw near the Child of God:⁷⁴ and, Woe unto you, for ye all shall wax old as a garment, and the moth shall eat you up:⁷⁵ And, All flesh shall be brought low, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in the highest:—the meaning is that after His Passion, God shall put under His feet those who have been against Him, and He shall be exalted above all, and there shall be none to be justified or compared unto Him.

§ 14.

And they who say that God will appoint unto men a new Testament,⁷⁶ not as He appointed unto our Fathers in Horeb;⁷⁷ and that He giveth men a new heart and a new spirit;⁷⁸ and again, And see that ye make no account of the old things: behold, I make new things, which shall now spring up, that ye may know them, and I will make a way in the desert, and rivers in the dry land, to give drink to a chosen race, My people whom I have won, that they may declare Mine excellencies; they were evidently setting forth the liberty of the New Testament,⁷⁹ and the new wine, which is poured into new wine-skins, even the faith which is in Christ, whereby He hath announced the way of righteousness, how it hath arisen in the wilderness: and the rivers of the Holy Spirit in a dry land, to give water to God’s elect race, which He hath won that His excellencies may be shewn forth, and not for them to speak evil of Him Who made these things, being God.

§ 15.

And all the rest which the Prophets, as we have shewn, said in all that long course of Scripture, he who is truly spiritual will interpret; pointing out to which aspect⁸⁰ of the Lord’s providential work each one of the things which have been said appertains, and exhibiting the entire Body of the work of the Son of God: always knowing the same God: and always acknowledging the same Word of God, (though He be but now made manifest unto us): and always recognising the same Spirit of God, though in the last times He be newly poured out upon us, and upon mankind itself from the creation to the end of the world: from whom such as believe God, and follow His Word, obtain the salvation which is of Him. But such as depart from Him, and despise His precepts, and by their works dishonour Him Who made them, and by their views blaspheme Him Who nourishes them,—heap up a most righteous judgment against themselves.

This man then searches out all,⁸¹ but is himself searched out of no man; neither speaking evil of his Father, nor making His arrangements void, nor accusing Fathers, nor dishonouring Prophets, either by saying that they are of another God, or that there have been prophecies over and over of this and that material.