Chapter 8

§ 1.

But now we receive a part from His Spirit, towards the perfecting and preparing of incorruption, practising by little how to receive and bear God:¹ which thing also the Apostle hath called on earnest, (which is a portion of that honour which is promised to us by God), saying in his Epistle to the Ephesians,² In whom ye also,—having heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation—in whom believing ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. This Earnest, therefore, so abiding in us, maketh us already spiritual, and the mortal is swallowed up of immortality. For you,³ saith he, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit: if indeed the Spirit of God dwelleth in you: And this takes place, not by our losing the flesh, but by our partaking of the Spirit. For not without flesh were they to whom he was writing, but they were such as had received the Spirit of God,⁴ in whom we cry, Abba, Father. If then we, having the pledge, cry out now, Abba, Father;⁵ what will it be, when rising again we shall see Him face to face? when all the members shall most abundantly utter the hymn of exultation, glorifying Him who will have raised them from the dead, and given them eternal life? I say, if that which is but an earnest, wrapping the man up in itself, even now causes us to say, Abba, Father; what will be the effect of the entire grace of the Spirit, which God shall give unto men? It will render us like unto Him, and perfect us, by the will of the Father: for it will make man to be after the image and likeness of God.

§ 2.

Those then who have the earnest of the Spirit, and serve not the lusts of the flesh, but submit themselves to the Spirit, and walk reasonably in all things; the Apostle rightly calleth Spiritual, because the Spirit of God dwelleth in them. But incorporeal spirits will not be spiritual men; rather our substance, i.e., the combination of soul and flesh, receiving the Spirit of God, maketh up the full spiritual man. Those on the other hand who cast away the counsel of the Spirit, and serve the lusts of the Flesh, and live without reason, and without restraint, and are carried headlong after their own desires,⁶ having no desire of God’s Spirit, but living after the fashion of swine and of dogs, those the Apostle justly calls carnal, because they have no other but carnal ideas. And the Prophets too for this same reason compare them to irrational animals, because of their irrational demeanour, saying,⁷ They are become horses raging after females, each one of them neighing after the wife of his neighbour. And again,⁸ Man being in honour, is likened unto the beasts: in this respect emulating the life without reason, that in any matter of his own he likeneth himself to beasts. Yea, we too in an ordinary way call that sort of men beasts and irrational Cattle.

§ 3.

Now all these things the Law in figure foretold, from animals drawing the outline of man: as thus;⁹ Whatever things have a double hoof and chew the cud, it pronounceth clean:¹⁰ but whichever lack either both or one of these, it separateth as unclean. Who then are clean? Those who by faith take their way steadily towards the Father and the Son;¹¹ for this is the steadiness of those who are of the double hoof:—and who muse on the sayings of God day and night, that they may be adorned with good works: for this is the excellency of them that chew the cud.¹² But those are unclean, who have neither a double hoof, nor chew the cud; i.e., who neither have faith in God, nor muse on His words; and this is the abomination of the Heathen. Those again who chew the cud,¹³ but have not the hoof double, and are also unclean:—this is a description by imagery of the Jews, who although they have the words of God in their mouth, fix not in the Father and the Son any strength of their root: and therefore also their race is slippery. For so the animals with undivided hoof easily slide, but those are firmer which have a double hoof, the cleft hoofs taking each others’ place along the road: and with one part of the hoof they support the other. And equally unclean are those,¹⁴ who have indeed a double hoof, but do not chew the cud: and this, you see, is a representation of all Heretics, and of those who do not muse on the words of God, neither are adorned with works of righteousness; to whom also the Lord saith,¹⁵ Wherefore say ye to Me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say to you? For they who are such, say indeed that they believe in the Father and the Son, but never muse on the words of God as they ought, neither are adorned with works of righteousness: rather, as I said before, they have laid hold on the life of swine and dogs, giving themselves over to uncleanness, and gluttony, and to other disorder. Justly therefore to all such, who through their unbelief and luxury fail to attain the Spirit of God, and by divers marks which they bear cast out the Word which giveth them life, and walk irrationally in their own lusts, the Apostle first hath given the name of carnal and animal¹⁶; while the Prophets have termed them beasts of burden and wild beasts, custom again hath explained this by the words “cattle” and “senseless;” lastly, the Law hath pronounced them unclean.