Lecture IV
LECTURE IV.
ON THE TEN POINTS OF FAITH *.
CoLossi4Nns ii. 8.
Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Lect.
1. WICKEDNESS imitates goodness: and the tares strive to IV.
_be taken for wheat, being like it in appearance, but detected eae in their taste by the discerning.
Even the devil transformeth himself into an angel of light: not that he may reascend to where he was; for being in heart like an anvil, incapable of all impression, he has now and for ever an impenitent will; but that he may environ in the darkness of blindness, and amid the pestilence of unbelief, those who are living an Mat. 7, Angel's life.
Many wolves are ranging about in shkeep's 15. clothing, in the clothing, I say, of sheep, but with claws and fangs too.
Enveloped in the skin of a gentle animal, and by their appearance deceiving the guileless, they shed on them from their jaws the deadly poison of impiety.
Need have we then of Divine grace, and of an abstinent spirit, and of seeing eyes: lest eating tares as wheat, we out of ignorance come to harm; lest taking the wolf for a sheep, we be made his prey; lest imagining the Devil, the Destroyer, to be an Angel of 1 Pet.6, mercy, we be devoured; for he goeth about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, according to the Scriptures.
For this.cause the Church admonisheth; for this cause are the present classes; for this, the reading of lessons.
* This title is taken from Theodoret. is here made somewhat different both Thenumberis variously madeout. Some from that in Milles' and in the BenedicMSS.sayelevenforteu. Anenumeration tine Edd.
Religion consists of doctrines and works.
2. For the course of godliness is made up of these two; (2.) pious doctrines, and good works: neither are the doctrines without good works acceptable to God; nor are works allowable works done apart from pious doctrines.
For what boots it, to know excellently the doctrines concerning God, and to commit vile fornication? or what again avails it to possess an excellent self-command, and to blaspheme impiously? An exceeding great gain then is learning in doctrines; and we have need of sobriety of mind, since many are they who would spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit. And the Greeks Col.2, 8. by their smooth tongues draw you aside, for honey distils Prov. 5,
Jrom the lips of a strange woman; but they of the circum-* cision by means of the Holy Scriptures, which they miserably wrest from their meaning, deceive those who come to them, versed in them from childhood to age, and growing old in ignorance.
And the sons of the Heretics, by good words and Rom.
Jair speeches deceive the hearis of the simple, disguising with 46,18. the name of Christ, as with honey, the envenomed darts of their irreligious doctrines: concerning all of whom together, the Lord saith, Beware lest any deceive you.
This gives Mat.24, occasion to the teaching of the Faith, and expositions upon " it.
8. But before making this tradition of the Faith, it seems to me fitting, to make at this time a short summary of neces sary doctrines: lest the multitude of things to be spoken, and the lengthening out of the sacred season of Lent, be too much for the memories of the more simple among you: and that having now strewn some seeds in a general way, we may retain the same things, when provided ina larger crop afterwards.
And let those here who are more practised in these things, and have their senses now exercised to discern Heb. 5, both good and evil, bear with things rather fitted for children, 3 and to a course (as it were) of milk: so that while they who Heb. 5, stand in need of Catechising receive benefit, they who have knowledge, may now freshen the remembrance of what they knew before.
I. Or Gop.
4. Lay then in your souls as a sure foundation the doctrine (8.) concerning God: That God is only one, unbegotten, unorigiD2
God is One and Selfdependent.
Lecr. nated, unchangeable, unalterable: neither by anotherbegotten, IV. nor having another to succeed Him in His being: who neither began in time to be, nor shall ever have an end.
And that He is also good and just: so that, if ever thou hear a heretic saying, that the Just God is one and the Good God another, being put on thy guard, thou mayest at once detect the poisoned dart of heresy.
For some have dared impiously to divide the One God in their teaching'.
Again, some have said that the Artificer and Lord of the soul was one, and of the body another', a doctrine at once absurd and blasivsieyphemous.
For how should man become the one servant of vAlustwo masters, when the Lord saith in the Gospel, No man can
Mat. 6, serve two masters?
There is then One Only God, the Maker both of souls and bodies: there is One the Artificer of heaven and earth, the Maker both of Angels and Archangels,—the Artificer of many things, but the Father of One only before the worlds, even of His One Only-begotten Son our Lord
Joh.1,3. Jesus Christ, by whom He made all things, visible and inviCol. 1, sible.
16.
5. He, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, is not confined Pe.8,3.to any place*; nor is He less than the heavens: but the a "°; heavens are the work of His fingers, and the whole earth is holden in the hollow of His hand.
He is in and around all things.
Think not that the sun is brighter than He, or is equal to Him: for He who formed the sun in the beginning, must needs be without comparison far greater and brighter.
He foresees the future: He is mightier than all things: He knows all things, and does what He wills; not subjected to antecedents or consequents, or to nativities, or chance, or fate; in all things perfect, and possessing in Himself the absolute form of every excellence; neither waning, nor increasing, but in mode and circumstance ever the same; who hath prepared chastisement for the sinners, and a crown for the righteous.
(4.) 6. Seeing then that many have in divers ways gone astray from the One God,—some having deified the sun, and so forsooth, when he went down, abiding during the night-season
» This was the doctrine of Marcion, Her. Ixvi. 8.
Tren. iii. 25.§.2. 8. and the Manichees.
4 As the Manichees held. Theodor.
© These werethe Manichees. Epiph.
Her, i. 26.
The Son is in all things like the Father.
$7 godless,—others the moon, so as in the day-time to have no god,—others, the other parts of the world,—some, again, having deified the arts,—others, meats,—others, pleasures,— while some, mad after women, have set up on high the image of a naked woman, and calling it Venus, have bowed down to their own lusts, under the visible emblem,—and others, dazzled by the brightness of gold, have deified that, and other portions of matter,—seeing, I say, that these things are so, and that if one first stablish in his soul the doctrine of the One God, from whom are all things, and believe in it, he gets rid at once of all the multiplied evils of idolatry, aud heretical error, do thou first settle firmly this doctrine of godliness in thy soul, by means of faith.
II. Or Curist.
7. Believe also in the Son of God, One and Only, our Lord (5.) Jesus Christ: God of God begotten: Life of Life begotten :
Light of Light begotten: like in all things' to Him that begat Him: who began not His existence in time, but was before all ages eternally and incomprehensibly begotten of the Father: who is God's Wisdom and Power, and Righteousness personally subsisting; who before all ages is set down at the right hand of the Father.
Not that He received the throne on God's right hand, as some have thought, by reason of His patient suffering merely, being after His passion crowned as it were by God; but all the time He hath been in being, which is from an everlasting generation, He hath the Kingly prerogative, sitting together with the Father, being God, and Wisdom, and Power, as hath been shewn ; together with the Father reigning, and by reason of the Father being the Artificer of all things; wanting nothing to the dignity of Godhead, and knowing His Father, even as He is known by His Father,—and, to speak briefly, ls sdeyremember what is written in the Gospel, None knoweth the eat
Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any the Father, save 27. the Son.
8. And neither do thou separate the Son from the Father, nor by confusing them together believe that the Son is the © Ter Suess nave wdova.
This was pres to the dusetewe of orthodoxy, one of bya ofthe Semiarians,as snd the dvdseer of Arianism.
Christ is in one Person both God and Man.
Father'.
But believe that of One God is One Only-begotten Son, who was before all ages, God the Word: the Word, not uttered externally and dispersed abroad in the air, nor like to words impersonal ®, but the Word, the Son, the Maker of all who have the Word, the Word who hears the Father and Lect.
. einds. avveen evdeois. deyssaen woinens.
Himself speak.
And of these things we will speak more at large in due season, if God permit: for we do not forget our purpose, that at present we are but introducing the Faith after the manner of a summary.
III. Or His IncaRnation.
His Birth of the Virgin.
(6.) 9. And believe that He, the Only-begotten Son of God, for our sins came down from heaven to the earth, having taken a manhood of like feelings with us, and being born of the Holy Virgin and the Holy Ghost, not in appearance or imagination®, but in truth: nor did He pass through the Virgin as through a channel'; but truly took flesh of her, and of her was truly nourished with milk, and truly ate as we do, and truly drank as we do: for if the Incarnation was a phantom, salvation likewise is a phantom.
Christ was twofold, Man in what was seen, God in what was not seen: eating truly as Man like us, (for He had like feelings of the flesh with suaowa4.
Jonsou.
Pry CasAvivos. us,) but feeding with five loaves the five thousand as God: dying as Man truly, but as God raising him who had been four days dead: sleeping in the ship truly as Man, and walking on the waters as God.
His Cross.
(7.) 10. He was crucified for our sins truly: shouldest thou be disposed to deny it, the very place which all can see refutes thee, even this blessed Golgotha*, in which, on account of Lovaruprs Ipyardusves viewarogiay wirrsvegs. These were Noetas,Sabellfus, &c. Vid. Theodor. Heer, iii. 8. Athan.
! This was the doctrine of the Valentinians. Vid. Iren. Heer. i. 1. §. 18. k The spot where our Lord was cracified and buried had been hidden by an artificial moand, and desecrated by a statue of Venus. Constantine cleared the ground, and his mother Helena built Orat. iv. 2.
® The followers of Paul of Samosata, and of Marcellus of Ancyra.
Euseb.
Eccles. Theol. ii, 11. 15. Concil. Sirmiens. A.D, 357. (Hard. vol. i. p. 703.) a church there. Euseb. Vit. Const. iii.
25, 26.
» The heretics here alluded to, were, from their tenet, called Docetee.
Christ descended into hell to deliver the Old Fathers. 39
Him who was crucified on it, we are now assembled: and further, the whole world is filled with the portions of the woud of the Cross'.
But He was crucified, not for sins of His, but that we might be freed from our own sins.
And though He was despised of men and beaten as a man, yet He was acknowledged by the creature as God; for the sun, beholding his Lord outraged, hid his light in trembling, not enduring the sight.
His Burtal.
11. He was laid truly as man in a tomb of rock, but the (8.) rocks burst asunder through fear because of Him.
He descended to the regions beneath the earth, that from thence 'also He might redeem the just".
For wouldest thou, I pray, that the living should enjoy His grace, and that, being most of them unholy; and that those who from Adam had been imprisoned long while, should not now obtain deliverance ?
The prophet Esaias heralded with a loud voice so many things concerning Him: and wouldest thou not that the Kings should descend and rescue His herald?
David was there, and Samuel, and all the Prophets, and John himself, who said by his messenger, Art thou He that should come, or Mat.1}, do we look for another?
Wouldest thou not that He should 4 descend and rescue such as these?
His Resurrection.
12. But He who descended to the regions beneath the (9.) earth, again ascended thence, and Jesus who was buried, rose again truly on the third day.
And should the Jews ever harass you, meet them quickly by asking thus: Did Jonas after three days come forth from the whale, and bath not Christ then after three days risen from the earth? Was the dead man raised who touched the bones of Eliseus, and shall not the Maker of men much more easily be raised by the 1 Vid. also Catech. x. 19. xiii. 4. bins ia altogether silent on the subject;
Helena is said to have discovered the and Constantine, in his i te written true Cross on the occasion mentioned to Macarius, Bishop of Jerusalem, on in the last note.
The account is conthe subject of the discovery of the Holy tained in Soer. Hist. i. 17. Soz. Hist. ii. Sepulchre.
Euseb. Vit. iii. 30.
1. Theodor. i. 18. Ambros.in Ob. Theod.
™ Vid. Enseb. Dem. Evang. x.
45 &c.
Chrysost. in Joan. 8, 5. 1. at Hieronym. in Ecoles. ix. 10. besides Rufinus and Paulinus.
Euse- :
40 Virtue of the Name of Christ und of the sign of His cross.
Lect. power of the Father?
He rose then truly; and being risen, "_ He was again seen by His disciples.
And the Twelve disciples were witnesses of His resurrection; not witnessing with flattering words, but striving for the truth of the resurDeut. rection even to tortures and deaths.
Further, at the mouth Mats of two or three witnesses shall every word be established, according to the Scriptures; but twelve bear witness to Christ's resurrection, and disbelievest thou yet concerning the resurrection ?
His Ascension.
(10.) 18. And Jesus having finished His race of patience, and having redeemed men from their sins, ascended again into the heavens, a cloud receiving Him: and Angels stood by as He went up, and Apostles gazed.
But if any doubt what he hears, let him believe the power of what he now sees.
All kings when they die, have their power extinguished with their life: but Christ after being crucified, is worshipped by the whole world.
We proclaim the Crucified, and the devils tremble ; yet many others have in course of time been crucified, but when has the invocation of any one of these scared away the devils?
14. Let us not then be ashamed of the Cross of Christ; but though another hide it, do thou openly seal it on thy brow": that the devils beholding that princely Sign, may flee far away trembling.
But make thou this Sign, when thou eatest and drinkest, sittest or liest down, risest up, speakest, walkest: in a word, on every occasion; for He who was here crucified, is above in the heavens.
For if, when crucified and buried, He had remained in the tomb, then we had had shame: but now He who was crucified on this Golgotha, hath from the Mount of Olives on the East ascended into heaven: for having hence descended into hell, and come back again to us, from us did He ascend again into heaven,
At 110, His Father addressing Him and saying, Sit thow on my right ; hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.
® Vid. Tertull. de Cor. 3. Cyprian. dor. Aug. de Cat. rud, 34.
(20. de Lape. p. 181. Hier. Ep. 1. ad Helio. ere ru (20.)
The Holy Ghost detfieth man.
IV. Or rue Forore Jop@MeEnr.
15. This Jesus Christ who hath ascended, cometh again (11.) from heaven, not from earth.
And I say, not from earth, because many Antichrists are now to come from earth; for, as thou hast seen, many have already begun to say, J am Mat.24,
Christ: and besides there is to come the Abomination of® ) Desolation, usurping the name of Christ.
But do thou look for the true Christ, the Son of God, the Only-begotten, who is henceforth to come not from the earth, but from heaven, appearing to all more bright than any lightning or other brilliance, with Angels for His guards, that He may judge quick and dead, and reign with a kingdom, heavenly, eternal,
_and without end.
Be sure to settle your belief in this point also, since there are many who say that Christ's kingdom has an end'.
V. Or THE Hoty Guosr.
16. Believe also on the Holy Ghost, and hold concerning (12.) Him the same opinion which has been delivered to thee to hold concerning the Father and the Son: and not according to those who teach blasphemous things of Him'. But do thou learn that this Holy Ghost is One, indivisible, of manifold power; working many things, yet Himself without parts ; who knoweth mysteries, who searcheth all things, even the 1Cor.2, deep things of God; who descended on our Lord Jesus Ae.
Christ in the form of a dove; who wrought in the Law and the Prophets: who, even now, at the season of Baptism sealeth thy soul; of whose holiness every intellectual nature hath also need ; against whom if a man dare to blaspheme, he hath no forgiveness, either in this world, or in that which Mat.ia, is to come; who with the Father and the Son is exalted
** with the glory of the Godhead; of whom Thrones also, and Dominions, Principalities and Powers, stand in need.
For there is One God, the Father of Christ; and One Lord Jesus Christ, of the Only God the Only-begotten Son: and One
Holy Ghost, who halloweth and deifieth all, who spake rae the Law and the Prophets, both in the Old and New"
Testaments.
© Viz. the followers of Marcellus of __P e.g. the Montanists, Arians, and Ancyra.
M ans.
42 Nothing not taught and proved out of Scripture is of the Faith.
17. This seal have thou ever on thy mind; which now by way of summary has been touched on in its heads, and if the Lord grant, shall hereafter be set forth according to our power, with Scripture-proofs.
For concerning the divine and sacred Mysteries of the Faith, we ought not to deliver even the most casual remark without the Holy Scriptures : nor be drawn aside by mere probabilities and the artifices of argument.
Do not then believe me because I tell thee these things, unless thou receive from the Holy Scriptures the proof of what is set forth: for this salvation, which is of our faith, is not by ingenious reasonings, but by proof from the Holy Scriptures.
Lect.
VI. OF THE SOUL.
18. After knowing this venerable and glorious and most holy Faith, next thou hast to know thyself: know that thou
(18.) art a twofold man consisting of soul and body, and that, as was said a little before, the same God is the Artificer both of the soul and of the body.
And know thou hast a soul possessed of freedom', the fairest work of God, made after the image of Him who formed it: immortal because of God who has made it immortal: a living thing, reasonable, undecaying, because of Him who hath bestowed these gifts: having power to do what it willeth.
For it is not according to thy nativity that thou sinnest, nor is thy fornication according to absiovrtes thy fortune, nor, as some idly talk, do the conjunctions of the stars force thee to live in lasciviousness. Why, to avoid confession of thy wretchedness, dost thou blame the guiltless stars?
Henceforth have nothing to do witb astrologers: for of these saith the divine Scripture, Let now the astrologers stand up and save thee, §c. Behold they shall be as stubble: the fire shall burn them: they shall not deliver themselves
JSrom the power of the flame.
In. 47, 18, 14.
19. And learn this also: that before the soul be come into the world, it hath in nothing sinned: but that having come into the world sinless', we now of our own choice sin.
4 When Cyril and other writers speak * It was both a Pythagorean and an 80 apairiedly about the freedom of the heretical doctrine, that 'the soul had will, it is by way of protest against the sinned in some preexistent state. Clem.
Manichees and others who were fatalists.
Strom. iii.
3. Iren. Her. i. 25.
The saul is responsible because it is free.
Listen not, [ pray thee, to any one perversely expounding the Scripture, If then I do that which I would not, and the Rom. ie rest: but remember Him who says, If ye be willing and ica 19 obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse20.' and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, and the rest: and again, ds ye have yielded your members servants of Rom. 6, uncleanness and of iniquity unto iniquity ; even so now yield )*your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Remember also the Scripture which says, And as they did not Rom. 1, like to retain God in their knowledge, and, That which may? be known of God is manjfest in them: and, Their eyes havei9. they closed. Remember too how God says against them, Yeé Mat.18,
I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how rel 2, 'then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange™vine unto Me?
20. The soul is immortal; and all souls are alike, both of (14.) men and women; only there is a difference of person*.*4 vé¢_
There is not one order of souls' which by nature sin, and orth another order of souls which by nature act righteously, but enh both act from choice, the essence of the soul being one in pdr kind and alike in all.
Now I know that I am speaking at length, and that the time is far advanced: but what is preferable to salvation?
Dost thou not care, though with trouble, to take provision for the way against the heretics? wilt thou not be told the turns of the road, lest out of ignorance thou fall down a precipice ?
If thy teachers think it no small gain for thee to learn these things, shouldest not thou, the learner, receive gladly the multitude of the things told thee?
21. The soul has freedom; and though the devil can tempt, he is not free to force it against deliberate choice.
He suggests to thee the thought of fornication ; if thou wilt, thou hast admitted it; if thou wilt not, thou hast not.
For if thou wert a fornicator by necessity, then wherefore did God prepare hell? If thou did justly by nature and not by choice, wherefore hath God prepared crowns of glory ineffable? The sheep is meek, yet it hath never been crowned for its meek- * Thedoctrineof Apellesishereaimed — * Some of the Gnostic sects seem reat.
Vid. Tertall. de Anim. 36, ferred to.
Vid. Iren. i. 24.
The Body nol the real cause of sin.
Lscr. ness; because its meekness belongs to it, not from choice, but AA by nature.
VII. Or THE Bopy.
(15.) 22. Thou hast been taught, beloved, for the present, concerning the Soul: now receive, as far as may be, the doctrine concerning the Body.
Endure not any of those who say, that the body belongs not to God": for they who hold this, and that the soul dwells in it as in a vessel which belongeth not to itself, readily abuse it to fornication.
But for what have they condemned this wonderful body? in comeliness what lack has it?
And what is there of its fashioning not wrought with art?
Ought they not to have considered how bright the eyes are; and how the ears placed obliquely receive sounds without hindrance; and how the sense of smell is discriminating in scents, and eagerly discerns incense; and how the tongue is the minister of two things, the faculty of tasting, and the power of speech? And how the lungs, placed out of sight, are unceasingly occupied in respiring air? Who gave the heart its unremitted beating? Who divided so many veins and arteries?
Who skilfully interwove the bones with the muscles? Who while assigning a part of our food for our substance, separated the rest in a seemly manner; and hath hidden our uncomely members in a more comely disposition? Who, when mankind was like to have failed, rendered it by a simple-fellowship perpetual ?
(16.) 23. Say not, I pray, that the body is the cause of sin.
For if the body be the cause of sin, how is it that a corpse is without sin?
Put asword in the right hand of one just dead, and there is no murder committed; let beauty of every sort pass before the young just dead, yet is no impure desire excited.
Why? Because it is not the body which sins of itself, but the soul by means of the body.
The body is the instrument, and as it were the garment and robe of the soul; if then it be abandoned by the soul to fornication, it becomes unclean ; but if it dwell with a holy soul, it becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost.
It is not I who say this, but 1 Cor.6, Paul the Apostle hath said; Know ye not that your bodies are
19. the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you? Be tender ® This was the doctrine of Gnostics and Manichees.
Unmarried persons must not despise the married.
then of thy body, as being the temple of the Holy Ghost; sully not thy flesh with fornication; defile not this thy fairest robe ; but if thou hast defiled it, cleanse it now through penitence; while the time allows, wash it.
24. And as to the doctrine of chastity, above all, let the arder of Solitaries and of Virgins attend to it, who are establishing in the world an Angelic life; and then, the rest of the Church's people also.
Great is the crown laid up for you, brethren; for a poor indulgence barter not a high dignity.
Listen to the Apostle, saying, Lest there be any Heb.12, Jornicator, or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of — meai sold his birthright.
Having been enrolled in the Angelical books for thy purpose of chastity, beware lest thou be blotted out again for thy deed of fornication.
25. Nor again on the other hand, while observing chastity, be thou puffed up against those who choose the humbler path of wedlock.
For marriage is honourable, and the bed unHeb.13, defiled, as saith the Apostle.
Thou too who keepest thy *: purity, wert thou not born of married persons?
Do not, because thou hast a possession of gold, set at nought the silver.
But let those also who are married be of good cheer, who use marriage lawfully; who subject their marriage to laws, bot making it wanton by unbounded licence; who observe seasons of abstinence, that they may give themselves \ Cor. unto prayer; who with pure garments bring their bodies also he pure to the assemblies of the Church; who have entered into the state of matrimony, not for indulgence, but that they may #0 have a home. pies ec 26. And let not those who have been but once married, set at nought them who have involved themselves in 'a second marriage*.
Continence is indeed a noble thing and an admirable; yet we should make allowance for a second marriage, that the weak may not commit fornication.
Jt is good 1 Cor.
Jor them if they abide even as I, saith the Apostle; but if" 5.3 they cannot contain, lel them marry; it is better to marry than to burn.
But every thing else, be it put away far from * The Montanists condemned second were an impediment to holy orders. marriages; vid. Tertull. de Monogam.
They are spoken of by the Fathers as 8; de Exhort. Cast.9. andthe Novatians, at best a concession, e.g. Iren. Har. iii.
Epiph. Her. lix. 3. Second marriages 17. Chrysost. in Mat.
Hom. 32. fin.
Those who fast must not condemn those who cannot. you, fornication, adultery, and every form of incontinence; and let the body be kept for the Lord, that the Lord also may look upon the body.
And let the body be nourished with meats, that it may live, and serve without hindrance; but not that it may be given up to indulgence.
Lecr.
Iv.
Meats.
(17.) 27. And concerning food, let these be your doctrines ; since many stumble concerning meats also.
For some indifferently draw near to things sacrificed to idols; and others, while they are austere, condemn them who eat: and thus in different ways the soul of some is defiled in the matter of meats, while they are ignorant of the profitable reasons, for eating or abstaining.
For we fast, abstaining from wine and flesh, not because we abhor them as abominations, but because we look for the reward; that scorning things sensible, we may enjoy the spiritual and invisible table, and that sowing now tn tears, we may reap in joy in the world to come.
Despise not however those who eat, and partake Ps. 126, 5.
- because of their bodies' weakness; nor blame those who use a little wine, for their stomach's sake, and their often infirmities ; nor condemn them as sinners.
Nor abhor thou flesh as -being an unchristian thing; for the Apostle knew - some such when he spake of those, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe'.
In abstaining then from them, abstain not from them as abominable, otherwise thou hast no reward; but look down on them though good, for the sake of those nobler spiritual things which are set before thee.
28. For thy soul's sake, at no time eat ought of the things offered to idols.
For concerning these meats, not I only, but the-Apostles also before now, and James, the Bishop of this
Church, have taken thought; and the Apostles and Elders write to all the Gentiles a Catholic Epistle, bidding them
Y The various sects of Gnostics, and the Manichees, considered certain meats and drinks, as flesh and wine, to be polluting. Vid. Iren. Her. i28.
Clem.
Ped. ii. 2, p. 186. Epiph. Her. xlvi. 2.
Elvii. 1. &c. &c. August. Heer. 46. vid.
Canon. Apost. 43, "If any Bishop &c. abstain from marriage, fiesh, and wine, not for discipline (3s &¢seee) but as abhorring them, forgetting thatthey are all very good, &c. and fae blasphemy against a creation, et him amend or be
The Resurrection as easy as making Moses' rod a serpent. 47 abstain, chiefly from things sacrificed to idols, and then from blood also and things strangled.
For many men being of a Savage nature, and living like dogs, both lap up blood, copying the way of the most savage wild beasts; and also eat greedily without scruple things strangled'.
But do thou, the servant of Christ, when eating, observe to eat with reverence.
Thus much concerning meats.
Apparel.
29. Be thou clad with plain apparel, not for vain orna- (18.) ment's sake, but for a necessary covering; nor to make a display, but that thou mayest be warm in winter, and mayest hide thine uncomeliness. Beware lest, under colour of hiding
'thine uncomeliness, by thy extravagant robes thou fall into uncomeliness of another sort.
VIII. Or roe REsvuRRECTION.
(19.) 30. Be tender, I beseech thee, of this body; and know that thou shalt arise from the dead, to be judged with this body.
But if any thought of unbelief steal upon thee, as though the thing were impossible, consider from thine own case the things which appear not.
For tell me; think where thou wert thyself, an hundred or more yearsago? From what an element, from what a very small and mean substance, hast thou come to so great stature, and to such dignity of comeliness.
Cannot then He who brought into being that which was not, raise up again that which has been and has decayed ?
He who year by year raises up the corn which we sow, when it is dead, shall He find difficulty in raising us up, for whose sakes He was raised Himself?
Thou seest how the trees have stood now for so many months fruitless and leafless ; but when the winter is passed, they revive in all their parts as it were from the dead.
Shall not we then much rather, yea and much more easily, live again?
The rod of Moses was by the counsel of God changed into the dissimilar nature of a serpent: and shall not man who has fallen into death be again restored to himself?
* The prohibition of idol-sacrifices, regards blood, and thin aoe ore it blood, and things strangled, waslongin had become almost obsolete by S. Ausforce in the East; but in the West as tin'sage.
Contr. Faust. xxxii. 13
48 The Canon of Scripture to be received from the Church.
31. Heed not them who say that this body is not raised: ae shall arise, and theyin the tombs shall be raised. So Daniel, apie 1) Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arvse ;
Lecr, 36, for it is raised: and Esaias testifieth this, saying, The dead * some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame.
But though the resurrection is common to all men, it is not alike to all; for we all indeed receive everlasting bodies, but not all the same bodies.
For the just receive them, that through eternity, they may join the Choirs of Angels; but the sinners, that they may undergo for everlasting the torment of their sins.
IX, Or THe Hoy Laver.
$2. Wherefore, the Lord of His lovingkindness has been beforehand with us, giving us the repentance of the Laver, that having cast away the chief, yea rather the whole burden of our sins, and having received the seal of the Holy Ghost, we may become heirs of life eternal.
But seeing that we have before spoken sufficiently of the Laver of Baptism, let us go on to what remains of our preparatory teaching.
X. Or THE DIvINE SCRIPTURES.
(20.) 88. These things are taught us by the inspired Scriptures, both of the Old and of the New Testament.
For the God of both Testaments is one, by whom Christ who appeared in the New Testament, was foretold in the Old; who through the Law and the Prophets brought us as a Schoolmaster to Gal.3, Christ. For before faith came, we were kept under the Law:
23. 24. and, The Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.
And if ever thou hear any of the heretics blaspheming the Law or the Prophets, utter against them the saving voice, we 5,saying, Jesus came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil.
Learn, also, diligently, and from the Church, which are the books of the Old Testament, and which of the New: and dessesread not, I pray, any of the uncertain books*.
For why shouldest thou, who knowest not those which are acknowledged by all, take needless trouble about those which are
Gar.
* Or apocryphal, » word which did name of draynwenineve or Ecclesiastical not convey any rants in the early is given by some writers to certain works Church, bnt merely signified that the which were held in freverence, and -s0 book so named was not in the canon. readin Churches, but not inspired. Vid.
Vid. Pearson, Vind. Ignat.i.4.
The Milles in loc. p. 65.
The history of the Septuagint Version.
questioned?
Read the Holy Scriptures, these two and twenty books of the Old Testament, which were interpreted by the seventy-two interpreters.
(21.) $4. For' after the death of Alexander the king of the Macedonians, and the division of his kingdom into four principalities, into Babylonia, and Macedonia, and Asia, and Egypt, one of the kings of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus, a king very fond of learning, when he was collecting the books which were in every place, heard from Demetrius of Phalerum, who was over the library, concerning the Divine Scriptures of the Law and the Prophets, and judging it far better to abstain from getting the books by force from unwilling persons, but rather to conciliate their possessors by presents and friendship, knowing moreover, that what is forced from men, being given against their choice, is oftentimes tampered with, whereas that which is given of free choice is presented with all sincerity,—he sent exceeding many gifts to Eleazar the priest at that time, for the temple at Jerusalem, and caused to be sent to him six men out of each of the twelve tribes of Israel, for the work of interpretation.
Then, to prove whether the books were divine or no, and to prevent them who had been sent from combining together among themselves, he assigned to each of the interpreters his several dwelling, in the place called Pharos, which adjoins Alexandria, and bade each translate all the Scriptures.
And when they had accomplished the work in seventy-two days, he brought together the translations of all, which they had made in different cells
> This account is also foundin Euseb. inspired writers of the New Testament Prep. Evang. viii. 1—5. Philon. vit. evince towards it. e.g. Acts xfii, 34.
Mos. ii. 658. Joseph. Antiq. xii. 2. xv. 17. We may believe this doctrine, Justin. Apol. 1.§. 31. p. 62. Iren. Hist. and yet with entireconsistency reject the iii. 25.Clem. Strom. p. 342.
These,to particular story which symbolizes, and which may be added Hilary, Austin, got currency by, the primitive belief in and Philastrius, are in addition to Arisit.
Prideaux (Connect. part ii. b. 1.) teas, who is the original authority. comes to the following conclusions :— Epiphanios makes the same general that the book which goes under the statement with some further particulars name of Aristeas, nay of Aristobulus, indetail. Thisconcordant testimony of is a forgery of some
Hellenistic Jew, the Fathers does not prove the fee with a view to add honour to the Sepalleged, which seems to have come from tuagint version; and thatin reality that the Jews, yet may prove the doctrine version was gradually made in succesimplied and involved in it, that there sive ages, first as far as the Law, then
| is something, more than ordin of the Prophets, &c. Itshould be observed, the Divine. and in the Translation in that 8. Jerome rejects the history of question,—adoctrinewhichisconfirmed the separate Cells with great contempt. by the deference and reliance whichthe Pref. ad Pentat.
Books that compose the Canon of Scripture.
Lsor. without approaching one another; and he found them agreeing not in sense only, but in words.
For the matter was not one of witty invention, or a contrivance of man's cunning devices; but the interpretation of the Divine Scriptures, spoken by the Holy Ghost, was, of the Holy Ghost accomplished.
(22.) 35. Read the two and twenty books of these Scriptures : évingeand have nothing to do with the uncertain books.
Those only ~*study earnestly, which we read confidently even in Church.
Far wiser than thou, and more devout, were the Apostles, and egeeéthe ancient Bishops, the rulers of the Church, who have ra, handed down these: thou, therefore, who art a child of the Apol.
Church, trench not on their sanctions.
And of the Old Testaiis ment, as hath been said, study the two and twenty books ; and these, if thou art diligent, strive to remember by name, as I repeat them.
Of the Law, are the first five books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy : then Joshua the son of Nun: and the book of Judges and of Ruth, which is numbered the seventh.
Of the remaining Historical books, the first and second books of Kings are among the Hebrews one book, and so the third and fourth books; and likewise the first and second books of Chronicles make one book; and the first and second books of Esdras are one; and the twelfth is the book of Esther: these are the Historical books.
The books which are written in verses are five; Job, and the book of Psalms, and Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, which is the seventeenth book.
After these come the five Prophetic books: the one book of the Twelve Prophets; the book of Esaias; the book of Jeremias, which with Baruch, the Lamentations, and the Epistle makes one book; then Ezekiel; and the book of Daniel is the twenty-second book of the Old Testament.
36. Of the New Testament, there are only the four Gospels : neared the rest are forged and mischievous.
The Manicheans also "wrote a Gospel according to Thomas, which made acceptable with the fragrance of the evangelic name, corrupts the souls of the simpler sort.
And receive also the Acts of the Twelve Apostles; and in addition to these, the seven Catholic Epistles, of James and Peter and John and Jude: and the final seal of all, and the last work of the disciples, the fourteen Epistles
Practical warnings.
of Pauls.
But all the rest, let them be put aside into the second rank; and what is not read in the churches, that read not by thyself, according as thou hast heard.
Thus far of these things.
$7. Fly also from every devilish work, and listen not to (23.) that apostate Serpent, who has of his own choice changed himself from a good nature; who can persuade those who are willing, but can force no one.
And give heed neither to observations of the stars, nor to auguries, nor to omens, nor to the fabulous divinations of the Greeks.
And sorcery, and the craft of charms, and their most wicked practices for calling up the dead, receive not even to listen to them.
Stand aloof from every sort of intemperance, being neither a ' glutton, nor a lover of pleasure; raised above all covetousness, and the taking of usury. Nor throw thyself into the assemblies of the heathen spectacles: nor ever use amulets in thy sicknesses: and put away from thee also the pollution of tavern-haunting.
And fall not into Judaism, nor into the sect of the Samaritans: for henceforth hath Jesus Christ ransomed thee.
Abstain from all observance of Sabbathe, and from calling any indifferent meat " common or unclean."
Especially abhor all the assemblies of wicked heretics: and in every way make thine own soul safe, by fastings, by prayers, by alms, by reading of the divine oracles: that living in soberness and godly doctrine for the rest of thy time in the flesh, thou mayest enjoy the one salvation of the Laver of Regeneration, and having been thus listed in the heavenly hosts by God and the Father, thou mayest also be counted worthy of the heavenly crown, in Christ Jesus our
Lord, to Whom be glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
¢ §, Cyril keeps silence about the note 9.) as the Latins with rerpect to Apocalypse, after the usage of theearly the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Greek Charch (vid. Tillemont 8. John,