CHAPTER I
MISCELLANIES, BOOK VII.
CHAPTER I.
§ 1. It is now time for us to prove to the Greeks that the gnostic alone is truly devout, so that the philosophers, learning what sort of person the true Christian is, may condemn their own folly for their careless and indiscriminate persecution of the name of Christian, while they irrationally abuse as atheists those who have the knowledge of the true God. And in addressing philosophers I think one should employ ratiocination as more convincing, since they are better trained to understand it from their previous course of instruction, even if they have not yet shown themselves worthy to participate in the power to believe. Of the sayings of the prophets we will make no mention at present, intending hereafter to avail ourselves of the Scriptures on the fitting occasions. For the present we will only give a summary indication of what is declared by them, in the form of a sketch of the Christian religion, in order that we may not break the thread of the discourse by constant references to the Scriptures, especially when addressing those who do not yet understand their phraseology.
When we have shown their general purport, the exhibition of the testimonies shall be superadded afterwards on their believing. And if our words seem to some of the uninstructed to be different from the Lord's Scriptures, let them know that it is from the Scriptures that I 2 https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511695513.010 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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C. 1. §§ 1—3]
MISCELLANIES, BOOK VII.
they draw their life and breath, and that it is their object, taking these as their starting-point, to set forth, not their phraseology, but their meaning only. For further elaboration being unseasonable would with good reason seem superfluous, while on the other hand it would be a very careless and unsatisfactory way of treating the subject if we were to omit all consideration of that which is of pressing importance. And blessed indeed are they who search out the testimonies of the Lord: with their whole heart they will seek him1.
Now they which testify of the Lord are the law and the prophets2.
§ 2. It is our business then to prove that the gnostic alone is holy and pious, worshipping the true God as beseems Him; and the worship which beseems God includes both loving God and being loved by Him. To the gnostic every kind of preeminence seems honourable in proportion to its worth. In the world of sense rulers and parents and elders generally are to be honoured; in matters of teaching, the most ancient philosophy and the earliest prophecy; in the spiritual world, that which is elder in origin, the Son, the beginning and first-fruit of all existing things, Himself timeless and without beginning; from whom the gnostic believes that he receives the knowledge of the ultimate cause, the Father of the universe, the earliest and most beneficent of all existences, no longer reported by word of mouth, but worshipped and adored, as is His due, with silent worship and holy awe; who was manifested indeed by the Lord so far as it was possible for the learners to understand, but apprehended by those whom the Lord has elected for knowledge, those, says the apostle, who have their senses exercised3.
§ 3. The gnostic therefore pays service to God by his constant self-discipline and by cherishing that which is divine in himself in the way of unremitting charity. For as regards the service of men, part may be classed as meliorative treatment and part as ministrative service. Thus the medicinal i Psalm cxix. 2, 1 Pet. i. 10.
2 Jo. v. 39, Eom. iii. 21 (cf. Act. x. 43). s Heb. v. 14. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511695513.010 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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C. I. §§ 3, 4]
MISCELLANIES, BOOK VII.
art is meliorative of the body and philosophy of the soul; but that which parents receive from children and rulers from subjects is ministrative aid. Similarly in the Church the meliorative service is imaged in the presbyters, the ministrative in the deacons. As both these services are performed by the ministering angels for God in their administration of earthly things, so they are also performed by the gnostic himself, while on the one hand he serves God, and on the other hand sets forth his meliorative philosophy to men, in whatsoever way he may be appointed to instruct them with a view to their improvement. For he alone is truly devout who ministers to God rightly and unblameably in respect to human affairs.
For, as the best treatment of plants is that whereby the fruits grow and are gathered in by the science and art of husbandry, supplying to men the benefit derived from the fruits; so the best ingathering which the devoutness of the gnostic can accomplish by means of his art is the appropriation of the fruits of all who have come to believe through him, as one after another becomes possessed of knowledge and is thus brought into the way of salvation. And if by godliness we understand the habit of mind which preserves the fitting attitude towards God, then the godly alone is dear to God.
And such would be he who knows what is fitting both in theory and in life, as to how one should live who will one day become god, aye and is even now being made like to God.
§ 4. Thus he is before all things a lover of God. For as he who honours his father is a lover of his father, so he who honours God is a lover of God. Hence too the gnostic faculty seems to me to reveal itself in three achievements: (1) in the knowledge of the facts <of the Christian religion>, (2) in the https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511695513.010 Published online by Cambridge University Press
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