Love of Neighbor and Enemy

But let us now pass to another sort of knowledge and doctrine. There are two ways of doctrine and authority, the one of light, and the other of darkness. But there is a great difference between these two ways. For over one are stationed the light-bringing angels of God , but over the other the angels 2 Corinthians 12:7 of Satan . And He indeed (i.e., God) is Lord for ever and ever, but he (i.e., Satan ) is prince of the time of iniquity.

The way of light, then, is as follows. If any one desires to travel to the appointed place, he must be zealous in his works. The knowledge , therefore, which is given to us for the purpose of walking in this way, is the following. You shall love Him that created you: you shall glorify Him that redeemed you from death. You shall be simple in heart, and rich in spirit. You shall not join yourself to those who walk in the way of death. You shall hate doing what is unpleasing to God: you shall hate all hypocrisy. You shall not forsake the commandments of the Lord. You shall not exalt yourself, but shall be of a lowly mind. You shall not take glory to yourself. You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbour. You shall not allow over-boldness to enter into your soul .

You shall not commit fornication: you shall not commit adultery : you shall not be a corrupter of youth. You shall not let the word of God issue from your lips with any kind of impurity. You shall not accept persons when you reprove any one for transgression. You shall be meek: you shall be peaceable. You shall tremble at the words which you hear. You shall not be mindful of evil against your brother. You shall not be of doubtful mind James 1:8 as to whether a thing shall be or not. You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain. You shall love your neighbour more than your own soul . You shall not slay the child by procuring abortion ; nor, again, shall you destroy it after it is born. You shall not withdraw your hand from your son, or from your daughter, but from their infancy you shall teach them the fear of the Lord.

You shall not covet what is your neighbour's, nor shall you be avaricious. You shall not be joined in soul with the haughty , but you shall be reckoned with the righteous and lowly. Receive as good things the trials which come upon you. You shall not be of double mind or of double tongue, for a double tongue is a snare of death. You shall be subject to the Lord, and to [other] masters as the image of God , with modesty and fear . You shall not issue orders with bitterness to your maidservant or your man-servant, who trust in the same [God ], lest you should not reverence that God who is above both; for He came to call men not according to their outward appearance, Ephesians 6:9 but according as the Spirit had prepared them.

Romans 8:29-30 You shall communicate in all things with your neighbour; you shall not call things your own; for if you are partakers in common of things which are incorruptible, how much more [should you be] of those things which are corruptible! You shall not be hasty with your tongue, for the mouth is a snare of death. As far as possible, you shall be pure in your soul . Do not be ready to stretch forth your hands to take, while you contract them to give. You shall love , as the apple of your eye, every one that speaks to you the word of the Lord. You shall remember the day of judgment, night and day. You shall seek out every day the faces of the saints , either by word examining them, and going to exhort them, and meditating how to save a soul by the word, or by your hands you shall labour for the redemption of your sins .

There are two ways, one of life and one of death; but a great difference between the two ways. The way of life, then, is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, your neighbour as yourself; and all things whatsoever you would should not occur to you, do not also do to another. And of these sayings the teaching is this: Bless those who curse you, and pray for your enemies, and fast for those who persecute you. For what reward is there, if you love those who love you? Do not also the Gentiles do the same? But love those who hate you, and you shall not have an enemy. Abstain from fleshly and worldly lusts . If someone gives you a blow upon your right cheek, turn to him the other also, and you shall be perfect . If someone impresses you for one mile, go with him two. If someone takes away your cloak, give him also your coat.

If someone takes from you what is yours, ask it not back, for indeed you are not able. Give to every one that asks you, and ask it not back; for the Father wills that to all should be given of our own blessings (free gifts). Happy is he that gives according to the commandment; for he is guiltless. Woe to him that receives; for if one having need receives, he is guiltless; but he that receives not having need, shall pay the penalty, why he received and for what, and, coming into straits (confinement), he shall be examined concerning the things which he has done, and he shall not escape thence until he pay back the last farthing. Matthew 5:26 But also now concerning this, it has been said, Let your alms sweat in your hands, until you know to whom you should give.

And the second commandment of the Teaching; You shall not commit murder , you shall not commit adultery , Exodus 20:13-14 you shall not commit pederasty, you shall not commit fornication, you shall not steal , Exodus 20:15 you shall not practice magic , you shall not practice witchcraft , you shall not murder a child by abortion nor kill that which is begotten. You shall not covet the things of your neighbour, Exodus 20:17 you shall not forswear yourself, Matthew 5:34 you shall not bear false witness , Exodus 20:16 you shall not speak evil , you shall bear no grudge. You shall not be double-minded nor double-tongued; for to be double-tongued is a snare of death. Your speech shall not be false, nor empty, but fulfilled by deed. You shall not be covetous , nor rapacious, nor a hypocrite, nor evil disposed, nor haughty .

You shall not take evil counsel against your neighbour. You shall not hate any man; but some you shall reprove, and concerning some you shall pray , and some you shall love more than your own life.

Justin: For [God] sets before every race of mankind that which is always and universally just, as well as all righteousness; and every race knows that adultery , and fornication, and homicide, and such like, are sinful ; and though they all commit such practices, yet they do not escape from the knowledge that they act unrighteously whenever they so do, with the exception of those who are possessed with an unclean spirit, and who have been debased by education, by wicked customs, and by sinful institutions, and who have lost, or rather quenched and put under, their natural ideas. For we may see that such persons are unwilling to submit to the same things which they inflict upon others, and reproach each other with hostile consciences for the acts which they perpetrate.

And hence I think that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ spoke well when He summed up all righteousness and piety in two commandments. They are these: 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your strength, and your neighbour as yourself.' Matthew 22:37 For the man who loves God with all the heart, and with all the strength, being filled with a God-fearing mind , will reverence no other god; and since God wishes it, he would reverence that angel who is beloved by the same Lord and God. And the man who loves his neighbour as himself will wish for him the same good things that he wishes for himself, and no man will wish evil things for himself. Accordingly, he who loves his neighbour would pray and labour that his neighbour may be possessed of the same benefits as himself.

Now nothing else is neighbour to man than that similarly-affectioned and reasonable being— man. Therefore, since all righteousness is divided into two branches, namely, in so far as it regards God and men, whoever, says the Scripture , loves the Lord God with all the heart, and all the strength, and his neighbour as himself, would be truly a righteous man. But you were never shown to be possessed of friendship or love either towards God , or towards the prophets , or towards yourselves, but, as is evident, you are ever found to be idolaters and murderers of righteous men, so that you laid hands even on Christ Himself; and to this very day you abide in your wickedness , execrating those who prove that this man who was crucified by you is the Christ.

Nay, more than this, you suppose that He was crucified as hostile to and cursed by God , which supposition is the product of your most irrational mind. For though you have the means of understanding that this man is Christ from the signs given by Moses , yet you will not; but, in addition, fancying that we can have no arguments, you put whatever question comes into your minds, while you yourselves are at a loss for arguments whenever you meet with some firmly established Christian .

Justin: For the statement in the law, 'Cursed is every one that hangs on a tree,' Deuteronomy 21:23 confirms our hope which depends on the crucified Christ, not because He who has been crucified is cursed by God , but because God foretold that which would be done by you all, and by those like to you, who do not know that this is He who existed before all, who is the eternal Priest of God , and King, and Christ. And you clearly see that this has come to pass. For you curse in your synagogues all those who are called from Him Christians ; and other nations effectively carry out the curse, putting to death those who simply confess themselves to be Christians ; to all of whom we say, You are our brethren; rather recognise the truth of God .

And while neither they nor you are persuaded by us, but strive earnestly to cause us to deny the name of Christ , we choose rather and submit to death, in the full assurance that all the good which God has promised through Christ He will reward us with. And in addition to all this we pray for you, that Christ may have mercy upon you. For He taught us to pray for our enemies also, saying, 'Love your enemies; be kind and merciful, as your heavenly Father is.' Luke 6:35 For we see that the Almighty God is kind and merciful, causing His sun to rise on the unthankful and on the righteous, and sending rain on the holy and on the wicked ; all of whom He has taught us He will judge.

Concerning chastity , He uttered such sentiments as these: Whosoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery with her already in his heart before God. And, If your right eye offend you, cut it out; for it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of heaven with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into everlasting fire . And, Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced from another husband, commits adultery . And, There are some who have been made eunuchs of men , and some who were born eunuchs, and some who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake; but all cannot receive this saying. Matthew 19:12 So that all who, by human law, are twice married, are in the eye of our Master sinners, and those who look upon a woman to lust after her.

For not only he who in act commits adultery is rejected by Him, but also he who desires to commit adultery : since not only our works, but also our thoughts, are open before God. And many, both men and women , who have been Christ's disciples from childhood, remain pure at the age of sixty or seventy years; and I boast that I could produce such from every race of men. For what shall I say, too, of the countless multitude of those who have reformed intemperate habits, and learned these things? For Christ called not the just nor the chaste to repentance, but the ungodly, and the licentious, and the unjust ; His words being, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matthew 9:13 For the heavenly Father desires rather the repentance than the punishment of the sinner.

And of our love to all, He taught thus: If you love them that love you, what new thing are you doing? For even fornicators do this. But I say unto you, Pray for your enemies, and love them that hate you, and bless them that curse you, and pray for them that despitefully use you. Matthew 5:46, 44 ; Luke 6:28 And that we should communicate to the needy, and do nothing for glory , He said, Give to him that asks, and from him that would borrow turn not away; for if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive, what new thing are you doing? Even the publicans do this. Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust does corrupt, and where robbers break through; but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt.

For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in exchange for it? Lay up treasure, therefore, in heaven, where neither moth nor rust does corrupt. And, Be kind and merciful, as your Father also is kind and merciful, and makes His sun to rise on sinners, and the righteous, and the wicked . Take no thought what you shall eat, or what you shall put on: are you not better than the birds and the beasts? And God feeds them. Take no thought, therefore, what you shall eat, or what you shall put on; for your heavenly Father knows that you have need of these things. But seek the kingdom of heaven , and all these things shall be added unto you. For where his treasure is, there also is the mind of a man .

If I go minutely into the particulars of our doctrine, let it not surprise you. It is that you may not be carried away by the popular and irrational opinion, but may have the truth clearly before you. For presenting the opinions themselves to which we adhere, as being not human but uttered and taught by God , we shall be able to persuade you not to think of us as atheists . What, then, are those teachings in which we are brought up? I say unto you, Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; pray for them that persecute you; that you may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven, who causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good , and sends rain on the just and the unjust . Luke 6:27-28 ; Matthew 5:44-45 Allow me here to lift up my voice boldly in loud and audible outcry, pleading as I do before philosophic princes.

For who of those that reduce syllogisms, and clear up ambiguities, and explain etymologies, or of those who teach homonyms and synonyms, and predicaments and axioms, and what is the subject and what the predicate, and who promise their disciples by these and such like instructions to make them happy : who of them have so purged their souls as, instead of hating their enemies, to love them; and, instead of speaking ill of those who have reviled them (to abstain from which is of itself an evidence of no mean forbearance), to bless them; and to pray for those who plot against their lives? On the contrary, they never cease with evil intent to search out skilfully the secrets of their art, and are ever bent on working some ill, making the art of words and not the exhibition of deeds their business and profession.

But among us you will find uneducated persons , and artisans, and old women , who, if they are unable in words to prove the benefit of our doctrine, yet by their deeds exhibit the benefit arising from their persuasion of its truth : they do not rehearse speeches, but exhibit good works; when struck, they do not strike again; when robbed , they do not go to law; they give to those that ask of them, and love their neighbours as themselves.

It clearly appears that there was but one author of both the old and the new law, from the fact that Christ condemned traditions and customs repugnant to the former, while He confirmed its most important precepts, and taught that He was Himself the end of the Mosaic law.

1. For the tradition of the elders themselves, which they pretended to observe from the law, was contrary to the law given by Moses . Wherefore also Esaias declares: Your dealers mix the wine with water, Isaiah 1:22 showing that the elders were in the habit of mingling a watered tradition with the simple command of God ; that is, they set up a spurious law, and one contrary to the [ true ] law; as also the Lord made plain, when He said to them, Why do you transgress the commandment of God , for the sake of your tradition? Matthew 15:3 For not only by actual transgression did they set the law of God at nought, mingling the wine with water; but they also set up their own law in opposition to it, which is termed, even to the present day, the pharisaical. In this [law] they suppress certain things, add others, and interpret others, again, as they think proper, which their teachers use, each one in particular; and desiring to uphold these traditions, they were unwilling to be subject to the law of God , which prepares them for the coming of Christ . But they did even blame the Lord for healing on the Sabbath-days, which, as I have already observed, the law did not prohibit. For they did themselves, in one sense, perform acts of healing upon the Sabbath day , when they circumcised a man [on that day]; but they did not blame themselves for transgressing the command of God through tradition and the aforesaid pharisaical law, and for not keeping the commandment of the law, which is…

2. But that this is the first and greatest commandment, and that the next [has respect to love ] towards our neighbour, the Lord has taught, when He says that the entire law and the prophets hang upon these two commandments. Moreover, He did not Himself bring down [from heaven] any other commandment greater than this one, but renewed this very same one to His disciples , when He enjoined them to love God with all their heart, and others as themselves. But if He had descended from another Father, He never would have made use of the first and greatest commandment of the law; but He would undoubtedly have endeavoured by all means to bring down a greater one than this from the perfect Father, so as not to make use of that which had been given by the God of the law. And Paul in like manner declares, Love is the fulfilling of the law: Romans 13:10 and [he declares] that when all other things have been destroyed, there shall remain faith , hope, and love ; but the greatest of all is love ; 1 Corinthians 13:13 and that apart from the love of God , neither knowledge avails anything, 1 Corinthians 13:2 nor the understanding of mysteries , nor faith , nor prophecy , but that without love all are hollow and vain; moreover, that love makes man perfect; and that he who loves God is perfect, both in this world and in that which is to come. For we do never cease from loving God ; but in proportion as we continue to contemplate Him, so much the more do we love Him.

3. As in the law, therefore, and in the Gospel [likewise], the first and greatest commandment is, to love the Lord God with the whole heart, and then there follows a commandment like to it, to love one's neighbour as one's self; the author of the law and the Gospel is shown to be one and the same. For the precepts of an absolutely perfect life, since they are the same in each Testament, have pointed out [to us] the same God , who certainly has promulgated particular laws adapted for each; but the more prominent and the greatest [commandments], without which salvation cannot [be attained], He has exhorted [us to observe] the same in both.

Continuation of the foregoing argument. Proofs from the writings of St. Paul, and from the words of Our Lord, that Christ and Jesus cannot be considered as distinct beings; neither can it be alleged that the Son of God became man merely in appearance, but that He did so truly and actually.

1. As it has been clearly demonstrated that the Word, who existed in the beginning with God , by whom all things were made, who was also always present with mankind , was in these last days, according to the time appointed by the Father , united to His own workmanship, inasmuch as He became a man liable to suffering, [it follows] that every objection is set aside of those who say, If our Lord was born at that time, Christ had therefore no previous existence . For I have shown that the Son of God did not then begin to exist, being with the Father from the beginning; but when He became incarnate, and was made man, He commenced afresh the long line of human beings, and furnished us, in a brief, comprehensive manner, with salvation ; so that what we had lost in Adam — namely, to be according to the image and likeness of God — that we might recover in Christ Jesus .

2. For as it was not possible that the man who had once for all been conquered, and who had been destroyed through disobedience, could reform himself, and obtain the prize of victory; and as it was also impossible that he could attain to salvation who had fallen under the power of sin — the Son effected both these things, being the Word of God , descending from the Father , becoming incarnate, stooping low, even to death, and consummating the arranged plan of our salvation , upon whom [ Paul ], exhorting us unhesitatingly to believe , again says, Who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring down Christ; or who shall descend into the deep? That is, to liberate Christ again from the dead. Romans 10:6-7 Then he continues, If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus , and shall believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Romans 10:9 And he renders the reason why the Son of God did these things, saying, For to this end Christ both lived, and died, and revived, that He might rule over the living and the dead. Romans 14:9 And again, writing to the Corinthians, he declares, But we preach Christ Jesus crucified; 1 Corinthians 1:23 and adds, The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? 1 Corinthians 10:16

3. But who is it that has had fellowship with us in the matter of food? Whether is it he who is conceived of by them as the Christ above, who extended himself through Horos, and imparted a form to their mother; or is it He who is from the Virgin, Emmanuel , who ate butter and honey, Isaiah 8:14 of whom the prophet declared, He is also a man , and who shall know him? Jeremiah 17:9 He was likewise preached by Paul : For I delivered, he says, unto you first of all, that Christ died for our sins , according to the Scriptures ; and that He was buried, and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures . 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 It is plain, then, that Paul knew no other Christ besides Him alone, who both suffered, and was buried, and rose gain, who was also born, and whom he speaks of as man. For after remarking, But if Christ be preached, that He rose from the dead, 1 Corinthians 15:12 he continues, rendering the reason of His incarnation , For since by man came death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead. And everywhere, when [referring to] the passion of our Lord, and to His human nature , and His subjection to death, he employs the name of Christ , as in that passage: Destroy not him with your meat for whom Christ died. Romans 14:15 And again: But now, in Christ , you who sometimes were far off are made near by the blood of Christ . Ephesians 2:13 And again: Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is…

Since, then, all passionate excitement is forbidden us, we are debarred from every kind of spectacle, and especially from the circus, where such excitement presides as in its proper element. See the people coming to it already under strong emotion, already tumultuous, already passion-blind, already agitated about their bets. The prætor is too slow for them: their eyes are ever rolling as though along with the lots in his urn; then they hang all eager on the signal; there is the united shout of a common madness . Observe how out of themselves they are by their foolish speeches. He has thrown it! they exclaim; and they announce each one to his neighbour what all have seen. I have clearest evidence of their blindness; they do not see what is really thrown.

They think it a signal cloth, but it is the likeness of the devil cast headlong from on high. And the result accordingly is, that they fly into rages, and passions , and discords, and all that they who are consecrated to peace ought never to indulge in. Then there are curses and reproaches, with no cause of hatred ; there are cries of applause, with nothing to merit them. What are the partakers in all this — not their own masters — to obtain of it for themselves? Unless, it may be, that which makes them not their own: they are saddened by another's sorrow, they are gladdened by another's joy . Whatever they desire on the one hand, or detest on the other, is entirely foreign to themselves. So love with them is a useless thing, and hatred is unjust . Or is a causeless love perhaps more legitimate than a causeless hatred ?

God certainly forbids us to hate even with a reason for our hating; for He commands us to love our enemies. God forbids us to curse, though there be some ground for doing so, in commanding that those who curse us we are to bless. But what is more merciless than the circus, where people do not spare even their rulers and fellow citizens? If any of its madnesses are becoming elsewhere in the saints of God , they will be seemly in the circus too; but if they are nowhere right, so neither are they there.

Wherefore the wearing of gold and the use of softer clothing is not to be entirely prohibited. But irrational impulses must be curbed, lest, carrying us away through excessive relaxation, they impel us to voluptuousness. For luxury, that has dashed on to surfeit, is prone to kick up its heels and toss its mane, and shake off the charioteer, the Instructor; who, pulling back the reins from far, leads and drives to salvation the human horse — that is, the irrational part of the soul — which is wildly bent on pleasures, and vicious appetites, and precious stones, and gold, and variety of dress, and other luxuries. Above all, we are to keep in mind what was spoken sacredly: Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles ; that, whereas they speak against you as evil-doers, they may, by the good works which they behold, glorify God.

1 Peter 2:12 Clothes The Instructor permits us, then, to use simple clothing, and of a white color, as we said before. So that, accommodating ourselves not to variegated art, but to nature as it is produced, and pushing away whatever is deceptive and belies the truth , we may embrace the uniformity and simplicity of the truth . Sophocles, reproaching a youth, says:— Decked in women's clothes. For, as in the case of the soldier, the sailor, and the ruler, so also the proper dress of the temperate man is what is plain, becoming, and clean. Whence also in the law, the law enacted by Moses about leprousy rejects what has many colors and spots, like the various scales of the snake.

He therefore wishes man, no longer decking himself gaudily in a variety of colors, but white all over from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, to be clean; so that, by a transition from the body, we may lay aside the varied and versatile passions of the man, and love the unvaried, and unambiguous, and simple color of truth . And he who also in this emulates Moses — Plato best of all — approves of that texture on which not more than a chaste woman's work has been employed. And white colors well become gravity. And elsewhere he says, Nor apply dyes or weaving, except for warlike decorations. To men of peace and of light, therefore, white is appropriate.

As, then, signs, which are very closely allied to causes, by their presence indicate, or rather demonstrate, the existence of the result; as smoke is the sign of fire, and a good complexion and a regular pulse of health; so also clothing of this description shows the character of our habits. Temperance is pure and simple; since purity is a habit which ensures pure conduct unmixed with what is base. Simplicity is a habit which does away with superfluities. Substantial clothing also, and chiefly what is unfulled, protects the heat which is in the body; not that the clothing has heat in itself, but that it turns back the heat issuing from the body, and refuses it a passage. And whatever heat falls upon it, it absorbs and retains, and being warmed by it, warms in turn the body. And for this reason it is chiefly to be worn in winter.

I would counsel the married never to kiss their wives in the presence of their domestics. For Aristotle does not allow people to laugh to their slaves. And by no means must a wife be seen saluted in their presence. It is moreover better that, beginning at home with marriage, we should exhibit propriety in it. For it is the greatest bond of chastity , breathing forth pure pleasure. Very admirably the tragedy says:— Well! Well! ladies, how is it, then, that among men , Not gold, not empire, or luxury of wealth , Conferred to such an extent signal delights, As the right and virtuous disposition Of a man of worth and a dutiful wife? Such injunctions of righteousness uttered by those who are conversant with worldly wisdom are not to be refused.

Knowing , then, the duty of each, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear : forasmuch as you know that you were not deemed with corruptible things, such as silver or gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; but with the precious blood of Christ , as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1:17-19 For, says Peter, the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles , when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts , excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries. 1 Peter 4:3 We have as a limit the cross of the Lord, by which we are fenced and hedged about from our former sins .

Therefore, being regenerated, let us fix ourselves to it in truth , and return to sobriety, and sanctify ourselves; for the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayer ; but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil . And who is he that will harm us, if we be followers of that which is good ? 1 Peter 3:13 — us for you. But the best training is good order, which is perfect decorum, and stable and orderly power, which in action maintains consistence in what it does. If these things have been adduced by me with too great asperity, in order to effect the salvation which follows from your correction; they have been spoken also, says the Instructor, by me: Since he who reproves with boldness is a peacemaker. And if you hear me, you shall be saved.

And if you attend not to what is spoken, it is not my concern. And yet it is my concern thus: For he desires the repentance rather than the death of a sinner. Ezekiel 18:23 If you shall hear me, you shall eat the good of the land, the Instructor again says, calling by the appellation the good of the land, beauty, wealth , health, strength, sustenance. For those things which are really good, are what neither ear has heard, not has ever entered into the heart 1 Corinthians 2:9 respecting Him who is really King, and the realities truly good which await us. For He is the giver and the guard of good things. And with respect to their participation, He applies the same names of things in this world, the Word thus training in God the feebleness of men from sensible things to understanding.

Valentinian, in a homily, writes in these words: You are originally immortal , and children of eternal life, and you would have death distributed to you, that you may spend and lavish it, and that death may die in you and by you; for when we dissolve the world, and are not yourselves dissolved, you have dominion over creation and all corruption. For he also, similarly with Basilides , supposes a class saved by nature, and that this different race has come hither to us from above for the abolition of death, and that the origin of death is the work of the Creator of the world. Wherefore also he so expounds that Scripture, No man shall see the face of God , and live, as if He were the cause of death.

Respecting this God , he makes those allusions when writing in these expressions: As much as the image is inferior to the living face, so much is the world inferior to the living Æon . What is, then, the cause of the image? The majesty of the face, which exhibits the figure to the painter, to be honoured by his name; for the form is not found exactly to the life, but the name supplies what is wanting in the effigy. The invisibility of God co-operates also in order to the faith of that which has been fashioned. For the Creator, called God and Father, he designated as Painter, and Wisdom, whose image that which is formed is, to the glory of the invisible One; since the things which proceed from a pair are complements, and those which proceed from one are images.

But since what is seen is no part of Him, the soul comes from what is intermediate, which is different; and this is the inspiration of the different spirit, and generally what is breathed into the soul , which is the image of the spirit. And in general, what is said of the Creator, who was made according to the image, they say was foretold by a sensible image in the book of Genesis respecting the origin of man; and the likeness they transfer to themselves, teaching that the addition of the different spirit was made; unknown to the Creator. When, then, we treat of the unity of the God who is proclaimed in the law, the prophets , and the Gospel , we shall also discuss this; for the topic is supreme. But we must advance to that which is urgent.

If for the purpose of doing away with death the peculiar race has come, it is not Christ who has abolished death, unless He also is said to be of the same essence with them. And if He abolished it to this end, that it might not touch the peculiar race, it is not these, the rivals of the Creator, who breathe into the image of their intermediate spirit the life from above — in accordance with the principle of their dogma — that abolish death. But should they say that this takes place by His mother, or should they say that they, along with Christ, war against death, let them own their secret dogma that they have the hardihood to assail the divine power of the Creator, by setting to rights His creation, as if they were superior, endeavouring to save the vital image which He was not able to rescue from corruption.

Let us add in completion what follows, and exhibit now with greater clearness the plagiarism of the Greeks from the Barbarian philosophy . Now the Stoics say that God , like the soul , is essentially body and spirit. You will find all this explicitly in their writings. Do not consider at present their allegories as the gnostic truth presents them; whether they show one thing and mean another, like the dexterous athletes. Well, they say that God pervades all being; while we call Him solely Maker, and Maker by the Word. They were misled by what is said in the book of Wisdom: He pervades and passes through all by reason of His purity; Wisdom 7:24 since they did not understand that this was said of Wisdom, which was the first of the creation of God . So be it, they say.

But the philosophers , the Stoics , and Plato , and Pythagoras, nay more, Aristotle the Peripatetic, suppose the existence of matter among the first principles; and not one first principle. Let them then know that what is called matter by them, is said by them to be without quality, and without form , and more daringly said by Plato to be non- existence . And does he not say very mystically , knowing that the true and real first cause is one, in these very words: Now, then, let our opinion be so. As to the first principle or principles of the universe , or what opinion we ought to entertain about all these points, we are not now to speak, for no other cause than on account of its being difficult to explain our sentiments in accordance with the present form of discourse.

But undoubtedly that prophetic expression, Now the earth was invisible and formless, supplied them with the ground of material essence . And the introduction of chance was hence suggested to Epicurus , who misapprehended the statement, Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. And it occurred to Aristotle to extend Providence as far as the moon from this psalm: Lord, Your mercy is in the heavens; and Your truth reaches to the clouds. For the explanation of the prophetic mysteries had not yet been revealed previous to the advent of the Lord. Punishments after death, on the other hand, and penal retribution by fire, were pilfered from the Barbarian philosophy both by all the poetic Muses and by the Hellenic philosophy .

Plato , accordingly, in the last book of the Republic , says in these express terms: Then these men fierce and fiery to look on, standing by, and hearing the sound, seized and took some aside; and binding Aridæus and the rest hand, foot, and head, and throwing them down, and flaying them, dragged them along the way, tearing their flesh with thorns. For the fiery men are meant to signify the angels , who seize and punish the wicked . Who makes, it is said, His angels spirits; His ministers flaming fire. It follows from this that the soul is immortal . For what is tortured or corrected being in a state of sensation lives, though said to suffer. Well!

But those who are ready to toil in the most excellent pursuits, will not desist from the search after truth , till they get the demonstration from the Scriptures themselves. There are certain criteria common to men , as the senses; and others that belong to those who have employed their wills and energies in what is true — the methods which are pursued by the mind and reason, to distinguish between true and false propositions. Now, it is a very great thing to abandon opinion, by taking one's stand between accurate knowledge and the rash wisdom of opinion, and to know that he who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance to it is toilsome and strait.

And let him who has once received the Gospel , even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge of salvation , not turn back, like Lot's wife, as is said; and let him not go back either to his former life, which adheres to the things of sense, or to heresies . For they form the character, not knowing the true God. For he that loves father or mother more than Me, the Father and Teacher of the truth , who regenerates and creates anew, and nourishes the elect soul , is not worthy of Me — He means, to be a son of God and a disciple of God , and at the same time also to be a friend, and of kindred nature. For no man who looks back, and puts his hand to the plough, is fit for the kingdom of God .

Luke 9:62 But, as appears, many even down to our own time regard Mary, on account of the birth of her child, as having been in the puerperal state, although she was not. For some say that, after she brought forth, she was found, when examined, to be a virgin . Now such to us are the Scriptures of the Lord, which gave birth to the truth and continue virgin, in the concealment of the mysteries of the truth . And she brought forth, and yet brought not forth, says the Scripture ; as having conceived of herself, and not from conjunction. Wherefore the Scriptures have conceived to Gnostics ; but the heresies , not having learned them, dismissed them as not having conceived.

Now all men , having the same judgment, some, following the Word speaking, frame for themselves proofs ; while others, giving themselves up to pleasures, wrest Scripture, in accordance with their lusts . And the lover of truth , as I think, needs force of soul . For those who make the greatest attempts must fail in things of the highest importance; unless, receiving from the truth itself the rule of the truth , they cleave to the truth . But such people, in consequence of falling away from the right path, err in most individual points; as you might expect from not having the faculty for judging of what is true and false, strictly trained to select what is essential. For if they had, they would have obeyed the Scriptures .

The decorous tendency of our philanthropy, therefore, according to Clement, seeks the common good; whether by suffering martyrdom , or by teaching by deed and word — the latter being twofold, unwritten and written. This is love , to love God and our neighbour. This conducts to the height which is unutterable. 'Love covers a multitude of sins . James 5:20 ; 1 Peter 4:8 Love bears all things, suffers all things.' 1 Corinthians 13:7 Love joins us to God , does all things in concord. In love , all the chosen of God were perfected. Apart from love , nothing is well pleasing to God . Of its perfection there is no unfolding, it is said. Who is fit to be found in it, except those whom God counts worthy? To the point the Apostle Paul speaks, If I give my body, and have not love , I am sounding brass, and a tinkling cymbal.

If it is not from a disposition determined by gnostic love that I shall testify, he means; but if through fear and expected reward, moving my lips in order to testify to the Lord that I shall confess the Lord, I am a common man, sounding the Lord's name, not knowing Him. For there is the people that loves with the lips; and there is another which gives the body to be burned. And if I give all my goods in alms , he says, not according to the principle of loving communication, but on account of recompense, either from him who has received the benefit, or the Lord who has promised; and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, and cast away obscuring passions , and be not faithful to the Lord from love , I am nothing, as in comparison of him who testifies as a Gnostic , and the crowd, and being reckoned nothing better.

Now all the generations from Adam to this day are gone. But they who have been perfected in love , through the grace of God , hold the place of the godly, who shall be manifested at the visitation of the kingdom of Christ . Love permits not to sin ; but if it fall into any such case, by reason of the interference of the adversary, in imitation of David, it will sing: I will confess unto the Lord, and it will please Him above a young bullock that has horns and hoofs. Let the poor see it, and be glad. For he says, Sacrifice to God a sacrifice of praise, and pay to the Lord your vows; and call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. For the sacrifice of God is a broken spirit. God , then, being good, is love , it is said.

1 John 4:8, 16 Whose love works no ill to his neighbour, Romans 13:10 neither injuring nor revenging ever, but, in a word, doing good to all according to the image of God . Love is, then, the fulfilling of the law; Romans 13:10 like as Christ, that is the presence of the Lord who loves us; and our loving teaching of, and discipline according to Christ . By love , then, the commands not to commit adultery , and not to covet one's neighbour's wife, are fulfilled, [these sins being] formerly prohibited by fear . The same work, then, presents a difference, according as it is done by fear , or accomplished by love , and is wrought by faith or by knowledge . Rightly, therefore, their rewards are different.

The most of men have a disposition unstable and heedless, like the nature of storms. Want of faith has done many good things, and faith evil things. And Epicharmus says, Don't forget to exercise incredulity; for it is the sinews of the soul . Now, to disbelieve truth brings death, as to believe , life; and again, to believe the lie and to disbelieve the truth hurries to destruction. The same is the case with self-restraint and licentiousness. To restrain one's self from doing good is the work of vice ; but to keep from wrong is the beginning of salvation . So the Sabbath , by abstinence from evils , seems to indicate self-restraint. And what, I ask, is it in which man differs from beasts, and the angels of God , on the other hand, are wiser than he? You made him a little lower than the angels .

For some do not interpret this Scripture of the Lord, although He also bore flesh, but of the perfect man and the gnostic, inferior in comparison with the angels in time, and by reason of the vesture [of the body]. I call then wisdom nothing but science, since life differs not from life. For to live is common to the mortal nature, that is to man , with that to which has been vouchsafed immortality ; as also the faculty of contemplation and of self-restraint, one of the two being more excellent. On this ground Pythagoras seems to me to have said that God alone is wise, since also the apostle writes in the Epistle to the Romans, For the obedience of the faith among all nations, being made known to the only wise God through Jesus Christ ; Romans 16:26-27 and that he himself was a philosopher , on account of his friendship with God .

Accordingly it is said, God talked with Moses as a friend with a friend. Exodus 33:11 That, then, which is true being clear to God , immediately generates truth . And the gnostic loves the truth . Go, it is said, to the ant, you sluggard, and be the disciple of the bee; thus speaks Solomon. Proverbs 6:6, 8 For if there is one function belonging to the peculiar nature of each creature, alike of the ox, and horse, and dog, what shall we say is the peculiar function of man? He is like, it appears to me, the Centaur, a Thessalian figment, compounded of a rational and irrational part, of soul and body.

Well, the body tills the ground, and hastes to it; but the soul is raised to God: trained in the true philosophy , it speeds to its kindred above, turning away from the lusts of the body, and besides these, from toil and fear , although we have shown that patience and fear belong to the good man. For if by the law is the knowledge of sin , Romans 3:20 as those allege who disparage the law, and till the law sin was in the world; Romans 5:13 yet without the law sin was dead, Romans 7:6 we oppose them. For when you take away the cause of fear , sin , you have taken away fear ; and much more, punishment, when you have taken away that which gives rise to lust . For the law is not made for the just man, 1 Timothy 1:9 says the Scripture . Well, then, says Heraclitus, They would not have known the name of Justice if these things had not been.

Stand we, therefore, foot to foot, and determine we the sum and substance of the actual question within definite lists. For why should God , the founder of the universe , the Governor of the whole world, the Fashioner of humanity, the Sower of universal nations be believed to have given a law through Moses to one people, and not be said to have assigned it to all nations? For unless He had given it to all by no means would He have habitually permitted even proselytes out of the nations to have access to it. But — as is congruous with the goodness of God , and with His equity, as the Fashioner of mankind — He gave to all nations the selfsame law, which at definite and stated times He enjoined should be observed, when He willed, and through whom He willed, and as He willed.

For in the beginning of the world He gave to Adam himself and Eve a law, that they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree planted in the midst of paradise; but that, if they did contrariwise, by death they were to die. Which law had continued enough for them, had it been kept. For in this law given to Adam we recognise in embryo all the precepts which afterwards sprouted forth when given through Moses ; that is, You shall love the Lord your God from your whole heart and out of your whole soul ; You shall love your neighbour as yourself; You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery ; You shall not steal ; False witness you shall not utter; Honour your father and mother; and, That which is another's, shall you not covet . For the primordial law was given to Adam and Eve in paradise, as the womb of all the precepts of God .

In short, if they had loved the Lord their God , they would not have contravened His precept; if they had habitually loved their neighbour — that is, themselves — they would not have believed the persuasion of the serpent, and thus would not have committed murder upon themselves, by falling from immortality , by contravening God's precept; from theft also they would have abstained, if they had not stealthily tasted of the fruit of the tree, nor had been anxious to skulk beneath a tree to escape the view of the Lord their God ; nor would they have been made partners with the falsehood-asseverating devil , by believing him that they would be like God ; and thus they would not have offended God either, as their Father, who had fashioned them from clay of the earth, as out of the womb of a mother; if they had not coveted another's, they would not have tasted of the unlawful fruit.

Therefore, in this general and primordial law of God , the observance of which, in the case of the tree's fruit, He had sanctioned, we recognise en closed all the precepts specially of the posterior Law, which germinated when dis closed at their proper times. For the subsequent superinduction of a law is the work of the same Being who had before premised a precept; since it is His province withal subsequently to train, who had before resolved to form, righteous creatures. For what wonder if He extends a discipline who institutes it? If He advances who begins? In short, before the Law of Moses , written in stone-tables, I contend that there was a law unwritten, which was habitually understood naturally, and by the fathers was habitually kept.

Accordingly it is patience which is both subsequent and antecedent to faith . In short, Abraham believed God , and was accredited by Him with righteousness; but it was patience which proved his faith , when he was bidden to immolate his son, with a view to (I would not say the temptation , but) the typical attestation of his faith . But God knew whom He had accredited with righteousness. So heavy a precept, the perfect execution whereof was not even pleasing to the Lord, he patiently both heard, and (if God had willed) would have fulfilled. Deservedly then was he blessed, because he was faithful; deservedly faithful, because patient.

So faith , illumined by patience, when it was becoming propagated among the nations through Abraham's seed, which is Christ, Galatians 3:16 and was superinducing grace over the law, made patience her pre-eminent coadjutrix for amplifying and fulfilling the law, because that alone had been lacking unto the doctrine of righteousness. For men were of old wont to require eye for eye, and tooth for tooth and to repay with usury evil with evil ; for, as yet, patience was not on earth, because faith was not either. Of course, meantime, impatience used to enjoy the opportunities which the law gave. That was easy, while the Lord and Master of patience was absent. But after He has supervened, and has united the grace of faith with patience, now it is no longer lawful to assail even with word , nor to say fool even, without danger of the judgment.

Anger has been prohibited, our spirits retained, the petulance of the hand checked, the poison of the tongue extracted. The law has found more than it has lost, while Christ says, Love your personal enemies, and bless your cursers, and pray for your persecutors, that you may be sons of your heavenly Father. Matthew 5:44-45 Do you see whom patience gains for us as a Father? In this principal precept the universal discipline of patience is succinctly comprised, since evil-doing is not conceded even when it is deserved.

1. Introduction. Modesty to Be Observed Not Only in Its Essence, But in Its Accessories Handmaids of the living God , my fellow-servants and sisters, the right which I enjoy with you — I, the meanest [postremissimus] in that right of fellow-servantship and brotherhood — emboldens me to address to you a discourse, not, of course, of affection, but paving the way for affection in the cause of your salvation . That salvation — and not (the salvation ) of women only, but likewise of men — consists in the exhibition principally of modesty. For since, by the introduction into an appropriation (in) us of the Holy Spirit , we are all the temple of God , Modesty is the sacristan and priestess of that temple, who is to suffer nothing unclean or profane to be introduced (into it), for fear that the God who inhabits it should be offended, and quite forsake the polluted abode. But on the present occasion we (are to speak) not about modesty, for the enjoining and exacting of which the divine precepts which press (upon us) on every side are sufficient; but about the matters which pertain to it, that is, the manner in which it behooves you to walk. For most women (which very thing I trust God may permit me, with a view, of course, to my own personal censure, to censure in all), either from simple ignorance or else from dissimulation, have the hardihood so to walk as if modesty consisted only in the (bare) integrity of the flesh, and in turning away from (actual) fornication; and there were…

2. Perfect Modesty Will Abstain from Whatever Tends to Sin, as Well as from Sin Itself. Difference Between Trust and Presumption. If Secure Ourselves, We Must Not Put Temptation in the Way of Others. We Must Love Our Neighbour as Ourself You must know that in the eye of perfect, that is, Christian , modesty, (carnal) desire of one's self (on the part of others) is not only not to be desired, but even execrated, by you: first, because the study of making personal grace (which we know to be naturally the inviter of lust ) a mean of pleasing does not spring from a sound conscience : why therefore excite toward yourself that evil (passion)? Why invite (that) to which you profess yourself a stranger? Secondly, because we ought not to open a way to temptations , which, by their instancy, sometimes achieve (a wickedness ) which God expels from them who are His; (or,) at all events, put the spirit into a thorough tumult by (presenting) a stumbling-block (to it). We ought indeed to walk so holily, and with so entire substantiality of faith , as to be confident and secure in regard of our own conscience , desiring that that (gift) may abide in us to the end, yet not presuming (that it will). For he who presumes feels less apprehension; he who feels less apprehension takes less precaution; he who takes less precaution runs more risk. Fear is the foundation of salvation ; presumption is an impediment to fear . More useful, then, is it to apprehend that we may possibly fail, than to…

3. Grant that Beauty Be Not to Be Feared: Still It is to Be Shunned as Unnecessary and Vainglorious Let it now be granted that excellence of form be not to be feared, as neither troublesome to its possessors, nor destructive to its desirers, nor perilous to its compartners; let it be thought (to be) not exposed to temptations , not surrounded by stumbling-blocks: it is enough that to angels of God it is not necessary. For, where modesty is, there beauty is idle; because properly the use and fruit of beauty is voluptuousness, unless any one thinks that there is some other harvest for bodily grace to reap. Are women who think that, in furnishing to their neighbour that which is demanded of beauty, they are furnishing it to themselves also, to augment that (beauty) when (naturally) given them, and to strive after it when not (thus) given? Some one will say, Why, then, if voluptuousness be shut out and chastity let in, may (we) not enjoy the praise of beauty alone, and glory in a bodily good? Let whoever finds pleasure in glorying in the flesh see to that. To us in the first place, there is no studious pursuit of glory , because glory is the essence of exaltation . Now exaltation is incongruous for professors of humility according to God's precepts. Secondly, if all glory is vain and insensate, how much more ( glory ) in the flesh , especially to us ? For even if glorying is (allowable), we ought to wish our sphere of pleasing to lie in the graces of the Spirit , not in the…

4. Concerning the Plea of Pleasing the Husband. As if I were speaking to Gentiles , addressing you with a Gentile precept, and (one which is) common to all, (I would say,) You are bound to please your husbands only. But you will please them in proportion as you take no care to please others . Be without carefulness, blessed (sisters): no wife is ugly to her own husband. She pleased him enough when she was selected (by him as his wife); whether commended by form or by character. Let none of you think that, if she abstain from the care of her person, she will incur the hatred and aversion of husbands. Every husband is the exactor of chastity ; but beauty , a believing (husband) does not require, because we are not captivated by the same graces which the Gentiles think (to be) graces: an un believing one, on the other hand, even regards with suspicion, just from that infamous opinion of us which the Gentiles have. For whom, then, is it that you cherish your beauty? If for a believer, he does not exact it: if for an un believer, he does not believe in it unless it be artless. Why are you eager to please either one who is suspicious, or else one who desires it not? Chapter

If the Father sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, Romans 8:3 it must not therefore be said that the flesh which He seemed to have was but a phantom. For he in a previous verse ascribed sin to the flesh, and made it out to be the law of sin dwelling in his members, and warring against the law of the mind. On this account, therefore, (does he mean to say that) the Son was sent in the likeness of sinful flesh, that He might redeem this sinful flesh by a like substance, even a fleshly one, which bare a resemblance to sinful flesh, although it was itself free from sin . Now this will be the very perfection of divine power to effect the salvation (of man) in a nature like his own.

For it would be no great matter if the Spirit of God remedied the flesh; but when a flesh, which is the very copy of the sinning substance — itself flesh also — only without sin , (effects the remedy, then doubtless it is a great thing). The likeness , therefore, will have reference to the quality of the sinfulness, and not to any falsity of the substance. Because he would not have added the attribute sinful, if he meant the likeness to be so predicated of the substance as to deny the verity thereof; in that case he would only have used the word flesh, and omitted the sinful. But inasmuch as he has put the two together, and said sinful flesh, (or flesh of sin , ) he has both affirmed the substance, that is, the flesh and referred the likeness to the fault of the substance, that is, to its sin .

But even suppose that the likeness was predicated of the substance, the truth of the said substance will not be thereby denied. Why then call the true substance like ? Because it is indeed true , only not of a seed of like condition with our own; but true still, as being of a nature not really unlike ours. And again, in contrary things there is no likeness. Thus the likeness of flesh would not be called spirit , because flesh is not susceptible of any likeness to spirit; but it would be called phantom , if it seemed to be that which it really was not. It is, however, called likeness , since it is what it seems to be. Now it is (what it seems to be), because it is on a par with the other thing (with which it is compared). But a phantom, which is merely such and nothing else, is not a likeness.

The apostle, however, himself here comes to our aid; for , while explaining in what sense he would not have us live in the flesh, although in the flesh — even by not living in the works of the flesh — he shows that when he wrote the words, Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God , 1 Corinthians 15:50 it was not with the view of condemning the substance (of the flesh), but the works thereof; and because it is possible for these not to be committed by us while we are still in the flesh, they will therefore be properly chargeable, not on the substance of the flesh, but on its conduct.

But I say unto you which hear (displaying here that old injunction, of the Creator: Speak to the ears of those who lend them to you ), Love your enemies, and bless those which hate you, and pray for them which calumniate you. These commands the Creator included in one precept by His prophet Isaiah: Say, You are our brethren, to those who hate you. Isaiah 66:5 For if they who are our enemies, and hate us, and speak evil of us, and calumniate us, are to be called our brethren, surely He did in effect bid us bless them that hate us, and pray for them who calumniate us, when He instructed us to reckon them as brethren.

Well, but Christ plainly teaches a new kind of patience, when He actually prohibits the reprisals which the Creator permitted in requiring an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, Exodus 21:24 and bids us, on the contrary, to him who smites us on the one cheek, to offer the other also, and to give up our coat to him that takes away our cloak. Luke 6:29 No doubt these are supplementary additions by Christ, but they are quite in keeping with the teaching of the Creator. And therefore this question must at once be determined, Whether the discipline of patience be enjoined by the Creator? When by Zechariah He commanded, Let none of you imagine evil against his brother , Zechariah 7:10 He did not expressly include his neighbour ; but then in another passage He says, Let none of you imagine evil in your hearts against his neighbour .

Zechariah 8:17 He who counselled that an injury should be forgotten, was still more likely to counsel the patient endurance of it. But then, when He said, Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, He thereby teaches that patience calmly waits for the infliction of vengeance.

Therefore, inasmuch as it is incredible that the same (God) should seem to require a tooth for a tooth and an eye for an eye, in return for an injury, who forbids not only all reprisals, but even a revengeful thought or recollection of an injury, in so far does it become plain to us in what sense He required an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, — not, indeed, for the purpose of permitting the repetition of the injury by retaliating it, which it virtually prohibited when it forbade vengeance; but for the purpose of restraining the injury in the first instance, which it had forbidden on pain of retaliation or reciprocity; so that every man, in view of the permission to inflict a second (or retaliatory) injury, might abstain from the commission of the first (or provocative) wrong.

These considerations show that the entire order of God as Judge is an operative one, and (that I may express myself in worthier words) protective of His Catholic and supreme goodness, which, removed as it is from judiciary emotions, and pure in its own condition, the Marcionites refuse to acknowledge to be in one and the same Deity, raining on the just and on the unjust , and making His sun to rise on the evil and on the good , — a bounty which no other god at all exercises. It is true that Marcion has been bold enough to erase from the gospel this testimony of Christ to the Creator; but yet the world itself is inscribed with the goodness of its Maker , and the inscription is read by each man's conscience .

Nay, this very long-suffering of the Creator will tend to the condemnation of Marcion ; that patience, (I mean,) which waits for the sinner's repentance rather than his death, which prefers mercy to sacrifice , Hosea 6:6 averting from the Ninevites the ruin which had been already denounced against them, Jonah 3:10 and vouchsafing to Hezekiah's tears an extension of his life, 2 Kings 20:i and restoring his kingly state to the monarch of Babylon after his complete repentance; Daniel 4:33 that mercy, too, which conceded to the devotion of the people the son of Saul when about to die, 1 Samuel 14:45 and gave free forgiveness to David on his confessing his sins against the house of Uriah; 2 Samuel 12:13 which also restored the house of Israel as often as it condemned it, and addressed to it consolation no less frequently than reproof.

Do not therefore look at God simply as Judge, but turn your attention also to examples of His conduct as the Most Good. Noting Him, as you do, when He takes vengeance, consider Him likewise when He shows mercy. In the scale, against His severity place His gentleness. When you shall have discovered both qualities to co-exist in the Creator, you will find in Him that very circumstance which induces you to think there is another God. Lastly, come and examine into His doctrine, discipline, precepts, and counsels. You will perhaps say that there are equally good prescriptions in human laws . But Moses and God existed before all your Lycurguses and Solons. There is not one after-age which does not take from primitive sources.

At any rate, my Creator did not learn from your God to issue such commandments as: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery ; you shall not steal ; you shall not bear false witness ; you shall not covet what is your neighbour's; honour your father and your mother; and, you shall love your neighbour as yourself. To these prime counsels of innocence, chastity , and justice , and piety , are also added prescriptions of humanity, as when every seventh year slaves are released for liberty; when at the same period the land is spared from tillage; a place is also granted to the needy; and from the treading ox's mouth the muzzle is removed, for the enjoyment of the fruit of his labour before him, in order that kindness first shown in the case of animals might be raised from such rudiments to the refreshment of men.

Here is another rule for him. All the properties of God ought to be as rational as they are natural. I require reason in His goodness, because nothing else can properly be accounted good than that which is rationally good; much less can goodness itself be detected in any irrationality. More easily will an evil thing which has something rational belonging to it be accounted good, than that a good thing bereft of all reasonable quality should escape being regarded as evil . Now I deny that the goodness of Marcion's god is rational, on this account first, because it proceeded to the salvation of a human creature which was alien to him.

I am aware of the plea which they will adduce, that that is rather a primary and perfect goodness which is shed voluntarily and freely upon strangers without any obligation of friendship, on the principle that we are bidden to love even our enemies, such as are also on that very account strangers to us. Now, inasmuch as from the first he had no regard for man , a stranger to him from the first, he settled beforehand, by this neglect of his, that he had nothing to do with an alien creature. Besides, the rule of loving a stranger or enemy is preceded by the precept of your loving your neighbour as yourself; and this precept, although coming from the Creator's law, even you ought to receive, because, so far from being abrogated by Christ, it has rather been confirmed by Him.

For you are bidden to love your enemy and the stranger, in order that you may love your neighbour the better. The requirement of the undue is an augmentation of the due benevolence. But the due precedes the undue, as the principal quality, and more worthy of the other, for its attendant and companion. Since, therefore, the first step in the reasonableness of the divine goodness is that it displays itself on its proper object in righteousness, and only at its second stage on an alien object by a redundant righteousness over and above that of scribes and Pharisees , how comes it to pass that the second is attributed to him who fails in the first, not having man for his proper object, and who makes his goodness on this very account defective?

Moreover, how could a defective benevolence, which had no proper object whereon to expend itself, overflow on an alien one? Clear up the first step, and then vindicate the next. Nothing can be claimed as rational without order, much less can reason itself dispense with order in any one. Suppose now the divine goodness begin at the second stage of its rational operation, that is to say, on the stranger, this second stage will not be consistent in rationality if it be impaired in any way else. For only then will even the second stage of goodness, that which is displayed towards the stranger, be accounted rational, when it operates without wrong to him who has the first claim. It is righteousness which before everything else makes all goodness rational.

But, says he, I speak after the manner of men: when we were children, we were placed in bondage under the elements of the world. This, however, was not said after the manner of men. For there is no figure here, but literal truth . For (with respect to the latter clause of this passage), what child (in the sense, that is, in which the Gentiles are children) is not in bondage to the elements of the world, which he looks up to in the light of a god? With regard, however, to the former clause, there was a figure (as the apostle wrote it); because after he had said, I speak after the manner of men , he adds), Though it be but a man's covenant, no man disannuls, or adds thereto. For by the figure of the permanency of a human covenant he was defending the divine testament. To Abraham were the promises made, and to his seed.

He said not 'to seeds,' as of many; but as of one, 'to your seed,' which is Christ . Galatians 3:16 Fie on Marcion's sponge! But indeed it is superfluous to dwell on what he has erased, when he may be more effectually confuted from that which he has retained. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son Galatians 4:4 — the God , of course, who is the Lord of that very succession of times which constitutes an age ; who also ordained, as signs of time, suns and moons and constellations and stars; who furthermore both predetermined and predicted that the revelation of His Son should be postponed to the end of the times. It shall come to pass in the last days , that the mountain (of the house) of the Lord shall be manifested ; and in the last days I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh as Joel says.

It was characteristic of Him (only) to wait patiently for the fullness of time, to whom belonged the end of time no less than the beginning. But as for that idle god, who has neither any work nor any prophecy , nor accordingly any time, to show for himself, what has he ever done to bring about the fullness of time, or to wait patiently its completion? If nothing, what an impotent state to have to wait for the Creator's time, in servility to the Creator! But for what end did He send His Son?

To redeem them that were under the law, Galatians 4:5 in other words, to make the crooked ways straight, and the rough places smooth, as Isaiah says Isaiah 40:4 — in order that old things might pass away, and a new course begin, even the new law out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, Isaiah 2:3 and that we might receive the adoption of sons, Galatians 4:5 that is, the Gentiles , who once were not sons. For He is to be the light of the Gentiles , and in His name shall the Gentiles trust. Isaiah 42:4, 6 That we may have, therefore the assurance that we are the children of God , He has sent forth His Spirit into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Galatians 4:6 For in the last days, says He, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh. Now, from whom comes this grace , but from Him who proclaimed the promise thereof?

To recapitulate, then: Shall that very flesh, which the Divine Creator formed with His own hands in the image of God; which He animated with His own afflatus , after the likeness of His own vital vigour; which He set over all the works of His hand, to dwell amongst, to enjoy, and to rule them; which He clothed with His sacraments and His instructions; whose purity He loves, whose mortifications He approves; whose sufferings for Himself He deems precious;-(shall that flesh, I say), so often brought near to God, not rise again?

God forbid, God forbid, (I repeat), that He should abandon to everlasting destruction the labour of His own hands, the care of His own thoughts, the receptacle of His own Spirit, 60 the queen of His creation, the inheritor of His own liberality, the priestess of His religion, the champion of His testimony, the sister of His Christ! We know by experience the goodness of God; from His Christ we learn that He is the only God, and the very good. Now, as He requires from us love to our neighbour after love to Himself, 61 so He will Himself do that which He has commanded.

He will love the flesh which is, so very closely and in so many ways, His neighbour-(He will love it), although infirm, since His strength is made perfect in weakness; 62 although disordered, since "they that are whole need not the physician, but they that are sick; " 63 although not honourable, since "we bestow more abundant honour upon the less honourable members; " 64 although ruined, since He says, "I am come to save that which was lost; " 65 although sinful, since He says, "I desire rather the salvation of the sinner than his death; " 66 although condemned, for says He, "I shall wound, and also heal. " 67 Why reproach the flesh with those conditions which wait for God, which hope in God, which receive honour from God, which He succours?

I venture to declare, that if such casualties as these had never befallen the flesh, the bounty, the grace, the mercy, (and indeed) all the beneficent power of God, would have had no opportunity to work. 68

We are not in any great perturbation or alarm about the persecutions we suffer from the ignorance of men; for we have attached ourselves to this sect , fully accepting the terms of its covenant, so that, as men whose very lives are not their own, we engage in these conflicts, our desire being to obtain God's promised rewards, and our dread lest the woes with which He threatens an unchristian life should overtake us. Hence we shrink not from the grapple with your utmost rage, coming even forth of our own accord to the contest; and condemnation gives us more pleasure than acquittal. We have sent, therefore, this tract to you in no alarm about ourselves, but in much concern for you and for all our enemies, to say nothing of our friends.

For our religion commands us to love even our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us, aiming at a perfection all its own, and seeking in its disciples something of a higher type than the commonplace goodness of the world. For all love those who love them; it is peculiar to Christians alone to love those that hate them. Therefore mourning over your ignorance , and compassionating human error , and looking on to that future of which every day shows threatening signs, necessity is laid on us to come forth in this way also, that we may set before you the truths you will not listen to openly.

I should wonder at the Psychics, if they were enthralled to voluptuousness alone, which leads them to repeated marriages, if they were not likewise bursting with gluttony , which leads them to hate fasts . Lust without voracity would certainly be considered a monstrous phenomenon; since these two are so united and concrete, that, had there been any possibility of disjoining them, the pudenda would not have been affixed to the belly itself rather than elsewhere. Look at the body: the region (of these members) is one and the same. In short, the order of the vices is proportionate to the arrangement of the members. First, the belly; and then immediately the materials of all other species of lasciviousness are laid subordinately to daintiness: through love of eating, love of impurity finds passage. I recognise, therefore, animal faith by its care of the flesh (of which it wholly consists)— as prone to manifold feeding as to manifold marrying— so that it deservedly accuses the spiritual discipline, which according to its ability opposes it, in this species of continence as well; imposing, as it does, reins upon the appetite, through taking, sometimes no meals, or late meals, or dry meals, just as upon lust , through allowing but one marriage. It is really irksome to engage with such: one is really ashamed to wrangle about subjects the very defense of which is offensive to modesty. For how am I to protect chastity and sobriety without taxing their adversaries? What those…

2. Arguments of the Psychics, Drawn from the Law, the Gospel, the Acts, the Epistles, and Heathenish Practices For, so far as pertains to fasts , they oppose to us the definite days appointed by God : as when, in Leviticus, the Lord enjoins upon Moses the tenth day of the seventh month (as) a day of atonement, saying, Holy shall be to you the day, and you shall vex your souls ; and every soul which shall not have been vexed in that day shall be exterminated from his people. At all events, in the Gospel they think that those days were definitely appointed for fasts in which the Bridegroom was taken away; and that these are now the only legitimate days for Christian fasts , the legal and prophetical antiquities having been abolished: for wherever it suits their wishes, they recognise what is the meaning of the Law and the prophets until John. Accordingly, (they think) that, with regard to the future, fasting was to be indifferently observed, by the New Discipline, of choice, not of command, according to the times and needs of each individual: that this, withal, had been the observance of the apostles , imposing (as they did) no other yoke of definite fasts to be observed by all generally, nor similarly of Stations either, which (they think) have withal days of their own (the fourth and sixth days of the week), but yet take a wide range according to individual judgment, neither subject to the law of a given precept, nor (to be protracted) beyond the last hour of the day, since…

1. On the Freedom of the Will, With an Explanation and Interpretation of Those Statements of Scripture Which Appear to Nullify It.

1. Since in the preaching of the Church there is included the doctrine respecting a just judgment of God , which, when believed to be true , incites those who hear it to live virtuously, and to shun sin by all means, inasmuch as they manifestly acknowledge that things worthy of praise and blame are within our own power, come and let us discuss by themselves a few points regarding the freedom of the will — a question of all others most necessary. And that we may understand what the freedom of the will is, it is necessary to unfold the conception of it, that this being declared with precision, the subject may be placed before us.

2. Of things that move, some have the cause of their motion within themselves; others, again, are moved only from without. Now only portable things are moved from without, such as pieces of wood, and stones, and all matter that is held together by their constitution alone. And let that view be removed from consideration which calls the flux of bodies motion, since it is not needed for our present purpose. But animals and plants have the cause of their motion within themselves, and in general whatever is held together by nature and a soul , to which class of things they say that metals also belong. And besides these, fire too is self-moved, and perhaps also fountains of water. Now, of those things which have the cause of their movement within themselves, some, they say, are moved out of themselves, others from themselves: things without life, out of themselves; animate things, from themselves. For animate things are moved from themselves, a phantasy springing up in them which incites to effort. And again, in certain animals phantasies are formed which call forth an effort, the nature of the phantasy stirring up the effort in an orderly manner, as in the spider is formed the phantasy of weaving; and the attempt to weave follows, the nature of its phantasy inciting the insect in an orderly manner to this alone. And besides its phantasial nature, nothing else is believed to belong to the insect. And in the bee there is formed the phantasy to produce wax.

3. The rational animal, however, has, in addition to its phantasial nature, also reason, which judges the phantasies, and disapproves of some and accepts others, in order that the animal may be led according to them. Therefore, since there are in the nature of reason aids towards the contemplation of virtue and vice , by following which, after beholding good and evil , we select the one and avoid the other, we are deserving of praise when we give ourselves to the practice of virtue , and censurable when we do the reverse. We must not, however, be ignorant that the greater part of the nature assigned to all things is a varying quantity among animals, both in a greater and a less degree; so that the instinct in hunting-dogs and in war-horses approaches somehow, so to speak, to the faculty of reason. Now, to fall under some one of those external causes which stir up within us this phantasy or that, is confessedly not one of those things that are dependent upon ourselves; but to determine that we shall use the occurrence in this way or differently, is the prerogative of nothing else than of the reason within us, which, as occasion offers, arouses us towards efforts inciting to what is virtuous and becoming, or turns us aside to what is the reverse.

1. To be jealous of what you see to be good, and to be envious of those who are better than yourself, seems, beloved brethren, in the eyes of some people to be a slight and petty wrong; and, being thought trifling and of small account, it is not feared; not being feared, it is contemned; being contemned, it is not easily shunned: and it thus becomes a dark and hidden mischief, which, as it is not perceived so as to be guarded against by the prudent , secretly distresses incautious minds. But, moreover, the Lord bade us be prudent , and charged us to watch with careful solicitude, lest the adversary, who is always on the watch and always lying in wait, should creep stealthily into our breast, and blow up a flame from the sparks, magnifying small things into the greatest; and so, while soothing the unguarded and careless with a milder air and a softer breeze, should stir up storms and whirlwinds, and bring about the destruction of faith and the shipwreck of salvation and of life. Therefore, beloved brethren, we must be on our guard, and strive with all our powers to repel, with solicitous and full watch-fullness, the enemy, raging and aiming his darts against every part of our body in which we can be stricken and wounded, in accordance with what the Apostle Peter, in his epistle, forewarns and teaches, saying, Be sober, and watch; because your adversary the devil , as a roaring lion, goes about seeking any one to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

2. He goes about every one of us; and even as an enemy besieging those who are shut up (in a city), he examines the walls, and tries whether there is any part of the walls less firm and less trustworthy, by entrance through which he may penetrate to the inside. He presents to the eyes seductive forms and easy pleasures, that he may destroy chastity by the sight. He tempts the ears with harmonious music, that by the hearing of sweet sounds he may relax and enervate Christian vigour. He provokes the tongue by reproaches; he instigates the hand by exasperating wrongs to the wrecklessness of murder ; to make the cheat, he presents dishonest gains; to take captive the soul by money, he heaps together mischievous hoards; he promises earthly honours, that he may deprive of heavenly ones; he makes a show of false things, that he may steal away the true ; and when he cannot hiddenly deceive, he threatens plainly and openly, holding forth the fear of turbulent persecution to vanquish God's servants — always restless, and always hostile, crafty in peace, and fierce in persecution .

3. Wherefore, beloved brethren, against all the devil's deceiving snares or open threatenings, the mind ought to stand arrayed and armed, ever as ready to repel as the foe is ever ready to attack. And since those darts of his which creep on us in concealment are more frequent, and his more hidden and secret hurling of them is the more severely and frequently effectual to our wounding, in proportion as it is the less perceived, let us also be watchful to understand and repel these, among which is the evil of jealousy and envy . And if any one closely look into this, be will find that nothing should be more guarded against by the Christian , nothing more carefully watched, than being taken captive by envy and malice , that none, entangled in the blind snares of a deceitful enemy, in that the brother is turned by envy to hatred of his brother, should himself be unwittingly destroyed by his own sword. That we may be able more fully to collect and more plainly to perceive this, let us recur to its fount and origin. Let us consider whence arises jealousy, and when and how it begins. For so mischievous an evil will be more easily shunned by us, if both the source and the magnitude of that same evil be known .

4. From this source, even at the very beginnings of the world, the devil was the first who both perished (himself) and destroyed (others). He who was sustained in angelic majesty, he who was accepted and beloved of God , when he beheld man made in the image of God , broke forth into jealousy with malevolent envy — not hurling down another by the instinct of his jealousy before he himself was first hurled down by jealousy, captive before he takes captive, ruined before he ruins others. While, at the instigation of jealousy, he robs man of the grace of immortality conferred, he himself has lost that which he had previously been. How great an evil is that, beloved brethren, whereby an angel fell, whereby that lofty and illustrious grandeur could be defrauded and overthrown, whereby he who deceived was himself deceived! Thenceforth envy rages on the earth, in that he who is about to perish by jealousy obeys the author of his ruin, imitating the devil in his jealousy; as it is written, But through envy of the devil death entered into the world. Therefore they who are on his side imitate him.

1. As I am about to speak, beloved brethren, of patience, and to declare its advantages and benefits, from what point should I rather begin than this, that I see that even at this time, for your audience of me, patience is needful, as you cannot even discharge this duty of hearing and learning without patience? For wholesome discourse and reasoning are then effectually learned, if what is said be patiently heard. Nor do I find, beloved brethren, among the rest of the ways of heavenly discipline wherein the path of our hope and faith is directed to the attainment of the divine rewards, anything of more advantage, either as more useful for life or more helpful to glory , than that we who are labouring in the precepts of the Lord with the obedience of fear and devotion, should especially, with our whole watchfulness, be careful of patience.

2. Philosophers also profess that they pursue this virtue ; but in their case the patience is as false as their wisdom also is. For whence can he be either wise or patient, who has neither known the wisdom nor the patience of God? Since He Himself warns us, and says of those who seem to themselves to be wise in this world, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will reprove the understanding of the prudent . Isaiah 29:14 Moreover, the blessed Apostle Paul , filled with the Holy Spirit , and sent forth for the calling and training of the heathen , bears witness and instructs us, saying, See that no man despoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men , after the elements of the world, and not after Christ, because in Him dwells all the fullness of divinity. Colossians 2:8, 10 And in another place he says: Let no man deceive himself; if any man among you thinks himself to be wise, let him become a fool to this world, that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God . For it is written, I will rebuke the wise in their own craftiness. And again: The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are foolish. 1 Corinthians 3:18-20 Wherefore if the wisdom among them be not true , the patience also cannot be true . For if he is wise who is lowly and meek — but we do not see that philosophers are either lowly or meek, but greatly pleasing themselves, and, for the very reason that they please themselves, displeasing God —…

3. But for us, beloved brethren, who are philosophers , not in words, but in deeds , and do not put forward our wisdom in our garb, but in truth — who are better acquainted with the consciousness, than with the boast, of virtues — who do not speak great things, but live them — let us, as servants and worshippers of God , show, in our spiritual obedience , the patience which we learn from heavenly teachings. For we have this virtue in common with God . From Him patience begins; from Him its glory and its dignity take their rise. The origin and greatness of patience proceed from God as its author. Man ought to love the thing which is dear to God ; the good which the Divine Majesty loves, it commends. If God is our Lord and Father, let us imitate the patience of our Lord as well as our Father; because it behooves servants to be obedient , no less than it becomes sons not to be degenerate.

4. But what and how great is the patience in God , that, most patiently enduring the profane temples and the images of earth, and the sacrilegious rites instituted by men , in contempt of His majesty and honour , He makes the day to begin and the light of the sun to arise alike upon the good and the evil ; and while He waters the earth with showers, no one is excluded from His benefits, but upon the righteous equally with the unrighteous He bestows His undiscriminating rains. We see that with undistinguishing equality of patience, at God's behest, the seasons minister to the guilty and the guiltless, the religious and the impious — those who give thanks and the unthankful; that the elements wait on them; the winds blow, the fountains flow, the abundance of the harvests increases, the fruits of the vineyards ripen, the trees are loaded with apples, the groves put on their leaves, the meadows their verdure; and while God is provoked with frequent, yea, with continual offenses, He softens His indignation, and in patience waits for the day of retribution, once for all determined; and although He has revenge in His power, He prefers to keep patience for a long while, bearing, that is to say, mercifully, and putting off, so that, if it might be possible, the long protracted mischief may at some time be changed, and man, involved in the contagion of errors and crimes, may even though late be converted to God , as He Himself warns and says, I do not will the death of him that dies,…

1. The evangelical precepts, beloved brethren, are nothing else than divine teachings — foundations on which hope is to be built, supports to strengthen faith , nourishments for cheering the heart, rudders for guiding our way, guards for obtaining salvation — which, while they instruct the docile minds of believers on the earth, lead them to heavenly kingdoms. God , moreover, willed many things to be said and to be heard by means of the prophets His servants; but how much greater are those which the Son speaks, which the Word of God who was in the prophets testifies with His own voice; not now bidding to prepare the way for His coming, but Himself coming and opening and showing to us the way, so that we who have before been wandering in the darkness of death, without forethought and blind, being enlightened by the light of grace , might keep the way of life, with the Lord for our ruler and guide!

2. He, among the rest of His salutary admonitions and divine precepts wherewith He counsels His people for their salvation , Himself also gave a form of praying — Himself advised and instructed us what we should pray for. He who made us to live, taught us also to pray , with that same benignity, to wit, wherewith He has condescended to give and confer all things else; in order that while we speak to the Father in that prayer and supplication which the Son has taught us, we may be the more easily heard. Already He had foretold that the hour was coming when the true worshippers should worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; John 4:23 and He thus fulfilled what He before promised, so that we who by His sanctification have received the Spirit and truth , may also by His teaching worship truly and spiritually. For what can be a more spiritual prayer than that which was given to us by Christ, by whom also the Holy Spirit was given to us? What praying to the Father can be more truthful than that which was delivered to us by the Son who is the Truth, out of His own mouth? So that to pray otherwise than He taught is not ignorance alone, but also sin ; since He Himself has established, and said, You reject the commandments of God , that you may keep your own traditions.

3. Let us therefore, brethren beloved, pray as God our Teacher has taught us. It is a loving and friendly prayer to beseech God with His own word, to come up to His ears in the prayer of Christ . Let the Father acknowledge the words of His Son when we make our prayer , and let Him also who dwells within in our breast Himself dwell in our voice. And since we have Him as an Advocate with the Father for our sins , let us, when as sinners we petition on behalf of our sins , put forward the words of our Advocate. For since He says, that whatsoever we shall ask of the Father in His name, He will give us, John 16:23 how much more effectually do we obtain what we ask in Christ's name, if we ask for it in His own prayer !

4. But let our speech and petition when we pray be under discipline, observing quietness and modesty. Let us consider that we are standing in God's sight. We must please the divine eyes both with the habit of body and with the measure of voice. For as it is characteristic of a shameless man to be noisy with his cries, so, on the other hand, it is fitting to the modest man to pray with moderated petitions. Moreover, in His teaching the Lord has bidden us to pray in secret — in hidden and remote places, in our very bed-chambers — which is best suited to faith , that we may know that God is everywhere present, and hears and sees all, and in the plenitude of His majesty penetrates even into hidden and secret places, as it is written, I am a God at hand, and not a God afar off. If a man shall hide himself in secret places, shall I not then see him? Do not I fill heaven and earth? Jeremiah 23:23-24 And again: The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3 And when we meet together with the brethren in one place, and celebrate divine sacrifices with God's priest , we ought to be mindful of modesty and discipline — not to throw abroad our prayers indiscriminately, with unsubdued voices, nor to cast to God with tumultuous wordiness a petition that ought to be commended to God by modesty; for God is the hearer, not of the voice, but of the heart. Nor need He be clamorously reminded, since He sees men's thoughts, as the Lord proves to us when He…

1. Since the Lord warns us, saying, You are the salt of the earth, Matthew 5:13 and since He bids us to be simple to harmlessness, and yet with our simplicity to be prudent , what else, beloved brethren, befits us, than to use foresight and watching with an anxious heart, both to perceive and to beware of the wiles of the crafty foe, that we, who have put on Christ the wisdom of God the Father , may not seem to be wanting in wisdom in the matter of providing for our salvation ? For it is not persecution alone that is to be feared; nor those things which advance by open attack to overwhelm and cast down the servants of God . Caution is more easy where danger is manifest, and the mind is prepared beforehand for the contest when the adversary avows himself. The enemy is more to be feared and to be guarded against, when he creeps on us secretly; when, deceiving by the appearance of peace, he steals forward by hidden approaches, whence also he has received the name of the Serpent. That is always his subtlety; that is his dark and stealthy artifice for circumventing man. Thus from the very beginning of the world he deceived; and flattering with lying words, he misled inexperienced souls by an incautious credulity. Thus he endeavoured to tempt the Lord Himself: he secretly approached Him, as if he would creep on Him again, and deceive; yet he was understood, and beaten back, and therefore prostrated, because he was recognised and detected.

2. From which an example is given us to avoid the way of the old man, to stand in the footsteps of a conquering Christ, that we may not again be incautiously turned back into the nets of death, but, foreseeing our danger, may possess the immortality that we have received. But how can we possess immortality , unless we keep those commands of Christ whereby death is driven out and overcome, when He Himself warns us, and says, If you will enter into life, keep the commandments? Matthew 19:17 And again: If you do the things that I command you, henceforth I call you not servants, but friends. John 15:14-15 Finally, these persons He calls strong and steadfast; these He declares to be founded in robust security upon the rock, established with immoveable and unshaken firmness, in opposition to all the tempests and hurricanes of the world. Whosoever, says He, hears my words, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, that built his house upon a rock: the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. Matthew 7:24 We ought therefore to stand fast on His words, to learn and do whatever He both taught and did. But how can a man say that he believes in Christ , who does not do what Christ commanded him to do? Or whence shall he attain to the reward of faith , who will not keep the faith of the commandment? He must of necessity waver and wander, and, caught away by a spirit of error , like dust which is…

3. But, beloved brethren, not only must we beware of what is open and manifest, but also of what deceives by the craft of subtle fraud. And what can be more crafty, or what more subtle, than for this enemy, detected and cast down by the advent of Christ , after light has come to the nations , and saving rays have shone for the preservation of men , that the deaf might receive the hearing of spiritual grace , the blind might open their eyes to God , the weak might grow strong again with eternal health, the lame might run to the church, the dumb might pray with clear voices and prayers — seeing his idols forsaken, and his lanes and his temples deserted by the numerous concourse of believers — to devise a new fraud, and under the very title of the Christian name to deceive the incautious? He has invented heresies and schisms, whereby he might subvert the faith , might corrupt the truth , might divide the unity. Those whom he cannot keep in the darkness of the old way, he circumvents and deceives by the error of a new way. He snatches men from the Church itself; and while they seem to themselves to have already approached to the light, and to have escaped the night of the world, he pours over them again, in their unconsciousness, new darkness; so that, although they do not stand firm with the Gospel of Christ , and with the observation and law of Christ , they still call themselves Christians , and, walking in darkness, they think that they have the light, while the adversary is…

4. If any one consider and examine these things, there is no need for lengthened discussion and arguments. There is easy proof for faith in a short summary of the truth . The Lord speaks to Peter, saying, I say unto you, that you are Peter; and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto you the keys of the kingdom of heaven ; and whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And again to the same He says, after His resurrection , Feed my sheep. And although to all the apostles , after His resurrection , He gives an equal power, and says, As the Father has sent me, even so send I you: Receive the Holy Ghost : Whose soever sins you remit, they shall be remitted unto him; and whose soever sins you retain, they shall be retained; John 20:21 yet, that He might set forth unity, He arranged by His authority the origin of that unity, as beginning from one. Assuredly the rest of the apostles were also the same as was Peter, endowed with a like partnership both of honour and power; but the beginning proceeds from unity. Which one Church, also, the Holy Spirit in the Song of Songs designated in the person of our Lord, and says, My dove, my spotless one, is but one. She is the only one of her mother, elect of her that bare her. Song of Songs 6:9 Does he who does not hold this unity of the Church think that he holds the faith ? Does…

Therefore humanity is to be preserved, if we wish rightly to be called men. But what else is this preservation of humanity than the loving a man because he is a man , and the same as ourselves? Therefore discord and dissension are not in accordance with the nature of man; and that expression of Cicero is true , which says that man, while he is obedient to nature, cannot injure man. Therefore, if it is contrary to nature to injure a man , it must be in accordance with nature to benefit a man; and he who does not do this deprives himself of the title of a man , because it is the duty of humanity to succour the necessity and peril of a man .

I ask, therefore, of those who do not think it the part of a wise man to be prevailed upon and to pity, If a man were seized by some beast, and were to implore the aid of an armed man, whether they think that he ought to be succoured or not? They are not so shameless as to deny that that ought to be done which humanity demands and requires. Also, if any one were surrounded by fire, crushed by the downfall of a building, plunged in the sea, or carried away by a river, would they think it the duty of a man not to assist him? They themselves are not men if they think so; for no one can fail to be liable to dangers of this kind. Yes, truly , they will say that it is the part of a human being, and of a brave man too, to preserve one who was on the point of perishing.

If, therefore, in casualties of this nature which imperil the life of man , they allow that it is the part of humanity to give succour, what reason is there why they should think that succour is to be withheld if a man should suffer from hunger, thirst, or cold? But though these things are naturally on an equality with those accidental circumstances, and need one and the same humanity, yet they make a distinction between these things, because they measure all things not by the truth itself, but by present utility. For they hope that those whom they rescue from peril will make a return of the favour to them. But because they do not hope for this in the case of the needy, they think that whatever they bestow on men of this kind is thrown away.

Hence that sentiment of Plautus is detestable: — He deserves ill who gives food to a beggar; For that which he gives is thrown away, and It lengthens out the life of the other to his misery. But perhaps the poet spoke for the actor. What does Marcus Tullius say in his books respecting Offices? Does he not also advise that bounty should not be employed at all? For thus he speaks: Bounty, which proceeds from our estate, drains the very source of our liberality; and thus liberality is destroyed by liberality: for the more numerous they are towards whom you practice it, the less you will be able to practice it towards many. And he also says shortly afterwards: But what is more foolish than so to act that you may not be able to continue to do that which you do willingly?

There are two ways, O Emperor Constantine, by which human life must proceed — the one which leads to heaven, the other which sinks to hell ; and these ways poets have introduced in their poems, and philosophers in their disputations.

And indeed philosophers have represented the one as belonging to virtues , the other to vices ; and they have represented that which belongs to virtues as steep and rugged at the first entrance, in which if any one, having overcome the difficulty, has climbed to the summit, they say that he afterwards has a level path, a bright and pleasant plain, and that he enjoys abundant and delightful fruits of his labours; but that those whom the difficulty of the first approach has deterred, glide and turn aside into the way of vices , which at its first entrance appears to be pleasant and much more beaten, but afterwards, when they have advanced in it a little further, that the appearance of its pleasantness is withdrawn, and that there arises a steep way, now rough with stones, now overspread with thorns, now interrupted by deep waters or violent with torrents, so that they must be in difficulty, hesitate, slip about, and fall.

And all these things are brought forward that it may appear that there are very great labours in undertaking virtues , but that when they are gained there are the greatest advantages, and firm and incorruptible pleasures; but that vices ensnare the minds of men with certain natural blandishments, and lead them captivated by the appearance of empty pleasures to bitter griefs and miseries — an altogether wise discussion, if they knew the forms and limits of the virtues themselves. For they had not learned either what they are, or what reward awaits them from God: but this we will show in these two books. But these men, because they were ignorant or in doubt that the souls of men are immortal , estimated both virtues and vices by earthly honours or punishments.

Therefore all this discussion respecting the two ways has reference to frugality and luxury. For they say that the course of human life resembles the letter Y, because every one of men , when he has reached the threshold of early youth, and has arrived at the place where the way divides itself into two parts, is in doubt , and hesitates, and does not know to which side he should rather turn himself.