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ST. ATHANASIUS

TWO BOOKS AGAINST THE HEATHEN

[The Oxford translation of J. H. Newman, revised by Rev. Archibald
Robertson, Principal of Bishop Hatfield's Hall, Durham, late fellow of
Trinity College, Oxford.]


FIRST BOOK: AGAINST THE HEATHEN

PART I

# 1. Introduction:--The purpose of the book a vindication of Christian
doctrine, and especially of the Cross, against the scoffing objection of
Gentiles. The effects of this doctrine its main vindication.

   The knowledge of our religion and of the truth of things is
independently manifest rather than in need of human teachers, for almost
day by day it asserts itself by facts, and manifests itself brighter than
the sun by the doctrine of Christ. 2. Still, as you nevertheless desire to
hear about it, Macarius [1], come let us as we may be able set forth a few
points of the faith of Christ: able though you are to find it out from the
divine oracles, but yet generously desiring to hear from others as well. 3.
For although the sacred and inspired Scriptures are sufficient [2] to
declare the truth,--while there are other works of our blessed teachers [3]
compiled for this purpose, if he meet with which a man will gain some
knowledge of the interpretation of the Scriptures, and be able to learn
what he wishes to know,--still, as we have not at present in our hands the
compositions of our teachers, we must communicate in writing to you what we
learned from them,--the faith, namely, of Christ the Saviour; lest any
should hold cheap the doctrine taught among us, or think faith. in Christ
unreasonable. For this is what the Gentiles traduce and scoff at, and laugh
loudly at us, insisting on the one fact of the Cross of Christ; and it is
just here that one must pity their want of sense, because when they traduce
the Cross of Christ they do not see that its power has filled all the
world, and that by it the effects of the knowledge of God are made manifest
to all. 4. For they would not have scoffed at such a fact, had they, too,
been men who genuinely gave heed to His divine Nature. On the contrary,
they in their turn would have recognised this man as Saviour of the world,
and that the Cross has been not a disaster, but a healing of Creation. 5.
For if after the Cross all idolatry was overthrown, while every
manifestation of demons is driven away by this Sign [4], and Christ alone
is worshipped and the Father known through Him, and, while gainsayers are
put to shame, He daily invisibly wins over the souls of these gainsayers
[5],--how, one might fairly ask them, is it still open to us to regard the
matter as human, instead of confessing that He Who ascended the Cross is
Word of God and Saviour of the World? But these men seem to me quite as bad
as one who should traduce the sun when covered by clouds, while yet
wondering at his light, seeing how the whole of creation is illumined by
him. 6. For as the light is noble, and the sun, the chief cause of light,
is nobler still, so, as it is a divine thing for the whole world to be
filled with his knowledge, it follows that the orderer and chief cause of
such an achievement is God and the Word of God. 7. We speak then as lies
within our power, first refuting the ignorance of the unbelieving; so that
what is false being refuted, the truth may then shine forth of itself, and
that you yourself, friend, may be reassured that you have believed what is
true, and in coming to know Christ have not been deceived. Moreover, I
think it becoming to discourse to you, as a lover of Christ, about Christ,
since I am sure that you rate faith in and knowledge of Him above anything
else whatsoever.

# 2. Evil no part of the essential nature of things. The original creation
and constitution of than in grace and in the knowledge of God.

   In the beginning wickedness did not exist. Nor indeed does it exist
even now in those who are holy, nor does it in any way belong to their
nature. But men later on began to contrive it and to elaborate it to their
own hurt. Whence also they devised the invention of idols, treating what
was not as though it were. 2. For God Maker of all and King of all, that
has His Being beyond [6] all substance and human discovery, inasmuch as He
is good and exceeding. noble, made, through His own Word our Saviour Jesus
Christ, the human race after His own image, and constituted man able to see
and know realities by means of this assimilation to Himself, giving him
also a conception [7] and knowledge even of His own eternity, in order
that, preserving his nature intact, he might not ever either depart from
his idea of God, nor recoil from the communion of the holy ones; but having
the grace of Him that gave it, having also God's own power from the Word of
the Father, he might rejoice and have fellowship with the Deity, living the
life of immortality unharmed and truly blessed. For having nothing to
hinder his knowledge of the Deity, he ever beholds, by his purity, the
Image of the Father, God the Word, after Whose image he himself is made. He
is awe-struck as he contemplates that Providence [8] which through the Word
extends to the universe, being raised above the things of sense and every
bodily appearance, but cleaving to the divine and thought-perceived things
in the heavens by the power of his mind. 3. For when the mind of men does
not hold converse with bodies, nor has mingled with it from without aught
of their lust, but is wholly above them, dwelling with itself as it was
made to begin with, then, transcending the things of sense and all things
human, it is raised up on high; and seeing the Word, it sees in Him also
the Father of the Word, taking pleasure in contemplating Him, and gaining
renewal by its desire toward Him; 4. exactly as the first of men created,
the one who was named Adam in Hebrew, is described in the Holy Scriptures
as having at the beginning had his mind to God-ward in a freedom
unembarrassed by shame, and as associating with the holy ones in that
contemplation of things perceived by the mind which he enjoyed in the place
where he was--the place which the holy Moses called in figure a Garden. So
purity of soul is sufficient of itself to reflect God, as the Lord also
says, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."

# 3. The decline of man from the above condition, owing to his absorption
in material things.

   Thus then, as we have said, the Creator fashioned the race of men, and
thus meant it to remain. But men, making light of better things, and
holding back from apprehending them, began to seek in preference things
nearer to themselves. 2. But nearer to themselves were the body and its
senses; so that while removing their mind from the things perceived by
thought, they began to regard themselves; and so doing, and holding to the
body and the other things of sense, and deceived as it were in their own
surroundings, they fell into lust of themselves, preferring what was their
own to the contemplation of what belonged to God. Having then made
themselves at home in these things, and not being willing to leave what was
so near to them, they entangled their soul with bodily pleasures, vexed and
turbid with all kind of lusts, while they wholly forgot the power they
originally had from God. 3. But the truth of this one may see from the man
who was first made, according to what the holy Scriptures tell us of him.
For he also, as long as he kept his mind to God, and the contemplation of
God, turned away from the contemplation of the body. But when, by counsel
of the serpent, he departed from the consideration of God, and began to
regard himself, then they not only fell to bodily lust, but knew that they
were naked, and knowing, were ashamed. But they knew that they were naked,
not so much of clothing as that they were become stripped of the
contemplation of divine things, and had transferred their understanding to
the contraries. For having departed from the consideration of the one and
the true, namely, God, and from desire of Him, they had thenceforward
embarked in divers lusts and in those of the several bodily senses. 4.
Next, as is apt to happen, having formed a desire for each and sundry, they
began to be habituated to these desires, so that they were even afraid to
leave them: whence the soul became subject to cowardice and alarms, and
pleasures and thoughts of mortality. For not being willing to leave her
lusts, she fears death and her separation from the body. But again, from
lusting, and not meeting with gratification, she learned to commit murder
and wrong. We are then led naturally to shew, as best we can, how she does
this.

# 4. The gradual abasement of the Saul from Truth to Falsehood by the abuse
of her freedom of Choice.

   Having departed from the contemplation of the things of thought, and
using to the full the several activities of the body, and being pleased
with the contemplation of the body, and seeing that pleasure is good for
her, she was misled and abused the name of good, and thought that pleasure
was the very essence of good: just as though a man out of his mind and
asking for a sword to use against all he met, were to think that soundness
of mind. 2. But having fallen in love with pleasure, she began to work it
out in various ways. For being by nature mobile, even though she have
turned away from what is good, yet she does not lose her mobility. She
moves then, no longer according to virtue or so as to see God, but
imagining false things, she makes a novel use of her power, abusing it as a
means to the pleasures she has devised, since she is after all made with
power over herself. 3. For she is able, as on the one hand to incline to
what is good, so on the other to reject it; but in rejecting the good she
of course entertains the thought of what is opposed to it, for she cannot
at all cease from movement, being, as I said before, mobile by nature. And
knowing her own power over herself, she sees that she is able to use the
members of her body in either direction, both toward what is, or toward
what is not. 4. But good is, while evil is not; by what is, then, I mean
what is good, inasmuch as it has its pattern in God Who is. But by what is
not I mean what is evil, in so far as it consists in a false imagination in
the thoughts of men. For though the body has eyes so as to see Creation,
and by its entirely harmonious construction to recognise the Creator; and
ears to listen to the divine oracles and the laws of God; and hands both to
perform works of necessity and to raise to God in prayer; yet the soul,
departing from the contemplation of what is good and from moving in its
sphere, wanders away and moves toward its contraries. 5. Then seeing, as I
said before, and abusing her power, she has perceived that she can move the
members of the body also in an opposite way: and so, instead of beholding
the Creation, she turns the eye to lusts, shewing that she has this power
too; and thinking that by the mere fact of moving she is maintaining her
own dignity, and is doing no sin in doing as she pleases; not knowing that
she is made not merely to move, but to move in the fight direction. For
this is why an apostolic utterance assures us "All things are lawful, but
not all things are expedient 9."

# 5. Evil, then, consists essentially in the choice of what is lower in
preference to what is higher.

   But the audacity of men, having regard not to what is expedient and
becoming, but to what is possible for it, began to do the contrary; whence,
moving their hands to the contrary, it made them commit murder, and led
away their hearing to disobedience, and their other members to adultery
instead of to lawful procreation; and the tongue, instead of right
speaking, to slander and insult and perjury; the hands again, to stealing
and striking fellow-men; and the sense of smell to many sorts of lascivious
odours; the feet, to be swift to shed blood, and the belly to drunkenness
and insatiable gluttony [1]. 2. All of which things are a vice and sin of
the soul: neither is there any cause of them at all, but only the rejection
of better things. For just as if a charioteer [2], having mounted his
chariot on the race-course, were to pay no attention to the goal, toward
which he should be driving, but, ignoring this, simply were to drive the
horse as he could, or in other words as he would, and often drive against
those he met, and often down steep places, rushing wherever he impelled
himself by the speed of the team, thinking that thus running he has not
missed the goal,--for he regards the running only, and does not see that he
has passed wide of the goal ;--so the soul too, turning from the way toward
God, and driving the members of the body beyond what is proper, or rather,
driven herself along with them by her own doing, sins and makes mischief
for herself, not seeing that she has strayed from the way, and has swerved
from the goal of truth, to which the Christ-bearing man, the blessed Paul,
was looking when he said, "I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the
high calling of Christ Jesus [3]:" so that the holy man, making the good
his mark, never did what was evil.

# 6. False views of the nature of evil: viz., that evil is something in the
nature of things, and has substantive existence. (a) Heathen thinkers:
(evil resides in matter). Their refutation. (b) Heretical teachers:
(Dualism). Refutation from Scripture.

   Now certain of the Greeks, having erred from the right way, and not
having known Christ, have ascribed to evil a substantive and independent
existence. In this they make a double mistake: either in denying the
Creator to be maker of all things, if evil had an independent subsistence
and being of its own; or again, if they mean that He is maker of all
things, they will of necessity admit Him to be maker of evil also. For
evil, according to them, is included among existing things. 2. But this
must appear paradoxical and impossible. For evil does not come from good,
nor is it in, or the result of, good, since in  that case it would not be
good, being mixed in its nature or a cause of evil. 3. But the sectaries,
who have fallen away from the teaching of the Church, and made shipwreck
concerning the Faith [4], they also wrongly think that evil has a
substantive existence. But they arbitrarily imagine another god besides the
true One, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that he is the unmade
producer of evil and the head of wickedness, who is also artificer of
Creation. But these men one can easily refute, not only from the divine
Scriptures, but also from the human understanding itself, the very source
of these their insane imaginations. 4. To begin with, our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ says in His own gospels confirming the words of Moses: "The
Lord God is one;" and "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earths
[5]." But if God is one, and at the same time Lord of heaven and earth, how
could there be another God beside Him? or what room will there be for the
God whom they suppose, if the one true God fills all things in the compass
of heaven and earth? or how could there be another creator of that,
whereof, according to the Saviour's utterance, the God and Father of Christ
is Himself Lord. 5. Unless indeed they would say that it were, so to speak,
in an equipoise, and the evil god capable of getting the better of the good
God. But if they say this, see to what a pitch of impiety they descend. For
when powers are equal, the superior and better cannot be discovered. For if
the one exist even if the other will it not, both are equally strong and
equally weak equally, because the very existence of either is a defeat of
the other's will: weak, because what happens is counter to their wills: for
while the good God exists in spite of the evil one, the evil god exists
equally in spite of the good.

# 7. Refutation of dualism front reason. Impossibility of two Gods. The
truth as to evil is that which the Church teaches: that it originates, and
resides, in the perverted choice of the darkened soul. More especially,
they are exposed to the following reply. If visible things are the work of
the evil god, what is the work of the good God? for nothing is to be seen
except the work of the Artificer. Or what evidence is there that the good
God exists at all, if there are no works of His by which He may be known?
for by his works the artificer is known. 2. Or how could two principles
exist, contrary one to another: Or what is it that divides them, for them
to exist apart? For it is impossible for them to exist together, because
they are mutually destructive. But neither can the one be included in the
other, their nature being unmixed and unlike. Accordingly that which
divides them will evidently be of a third nature, and itself God. But of
what nature could this third something be? good or evil? It will be
impossible to determine, for it cannot be of the nature of both. 3. This
conceit of theirs, then, being evidently rotten, the truth of the Church's
theology must be manifest: that evil has not from the beginning been with
God or in God, nor has any substantive existence; but that men, in default
of the vision of good, began to devise and imagine for themselves what was
not, after their own pleasure. 4. For as if a man, when the sun is shining,
and the whole earth illumined by his light, were to shut fast his eyes and
imagine darkness where no darkness exists, and then walk wandering as if in
darkness, often falling and going down steep places, thinking it was dark
and not light,--for, imagining that he sees, he does not see at all; --so,
too, the soul of man, shutting fast her eyes, by which she is able to see
God, has imagined evil for herself, and moving therein, knows not that,
thinking she is doing something, she is doing nothing. For she is imagining
what is not, nor is she abiding in her original nature; but what she is is
evidently the product of her own disorder. 5. For she is made to see God,
and to be enlightened by Him; but of her own accord in God's stead she has
sought corruptible things and darkness, as the Spirit says somewhere in
writing, "God made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions
[6]." Thus it has been then that men from the first discovered and
contrived and imagined evil for themselves. But it is now time to say how
they came down to the madness of idolatry, that you may know that the
invention of idols is wholly due, not to good but to evil. But what has its
origin in evil can never be pronounced good in any point,--being evil
altogether.

# 8. The origin of idolatry is similar. The soul, materialised by
forgetting God, and engrossed in earthly things, makes them into gods. The
rate of men descends into a hopeless depth as decision and superstition.

   Now the soul of mankind, not satisfied with the devising of evil, began
by degrees to venture upon what is worse still. For having experience of
diversities of pleasures, and girt about with oblivion of things divine;
being pleased moreover and having in view the passions of the body, and
nothing but things present and opinions about them, ceased to think that
anything existed beyond what is seen, or that anything was good save things
temporal and bodily; so turning away and forgetting that she was in the
image of the good God, she no longer, by the power which is in her, sees
God the Word after whose likeness she is made; but having departed from
herself, imagines and feigns what is not. 2. For hiding, by the
complications of bodily lusts, the mirror which, as it were, is in her, by
which alone she had the power of seeing the Image of the Father, she no
longer sees what a soul ought to behold, but is carried about by
everything, and only sees the things which come under the senses. Hence,
weighted with all fleshly desire, and distracted among the impressions of
these things, she imagines that the God Whom her understanding has
forgotten is to be found in bodily and sensible things, giving to things
seen the name of God, and glorifying only those things which she desires
and which are pleasant to her eyes. 3. Accordingly, evil is the cause which
brings idolatry in its train; for men, having learned to contrive evil,
which is no reality in itself, in like manner feigned for themselves as
gods beings that had no real existence. Just, then, as though a man had
plunged into the deep, and no longer saw the light, nor what appears by
light, because his eyes are turned downwards, and the water is all above
him; and, perceiving only the things in the deep, thinks that nothing
exists beside them, but that the things he sees are the only true
realities; so the men of former time, having lost their reason, and plunged
into the lusts and imaginations of carnal things, and forgotten the
knowledge and glory of God, their, reasoning being dull, or rather
following unreason, made gods for themselves of things seen, glorifying the
creature rather than the Creator [7], and deifying the works rather than
the Master, God, their Cause and Artificer. 4. But just as, according to
the above simile, men who plunge into the deep, the deeper they go down,
advance into darker and deeper places, so it is with mankind. For they did
not keep to idolatry in a simple form, nor did they abide in that with
which they began; but the longer they went on in their first condition, the
more new superstitions they invented: and, not satiated with the first
evils, they again filled themselves. with others, advancing further in
utter shamefulness, and surpassing themselves in impiety. But to this the
divine Scripture testifies when it says, "When the wicked cometh unto the
depth of evils, he despiseth [8]."

# 9. The various developments of idolatry: worship of the heavenly bodies,
the elements, natural objects, fabulous creatures, personified lusts, men
living and dead. The case of Antinous, and of the deified Emperors.

   For now the understanding of mankind leaped asunder from God; and going
lower in their ideas and imaginations, they gave the honour due to God
first to the heaven and the sun and moon and the stars, thinking them to be
not only gods, but also the causes of the other gods lower than themselves
[9]. Then, going yet lower in their dark imaginations, they gave the name
of gods to the upper aether and the air and the things in the air. Next,
advancing further in evil, they came to celebrate as gods the elements and
the principles of which bodies are composed, heat and cold and dryness and
wetness. 2. But just as they who have fallen fiat creep in the slime like
land-snails, so the most impious of mankind, having fallen lower and lower
from the idea of God, then set up as gods men, and the forms of men, some
still living, others even after their death. Moreover, counselling and
imagining worse things still, they transferred the divine and supernatural
name of God at last even to stones and stocks, and creeping things both of
land and water, and irrational wild beasts, awarding to them every divine
honour, and turning from the true and only real God, the Father of Christ.
3. But would that even there the audacity of these foolish men had stopped
short, and that they had not gone further yet in impious self-confusion.
For to such a depth have some fallen in their understanding, to such
darkness of mind, that they have even devised for themselves, and made gods
of things that have no existence at all, nor any place among things
created. For mixing up the rational with the irrational, and combining
things unlike in nature, they worship the result as gods, such as the dog-
headed and snake-headed and ass-headed gods among the Egyptians, and the
ram-headed Ammon among the Libyans. While others, dividing apart the
portions of men's bodies, head, shoulder, hand, and foot, have set up each
as gods and deified them, as though their religion were not satisfied with
the whole body in its integrity. 4. But others, straining impiety to the
utmost, have deified the motive of the invention of these things and of
their own wickedness, namely, pleasure and lust, and worship them, such as
their Eros, and the Aphrodite at Paphos. While some of them, as if vying
with them in depravation, have ventured to erect into gods their rulers or
even their sons, either out of honour for their princes, or from fear of
their tyranny, such as the Cretan Zeus, of such renown among them, and the
Arcadian Hermes; and among the Indians Dionysus, among the Egyptians Isis
and Osiris and Horus, and in our own time Antinous, favourite of Hadrian,
Emperor of the Romans, whom, although men know he was a mere man, and not a
respectable man, but on the contrary, full of licentiousness, yet they
worship for fear of him that enjoined it. For Hadrian having come to
sojourn in the land of Egypt, when Antinous the minister of his pleasure
died, ordered him to be worshipped; being indeed himself in love with the
youth even after his death, but for all that offering a convincing exposure
of himself, and a proof against all idolatry, that it was discovered among
men for no other reason than by reason of the lust of them that imagined
it. According as the wisdom of God testifies beforehand when it says, "The
devising of idols was the beginning of fornication [1]." 5. And do not
wonder, nor think what we are saying hard to believe, inasmuch as it is not
long since, even if it be not still the case that the Roman Senate vote to
those emperors who have ever ruled them from the beginning, either all of
them, or such as they wish and decide, a place among the gods, and decree
them to be worshipped [2]. For those to whom they are hostile, they treat
as enemies and call men, admitting their real nature, while those who are
popular with them they order to be worshipped on account of their virtue,
as though they had it in their own power to make gods, though they are
themselves men, and do not profess to be other than mortal. 6. Whereas if
they are to make gods, they ought to be themselves gods; for that which
makes must needs be better than that which it makes, and he that judges is
of necessity in authority over him that is judged, while he that gives, at
any rate that which he has, confers a layout, just as, of course, every
king, in giving as a favour what he has to give, is greater and in a higher
position than those who receive. If then they decree whomsoever they please
to be gods, they ought first to be gods themselves. But the strange thing
is this, that they themselves by dying as men, expose the falsehood of
their own vote concerning those deified by them.

# 10. Similar human origin of the Greek gods, by decree of Theseus. The
process by which mortals became deified.

   But this custom is not a new one, nor did it begin from the Roman
Senate: on the contrary, it had existed previously from of old, and was
formerly practised for the devising of idols. For the gods renowned from of
old among the Greeks, Zeus, Poseidon, Apollo, Hephaestus, Hermes, and,
among females, Hera and Demeter and Athena and Artemis, were de- creed the
title of gods by the order of Theseus, of whom Greek history tells us [3];
and so the men who pass such decrees die like men and are mourned for,
while those in whose favour they are passed are worshipped as gods. What a
height of inconsistency and madness! knowing who passed the decree, they
pay greater honour to those who are the subjects of it. 2. And would that
their idolatrous madness had stopped short at males, and that they had not
brought down the title of deity to females. For even women, whom it is not
safe to admit to deliberation about public affairs, they worship and serve
with the honour due to God, such as those enjoined by Theseus as above
stated, and among the Egyptians [4] Isis and the Maid and the Younger one
[5], and among others Aphrodite. For the names of the others I do not
consider it modest even to mention, full as they are of all kind of
grotesqueness. 3. For many, not only in ancient times but in our own also,
having lost their beloved ones, brothers and kinsfolk and wives; and many
women who had lost their husbands, all of whom nature proved to be mortal
men, made representations of them and devised sacrifices, and consecrated
them; while later ages, moved by the figure and the brilliancy of the
artist, worshipped them as gods, thus failing into inconsistency with
nature [6]. For whereas their parents had mourned for them, not regarding
them as gods (for had they known them to be gods they would not have
lamented them as if they had perished; for this was why they represented
them in an image, namely, because they not only did not think them gods,
but did not believe them to exist at all, and in order that the sight of
their form in the image might console them for their being no more), yet
the foolish people pray to them as gods and invest them with the honour of
the true God. 4. For example, in Egypt, even to this day, the death-dirge
is celebrated for Osiris and Horus and Typho and the others. And the
caldrons [7] at Dodona, and the Corybantes in Crete, prove that Zeus is no
god but a man, and a man born of a cannibal father. And, strange to say,
even Plato, the sage admired among the Greeks, with all his vaunted
understanding about God, goes down with Socrates to Peiraeus [8] to worship
Artemis, a figment of man's art.

# 11. The deeds of heathen deities, and particularly of Zeus.

   But of these and such like inventions of idolatrous madness, Scripture
taught us beforehand long ago, when it said [9], "The devising of idols was
the beginning of fornication, and the invention of them, the corruption of
life. For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for
ever. For the vainglory of men they entered into the world, and therefore
shall they come shortly to an end. For a father afflicted with untimely
mourning when he hath made an image of his child soon taken away, now
honoured him as a god which was then a dead man, and delivered to those
that were under him ceremonies and sacrifices. Thus in process of time an
ungodly custom grown strong was kept as a law. And graven images were
worshipped by the commands of kings. Whom men could not honour in presence
because they dwelt afar off, they took the counterfeit of his visage from
afar, and made an express image of the king whom they honoured, to the end
that by this their forwardness they might flatter him that was absent as if
he were present. Also the singular diligence of the artificer did help to
set forward the ignorant to more superstition: for he, peradventure,
willing to please one in authority, forced all his skill to make the
resemblance of the best fashion: and so the multitude, allured by the grace
of the work, took him now for a god, which a little before was but honoured
as a man: and this was an occasion to deceive the world, for men serving
either calamity or tyranny, did ascribe unto stones and stocks the
incommunicable Name." 2. The beginning and devising of the invention of
idols having been, as Scripture witnesses, of such sort, it is now time to
shew thee the refutation of it by proofs derived not so much from without
as from these men's own opinions about the idols. For to begin at the
lowest point, if one were to take the actions of them they call gods, one
would find that they were not only no gods, but had been even of men the
most contemptible. For what a thing it is to see the loves and licentious
actions of Zeus in the poets! What a thing to hear of him, on the one hand
carrying off Ganymede and committing stealthy adulteries, on the other in
panic and alarm lest the walls of the Trojans should be destroyed against
his intentions! What a thing to see him in grief at the death of his son
Sarpedon, and wishing to succour him without being able to do so, and, when
plotted against by the other so-called gods, namely, Athena and Hera and
Poseidon, succoured by Thetis, a woman, and by Aegaeon of the hundred
hands, and overcome by pleasures, a slave to women, and for their sakes
running adventures in disguises consisting of brute beasts and creeping
things and birds; and again, in hiding on account of his father's designs
upon him, or Cronos bound by him, or him again mutilating his father! Why,
is it fitting to regard as a god one who has perpetrated such deeds, and
who stands accused of things which not even the public laws of the Romans
allow those to do who are merely men?

# 12. Other shameful actions ascribed to heathen deities. All prove that
they are but men at former times, and not even good men. For, to mention a
few instances out of many to avoid prolixity, who that saw his lawless and
corrupt conduct toward Semele, Leda, Alcmene, Artemis, Leto, Maia, Europe,
Danae, and Antiope, or that saw what he ventured to take in hand with
regard to his own sister, in having the same woman as wife and sister,
would not scorn him and pronounce him worthy of death? For not only did he
commit adultery, but he deified and raised to heaven those born of his
adulteries, contriving the deification as a veil for his lawlessness: such
as Dionysus, Heracles, the Dioscuri, Hermes, Perseus, and Soteira. 2. Who,
that sees the so-called gods at irreconcileable strife among themselves at
Troy on account of the Greeks and Trojans, will fail to recognise their
feebleness, in that because of their mutual jealousies they egged on even
mortals to strife? Who, that sees Ares and Aphrodite wounded by Diomed, or
Hera and Aidoneus from below the earth, whom they call a god, wounded by
Heracles, Dionysus by Perseus, Athena by Areas, and Hephaestus hurled down
and going lame, will not recognise their real nature, and, while refusing
to call them gods, be assured (when he hears that they are corruptible and
passible) that they are nothing but men [1], and feeble men too, and admire
those that inflicted the wounds rather than the wounded? 3. Or who that
sees the adultery of Ares with Aphrodite, and Hephaestus contriving a snare
for the two, and the other so-called gods called by Hephaestus to view the
adultery, and coming and seeing their licentiousness, would not laugh and
recognise their worthless character? Or who would not laugh at beholding
the drunken folly and misconduct of Heracles toward Omphale? For their
deeds of pleasure, and their unconscionable loves, and their divine images
in gold, silver, bronze, iron, stone, and wood, we need not seriously
expose by argument, since the facts are abominable in themselves, and are
enough taken alone to furnish proof of the deception; so that one's
principal feeling is pity for those deceived about them. 4. For, hating the
adulterer who tampers with a wife of their own, they are not ashamed to
deify the teachers of adultery; and refraining from incest themselves they
worship those who practise it; and admitting that the corrupting of
children is an evil, they serve those who stand accused of it and do not
blush to ascribe to those they call gods things which the laws forbid to
exist even among men.

# 13. The folly of image worship and its dishonour to art.

   Again, in worshipping things of wood and stone, they do not see that,
while they tread under foot and burn what is in no way different, they call
portions of these materials gods. And what they made use of a little while
ago, they carve and worship in their folly, not seeing, nor at all
considering that they are worshipping, not gods, but the carver's art. 2.
For so long as the stone is uncut and the wood unworked, they walk upon the
one and make frequent use of the other for their own purposes, even for
those which are less honourable. But when the artist has invested them with
the proportions of his own skill, and impressed upon the material the form
of man or woman, then, thanking the artist, they proceed to worship them as
gods, having bought them from the carver at a price. Often, moreover, the
image- maker, as though forgetting the work he has done himself, prays to
his own productions, and calls gods what just before he was paring and
chipping. 3. But it were better, if need to admire these things, to ascribe
it to the art of the skilled workman, and not to honour productions in
preference to their producer. For it is not the material that has adorned
the art, but the art that has adorned and deified the material. Much juster
were it, then, for them to worship the artist than his productions, both
because his existence was prior to that of the gods produced by art, and
because they have come into being in the form he pleased to give them. But
as it is, setting justice aside, and dishonouring skill and art, they
worship the products of skill and art, and when the man is dead that made
them, they honour his works as immortal, whereas if they did not receive
daily attention they would certainly in time come to a natural end. 4. Or
how could one fail to pity them in this also, in that seeing, they worship
them that cannot see, and hearing, pray to them that cannot hear, and born
with life and reason, men as they are, call gods things which do not move
at all, but have not even life, and, strangest of all, in that they serve
as their masters beings whom they themselves keep under their own power?
Nor imagine that this is a mere statement of mine, nor that I am maligning
them; for the verification of all this meets the eyes, and whoever wishes
to do so may see the like.

# 14. Image worship condemned by Scripture.

   But better testimony about all this is furnished by Holy Scripture,
which tells us beforehand when it says [2], "Their idols are silver and
gold, the work of men's hands. Eyes have they and will not see; a mouth
have they and will not speak; ears have they and will not hear; noses have
they and will not smell; hands have they and will not handle; feet have
they and will not walk; they will not speak through their throat. Like unto
them be they that make them." Nor have they escaped prophetic censure; for
there also is their refutation, where the Spirit says [3], "they shall be
ashamed that have formed a god, and carved all of them that which is vain:
and all by whom they were made are dried up: and let the deaf ones among
men all assemble and stand up together, and let them be confounded and put
to shame together; for the carpenter sharpened iron, and worked it with an
adze, and fashioned it with an auger, and set it up with the arm of his
strength: and he shall hunger and be faint, and drink no water. For the
carpenter chose out wood, and set it by a rule, and fashioned it with glue,
and made it as the form of a man and as the beauty of man, and set it up in
his house, wood which he had cut from the grove and which the Lord planted,
and the rain gave it growth that it might be for men to burn, and that he
might take thereof and warm himself, and kindle, and bake bread upon it,
but the residue they made into gods, and worshipped them, the half whereof
they had burned in the fire. And upon the half thereof he roasted flesh and
ate and was filled, and was warmed and said: [4] It is pleasant to me,
because I am warmed and have seen the fire.' But the residue thereof he
worshipped, saying, 'Deliver me for thou an my god.' They knew not nor
understood, because their eyes were dimmed that they could not see, nor
perceive with their heart; nor did he consider in his heart nor know in his
understanding that he had burned half thereof in the fire, and baked bread
upon the coals thereof, and roasted flesh and eaten it, and made the
residue thereof an abomination, and they worship it. Know that their heart
is dust and they are deceived, and none can deliver his soul. Behold and
will ye not say, 'There is a lie in my right hand?'" 2. How then can they
fail to be judged godless by all, who even by the divine Scripture are
accused of impiety? or how can they be anything but miserable, who are thus
openly convicted of worshipping dead things instead of the truth? or what
kind of hope have they? or what kind of excuse could be made for them,
trusting in things without sense or movement, which they reverence in place
of the true God ?

# 15. The details about the gods conveyed in the representations of them by
poets and artists shew that they are without life, and that they are not
gods, nor even decent men and women.

   For would that the artist would fashion the gods even without shape, so
that they might not be open to so manifest an exposure of their lack of
sense. For they might have cajoled the perception of simple folk to think
the idols had senses, were it not that they possess the symbols of the
senses, eyes for example and noses and ears and hands and mouth, without
any gesture of actual perception and grasp of the objects of sense. But as
a matter of fact they have these things and have them not, stand and stand
not, sit and sit not. For they have not the real action of these things,
but as their fashioner pleased, so they remain stationary, giving no sign
of a god, but evidently mere inanimate objects, set there by man's art. 2.
Or would that the heralds and prophets of these false gods, poets I mean
and writers, had simply written that they were gods, and not also recounted
their actions as an exposure of their godlessness and scandalous life. For
by the mere name of godhead they might have filched away the truth, or
rather have caused the mass of men to err from the truth. But as it is, by
narrating the loves and immoralities of Zeus, and the corruptions of youths
by the other gods, and the voluptuous jealousies of the females, and the
fears and acts of cowardice and other wickednesses, they merely convict
themselves of narrating not merely about no gods, but not even about
respectable men, but on the contrary, of telling tales about shameful
persons far removed from what is honourable.

# 16. Heathen arguments in palliation of the above: and (I) ' the poets are
responsible for these unedifying tales.' But are the names and existence of
the gods any better authenticated? Both stand or fall together. Either the
actions must be defended or the deity of the gods given up. And the heroes
are not credited with acts inconsistent with their nature, as, on this
plea, the gods are.

   But perhaps, as to all this, the impious will appeal to the peculiar
style of poets, saying that it is the peculiarity of poets to feign what is
not, and, for the pleasure of their hearers, to tell fictitious tales; and
that for this reason they have composed the stories about gods. But this
pretext of theirs, even more than any other, will appear to be superficial
from what they themselves think and profess about these matters. 2. For if
what is said in the poets is fictitious and false, even the nomenclature of
Zeus, Cronos, Hera, Ares and the rest must be false. For perhaps, as they
say, even the names are fictitious, and, while no such being exists as
Zeus, Cronos, or Ares, the poets feign their existence to deceive their
hearers. But if the poets feign the existence of unreal beings, how is it
that they worship them as though they existed? 3. Or perhaps, once again,
they will say that while the names are not fictitious, they ascribe to them
fictitious actions. But even this is equally precarious as a defence. For
if they made up the actions, doubtless also they made up the names, to
which they attributed the actions. Or if they tell the truth about the
names, it follows that they tell the truth about the actions too. In
particular, they who have said in their tales that these are gods certainly
know how gods ought to act, and would never ascribe to gods the ideas of
men, any more than one would ascribe to water the properties of fire; for
fire burns, whereas the nature of water on the contrary is cold. 4. If then
the actions are worthy of gods, they that do them must be gods; but if they
are actions of men, and of disreputable men, such as adultery and the acts
mentioned above, they that act in such ways must be men and not gods. For
their deeds must correspond to their natures, so that at once the actor may
be made known by his act, and the action may be ascertainable from his
nature. So that just as a man discussing about water and fire, and
declaring their action, would not say that water burned and fire cooled,
nor, if a man were discoursing about the sun and the earth, would he say
the earth gave light, while the sun was sown with herbs and fruits, but if
he were to say so would exceed the utmost height of madness, so neither
would their writers, and especially the most eminent poet of all, if they
really knew that Zeus and the others were gods, invest them with such
actions as shew them to be not gods, but rather men, and not sober men. 5.
Or if, as poets, they told falsehoods, and you are maligning them, why did
they not also tell falsehoods about the courage of the heroes, and feign
feebleness in the place of courage, and courage in that of feebleness? For
they ought in that case, as with Zeus and Hera, so also to slanderously
accuse Achilles of want of courage, and to celebrate the might of
Thersites, and, while charging Odysseus with dulness, to make out Nestor a
reckless person, and to narrate effeminate actions of Diomed and Hector,
and manly deeds of Hecuba. For the fiction and falsehood they ascribe to
the poets ought to extend to all cases. But in fact, they kept the truth
for their men, while not ashamed to tell falsehoods about their so-called
gods. 6. And as some of them might argue, that they are telling falsehoods
about their licentious actions, but that in their praises, when they speak
of Zeus as father of gods, and as the highest, and the Olympian, and as
reigning in heaven, they are not inventing but speaking truthfully; this is
a plea which not only myself, but anybody can refute. For the truth will be
clear, in opposition to them, if we recall our previous proofs. For while
their actions prove them to be men, the panegyrics upon them go beyond the
nature of men. The two things then are mutually inconsistent; for neither
is it the nature of heavenly beings to act in such ways, nor can any one
suppose that persons so acting are gods.

# 17. The truth probably is, that the scandalous tales are true, while the
divine attributes ascribed to them are due to the flattery of the poets.

   What inference then is left to us, save that while the panegyrics are
false and flattering, the actions told of them are true? And the truth of
this one can ascertain by common practice. For nobody who pronounces a
panegyric upon anyone accuses his conduct at the same time, but rather, if
men's actions are disgraceful, they praise them up with panegyrics, on
account of the scandal they cause, so that by extravagant praise they may
impose upon their hearers, and hide the misconduct of the others. 2. Just
as if a man who has to pronounce a panegyric upon someone cannot find
material for it in their conduct or in any personal qualities, on account
of the scandal attaching to these, he praises them up in another manner,
flattering them with what does not belong to them, so have their marvellous
poets, put out of countenance by the scandalous actions of their so-called
gods, attached to them the superhuman title, not knowing that they cannot
by their superhuman fancies veil their human actions, but that they will
rather succeed in shewing, by their human shortcomings, that the attributes
of God do not fit them. 3. And I am disposed to think that they have
recounted the passions and the actions of the gods even in spite of
themselves. For since they were endeavouring to invest with what Scripture
calls the incommunicable name and honour of [4] God them that are no gods
but mortal men, and since this venture of theirs was great and impious, for
this reason even against their will they were forced by truth to set forth
the passions of these persons, so that their passions recorded in the
writings concerning them might be in evidence for all posterity as a proof
that they were no gods.

# 18. Heathen defence continued. (2) 'The gods are worshipped for having
invented the Arts of Life.' But this is a human and natural, not a divine,
achievement. And why, on this principle, are not all inventors deified ?

   What defence, then, what proof that these are real gods, can they offer
who hold this superstition? For, by what has been said just above, our
argument has demonstrated them to be men, and not respectable men. But
perhaps they will turn to another argument, and proudly appeal to the
things useful to life discovered by them, saying that the reason why they
regard them as gods is their having been of use to mankind. For Zeus is
said to have possessed the plastic art, Poseidon that of the pilot,
Hephaestus the smith's, Athena that of weaving, Apollo that of music,
Artemis that of hunting, Hera dressmaking, Demeter agriculture, and others
other arts, as those who inform us about them have related. 2. But men
ought to ascribe them and such like arts not to the gods alone but to the
common nature of mankind, for by observing nature s men discover the arts.
For even common parlance calls art an imitation of nature. If then they
have been skilled in the arts they pursued, that is no reason for thinking
them gods, but rather for thinking them men; for the arts were not their
creation, but in them they, like others, imitated nature. 3. For men having
a natural capacity for knowledge according to the definition laid down [6]
concerning them, there is nothing to surprise us if by human intelligence,
and by looking of themselves at their own nature and coming to know it,
they have hit upon the arts. Or if they say that the discovery of the arts
entitles them to be proclaimed as gods, it is high time to proclaim as gods
the discoverers of the other arts on the same grounds as the former were
thought worthy of such a title. For the Phoenicians invented letters, Homer
epic poetry, Zeno of Elea dialectic, Corax of Syracuse rhetoric, Aristaeus
bee-keeping, Triptolemus the sowing of corn, Lycurgus of Sparta and Solon
of Athens laws; while Palamedes discovered the arrangement of letters, and
numbers, and measures and weights. And others imparted various other things
useful for the life of mankind, according to the testimony of our
historians. 4. If then the arts make gods, and because of them carved gods
exist, it follows, on their shewing, that those who at a later date
discovered the other arts must be gods. Or if they do not deem these worthy
of divine honour, but recognise that they are men, it were but consistent
not to give even the name of gods to Zeus, Hera, and the others, but to
believe that they too have been human beings, and all the more so, inasmuch
as they were not even respectable in their day; just as by the very fact of
sculpturing their form in statues they shew that they are nothing else but
men.

# 19. The inconsistency of image worship. Arguments in palliation. (I) The
divine nature must be expressed in a visible sign. (2) The image a means of
supernatural communications to men through Angels.

   For what other form do they give them by sculpture but that of men and
women and of creatures lower vet and of irrational nature, all manner of
birds, beasts both tame and wild, and creeping things, whatsoever land and
sea and the whole realm of the waters produce? For men having fallen into
the unreasonableness of their passions and pleasures, and unable to see
anything beyond pleasures and lusts of the flesh, inasmuch as they keep
their mind in the midst of these irrational things, they imagined the
divine principle to be in irrational things, and carved a number of gods to
match the variety of their passions. 2. For there are with them images of
beasts and creeping things and birds, as the interpreter of the divine and
true religion says, "They became vain in their reasonings, and their
senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of
an image of corruptible man, and of birds and four-footed beasts and
creeping things, wherefore God gave them up unto vile passions." For having
previously infected their soul, as I said above, with the irrationalities
of pleasures, they then came down to this making of gods; and, once fallen,
thenceforward as though abandoned in their rejection of God, thus they
wallow [7] in them, and portray God, the Father of the Word, in irrational
shapes. 3. As to which those who pass for philosophers and men of knowledge
s among the Greeks, while driven to admit that their visible gods are the
forms and figures of men and of irrational objects, say in defence that
they have such things to the end that by their means the deity may answer
them and be made manifest; because otherwise they could not know the
invisible God, save by such statues and rites. 4. While those [9] who
profess to give still deeper and more philosophical reasons than these say,
that the reason of idols being prepared and fashioned is for the invocation
and manifestation of divine angels and powers, that appearing by these
means they may teach men concerning the knowledge of God; and that they
serve as letters for men, by referring to which they may learn to apprehend
God, from the manifestation of the divine angels effected by their means.
Such then is their mythology,--for far be it from us to call it a theology.
But if one examine the argument with care, he will find that the opinion of
these persons also, not less than that of those previously spoken of, is
false.

# 20. But where does this supposed virtue of the image reside? in the
material, or in the form, or in the maker's skill? Untenability of all
these views.

   For one might reply to them, bringing the case before the tribunal of
truth, How does God make answer or become known by such objects? Is it due
to the matter of which they consist, or to the form which they possess? For
if it be due to the matter, what need is there of the form, instead of God
manifesting Himself through all matter without exception before these
things were fashioned? And in vain have they built their temples to shut in
a single stone, or stock, or piece of gold, when all the world is full of
these substances. 2. But if the superadded form be the cause of the divine
manifestation, what is the need of the material, gold and the rest, instead
of God manifesting Himself by the actual natural animals of which the
images are the figures? For the opinion held about God would on the same
principle have been a nobler one, were He to manifest Himself by means of
living animals, whether rational or irrational, instead of being looked for
in things without life or motion. 3. Wherein they commit the most signal
impiety against themselves. For while they abominate and turn froth the
real animals, beasts, birds, and creeping; things, either because of their
ferocity or because of their dirtiness, yet they carve their forms in
stone, wood, or gold, and make them gods. But it would be better for them
to worship the living things themselves, rather than to worship their
figures in stone. 4. But perhaps neither is the case, nor is either the
material or the form the cause of the divine presence, but it is only
skilful art that summons the deity, inasmuch as it is an imitation of
nature. But if the deity communicates with the inmates on account of the
art, what need, once more, of the material, since the art resides in the
men? For if God manifests Himself solely because of the art, and if for
this reason the images are worshipped as gods, it would be right to worship
and serve the men who are masters of the art, inasmuch as they are rational
also, and have the skill in themselves.

# 21. The idea of communications through angels involves yet wilder
inconsistency, nor does it, even if true, justify the worship of the image.
But as to their second and as they say pro-founder defence, one might
reasonably add as follows. If these things are made by you, ye Greeks, not
for the sake of a self- manifestation of God Himself, but for the sake of a
presence there of angels, why do you rank the images by which ye invoke the
powers as superior and above the powers invoked? For ye carve the figures
for the sake of the apprehension of God, as ye say, but invest the actual
images with the honour and title of God, thus placing yourselves in a
profane position. [2]. For while confessing that the power of God
transcends the littleness of the images, and for that reason not venturing
to invoke God through them, but only the lesser powers, ye yourselves leap
over these latter, and have bestowed on stocks and stones the title of Him,
whose presence ye feared, and call them gods instead of stones and men's
workmanship, and worship them. For even supposing them to serve you, as ye
falsely say, as letters for the contemplation of God, it is not right to
give the signs greater honour than that which they signify. For neither if
a man were to write the emperor's name would it be without risk to give to
the writing more honour than to the emperor; on the contrary, such a man
incurs the penalty of death; while the, writing is fashioned by the skill
of the writer. 3. So also yourselves, had ye your reasoning power in full
strength, would not reduce to matter so great a revelation of the Godhead:
but neither would ye have given to the image greater honour than to the man
that carved it. For if there be any truth in the plea that, as letters,
they indicate the manifestation of God, and are therefore, as indications
of God, worthy to be deified, yet far more would it be right to deify the
artist who carved and engraved them, as being far more powerful and divine
than they, inasmuch as they were cut and fashioned according to his will.
If then the letters are worthy of admiration, much more does the writer
exceed them in wonder, by reason of his art and the skill of his mind. If
then it be not fitting to think that they are gods for this reason, one
must again interrogate them about the madness concerning the idols,
demanding from them the justification for their being in such a form.

# 22. The image cannot represent the true form of God, else God would be
corruptible.

   For if the reason of their being thus fashioned is, that the Deity is
of human form, why do they invest it also with the forms of irrational
creatures? Or if the form of it is that of the latter, why do they embody
it also in the images of rational creatures? Or if it be both at once, and
they conceive God to be of the two combined, namely, that He has the forms
both of rational and of irrational, why do they separate what is joined
together, and separate the images of brutes and of men, instead of always
carving it of both kinds, such as are the fictions in the myths, Scylla,
Charybdis, the Hippocentaur, and the dog- headed Anubis of the Egyptians?
For they ought either to represent them solely of two natures in this way,
or, if they have a single form, not to falsely represent them in the other
as well. 2. And again, if their forms are male, why do they also invest
them with female shapes? Or if they are of the latter, why do they also
falsify their forms as though they were males? Or if again they are a
mixture of both, they ought not to be divided, but both ought to be
combined, and follow the type of the so-called hermaphrodites, so that
their superstition should furnish beholders with a spectacle not only of
impiety and calumny, but of ridicule as well. 2. And generally, if they
conceive the Deity to be corporeal, so that they contrive for it and
represent belly and hands and feet, and neck also, and breasts and the
other organs that go to make man, see to what impiety and godlessness their
mind has come down, to have such ideas of the Deity. For it follows that it
must be capable of all other bodily casualties as well, of being cut and
divided, and even of perishing altogether. But these and like things are
not properties of God,  but rather of earthly bodies. 3. For while God is
incorporeal and incorruptible, and immortal needing nothing for any
purpose, these are both corruptible, and are shapes of bodies, and need
bodily ministrations, as we said before [1]. For often we see images which
have grown old renewed, and those which time, or rain, or some or other of
the animals of the earth have spoiled, restored. In which connexion one
must condemn their folly, in that they proclaim as gods things of which
they themselves are the makers, and themselves ask salvation of objects
which they themselves adorn with their arts to preserve them from
corruption, and beg that their own wants may be supplied by beings which
they well know need attention from themselves, and are not ashamed to call
lords of heaven and all the earth creatures whom they shut up in small
chambers.

# 23. The variety of idolatrous cults proves that they are false.

   But not only from these considerations may one appreciate their
godlessness, but also from their discordant opinions about the idols
themselves. For if they be gods according to their assertion and their
speculations, to which of them is one to give allegiance, and which of them
is one to judge to be the higher, so as either to worship God with
confidence, or as they say to recognise the Deity by them without
ambiguity? For not the same beings are called gods among all; on the
contrary, for every nation almost there is a separate god imagined. And
there are cases of a single district and a single town being at internal
discord about the superstition of their idols. 2. The Phoenicians, for
example, do not know those who are called gods among the Egyptians, nor do
the Egyptians worship the same idols as the Phoenicians have. And while the
Scythians reject the gods of the Persians, the Persians reject those of the
Syrians. But the Pelasgians also repudiate the gods in Thrace, while the
Thracians know not those of Thebes. The Indians moreover differ from the
Arabs, the Arabs from the Ethiopians, and the Ethiopians from the Arabs in
their idols. And the Syrians worship not the idols of the Cilicians, while
the Cappadocian nation call gods beings different from these. And while the
Bithynians have adopted others, the Armenians have imagined others again.
And what need is there for me to multiply examples? The men on the
continent worship other gods than the islanders, while these latter serve
other gods than those of the main lands. 3. And, in general, every city and
village, not knowing the gods of its neighbours, prefers its own, and deems
that these alone are gods. For concerning the abominations in Egypt there
is no need even to speak, as they are before the eyes of all: how the
cities have religions which are opposite and incompatible, and neighbours
always make a point of worshipping the opposite of those next to them [2]:
so much so that the crocodile, prayed to by some, is held in abomination by
their neighbours, while the lion, worshipped as a god by others, their
neighbours, so far from worshipping, slay, if they find it, as a wild
beast; and the fish, consecrated by some people, is used as food in another
place. And thus arise fights and riots and frequent occasions of bloodshed,
and every indulgence of the passions among them. 4. And strange to say,
according to the statement of historians, the very Pelasgians, who learned
from the Egyptians the names of the gods, do not know the gods of Egypt,
but worship others instead. And, speaking generally, all the nations that
are infatuated with idols have different opinions and religions, and
consistency is not to be met with m any one case. Nor is this surprising.
5. For having fallen from the contemplation of the one God, they have come
down to many and diverse objects; and having turned from the Word of the
Father, Christ the Saviour of all, they naturally have their understanding
wandering in many directions. And just as men who have turned from the sun
and are come into dark places go round by many pathless ways, and see not
those who are present, while they imagine those to be there who are not,
and seeing see not; so they that have turned from God and whose soul is
darkened, have their mind in a roving state, and like men who are drunk and
cannot see, imagine what is not true.

# 24. The so-called gods of one place are used as victims in another.

   This, then, is no slight proof of their real godlessness. For, the gods
for every city and country being many and various, and the one destroying
the god of the other, the whole of them are destroyed by all. For those who
are considered gods by some are offered as sacrifices and drink-offerings
to the so-called gods of others, and the victims of some are conversely the
gods of others. So the Egyptians serve the ox, and Apis, a calf, and others
sacrifice these animals to Zeus. For even if they do not sacrifice the very
animals the others have consecrated, yet by sacrificing their fellows they
seem to offer the same. The Libyans have for god a sheep which they call
Ammon, and in other nations this animal is slain as a victim to many gods.
2. The Indians worship Dionysus, using the name as a symbol for wine, and
others pour out wine as an offering to the other gods. Others honour rivers
and springs, and above all the Egyptians pay especial honour to water,
calling them gods. And yet others, and even the Egyptians who worship the
waters, use them to wash off the dirt from others and from themselves, and
ignominiously throw away what is used. While nearly the whole of the
Egyptian system of idols consists of what are victims to the gods of other
nations, so that they are scorned even by those others for deifying what
are not gods, but, both with others and even among themselves, propitiatory
offerings and victims.

# 25. Human sacrifice. Its absurdity. Its prevalence. Its calamitous
results.

   But some have been led by this time to such a pitch of irreligion and
folly as to slay and to offer in sacrifice to their false gods even actual
men, whose figures and forms the gods are. Nor do they see, wretched men,
that the victims they are slaying are the patterns of the gods they make
and worship, and to whom they are offering the men. For they are offering,
one may say, equals to equals, or rather, the higher to the lower; for they
are offering living creatures to dead, and rational beings to things
without motion. 2. For the Scythians who are called Taurians offer in
sacrifice to their Virgin, as they call her, survivors from wrecks, and
such Greeks as they catch, going thus far in impiety against men of their
own race, and thus exposing the savagery of their gods, in that those whom
Providence has rescued from danger and from the sea, they slay, almost
fighting against Providence; because they frustrate the kindness of
Providence by their own brutal character. But others, when they are
returned victorious from war, thereupon dividing their prisoners into
hundreds, and taking a man from each, sacrifice to Ares the man they have
picked out from each hundred. 3. Nor is it only Scythians who commit these
abominations on account of the ferocity natural to them as barbarians: on
the contrary, this deed is a special result of the wickedness connected
with idols and false gods. For the Egyptians used formerly to offer victims
of this kind to Hera, and the Phoenicians and Cretans used to propitiate
Cronos in their sacrifices of children. And even the ancient Romans used to
worship Jupiter Latiarius, as he was called, with human sacrifices, and
some in one way, some in another, but all [1] without exception committed
and incurred the pollution: they incurred it by the mere perpetration of
the murderous deeds, while they polluted their own temples by filling them
with the smoke of such sacrifices. 4. This then was the ready source of
numerous evils to mankind. For seeing that their false gods were pleased
with these things, they forthwith imitated their gods with like misdoings,
thinking that the imitation of superior beings, as they considered them,
was a credit to themselves. Hence mankind was thinned by murders of grown
men and children, and by licence of all kinds. For nearly every city is
full of licentiousness of all kinds, the result of the savage character of
its gods; nor is there one of sober life in the idols' temples [2] save
only he whose licentiousness is witnessed to by them all [3].

# 26. The moral corruptions of Paganism all admittedly originated with the
gods.

   Women, for example, used to sit out in old days in the temples of
Phoenicia, consecrating to the gods there the hire of their bodies,
thinking they propitiated their goddess by fornication, and that they would
procure her favour by this. While men, denying their nature, and no longer
wishing to be males, put on the guise of women, under the idea that they
are thus gratifying and honouring the Mother of their so-called gods. But
all live along with the basest, and vie with the worst among themselves,
and as Paul said, the holy minister of Christ [4]: "For their women changed
the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the
men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward
another, men with men working unseemliness." 2. But acting in this and in
like ways, they admit and prove that the life of their so-called gods was
of the same kind. For from Zeus they have learned corruption of youth and
adultery, from Aphrodite fornication, from Rhea licentiousness, from Ares
murders, and from other gods other like things, which the laws punish and
from which every sober man turns away. Does it then remain fit to consider
them gods who do such things, instead of reckoning them, for the
licentiousness of their ways, more irrational than the brutes? Is it fit to
consider their worshippers human beings, instead of pitying them as more
irrational than the brutes, and more soul- less than inanimate things? For
had they considered the intellectual part of their soul they would not have
plunged headlong into these things, nor have denied the true God, the
Father of Christ.

# 27. The refutation of popular Paganism bring taken as conclusive, we come
to the higher farm of nature- worship. How Nature witnesses to God by the
mutual dependence of all her parts, which forbid us to think of any one of
them as the supreme God. This shewn at length.

   But perhaps those who have advanced beyond these things, and who stand
in awe of Creation, being put to shame by these exposures of abominations,
will join in repudiating what is readily condemned and refuted on all
hands, but will think that they have a well-grounded and unanswerable
opinion, namely, the worship of the universe and of the parts of the
universe. 2. For they will boast that they worship and serve, not mere
stocks and stones and forms of men and irrational birds and creeping things
and beasts, but the sun and moon and all the heavenly universe, and the
earth again, and the entire realm of water: and they will say that none can
shew that these at any rate are not of divine nature, since it is evident
to all, that they lack neither life nor reason, but transcend even the
nature of mankind, inasmuch as the one inhabit the heavens, the other the
earth. 3. It is worth while then to look into and examine these points
also; for here, too, our argument will find that its proof against them
holds true. But before we look, or begin our demonstration, it suffices
that Creation almost raises its voice against them, and points to God as
its Maker and Artificer, Who reigns over Creation and over all things, even
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; Whom the would-be philosophers turn
from to worship and deify the Creation which proceeded from Him, which yet
itself worships and confesses the Lord Whom they deny on its account. 4.
For if men are thus awestruck at the parts of Creation and think that they
are gods, they might well be rebuked by the mutual dependence of those
parts; which moreover makes known, and witnesses to, the Father of the
Word, Who is the Lord and Maker of these parts also, by the unbroken law of
their obedience to Him, as the divine law also says: "The heavens declare
the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth His handiwork [5]." 5. But the
proof of all this is not obscure, but is clear enough in all conscience to
those the eyes of whose understanding are not wholly disabled. For if a man
take the parts of Creation separately, and consider each by itself,--as for
example the sun by itself alone, and the moon apart, and again earth and
air, and heat and cold, and the essence of wet and of dry, separating them
from their mutual conjunction,--he will certainly find that not one is
sufficient for itself, but all are in need of one another's assistance, and
subsist by their mutual help. For the Sun is carried round along with, and
is contained in, the whole heaven, and can never go beyond his own orbit,
while the moon and other stars testify to the assistance given them by the
Sun: while the earth again evidently does not yield her crops without
rains, which in their turn would not descend to earth without the
assistance of the clouds; but not even would the clouds ever appear of
themselves and subsist, without the air. And the air is warmed by the upper
air, but illuminated and made bright by the sun, not by itself. 6. And
wells, again, and rivers will never exist without the earth; but the earth
is not supported upon itself, but is set upon the realm of the waters,
while this again is kept in its place, being bound fast at the centre of
the universe. And the sea, and the great ocean that flows outside round the
whole earth, is moved and borne by winds wherever the force of the winds
dashes it. And the winds in their turn originate, not in themselves, but
according to those who have written on the subject, in the air, from the
burning heat and high temperature of the upper as compared with the lower
air, and blow everywhere through the latter. 7. For as to the four elements
of which the nature of bodies is composed, heat, that is, and cold, wet and
dry, who is so perverted in his understanding as not to know that these
things exist indeed in combination, but if separated and taken alone they
tend to destroy even one another according to the prevailing power of the
more abundant element? For heat is destroyed by cold if it be present in
greater quantity, and cold again is put away by the power of heat, and what
is dry, again, is moistened by wet, and the latter dried by the former.

# 28. But neither can the cosmic organism be God. for that would make God
consist of dissimilar parts, and subject Him to possible dissolution. How
then can these things be gods, seeing that they need one another's
assistance? Or how is it proper to ask anything of them when they too ask
help for themselves one from another? For if it is an admitted truth about
God that He stands in need of nothing, but is self- sufficient and self-
contained, and that in Him all things have their being, and that He
ministers to all rather than they to Him, how is it right to proclaim as
gods the sun and moon and other parts of creation, which are of no such
kind, but which even stand in need of one another's help? 2. But, perhaps,
if divided and taken by themselves, our opponents themselves will admit
that they are dependent, the demonstration being an ocular one. But they
will combine all together, as constituting a single body, and will say that
the whole is God. For the whole once put together, they will no longer need
external help, but the whole will be sufficient for itself and independent
in all respects; so at least the would-be philosophers will tell us, only
to be refuted here once more. 3. Now this argument, not one whir less than
those previously dealt with, will demonstrate their impiety coupled with
great ignorance. For if the combination of the parts makes up the whole,
and the whole is combined out of the parts, then the whole consists of the
parts, and each of them is a portion of the whole. But this is very far
removed from the conception of God. For God is a whole and not a number of
parts, and does not consist of diverse elements, but is Himself the Maker
of the system of the universe. For see what impiety they utter against the
Deity when they say this. For if He consists of parts, certainly it will
follow that He is unlike Himself, and made up of unlike parts. For if He is
sun, He is not moon, and if He is moon, He is not earth, and if He is
earth, He cannot be sea: and so on, taking the parts one by one, one may
discover the absurdity of this theory of theirs. 4. But the following
point, drawn from the observation of our human body, is enough to refute
them. For just as the eye is not the sense of hearing, nor is the latter a
hand: nor is the belly the breast, nor again is the neck a foot, but each
of these has its own function, and a single body is composed of these
distinct parts,-having its parts combined for use, but destined to be
divided in course of time when nature, that brought them together, shall
divide them at the will of God, Who so ordered it;--thus (but may He that
is above pardon the argument [6]), if they combine the parts of creation
into one body and proclaim it God, it follows, firstly, that He is unlike
Himself, as shewn above; secondly, that He is destined to be divided again,
in accordance with the natural tendency of the parts to separation.

# 29. The balance of powers in Nature shews that it is not God, either
collectively, or in parts.

   And in yet another way one may refute their godlessness by the light of
truth. For if God is incorporeal and invisible and intangible by nature,
how do they imagine God to be a body, and worship with divine honour things
which we both see with our eyes and touch with our hands? 2. And again, if
what is said of God hold true, namely, that He is almighty, and that while
nothing has power over Him, He has power and rule over all, how can they
who deify creation fail to see that it does not satisfy this definition of
God? For when the sun is under the earth, the earth's shadow makes his
light invisible, while by day the sun hides the moon by the brilliancy of
his light. And hail ofttimes injures the fruits of the earth, while fire is
put out if an overflow of water take place. And spring makes winter give
place, while summer will not suffer spring to outstay its proper limits,
and it in its turn is forbidden by autumn to outstep its own season. 3. If
then they were gods, they ought not to be defeated and obscured by one
another, but always to co-exist, and to discharge their respective
functions simultaneously. Both by night and by day the sun and the moon and
the rest of the band of stars ought to shine equally together, and give
their light to all, so that all things might be illumined by them. Spring
and summer and autumn and winter ought to go on without alteration, and
together. The sea ought to mingle with the springs, and furnish their drink
to man in common. Calms and windy blasts ought to take place at the same
time. Fire and water together ought to furnish the same service to man. For
no one would take any hurt from them, if they are gods, as our opponents
say, and do nothing for hurt, but rather all things for good. 4. But if
none of these things are possible, because of their mutual incompatibility,
how does it remain possible to give to these things, mutually incompatible
and at strife, and unable to combine, the name of gods, or to worship them
with the honours due to God? How could things naturally discordant give
peace to others for their prayers, and become to them authors of concord?
It is not then likely that the sun or the moon, or any other part of
creation, still less statues in stone, gold, or other material, or the
Zeus, Apollo, and the rest, who are the subject of the poet's fables, are
true gods: this our argument has shewn. But some of these are parts of
creation, others have no life, others have been mere mortal men. Therefore
their worship and deification is no part of religion, but the bringing in
of godlessness and of all impiety, and a sign of a wide departure from the
knowledge of the one true God, namely the Father of Christ. 5. Since then
this is thus proved, and the idolatry of the Greeks is shewn to be full of
all ungodliness, and that its introduction has been not for the good, but
for the ruin, of human life ;--come now, as our argument promised at the
outset, let us, after having confuted error, travel the way of truth, and
behold the Leader and Artificer of the Universe, the Word of the Father, in
order that through Him we may apprehend the Father, and that the Greeks may
know how far they have separated themselves from the truth.

PART II.

# 30. The soul of man, being intellectual, can know God of itself, if it be
true to its own nature.

   The tenets we have been speaking of have been proved to be nothing more
than a false guide for life; but the way of truth will aim at reaching the
real and true God. But for its knowledge and accurate comprehension, there
is need of none other save of ourselves. Neither as God Himself is above
all, is the road to Him afar off or outside ourselves, but it is in us and
it is possible to find it from ourselves, in the first instance, as Moses
also taught, when he said [7]: "The word" of faith "is within thy heart."
Which very thing the Saviour declared and confirmed, when He said: "The
kingdom of God is within you [8]." 2. For having in ourselves faith, and
the kingdom of God, we shall be able quickly to see and perceive the King
of the Universe, the saving Word of the Father. And let not the Greeks, who
worship idols, make excuses, nor let any one else simply deceive himself,
professing to have no such road and therefore finding a pretext for his
godlessness. 3. For we all have set foot upon it, and have it, even if not
all are willing to travel by it, but rather to swerve from it and go wrong,
because of the pleasures of life which attract them from without. And if
one were to ask, what road is this? I say that it is the soul of each one
of us, and the intelligence which resides there. For by it alone can God be
contemplated and perceived. 4. Unless, as they have denied God, the impious
men will repudiate having a soul; which indeed is more plausible than the
rest of what they say, for it is unlike men possessed of an intellect to
deny God, its Maker and Artificer. It is necessary then, for the sake of
the simple, to shew briefly that each one of mankind has a soul, and that
soul rational; especially as certain of the sectaries deny this also,
thinking that man is nothing more than the visible form of the body. This
point once proved, they will be furnished in their own persons with a
clearer proof against the idols.

# 31. Proof of the existence of the rational soul. (I) Difference of man
from the brutes. (2) Man's flower of objective thought. Thought is to sense
as the musician to his instrument. The phenomena of dreams bear this out.

   Firstly, then, the rational nature of the soul is strongly confirmed by
its difference from irrational creatures. For this is why common use gives
them that name, because, namely, the race of mankind is rational. 2.
Secondly, it is no ordinary proof, that man alone thinks of things external
to himself, and reasons about things not actually present, and exercises
reflection, and chooses by judgment the better of alternative reasonings.
For the irrational animals see only what is present, and are impelled
solely by what meets their eye, even if the consequences to them are
injurious, while man is not impelled toward what he sees merely, but judges
by thought what he sees with his eyes. Often for example his impulses are
mastered by reasoning; and his reasoning is subject to after-reflection.
And every one, if he be a friend of truth, perceives that the intelligence
of mankind is distinct from the bodily senses. 3. Hence, because it is
distinct, it acts as judge of the senses, and while they apprehend their
objects, the intelligence distinguishes, recollects, and shews them what is
best. For the sole function of the eye is to see, of the ears to hear, of
the mouth to taste, of the nostrils to apprehend smells, and of the hands
to touch. But what one ought to see and hear, what one ought to touch,
taste and smell, is a question beyond the senses, and belonging to the soul
and to the intelligence which resides in it. Why, the hand is able to take
hold of a sword--blade, and the mouth to taste poison, but neither knows
that these are injurious, unless the intellect decide. 4. And the case, to
look at it by aid of a simile, is like that of a well- fashioned lyre in
the hands of a skilled musician. For as the strings of the lyre have each
its proper note, high, low, or intermediate, sharp or otherwise, yet their
scale is indistinguishable and their time not to be recognized, without the
artist. For then only is the scale manifest and the time right, when he
that is holding the lyre strikes the strings and touches each in tune. In
like manner, the senses being disposed in the body like a lyre, when the
skilled intelligence presides over them, then too the soul distinguishes
and knows what it is doing and how it is acting. 5. But this alone is
peculiar to mankind, and this is what is rational in the soul of mankind,
by means of which it differs from the brutes, and shews that it is truly
distinct from what is to be seen in the body. Often, for example, when the
body is lying on the earth, man imagines and contemplates what is in the
heavens. Often when the body is quiet [9], and at rest and asleep, man
moves inwardly, and beholds what is outside himself, travelling to other
countries, walking about, meeting his acquaintances, and often by these
means divining and forecasting the actions of the day. But to what can this
be due save to the rational soul, in which man thinks of and perceives
things beyond himself ?

# 32. (3) The body cannot originate such phenomena; and in fact the action
of the rational soul is seen in its over-ruling the instincts of the bodily
organs.

   We add a further point to complete our demonstration for the benefit of
those [1] who shamelessly take refuge in denial of reason. How is it, that
whereas the body is mortal by nature, man reasons on the things of
immortality, and often, where virtue demands it, courts death? Or how,
since the body lasts but for a time, does man imagine of things eternal, so
as to despise what lies before him, and desire what is beyond? The body
could not have spontaneously such thoughts about itself, nor could it think
upon what is external to itself. For it is mortal and lasts but for a time.
And it follows that that which thinks what is opposed to the body and
against its nature must be distinct in kind. What then can this be, save a
rational and immortal soul? For it introduces the echo of higher things,
not outside, but within the body, as the musician does in his lyre. 2. Or
how again, the eye being naturally constituted to see and the ear to hear,
do they turn from some objects and choose others? For who is it that turns
away the eye from seeing? Or who shuts off the ear from hearing, its
natural function? Or who often hinders the palate, to which it is natural
to taste things, from its natural impulse? Or who withholds the hand from
its natural activity of touching something, or turns aside the sense of
smell from its normal exercise [2]? Who is it that thus acts against the
natural instincts of the body? Or how does the body, turned from its
natural course, turn to the counsels of another and suffer itself to be
guided at the beck of that other? Why, these things prove simply this, that
the rational soul presides over the body. 3. For the body is not even
constituted to drive itself, but it is carried at the will of another, just
as a horse does not yoke himself, but is driven by his master. Hence laws
for human beings to practise what is good and to abstain from evil-doing,
while to the brutes evil remains unthought of and undiscerned, because they
lie outside rationality and the process of understanding. I think then that
the existence of a rational soul in man is proved by what we have said.

# 33. The soul immortal. Proved by (I) its being distinct from the body,
(2) its being the source of motion, (3) its power to go beyond the body in
imagination and thought.

   But that the soul is made immortal is a further point in the Church's
teaching which you must know, to show how the idols are to be overthrown.
But we shall more directly arrive at a knowledge of this from what we know
of the body, and from the difference between the body and the soul. For if
our argument has proved it to be distinct from the body, while the body is
by nature mortal, it follows that the soul is immortal, because it is not
like the body. 2. And again, if as we have shewn, the soul moves the body
and is not moved by other things, it follows that the movement of the soul
is spontaneous, and that this spontaneous movement goes on after the body
is laid aside in the earth. If then the soul were moved by the body, it
would follow that the severance of its motor would involve its death. But
if the soul moves the body also, it follows all the more that it moves
itself. But if moved by itself [3], it follows that it outlives the body.
3. For the movement of the soul is the same thing as its life, just as, of
course, we call the body alive when it moves, and say that its death takes
place when it ceases moving. But this can be made clearer once for all from
the action of the soul in the body. For if even when united and coupled
with the body it is not shut in or commensurate with the small dimensions
of the body, but often [4], when the body lies in bed, not moving, but in
death-like sleep, the soul keeps awake by virtue of its own power, and
transcends the natural power of the body, and as though travelling away
from the body while remaining in it, imagines and beholds things above the
earth, and often even holds converse with the saints and angels who are
above earthly and bodily existence, and approaches them in the confidence
of the purity of its intelligence; shall it not all the more, when
separated from the body at the time appointed by God Who coupled them
together, have its knowledge of immortality more clear? For if even when
coupled with the body it lived a life outside the body, much more shall its
life continue after the death of the body, and live without ceasing by
reason of God Who made it thus by His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. 4.
For this is the reason why the soul thinks of and bears in mind things
immortal and eternal, namely, because it is itself immortal. And just as,
the body being mortal, its senses also have mortal things as their objects,
so, since the soul contemplates and beholds immortal things, it follows
that it is immortal and lives for ever. For ideas and thoughts about
immortality never desert the soul, but abide in it, and are as it were the
fuel in it which ensures its immortality. This then is why the soul has the
capacity for beholding God, and is its own way thereto, receiving not from
without but from herself the knowledge and apprehension of the Word of God.

# 34. The soul, then, if only it get rid of the stains of sin is able to
know God directly, its own rational nature imaging back the Word of God,
after whose image it was created. But even if it cannot pierce the cloud
which sin draws over its vision, it is confronted by the witness of
creation to God.

   We repeat then what we said before, that just as men denied God, and
worship things without soul, so also in thinking they have not a rational
soul, they receive at once the punishment of their folly, namely, to be
reckoned among irrational creatures: and so, since as though from lack of a
soul of their own they superstitiously worship soulless gods, they are
worthy of pity and guidance. 2. But if they claim to have a soul, and pride
themselves on the rational principle, and that rightly, why do they, as
though they had no soul, venture to go against reason, and think not as
they ought, but make themselves out higher even than the Deity? For having
a soul that is immortal and invisible to them, they make a likeness of God
in things visible and mortal. Or why, in like manner as they have departed
from God, do they not betake themselves to Him again? For they are able, as
they turned away their understanding from God, and feigned as gods things
that were not, in like manner to ascend with the intelligence of their
soul, and turn back to God again. 3. But turn back they can, if they lay
aside the filth of all lust which they have put on, and wash it away
persistently, until they have got rid of all the foreign matter that has
affected their soul, and can shew it in its simplicity as it was made, that
so they may be able by it to behold the Word of the Father after Whose
likeness they were originally made. For the soul is made after the image
and likeness of God, as divine Scripture also shews, when it says in the
person of Gods: "Let us make man after our Image and likeness." Whence also
when it gets rid of all the filth of sin which covers it and retains only
the likeness of the Image in its purity, then surely this latter being
thoroughly brightened, the soul beholds as in a mirror the Image of the
Father, even the Word, and by His means reaches the idea of the Father,
Whose Image the Saviour is. 4. Or, if the soul's own teaching is
insufficient, by reason of the external things which cloud its
intelligence, and prevent its seeing what is higher, yet it is further
possible to attain to the knowledge of God from the things which are seen,
since Creation, as though in written characters, declares in a loud voice,
by its order and harmony, its own Lord and Creator.

PART III.

# 35. Creation a revelation of God; especially in the order and harmony
pervading the whole.

   For God, being good and loving to mankind, and caring for the souls
made by Him,--since He is by nature in visible and incomprehensible, having
His being beyond all created existence [6], for which reason the race of
mankind was likely to miss the way to the knowledge of Him, since they are
made out of nothing while He is unmade,--for this cause God by His own Word
gave the Universe the Order it has, in order that since He is by nature
invisible, men might be enabled to know Him at any rate by His works [7].
For often the artist even when not seen is known by his works. 2. And as
they tell of Phidias the Sculptor that his works of art by their symmetry
and by the proportion of their parts betray Phidias to those who see them
although he is not there, so by the order of the Universe one ought to
perceive God its maker and artificer, even though He be not seen with the
bodily eyes. For God did not take His stand upon His invisible nature (let
none plead that as an excuse) and leave Himself utterly unknown to men; but
as I said above, He so ordered Creation that although He is by nature
invisible He may yet be known by His works. 3. And I say this not on my own
authority, but on the strength of what I learned from hen who have spoken
of God, among them Paul, who thus writes to the Romans [8]: "for the
invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made;" while to the Lycaonians he
speaks out and says [9]: "We also are men of like passions with you, and
bring you good tidings, to turn from these vain things unto a Living God,
Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is, Who
in the generations gone by suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.
And yet He left not Himself without witness, in that lie did good, and gave
you [1] from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with
food and gladness." 4. For who that sees the circle of heaven and the
course of the sun and the moon, and the positions and movements of the
other stars, as they take place in opposite and different directions, while
yet in their difference all with one accord observe a consistent order, can
resist the conclusion that these are not ordered by themselves, but have a
maker distinct from themselves who orders them? or who that sees the sun
rising by day and the moon shining by night, and waning and waxing without
variation exactly according to the same number of days, and some of the
stars running their courses and with orbits various and manifold, while
others move [2] without wandering, can fail to perceive that they certainly
have a creator to guide them?

# 36. This the more striking, if we consider the opposing forces out of
which this order is produced.

   Who that sees things of opposite nature combined, and in concordant
harmony, as for example fire mingled with cold, and dry with wet, and that
not in mutual conflict, but making up a single body, as it were
homogeneous, can resist the inference that there is One external to these
things that has united them? Who that sees winter giving place to spring
and spring to summer and summer to autumn, and that these things contrary
by nature (for the one chills, the other burns, the one nourishes the other
destroys), yet all make up a balanced result beneficial to mankind,--can
fail to perceive that there is One higher than they, Who balances and
guides them all, even if he see Him not? 2. Who that sees the clouds
supported in air, and the weight of the waters bound up in the clouds, can
but perceive Him that binds them up and has ordered these things so? Or who
that sees the earth, heaviest of all things by nature, fixed upon the
waters, and remaining unmoved upon what is by nature mobile, will fail to
understand that there is One that has made and ordered it, even God? Who
that sees the earth bringing forth fruits in due season, and the rains from
heaven, and the flow of rivers, and springing up of wells, and the birth of
animals from unlike parents, and that these things take place not at all
times but at determinate seasons,--and in general, among things mutually
unlike and contrary, the balanced and uniform order to which they conform,-
-can resist the inference that there is one Power which orders and
administers them, ordaining things well as it thinks fit ? 4. For left to
themselves they could not subsist or ever be able to appear, on account of
their mutual contrariety of nature. For water is by nature heavy, and tends
to flow downwards, while the clouds are light and belong to the class of
things which tend to soar and mount upwards. And yet we see water, heavy as
it is, borne aloft in the clouds. And again, earth is very heavy, while
water on the other hand is relatively light; and yet the heavier is
supported upon the lighter, and the earth does not sink, but remains
immoveable. And male and female are not the same, while yet they unite in
one, and the result is the generation from both of an animal like them. And
to cut the matter short, cold is opposite to heat, and wet fights with dry,
and yet they come together and are not at variance, but they agree, and
produce as their result a single body, and the birth of everything.

# 37. The same subject continues: Things then of conflicting and opposite
nature would not have reconciled themselves, were there not One higher and
Lord over them to unite them, to Whom the elements themselves yield
obedience as slaves that obey a master. And instead of each having regard
to its own nature and fighting with its neighbour, they recognise the Lord
Who has united them, and are at concord one with another, being by nature
opposed, but at amity by the will of Him that guides them. 2. For if their
mingling into one were not due to a higher authority, how could the heavy
mingle and combine with the light, the wet with the dry, the round with the
straight, fire with cold, or sea with earth, or the sun with the moon, or
the stars with the heaven, and the air with the clouds, the nature of each
being dissimilar to that of the other? For there would be great strife
among them, the one burning, the other giving cold; the heavy dragging
downwards, the light in the contrary direction and upwards; the sun giving
light while the air diffused darkness: yes, even the stars would have been
at discord with one another, since some have their position above, others
beneath, and night would have refused to make way for day, but would have
persisted in remaining to fight and strive against it. 3. But if this were
so, we should consequently see not an ordered universe, but disorder, not
arrangement but anarchy, not a system, but everything out of system, not
proportion but disproportion. For in the general strife and conflict either
all things would be destroyed, or the prevailing principle alone would
appear. And even the latter would shew the disorder of the whole, for left
alone, and deprived of the help of the others, it would throw the whole out
of gears just as, if a single hand and foot were left alone, that would not
preserve the body in its integrity. 4. For what sort of an universe would
it be, if only the sun appeared, or only the moon went her course, or there
were only night, or always day? Or what sort of harmony would it be, again,
if the heaven existed alone without the stars, or the stars without the
heaven? Or what benefit would there be if there were only sea, or if the
earth were there alone without waters and without the other parts of
creation? Or how could man, or any animal, have appeared upon earth, if the
elements were mutually at strife, or if there were one that prevailed, and
that one insufficient for the composition of bodies. For nothing in the
world could have been composed of heat, or cold, or wet, or dry, alone, but
all would have been without arrangement or combination. But not even the
one element which appeared to prevail would have been able to subsist
without the assistance of the rest: for that is how each subsists now.

# 38. The Unity of God shewn by the Harmony of the order of Nature.

   Since then, there is everywhere not disorder but order, proportion and
not disproportion, not disarray but arrangement, and that in an order
perfectly harmonious, we needs must infer and be led to perceive the Master
that put together and compacted all things, and produced harmony in them.
For though He be not seen with the eyes, yet from the order and harmony of
things contrary it is possible to perceive their Ruler, Arranger, and King.
2. For in like manner as if we saw a city, consisting of many and diverse
people, great and small, rich and poor, old and young, male and female, in
an orderly condition, and its inhabitants, while different from one
another, yet at unity among themselves, and not the rich set against the
poor, the great against the small, nor the young against the old, but all
at peace in the enjoyment of equal rights,--if we saw this, the inference
surely follows that the presence of a ruler enforces concord, even if we do
not see him; (for disorder is a sign of absence of rule, while order shews
the governing authority: for when we see the mutual harmony of the members
in the body, that the eye does not strive with the hearing, nor is the hand
at variance with the foot, but that each accomplishes its service without
variance, we perceive from this that certainly there is a soul in the body
that governs these members, though we see it not); so in the order and
harmony of the Universe, we needs must perceive God the governor of it all,
and that He is one and not many. 3. So then this order of its arrangement,
and the concordant harmony of all things, shews that the Word, its Ruler
and Governor, is not many, but One. For if there were more than one Ruler
of Creation, such an universal order would not be maintained, but all
things would fall into confusion because of their plurality, each one
biasing the whole to his own will, and striving with the other. For just as
we said that polytheism was atheism, so it follows that the rule of more
than one is the rule of none. For each one would cancel the rule of the
other, and none would appear ruler, but there would be anarchy everywhere.
But where no ruler is, there disorder follows of course. 4. And conversely,
the single order and concord of the many and diverse shews that the ruler
too is one. For just as though one were to hear from a distance a lyre,
composed of many diverse strings, and marvel at the concord of its
symphony, in that its sound is composed neither of low notes exclusively,
nor high nor intermediate only, but all combine their sounds in equal
balance,-and would not fail to perceive from this that the lyre was not
playing itself, nor even being struck by more persons than one, but that
there was one musician, even if he did not see him, who by his skill
combined the sound of each string into the tuneful symphony; so, the order
of the whole universe being perfectly harmonious, and there being no strife
of the higher against the lower or the lower against the higher, and all
things making up one order, it is consistent to think that the Ruler and
King of all Creation is one and not many, Who by His own light illumines
and gives movement to all.

# 39. Impossibility of a plurality of Gods.

   For we must not think there is more than one ruler and maker of
Creation: but it belongs to correct and true religion to believe that its
Artificer is one, while Creation herself dearly points to this. For the
fact that there is one Universe only and not more is a conclusive proof
that its Maker is one. For if there were a plurality of gods, there would
necessarily be also more universes than one. For neither were it reasonable
for more than one God to make a single universe, nor for the one universe
to be made by more than one, because of the absurdities which would result
from this. 2. Firstly, if the one universe were made by a plurality of
gods, that would mean weakness on the part of those who made it, because
many contributed to a single result; which would be a strong proof of the
imperfect creative skill of each. For if one were sufficient, the many
would not supplement each other's deficiency. But to say that there is any
deficiency in God is not only impious, but even beyond all sacrilege. For
even among men one would not call a workman perfect if he were unable to
finish his work, a single piece, by himself and without the aid of several
others. 3. But if, although each one was able to accomplish the whole, yet
all worked at it in order to claim a share in the result, we have the
laughable conclusion that each worked for reputation, test he should be
suspected of inability. But, once more, it is most grotesque to ascribe
vainglory to gods. 4. Again, if each one were sufficient for the creation
of the whole, what need of more than one one being self-sufficient for the
universe? Moreover it would be evidently impious and grotesque, to make the
thing created one, while the creators were many and different, it being a
maxim of science s that what is one and complete is higher than things that
are diverse. 5. And this you must know, that if the universe had been made
by a plurality of gods, its movements would be diverse and inconsistent.
For having regard to each one of its makers, its movements would be
correspondingly different But such difference again, as was said before,
would involve disarray and general disorder; for not even a ship will sail
aright if she be steered by many, unless one pilot hold the tiller [4], nor
will a lyre struck by many produce a tuneful sound, unless there be one
artist who strikes it. 6. Creation, then, being one, and the Universe one,
and its order one, we must perceive that its King and Artificer also is
one. For this is why the Artificer Himself made the whole universe one,
lest by the coexistence of more than one a plurality of makers should be
supposed; but that as the work is one, its Maker also may be believed to be
One. Nor does it follow from the unity of the Maker that the Universe must
be one, for God might have made others as well. But because the Universe
that has been made is one, it is necessary to believe that its Maker also
is one.

# 40. The rationality and order of the Universe proves that it is the work
of the Reason or Word of God.

   Who then might this Maker be? for this is a point most necessary to
make plain, lest, from ignorance with regard to him, a man should suppose
the wrong maker, and fall once more into the same old godless error, but I
think no one is really in doubt about it. For if our argument has proved
that the gods of the poets are no gods, and has convicted of error those
that deify creation, and in general has shewn that the idolatry of the
heathen is godlessness and impiety, it strictly follows from the
elimination of these that the true religion is with us, and that the God we
worship and preach is the only true One, Who is Lord of Creation and Maker
of all existence. 2. Who then is this, save the Father of Christ, most holy
and above all created existence s, Who like an excellent pilot, by His own
Wisdom and His own Word, our Lord and Saviour Christ, steers and preserves
and orders all things, and does as seems to Him best? But that is best
which has been done, and which we see taking place, since that is what He
wills; and this a man can hardly refuse to believe. 3. For if the movement
of creation were irrational, and the universe were borne along without
plan, a man might fairly disbelieve what we say. But if it subsist in
reason and wisdom and skill, and is perfectly ordered throughout, it
follows that He that is over it and has ordered it is none other than the
[reason or] Word of God. 4. But by Word I mean, not that which is involved
and inherent in all things created, which some are wont to call the seminal
[6] principle, which is without soul and has no power of reason or thought,
but only works by external art, according to the skill of him that applies
it,--nor such a word as belongs to rational beings and which consists of
syllables, and has the air as its vehicle of expression,--but I mean the
living and powerful Word of the good God, the God of the Universe, the very
Word which is God [7], Who while different from things that are made, and
from all Creation, is the One own Word of the good Father, Who by His own
providence ordered and illumines this Universe. 5. For being the good Word
of the Good Father He produced the order of all things, combining one with
another things contrary, and reducing them to one harmonious order. He
being the Power of God and Wisdom of God causes the heaven to revolve, and
has suspended the earth, and made it fast, though resting upon nothing, by
His own nod [8]. Illumined by Him, the sun gives light to the world, and
the moon has her measured period of shining. By reason of Him the water is
suspended in the clouds; the rains shower upon the earth, and the sea is
kept within bounds, while the earth bears grasses and is clothed with all
manner of plants. 6. And if a man were incredulously to ask, as regards
what we are saying, if there be a Word of God at all [9], such an one would
indeed be mad to doubt concerning the Word of God, but yet demonstration is
possible from what is seen, because all things subsist by the Word and
Wisdom of God, nor would any created thing have had a fixed existence had
it not been made by reason, and that reason the Word of God, as we have
said.

# 41. The Presence of the Word in nature necessary, not only for its
original Creation, but also for its permanence.

   But though He is Word, He is not, as we said, after the likeness of
human words, composed of syllables; but He is the unchanging Image of His
own Father. For men, composed of parts and made out of nothing, have their
discourse composite and divisible. But God possesses true existence and is
not composite, wherefore His Word also has true Existence and is not
composite, but is the one and only-begotten God [1], Who proceeds in His
goodness from the Father as from a good Fountain, and orders all things and
holds them together. 2. But the reason why the Word, the Word of God, has
united Himself [2] with created things is truly wonderful, and teaches us
that the present order of things is none otherwise than is fitting. For the
nature of created things, inasmuch as it is brought into being out of
nothing, is of a fleeting sort, and weak and mortal, if composed of itself
only. But the God of all is good and exceeding noble by nature,--and
therefore is kind. For one that is good can grudge nothing [3]: for which
reason he does not grudge even existence, but desires all to exist, as
objects for His loving- kindness. 3. Seeing then all created nature, as far
as its own laws were concerned, to be fleeting and subject to dissolution,
lest it should come to this and lest the Universe should be broken up again
into nothingness, for this cause He made all things by His own eternal
Word, and gave substantive existence to Creation, and moreover did not
leave it to be tossed in a tempest in the course of its own nature, lest it
should run the risk of once more dropping out of existence [4]; but,
because He is good He guides and settles the whole Creation by His own
Word, Who is Himself also God, that by the governance and providence and
ordering action of the Word, Creation may have light, and be enabled to
abide always securely. For it partakes of the Word Who derives true
existence from the Father, and is helped by Him so as to exist, lest that
should come to it which would have come but for the maintenance of it by
the Word,--namely, dissolution,--" for He is the Image of the invisible
God, the first-born of all Creation, for through Him and in Him all things
consist, things visible and things invisible, and He is the Head of the
Church," as the ministers of truth teach in their holy writings [5].

# 42. This function of the Word described at length.

   The holy Word of the Father, then, almighty and all-perfect, uniting
with the universe and having everywhere unfolded His own powers, and having
illumined all, both things seen and things invisible, holds them together
and binds them to Himself, having left nothing void of His own power, but
on the contrary quickening and sustaining all things everywhere, each
severally and all collectively; while He mingles in one the principles of
all sensible existence, heat namely and cold and wet and dry, and causes
them not to conflict, but to make up one concordant harmony. 2. By reason
of Him and His power, fire does not fight with cold nor wet with dry, but
principles mutually opposed, as if friendly and brotherly combine together,
and give life to the things we see, and form the principles by which bodies
exist. Obeying Him, even God the Word, things on earth have life and things
in the heaven have their order. By reason of Him all the sea, and the great
ocean, move within their proper bounds, while, as we said above, the dry
land grows grasses and is clothed with all manner of diverse plants. And,
not to spend time in the enumeration of particulars, where the truth is
obvious, there is nothing that is and takes place but has been made and
stands by Him and through Him, as also the Divine [6] says, "In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;
all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made." 3. For
just as though some musician, having tuned a lyre, and by his art adjusted
the high notes to the low, and the intermediate notes to the rest, were to
produce a single tune as the result, so also the Wisdom of God, handling
the Universe as a lyre, and adjusting things in the air to things on the
earth, and things in the heaven to things in the air, and combining parts
into wholes and moving them all by His beck and will, produces well and
fittingly, as the result, the unity of the universe and of its order,
Himself remaining unmoved with the Father while He moves all things by His
organising action, as seems good for each to His own Father. 4. For what is
surprising in His godhead is this, that by one and the same act of will He
moves all things simultaneously, and not at intervals, but all
collectively, both straight and curved, things above and beneath and
intermediate, wet, cold, warm, seen and invisible, and orders them
according to their several nature. For simultaneously at His single nod
what is straight moves as straight, what is curved also, and what is
intermediate, follows its own movement; what is warm receives warmth, what
is dry dryness, and all things according to their several nature are
quickened and organised by Him, and He produces as the result a marvellous
and truly divine harmony.

# 43. Three similes to illustrate the Word's relation to the Universe.

   And for so great a matter to be understood by an example, let what we
are describing be compared to a great chorus. As then the chorus is
composed of different people, children, women again, and old men, and those
who are still young, and, when one, namely the conductor, gives the sign,
each utters sound according to his nature and power, the man as a man, the
child as a child, the old man as an old man, and the young man as a young
man, while all make up a single harmony; 2. or as our soul at one time
moves our several senses according to the proper function of each, so that
when some one object is present all alike are put in motion, and the eye
sees, the ear hears, the hand touches, the smell takes in odour, and the
palate tastes,--and often the other parts of the body act too, as for
instance if the feet walk; 3. or, to make our meaning plain by yet a third
example, it is as though a very great city were built, and administered
under the presence of the ruler and king who has built it; for when he is
present anti gives orders, and has his eye upon everything, all obey; some
busy themselves with agriculture, others hasten for water to the aqueducts,
another goes forth to procure provisions,--one goes to senate, another
enters the assembly, the judge goes to the bench, and the magistrate to his
court. The workman likewise settles to his craft, the sailor goes down to
the sea, the carpenter to his workshop, the physician to his treatment, the
architect to his building; and while one is going to the country, another
is returning from the country, and while some walk about the town others
are going out of the town and returning to it again: but all this is going
on and is organised by the presence of the one Ruler, and by his
management: 4. in like manner then we must conceive of the whole of
Creation, even though the example be inadequate, yet with an enlarged idea.
For with the single impulse of a nod as it were of the Word of God, all
things simultaneously fall into order, and each discharge their proper
functions, and a single order is made up by them all together.

# 44. The similes applied to the whole Universe, seen and unseen.

   For by a nod and by the power of the Divine Word of the Father that
governs and presides over all, the heaven revolves, the stars move, the sun
shines, the moon goes her circuit, and the air receives the sun's light and
the aether his heat, and the winds blow: the mountains are reared on high,
the sea is rough with waves, and the living things in it grow the earth
abides fixed, and bears fruit, and man is formed and lives and dies again,
and all things whatever have their life and movement; fire burns, water
cools, fountains spring forth, rivers flow, seasons and hours come round,
rains descend, clouds are filled, hail is formed. snow and ice congeal,
birds fly, creeping things go along, water-animals swim, the sea is
navigated, the earth is sown and grows crops in due season, plants grow,
and some are young, some ripening, others in their growth become old and
decay, and while some things are vanishing others are being engendered and
are coming to light. 2. But all these things, and more, which for their
number we cannot mention, the worker of wonders and marvels, the Word of
God, giving light and life, moves and orders by His own nod, making the
universe one. Nor does He leave out of Himself even the invisible powers;
for including these also in the universe inasmuch as he is their maker
also, He holds them together and quickens them by His nod and by His
providence. And there can be no excuse for disbelieving this. 3. For as by
His own providence bodies grow and the rational soul moves, and possesses
life and thought, and this requires little proof, for we see what takes
place,--so again the same Word of God with one simple nod by His own power
moves and holds together both the visible universe and the invisible
powers, allotting to each its proper function, so that the divine powers
move in a diviner way, while visible things move as they are seen to do.
But Himself being over all, both Governor and King and organising power, He
does all for the glory and knowledge of His own Father, so that almost by
the very works that He brings to pass He teaches us and says, "By the
greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the maker of them is
seen [7]."

# 45. Conclusion. Doctrine of Scripture on the subject of Part I.

   For just as by looking up to the heaven and seeing its order and the
light of the stars, it is possible to infer the Word Who ordered these
things, so by beholding the Word of God, one needs must behold also God His
Father, proceeding from Whom He is rightly called His Father's Interpreter
and Messenger. 2. And this one may see from our own experience; for if when
a word proceeds from men [8] we infer that the mind is its source, and, by
thinking about the word, see with our reason the mind which it reveals, by
far greater evidence and incomparably more, seeing the power of the Word,
we receive a knowledge also of His good Father, as the Saviour Himself
says, "He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father [9]." But this all
inspired Scripture also teaches more plainly and with more authority, so
that we in our turn write boldy to you as we do, and you, if you refer to
them, will be able to verify what we say. 3. For an argument when confirmed
by higher authority is irresistibly proved. From the first then the divine
Word firmly taught the Jewish people about the abolition of idols when it
said [1]: "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven image, nor the likeness
of anything that is in the heaven above or in the earth beneath." But the
cause of their abolition another writer declares [2], saying: "The idols of
the heathen are silver and gold, the works of men's hands: a mouth have
they and will not speak, eyes have they. and will not see, ears have they
and will not: hear, noses have they and will not smell, hands have they and
will not handle, feet have they and will not walk." Nor has it passed over
in silence the doctrine of creation; but, knowing well its beauty, lest any
attending solely to this beauty should worship things as if they were gods,
instead of God's works, it teaches men firmly beforehand when it says [3]:
"And do not when thou lookest up with thine eyes and seest the sun and moon
and all the host of heaven, go astray and worship them, which the Lord thy
God hath given to all nations under heaven." But He gave them, not to be
their gods, but that by their agency the Gentiles should know, as we have
said, God the Maker of them all. 4. For the people of the Jews of old had
abundant teaching, in that they had the knowledge of God not only from the
works of Creation, but also from the divine Scriptures. And in general to
draw men away from the error and irrational imagination of idols, He saith
[4]: "Thou shalt have none other gods but Me." Not as if there were other
gods does He forbid them to have them, but lest any, turning from the true
God, should begin to make himself gods of what were not, such as those who
in the poets and writers are called gods, though they are none. And the
language itself shews that they are no Gods, when it says, "Thou shalt have
none other gods," which refers only to the future. But what is referred to
the future does not exist at the time of speaking.

# 46. Doctrine of Scripture on the subject of Part 3.

   Has then the divine teaching, which abolished the godlessness of the
heathen or the idols, passed over in silence, and left the race of mankind
to go entirely unprovided with the knowledge of God? Not so: rather it
anticipates their understanding when it says [5]: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord
thy God is one God;" and again, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy strength ;" and again, "Thou shalt worship the
Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve, and shalt cleave to Him." [2].
But that the providence and ordering power of the Word also, over all and
toward all, is attested by all inspired Scripture, this passage suffices to
confirm our argument, where men who speak of God say [6]: "Thou hast laid
the foundation of the earth and it abideth. The day continueth according to
Thine ordinance." And again [7]: "Sing to our God upon the harp, that
covereth the heaven with clouds, that prepareth rain for the earth, that
bringeth forth grass upon the mountains, and green herb for the service of
man, and giveth food to the cattle." 3. But by whom does He give it, save
by Him through Whom all things were made? For the providence over all
things belongs naturally to Him by Whom they were made; and who is this
save the Word of God, concerning Whom in another psalm [8] he says: "By the
Word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the
Breath of His mouth." For He tells us that all things were made in Him and
through Him. 4. Wherefore He also persuades us and says [9], He spoke and
they were made, He commanded and they were created;" as the illustrious
Moses also at the beginning of his account of Creation confirms what we say
by his narrative [1], saying: and God said, "let us make man in our image
and after our likeness:" for also when He was carrying out the creation of
the heaven and earth and all things, the Father said to Him [2], "Let the
heaven be made," and "let the waters be gathered together and let the dry
land appear," and "let the earth bring forth herb" and "every green thing:"
so that one must convict Jews also of not genuinely attending to the
Scriptures. 5. For one might ask them to whom was God speaking, to use the
imperative mood? If He were commanding and addressing the things He was
creating, the utterance would be redundant, for they were not yet in being,
but were about to be made; but no one speaks to what does not exist, nor
addresses to what is not yet made a command to be made. For if God were
giving a command to the things that were to be, He must have said, "Be
modal, heaven, and be made, earth, and come forth, green herb, and be
created, O man." But in fact He did not do so; but He gives the command
thus: Let us make man," and "let the green herb come forth." By which God
is proved to be speaking about them to some one at hand: it follows then
that some one was with Him to Whom He spoke when He made all things. 6. Who
then could it be, save His Word? For to whom could God be said to speak,
except His Word? Or who was with Him when He made all created Existence,
except His Wisdom, which says [3]: "When He was making the heaven and the
earth I was present with Him ?" But in the mention of heaven and earth, all
created things in heaven and earth are included as well. 7. But being
present with Him as His Wisdom and His Word, looking at the Father He
fashioned the Universe, and organised it and gave it order; and, as He is
the power of the Father, He gave all things strength to be, as the Saviour
says [4]: "What things soever I see the Father doing, I also do in like
manner." And His holy disciples teach that all things were made "through
Him and unto Him ;" 8. and, being the good Offspring of Him that is good,
and true Son, He is the Father's Power and Wisdom and Word, not being so by
participation [5], nor as if these qualifies were imparted to Him from
without, as they are to those who partake of Him and are made wise by Him,
and receive power and reason in Him; but He is the very Wisdom, very Word,
and very own Power of the Father, very Light, very Truth, very
Righteousness, very Virtue, and in truth His express Image, and Brightness,
and Resemblance. And to sum all up, He is the wholly perfect Fruit of the
Father, and is alone the Son, and unchanging Image of the Father.

# 47. Necessity of a return to the Word if our. corrupt nature is to be
restored.

   Who then, who can declare the Father by number, so as to discover the
powers of His Word? For like as He is the Father's Word and Wisdom, so too
condescending to created things, He becomes, to impart the knowledge and
apprehension of Him that begot Him, His very Brightness and very Life, and
the Door, and the Shepherd, and the Way, and King and Governor, and Saviour
over all, and Light, and Giver of Life, and Providence over all. Having
then such a Son begotten of Himself, good, and Creator, the Father did not
hide Him out of the sight of His creatures, but even day by day reveals Him
to all by means of the organisation and life of all things, which is His
work. 2. But in and through Him He reveals Himself also, as the Saviour
says [6]: "I in the Father and the Father in Me:" so that it follows that
the Word is in Him that begot Him, and that He that is begotten lives
eternally with the Father. But this being so, and nothing being outside
Him, but both heaven and earth and all that in them is being dependent on
Him, yet men in their folly have set aside the knowledge and service of
Him, and honoured things that are not instead of things that are: and
instead of the real and true God deified things that were not, "serving the
creature rather than the Creator [7]," thus involving themselves in
foolishness and impiety. 3. For it is just as if one were to admire the
works more than the workman, and being awestruck at the public works in the
city, were to make light of their builder, or as if one were to praise a
musical instrument but to despise the man who made and tuned it. Foolish
and sadly disabled in eyesight! For how else had they known the building,
or ship, or lyre, had not the ship-builder made it, the architect built it,
or the musician fashioned it? 4. As then he that reasons in such a way is
mad, and beyond all madness, even so affected in mind, I think, are those
who do not recognise God or worship His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ the
Saviour of all, through Whom the Father orders, and holds together all
things, and exercises providence over the Universe; having faith and piety
towards Whom, my Christ-loving friend, be of good cheer and of good hope,
because immortality and the kingdom of heaven is the fruit of faith and
devotion towards Him, if only the soul be adorned according to His laws.
For just as for them who walk after His example, the prize is life
everlasting, so for those who walk the opposite way, and not that of
virtue, there is great shame, and peril without pardon in the day of
judgment, because although they knew the way of truth their acts were
contrary to their knowledge.


SECOND BOOK: ON THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD OF GOD

# 1. Introductory.--The subject of this treatise: the humiliation and
incarnation of the Word. Presupposes the doctrine of Creation, and that by
the Word. The Father has saved the world by Him through Whom He first made
it.

   Whereas in what precedes we have drawn out--choosing a few points from
among many--a sufficient account of the error of the heathen concerning
idols, and of the worship of idols, and how they originally came to be
invented; how, namely, out of wickedness men devised for themselves the
worshipping of idols: and whereas we have by God's grace noted somewhat
also of the divinity of the Word of the Father, and of His universal
Providence and power, and that the Good Father through Him orders all
things, and all things are moved by Him, and in Him are quickened: come
now, Macarius[1] (worthy of that name), and true lover of Christ, let us
follow up the faith of our religion[2], and set forth also what relates to
the Word's becoming Man, and to His divine Appearing amongst us, which Jews
traduce and Greeks laugh to scorn, but we worship; in order that, all the
more for the seeming low estate of the Word, your piety toward Him may be
increased and multiplied. 2. For the more He is mocked among the
unbelieving, the more witness does He give of His own Godhead; inasmuch as
He not only Himself demonstrates as possible what then mistake, thinking
impossible, but what men deride as unseemly, this by His own goodness He
clothes with seemliness, and what men, in their conceit of wisdom, laugh at
as merely human, He by His own power demonstrates to be divine, subduing
the pretensions of idols by His supposed humiliation--by the Cross--and
those who mock and disbelieve invisibly winning over to recognise His
divinity and power. 3. But to treat this subject it is necessary to recall
what has been previously said; in order that you may neither fail to know
the cause of the bodily appearing of the Word of the Father, so high and so
great, nor think it a consequence of His own nature that the Saviour has
worn a body; but that being incorporeal by nature, and Word from the
beginning, He has yet of the loving-kindness and goodness of His own Father
been manifested to us in a human body for our salvation. 4. It is, then,
proper for us to begin the treatment of this subject by speaking of the
creation of the universe, and of God its Artificer, that so it may be duly
perceived that the renewal of creation has been the work of the self-same
Word that made it at the beginning. For it will appear not inconsonant for
the Father to have wrought its salvation in Him by Whose means He made it.

# 2. Erroneous views of Creation rejected.(1) Epicurean (fortuitous
generation). But diversity of bodies and parts argues a creating intellect.
(2.) Platonists (pre-existent matter.) But this subjects God to human
limitations, making Him not a creator but a mechanic. (3) Gnostics (an
alien Demiurge). Rejected from Scripture.

   Of the making of the universe and the creation of all things many have
taken different views, and each man has laid down the law just as he
pleased. For some say that all things have come into being of themselves,
and in a chance fashion; as, for example, the Epicureans, who tell us in
their self-contempt, that universal providence does not exist speaking
right in the face of obvious fact and experience. 2. For if, as they say,
everything has had its beginning of itself, and independently of purpose,
it would follow that everything had come into[3] mere being, so as to be
alike and not distinct. For it would follow in virtue of the unity of body
that everything must be sun or moon, and in the case of men it would follow
that the whole must be hand, or eye, or foot. But as it is this is not so.
On the contrary, we see a distinction of sun, moon, and earth; and again,
in the case of human bodies, of foot, hand, and head. Now, such separate
arrangement as this tells us not of their having come into being of
themselves, but shews that a cause preceded them; from which cause it is
possible to apprehend God also as the Maker and Orderer of all. 3. But
others, including Plato, who is in such repute among the Greeks, argue that
God has made the world out of matter previously existing and without
beginning. For God could have made nothing had not the material existed
already; just as the wood must exist ready at hand for the carpenter, to
enable him to work at all. 4. But in so saying they know not that they are
investing God with weakness. For if He is not Himself the cause of the
material, but makes things only of previously existing material, He proves
to be weak, because unable to produce anything He makes without the
material; just as it is without doubt a weakness of the carpenter not to be
able to make anything required without his timber. For, ex hypothesi, had
not the material existed, God would not have made anything. And how could
He in that case be called Maker and Artificer, if He owes His ability to
make to some other source--namely, to the material? So that if this be so,
God will be on their theory a Mechanic only, and not a Creator out of
nothing[4]; if, that is, He works at existing material, but is not Himself
the cause of the material. For He could not in any sense be called Creator
unless He is Creator of the material of which the things created have in
their turn been made. 5. But the sectaries imagine to themselves a
different artificer of all things, other than the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, in deep blindness even as to the words they use. 6. For whereas the
Lord says to the Jews[5]: "Have ye not read that from the beginning He
which created them made them male and female, and said, For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and
they twain shall become one flesh?" and then, referring to the Creator,
says, "What, therefore, GOD hath joined together let not man put asunder:"
how come these men to assert that the creation is independent of the
Father? Or if, in the words of John, who says, making no exception, "All
things[6] were made by Him, and "without Him was not anything made," how
could the artificer be another, distinct from the Father of Christ?

# 3. The true doctrine. Creation out of nothing, of God's lavish bounty of
being. Man created above the rest, but incapable of independent
perseverance. Hence the exceptional and supra-natural gift of being in
God's Image, with the promise of bliss conditionally upon his perseverance
in grace.

   Thus do they vainly speculate. But the godly teaching and the faith
according to Christ brands their foolish language as godlessness. For it
knows that it was not spontaneously, because forethought is not absent; nor
of existing matter, because God is not weak; but that out of nothing, and
without its having any previous existence, God made the universe to exist
through His word, as He says firstly through Moses: "In[7] the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth;" secondly, in the most edifying book
of the Shepherd, "First[8] of all believe that God is one, which created
and framed all things, and made them to exist out of nothing." 2. To which
also Paul refers when he says, "By[9] faith we understand that the worlds
have been framed by the Word of God, so that what is seen hath not been
made out of things which do appear." 3. For God is good, or rather is
essentially the source of goodness: nor[1] could one that is good be
niggardly of anything: whence, grudging existence to none, He has made all
things out of nothing by His own Word, Jesus Christ our Lord. And among
these, having taken especial pity, above all things on earth, upon the race
of men, and having perceived its inability, by virtue of the condition of
its origin, to continue in one stay, He gave them a further gift, and He
did not barely create man, as He did all the irrational creatures on the
earth, but made them after His own image, giving them a portion even of the
power of His own Word; so that having as it were a kind of reflexion of the
Word, and being made rational, they might be able to abide ever in
blessedness, living the true life which belongs to the saints in paradise.
4. But knowing once more how the will of man could sway to either side, in
anticipation He secured the grace given them by a law and by the spot where
He placed them. For He brought them into His own garden, and gave them a
law: so that, if they kept the grace and remained good, they might still
keep the life in paradise without sorrow or pain or care besides having the
promise of incorruption in heaven; but that if they transgressed and turned
back, and became evil, they might know that they were incurring that
corruption in death which was theirs by nature: no longer to live in
paradise, but cast out of it from that time forth to die and to abide in
death and in corruption. 5. Now this is that of which Holy Writ also gives
warning, saying in the Person of God: "Of every tree[2] that is in the
garden, eating thou shalt eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, ye shall not eat of it, but on the day that ye eat, dying ye shall
die." But by "dying ye shall die," what else could be meant than not dying
merely, but also abiding ever in the corruption of death?

## 4, 5. Our creation and God's Incarnation most intimately connected. As
by the Ward man was called from non-existence into being, and further
received the grace of a divine life, so by the one fault which forfeited
that life they again incurred corruption and untold sin and misery filled
the world.

   You are wondering, perhaps, for what possible reason, having proposed
to speak of the Incarnation of the Word, we are at present treating of the
origin of mankind. But this, too, properly belongs to the aim of our
treatise. 2. For in speaking of the appearance of the Saviour amongst us,
we must needs speak also of the origin of men, that you may know that the
reason of His coming down was because of us, and that our transgression[3]
called forth the loving-kindness of the Word, that the Lord should both
make haste to help us and appear among men. 3. For of His becoming
Incarnate we were the object, and for our salvation He dealt so lovingly as
to appear and be born even in a human body. 4. Thus, then, God has made
man, and willed that he should abide in incorruption; but men, having
despised and rejected the contemplation of God, and devised and contrived
evil for themselves (as was said 4 in the former treatise), received the
condemnation of death with which they had been threatened; and from
thenceforth no longer remained as they were made, but[5] were being
corrupted according to their devices; and death had the mastery over them
as king[6]. For transgression of the commandment was turning them back to
their natural state, so that just as they have had their being out of
nothing, so also, as might be expected, they might look for corruption into
nothing in the course of time. 5. For if, out of a former normal state of
nonexistence, they were called into being by the Presence and loving-
kindness of the Word, it followed naturally that when men were bereft of
the knowledge of God and were turned back to what was not (for what is evil
is not, but what is good is), they should, since they derive their being
from God who is, be everlastingly bereft even of being; in other words,
that they should be disintegrated and abide in death and corruption. 6. For
man is by nature mortal, inasmuch as he is made out of what is not; but by
reason of his likeness to Him that is (and if he still preserved this
likeness by keeping Him in his knowledge) he would stay his natural
corruption, and remain incorrupt; as Wisdom[7] says: "The taking heed to
His laws is the assurance of immortality;" but being incorrupt, he would
live henceforth as God, to which I suppose the divine Scripture refers,
when it says: "I have s said ye are gods, and ye are all sons of the most
Highest; but ye die like men, and fall as one of the princes."

   # 5. For God has not only made us out of nothing; but He gave us
freely, by the Grace of the Word, a life in correspondence with God. But
men, having rejected things eternal, and, by counsel of the devil, turned
to the things of corruption, became the cause[9] of their own corruption in
death, being, as I said before, by nature corruptible, but destined, by the
grace following from partaking of the Word, to have escaped their natural
state, had they remained good. 2. For because of the Word dwelling with
them, even their natural corruption did not come near them, as Wisdom also
says[1]: "God made man for incorruption, and as an image of His own
eternity; but by envy of the devil death came into the world." But when
this was come to pass, men began to die, while corruption thence-forward
prevailed against them, gaining even more than its natural power over the
whole race, inasmuch as it had, owing to the transgression of the
commandment, the threat of the Deity as a further advantage against them.
3. For even in their misdeeds men had not stopped short at any set limits;
but gradually pressing forward, have passed on beyond all measure: having
to begin with been inventors of wickedness and called down upon themselves
death and corruption; while later on, having turned aside to wrong and
exceeding all lawlessness, and stopping at no one evil but devising all
manner of new evils in succession, they have become insatiable in sinning.
4. For there were adulteries everywhere and thefts, and the whole earth was
full of murders and plunderings. And as to corruption and wrong, no heed
was paid to law, but all crimes were being practised everywhere, both
individually and jointly. Cities were at war with cities, and nations were
rising up against nations; and the whole earth was rent with civil
commotions and battles; each man vying with his fellows in lawless deeds.
5. Nor were even crimes against nature far from them, but, as the Apostle
and witness of Christ says: "For their [2] women changed the natural use
into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the
natural use of the women, burned in their lust one toward another, men with
men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of
their error which was meet."

# 6. The human race then was wasting, God's image was being effaced, and
His work ruined. Either, then, God must forego His spoken word by which man
had incurred ruin; or that which had shared in the being of the Word must
sink back again into destruction, in which case God's design would be
defeated. What then? was God's goodness to suitor this? But if so, why had
man been made? It could have been weakness, not goodness on God's part.

   For this cause, then, death having gained upon men, and corruption
abiding upon them, the race of man was perishing; the rational man made in
God's image was disappearing, and the handiwork of God was in process of
dissolution. 2. For death, as I said above, gained from that time forth a
legal [3] hold over us, and it was impossible to evade the law, since it
had been laid down by God because [4] of the transgression, and the result
was in truth at once monstrous and unseemly. 3. For it were monstrous,
firstly, that God, having spoken, should prove false--that, when once He
had ordained that man, if he transgressed the commandment, should die the
death, after the transgression than should not die, but God's word should
be broken. For God would not be true, if, when He had said we should die,
man died not. 4. Again, it were unseemly that creatures once made rational,
and having partaken of the Word, should go to ruin, and turn again toward
non-existence by the way of corruption [5]. 5. For it were not worthy of
God's goodness that the things He had made should waste away, because of
the deceit practised on men by the devil. 6. Especially it was unseemly to
the last degree that God's handicraft among men should be done away, either
because of their own carelessness, or because of the deceitfulness of evil
spirits. 7. So, as the rational creatures were wasting and such works in
course of ruin, what was God in His goodness to do? Suffer corruption to
prevail against them and death to hold them fast? And where were the profit
of their having been made, to begin with? For better were they not made,
than once made, left to neglect and ruin. 8. For neglect reveals weakness,
and not goodness on God's part--if, that is, He allows His own work to be
ruined when once He had made it--more so than if He had never made man at
all. 9. For if He had not made them, none could impute weakness; but once
He had made them, and created them out of nothing, it were most monstrous
for the work to be ruined, and that before the eyes of the Maker. 10. It
was, then, out of the question to leave men to  the current of corruption;
because this would be unseemly, and unworthy of God's goodness.

# 7. On the other hand there was the consistency of God's nature, not to be
sacrificed for our profit. Were men, then, to be called upon to repent? But
repentance cannot avert the execution of a law; still less can it remedy a
fallen nature. We have incurred corruption and need to be restored to the
Grace of God's Image. None could renew but He Who had created. He alone
could(I) recreate all, (2 ) suffer for all, (3) respect all to the Father.

   But just as this consequence must needs hold, so, too, on the other
side the just claims [6] of God lie against it: that God should appear true
to the law He had laid down concerning death. For it were monstrous for
God, the Father of truth, to appear a liar for our profit and preservation.
2. So here, once more, what possible course was God to take? To demand
repentance of men for their transgression? For this one might pronounce
worthy of God; as though, just as from transgression men have become set
towards corruption, so from repentance they may once more be set in the way
of incorruption. 3. But repentance would, firstly, fail to guard the just
claim [7] of God. For He would still be none the more true, if men did not
remain in the grasp of death; nor, secondly, does repentance call men back
from what is their nature--it merely stays them from acts of sin. 4. Now,
if there were merely a misdemeanour in question, and not a consequent
corruption, repentance were well enough. But if, when transgression had
once gained a start, men became involved in that corruption which was their
nature, and were deprived of the grace which they had, being in the image
of God, what further step was needed? or what was required for such grace
and such recall, but the Word of God, which had also at the beginning made
everything out of nought? 5. For His it was once more both to bring the
corruptible to incorruption, and to maintain intact the just claim [7] of
the Father upon all. For being Word of the Father, and above all, He alone
of natural fitness was both able to recreate everything, and worthy to
suffer on behalf of all and to be ambassador for all with the Father.

# 8. The Word, then, visited that earth in which He was yet always present;
and saw all these evils. He takes a body of our Nature, and that of a
spotless Virgin, in whose womb He makes it His own, wherein to reveal
Himself, conquer death, and restore life.

   For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and
immaterial Word of God comes to our realm, howbeit he was not far from us s
before. For no past of Creation is left void of Him: He has filled all
things everywhere, remaining present with His own Father. But He comes in
condescension to shew loving-kindness upon us, and to visit us. 2. And
seeing the race of rational creatures in the way to perish, and death
reigning over them by corruption; seeing, too, that the threat against
transgression gave a firm hold to the corruption which was upon us, and
that it was monstrous that [9] before the law was fulfilled it should fall
through: seeing, once more, the unseemliness of what was come to pass: that
the things whereof He Himself was Artificer were passing away: seeing,
further, the exceeding wickedness of men, and how by little and little they
had increased it to an intolerable pitch against themselves: and seeing,
lastly, how all men were under penalty of death: He took pity on our race,
and had mercy on our infirmity, and condescended to our corruption, and,
unable to bear that death should have the mastery--lest the creature should
perish, and His Father's handiwork in men be spent for nought--He takes
unto Himself a body, and that of no different sort from ours. 3. For He did
not simply will to become embodied, or will merely to appear [1]. For if He
willed merely to appear, He was able to effect His divine appearance by
some other and higher means as well. But He takes a body of our kind, and
not merely so, but from a spotless and stainless virgin, knowing not a man,
a body clean and in very truth pure from intercourse of men. For being
Himself mighty, and Artificer of everything, He prepares the body in the
Virgin as a temple unto Himself, and makes it His very own [2] as an
instrument, in it manifested, and in it dwelling. 4. And thus taking from
our bodies one of like nature, because all were under penalty of the
corruption of death He gave 'it over to death in the stead of all, and
offered it to the Father--doing this, moreover, of His loving-kindness, to
the end that, firstly, all being held to have died in Him, the law
involving the ruin of men might be undone (inasmuch as its power was fully
spent in the Lord's body, and had no longer holding-ground against men, his
peers), and that, secondly, whereas men had turned toward corruption, He
might turn them again toward incorruption, and quicken them from death by
the appropriation [2] of His body and by the grace of the Resurrection,
banishing death from them like straw from floe fire [3].

# 9. The Word, since death alone could stay the plague, took a mortal body
which, united with Him, should avail for all, and by partaking of this
immortality stay the corruption of the Race. By being above all, He made
His Flesh an offering for our souls; by being one with us all, He clothed
us with immortality. Simile to illustrate this.

   For the Word, perceiving that no otherwise could the corruption of men
be undone save by death as a necessary condition, while it was impossible
for the Word to suffer death, being immortal, and Son of the Father; to
this end He takes to Himself a body capable of death, that it, by partaking
of the Word Who is above all, might be worthy to die in the stead of all,
and might, because of the Word which was come to dwell in it, remain
incorruptible, and that thenceforth corruption might be stayed from all by
the Grace of the Resurrection. Whence, by offering unto death the body He
Himself had taken, as an offering and sacrifice free from any stain,
straightway He put away death from all His peers by the offering of an
equivalent. 2. For being over all, the Word of God naturally by offering
His own temple and corporeal instrument for the life [4] of all satisfied
the debt by His death. And thus He, the incorruptible Son of God, being
conjoined with all by a like nature, naturally clothed all with
incorruption, by the promise of the resurrection. For the actual corruption
in death has no longer holding-ground against men, by reason of the Word,
which by His one body has come to dwell among them. 3. And like as [5] when
a great king has entered into some large city and taken up his abode in one
of the houses there, such city is at all events held worthy of high honour,
nor does any enemy or bandit any longer descend upon it and subject it;
but, on the contrary, it is thought entitled to all care, because of the
king's having taken up his residence in a single house there: so, too, has
it been with the Monarch of all. 4. For now that He has come to our realm,
and taken up his abode in one body among His peers, henceforth the whole
conspiracy of the enemy against mankind is checked, and the corruption of
death which before was prevailing against them is done away. For the race
of men had gone to ruin, had not the Lord and Saviour of all, the Son of
God, come among us to meet the end of death [6].

# 10. By a like simile, the reasonableness of the work of redemption is
shewn. How Christ wiped away our ruin, and provided its anti-date by His
own teaching. Scripture proofs of the Incarnation of the Word, and of the
Sacrifice He wrought.

   Now in truth this great work was peculiarly suited to God's goodness.
I. For if a king, having founded a house or city, if it be beset by bandits
from the carelessness of its inmates, does not by any means neglect it, but
avenges and reclaims it as his own work, having regard not to the
carelessness of the inhabitants, but to what beseems himself; much more did
God the Word of the all-good Father not neglect the race of men, His work,
going to corruption: but, while He blotted out the death which had ensued
by the offering of His own body, He corrected their neglect by His own
teaching, restoring all that was man's by His own power. 2. And of this one
may be assured at the hands of the Saviour's own inspired writers, if one
happen upon their writings, where they say: "For the love of Christ [7]
constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then all
died, and He died for all that we should no longer live unto ourselves, but
unto Him Who for our sakes died and rose again," our Lord Jesus Christ.
And, again: "But [8] we behold Him, Who hath been made a little lower than
the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with
glory and honour, that by the grace of God He should taste of death for
every man." 3. Then He also points out the reason why it was necessary for
none other than God the Word Himself to become incarnate; as follows: "For
it became Him, for Whom are all things, and through Whom are all things, in
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation
perfect through suffering;" by which words He means, that it belonged to
none other to bring man back from the corruption which had begun, than the
Word of God, Who had also made them from the beginning. 4. And that it was
in order to the sacrifice for bodies such as His own that the Word Himself
also assumed a body, to this, also, they refer in these words [9]:
"Forasmuch then as the children are the sharers in blood and flesh, He also
Himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death He might
bring to naught Him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and
might deliver them who, through fear of death, were all their lifetime
subject to bondage." 5. For by the sacrifice of His own body, He both put
an end to the law which was against us, and made a new beginning of life
for us, by the hope of resurrection which He has given us. For since from
man it was that death prevailed over men, for this cause conversely, by the
Word of God being made man has come about the destruction of death and the
resurrection of life; as the man which bore Christ [1] saith: For [2] since
by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in
Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive :" and so forth.
For no longer now do we die as subject to condemnation; but as men who rise
from the dead we await the general resurrection of all, "which [3] in its
own times He shall show," even God, Who has also wrought it, and bestowed
it upon us. 6. This then is the first cause of the Saviour's being made
man. But one might see from the following reasons also, that His gracious
coming amongst us was fitting to have taken place.

# 11. Second reason for the Incarnation. God knowing that man was not by
nature sufficient to know Him, gave him, in order that he might have some
profit in being, a knowledge of Himself. He made them in the Image of the
Word, that thus they might know the Word, and through Him the Father. Yet
man, despising this, fill into idolatry, leaving the unseen God for magic
and astrology; and all this in spite of God's manifold revelation of
Himself.

   God, Who has the power over all things, when He was making the race of
men through His own Word, seeing the weakness of their nature, that it was
not sufficient of itself to know its Maker, nor to get any idea at all of
God; because while He was uncreate, the creatures had been made of nought,
and while He was incorporeal, men had been fashioned in a lower way in the
body, and because in every way the things made fell far short of being able
to comprehend and know their Maker--taking pity, I say, on the race of men,
inasmuch as He is good, He did not leave them destitute of the knowledge of
Himself, lest they should find no profit in existing at all [4]. 2. For
what profit to the creatures if they knew not their Maker? or how could
they be rational without knowing the Word (and Reason) of the Father, in
Whom they received their very being? For there would be nothing to
distinguish them even from brute creatures if they had knowledge of nothing
but earthly things. Nay, why did God make them at all, as He did not wish
to be known by them? 3. Whence, lest this should be so, being good, He
gives them a share in His own Image, our Lord Jesus Christ, and makes them
after His own Image and after His likeness: so that by such grace
perceiving the Image, that is, the Word of the Father, they may be able
through Him to get an idea of the Father, and knowing their Maker, live the
happy and truly blessed life. 4. But men once more in their perversity
having set at nought, in spite of all this, the grace given them, so wholly
rejected God, and so darkened their soul, as not merely to forget their
idea of God, but also to fashion for themselves one invention after
another. For not only did they grave idols for themselves, instead of the
truth, and honour things that were not before the living God, "and [5]
serve the creature rather than the Creator," but, worst of all, they
transferred the honour of God even to stocks and stones and to every
material object and to men, and went even further than this, as we have
said in the former treatise. 5. So far indeed did their impiety go, that
they proceeded to worship devils, and proclaimed them as gods, fulfilling
their own [6] lusts. For they performed, as was said above, offerings of
brute animals, and sacrifices of men, as was meet for them [7], binding
themselves down all the faster under their maddening inspirations. 6. For
this reason it was also that magic arts were taught among them, and oracles
in divers places led men astray, and all men ascribed the influences of
their birth and existence to the stars and to all the heavenly bodies,
having no thought of anything beyond what was visible. 7. And, in a word,
everything was full of irreligion and lawlessness, and God alone, and His
Word, was unknown, albeit He had not hidden Himself out of men's sight, nor
given the knowledge of Himself in one way only; but had, on the contrary,
unfolded it to them in many forms and by many ways.

# 12. For though man was created in grace, God, foreseeing his
forgetfulness, provided also the works of creation to remind man of Him.
Yet further, He ordained a Law and Prophets, whose ministry was meant far
all the world. Yet men heeded only their own lusts.

   For whereas the grace of the Divine Image was in itself sufficient to
make known God the Word, and through Him the Father; still God, knowing the
weakness of men, made provision even for their carelessness: so that if
they cared not to know God of themselves, they might be enabled through the
works of creation to avoid ignorance of the Maker. 2. But since men's
carelessness, by little and little, descends to lower things, God made
provision, once more, even for this weakness of theirs, by sending a law,
and prophets, men such as they knew, so that even if they were not ready to
look up to heaven and know their Creator, they might have their instruction
from those near at hand. For men are able to learn from men more directly
about higher things. 3. So it was open to them, by looking into the height
of heaven, and perceiving the harmony of creation, to know its Ruler, the
Word of the Father, Who, by His own providence over all things makes known
the Father to all, and to this end moves all things, that through Him all
may know God. 4. Or, if this were too much for them, it was possible for
them to meet at least the holy men, and through them to learn of God, the
Maker of all things, the Father of Christ; and that the worship of idols is
godlessness, and full of all impiety. 5. Or it was open to them, by knowing
the law even, to cease from all lawlessness and live a virtuous life. For
neither was the law for the Jews alone, nor were the Prophets sent for them
only, but, though sent to the Jews and persecuted by the Jews, they were
for all the world a holy school of the knowledge of God and the conduct of
the soul. 6. God's goodness then and loving-kindness being so great--men
nevertheless, overcome by the pleasures of the moment and by the illusions
and deceits sent by demons, did not raise their heads toward the truth, but
loaded themselves the more with evils and sins, so as no longer to seem
rational, but from their ways to be reckoned void of reason.

# 13. Here again, was God to keep silence? to allow to false gods the
worship He made us to render to HimseIf? A king whose subjects had revolted
would, after sending letters and messages, go to them in person. How much
more shall God restore in us the grace of His image. This men, themselves
but copies, could not do. Hence the Word Himself must come (I) to recreate,
(2) to destroy death in the Body.

   So then, men having thus become brutalized, and demoniacal deceit thus
clouding every place, and hiding the knowledge of the true God, what was
God to do? To keep still silence at so great a thing, and suffer men to be
led astray by demons and not to know God? 2. And what was the use of man
having been originally made in God's image? For it had been better for him
to have been made simply like a brute animal, than, once made rational, for
him to live [8] the life of the brutes. 3. Or where was any necessity at
all for his receiving the idea of God to begin with? For if he be not fit
to receive it even now, it were better it had not been given him at first.
4. Or what profit to God Who has made them, or what glory to Him could it
be, if men, made by Him, do not worship Him, but think that others are
their makers? For God thus proves to have made these for others instead of
for Himself. 5. Once again, a merely human king does not let the lands he
has colonized pass to others to serve them, nor go over to other men; but
he warns them by letters, and often sends to them by friends, or, if need
be, he comes in person, to put them to rebuke in the last resort by his
presence, only that they may not serve others and his own work be spent for
naught. 6. Shall not God much more spare His own creatures, that they be
not led astray from Him and serve things of naught? especially since such
going astray proves the cause of their ruin and undoing, and since it was
unfitting that they should perish which had once been partakers of God's
image. 7. What then was God to do? or what was to be done save the renewing
of that which was in God's image, so that by it men might once more be able
to know Him? But how could this have come to pass save by the presence of
the very Image of God, our Lord Jesus Christ? For by men's means it was
impossible, since they are but made after an image; nor by angels either,
for not even they are (God's) images. Whence the Word of God came in His
own person, that, as He was the Image of the Father, He might be able to
create afresh the man after the image. 8. But, again, it could not else
have taken place had not death and corruption been done away. 9. Whence He
took, in natural fitness, a mortal body, that while death might in it be
once for all done away, men made after His Image might once more be
renewed. None other then was sufficient for this need, save the Image of
the Father.

# 14. A portrait once effaced must be restored from the original. Thus the
Son of  the Father came to seek, save, and regenerate. No other way was
possible. Blinded himself, man could not see to heal. The witness of
creation had failed to preserve Him, and could not bring Him back. The Word
done could do so. But how? only by revealing Himself as man.

   For as, when the likeness painted on a panel has been effaced by stains
from without, he whose likeness it is must needs come once more to enable
the portrait to be renewed on the same wood: for, for the sake of his
picture, even the mere wood on which it is painted is not thrown away, but
the outline is renewed upon it; 2. in the same way also the most holy Son
of the Father, being the Image of the Father, came to our region to renew
man once made in His likeness, and find him, as one lost, by the remission
of sins; as He says Himself in the Gospels: "I came [9] to find and to save
the lost." Whence He said to the Jews also: "Except [1] a man be born
again," not meaning, as they thought, birth front woman, but speaking of
the soul born and created anew in the likeness of God's image. 3. But since
wild idolatry and godlessness occupied the world, and the knowledge of God
was hid, whose part was it to teach the world concerning the Father? Man's,
might one say? But it was not in man's power to penetrate everywhere
beneath the sun; for neither had they the physical strength to run so far,
nor would they be able to claim credence in this matter, nor were they
sufficient by themselves to withstand the deceit and impositions of evil
spirits. 4. For where all were smitten and confused in soul from demoniacal
deceit, and the vanity of idols, how was it possible for them to win over
man's soul and man's mind whereas they cannot even see them? Or how can a
man convert what he does not see? 5. But perhaps one might say creation was
enough; but if creation were enough, these great evils would never have
come to pass. For creation was there already, and all the same, men were
grovelling in the same error concerning God. 6. Who, then, was needed. save
the Word of God, that sees both soul and mind, and that gives movement to
all things in creation, and by them makes known the Father? For He who by
His own Providence and ordering of all things was teaching men concerning
the Father, He it was that could renew this same teaching as well. 7. How,
then, could this have been done? Perhaps one might say, that the same means
were open as before, for Him to shew forth the truth about the Father once
more by means of the work of creation. But this was no longer a sure means.
Quite the contrary; for men missed seeing this before, and have turned
their eyes no longer upward but downward. 8. Whence, naturally, willing to
profit men, He sojourns here as man, taking to Himself a body like the
others, and from things of earth, that is by the works of His body [He
teaches them], so that they who would not know Him from His Providence and
rule over all things, may even from the works done by His actual body know
the Word of God which is in the body, and through Him the Father.

# 15. Thus the Word condescended to man's engrossment in corporeal things,
by even taking a body. All man's superstitions He met halfway; whether men
were inclined to worship Nature, Man, Demons, or the dead, He shewed
Himself Lord of all these.

   For as a kind teacher who cares for His disciples, if some of them
cannot profit by higher subjects, comes down to their level, and teaches
them at any rate by simpler courses; so also did the Word of God. As Paul
also says: "For seeing [2] that in the wisdom of God the world through its
wisdom knew not God, it was God's good pleasure through the foolishness of
the word preached to save them that believe." 2. For seeing that men,
having rejected the contemplation of God, and with their eyes downward, as
though sunk in the deep, were seeking about for God in nature and in the
world of sense, feigning gods for themselves of mortal men and demons; to
this end the loving and general Saviour of all, the Word of God, takes to
Himself a body, and as Man walks among men and meets the senses of all men
half-way [3], to the end, I say, that they who think that God is corporeal
may from what the Lord effects by His body perceive the truth, and through
Him recognize [4] the Father. 3. So, men as they were, and human in all
their thoughts, on whatever objects they fixed their senses, there they saw
themselves met half way [3], and taught the truth from every side. 4. For
if they looked with awe upon the Creation, yet they saw how she confessed
Christ as Lord; or if their mind was swayed toward men, so as to think them
gods, yet from the Saviour's works, supposing they compared them, the
Saviour alone among men appeared Son of God; for there were no such works
done among the rest as have been done by the Word of God. 5. Or if they
were biassed toward evil spirits, even, yet seeing them cast out by the
Word, they were to know that He alone, the Word of God, was God, and that
the spirits were none. 6. Or if their mind had already sunk even to the
dead, so as to worship heroes, and the gods spoken of in the poets, yet,
seeing the Saviour's resurrection, they were to confess them to be false
gods, and that the Lord alone is true, the Word of the Father, that was
Lord even of death. 7. For this cause He was both born and appeared as Man,
and died, and rose again, dulling and casting into the shade the works of
all former men by His own, that in whatever direction the bias of men might
be, from thence He might recall them, and teach them of His own true
Father, as He Himself says: "I came to save and to find that which was
lost[5]."

# 16. He came then to attract man's sense bound attention to Himself as
man, and so to lead him on to know Him as God.

   For men's mind having finally fallen to things of sense, the Word
disguised Himself by appearing in a body, that He might, as Man, transfer
men to Himself, and centre their senses on Himself, and, men seeing Him
thenceforth as Man, persuade them by the works He did that He is not Man
only, but also God, and the Word and Wisdom of the true God. 2. This, too,
is what Paul means to point out when he says: "That ye [6] being rooted and
grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is
the breadth and length, and height and depth, and to know the love of
Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye may be filled unto all the fulness
of God." 3. For by the Word revealing Himself everywhere, both above and
beneath, and in the depth and in the breadth--above, in the creation;
beneath, in becoming man; in the depth, in Hades; and in the breadth, in
the world--all things have been filled with the knowledge of God. 4. Now
for this cause, also, He did not immediately upon His coming accomplish His
sacrifice on behalf of all, by offering His body to death and raising it
again, for by this [7] means He would have made Himself invisible. But He
made Himself visible enough by what [7] He did, abiding in it, and doing
such works, and shewing such signs, as made Him known no longer as Man, but
as God the Word. 5. For by His becoming Man, the Saviour was to accomplish
both works of love; first, in putting away death from us and renewing us
again; secondly, being unseen and invisible, in manifesting and making
Himself known by His works to be the Word of the Father, and the Ruler and
King of the universe.

# 17. How the Incarnation did not limit the ubiquity of the Word, nor
diminish His Purity. (Simile of the Sun.)

   For He was not, as might be imagined, circumscribed in the body, nor,
while present in the body, was He absent elsewhere; nor, while He moved the
body, was the universe left void of His working and Providence; but, thing
most marvellous, Word as He was, so far from being contained by anything,
He rather contained all things Himself; and just as while present in the
whole of Creation, He is at once distinct in being from the universe, and
present in oil things by His own power,-giving order to all things, and
over all and in all revealing His own providence, and giving life to each
thing and all things, including the whole without being included, but being
in His own Father alone wholly and in every respect,--2. thus, even while
present in a human body and Himself quickening it, He was, without
inconsistency, quickening the universe as well, and was in every process of
nature, and was outside the whole, and while known from the body by His
works, He was none the less manifest from the working of the universe as
well. 3. Now, it is the function of soul to behold even what is outside its
own body, by acts of thought, without, however, working outside its own
body, or moving by its presence things remote from the body. Never, that
is, does a man, by thinking of things at a distance, by that fact either
move or displace them; nor if a man were to sit in his own house and reason
about the heavenly bodies, would he by that fact either move the sun or
make the heavens revolve. But he sees that they move and have their being,
without being actually able to influence them. 4. Now, the Word of God in
His man's nature was not like that; for He was not bound to His body, but
rather was Himself wielding it, so that He was not only in it, but was
actually in everything, and while external to the universe, abode in His
Father only. 5. And this was the wonderful thing that He was at once
walking as man, and as the Word was quickening all things, and as the Son
was dwelling with His Father. So that not even when the Virgin bore Him did
He suffer any change, nor by being in the body was [His glory] dulled: but,
on the contrary, He sanctified the body also. 6. For not even by being in
the universe does He share in its nature, but all things, on the contrary,
are quickened and sustained by Him. 7. For if the sun too, which was made
by Him, and which we see, as it revolves in the heaven, is not defiled [8]
by touching the bodies upon earth, nor is it put out by darkness, but on
the contrary itself illuminates and cleanses them also, much less was the
all-holy Word of God, Maker and Lord also of the sun, defiled by being made
known in the body; on the contrary, being incorruptible, He quickened and
cleansed the body also, which was in itself mortal: "who [9] did," for so
it says, "no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth."

# 18. How the Word and Power of God works in His human actions: by casting
out devils, by Miracles, & His Birth of the Virgin.

   Accordingly, when inspired writers on this matter speak of Him as
eating and being born, understand [1] that the body, as body, was born, and
sustained with food corresponding to its nature, while God, the Word
Himself, Who was united with the body, while ordering all things, also by
the works He did in the body shewed Himself to be not man, but God the
Word. But these things are said of Him, because the actual body which ate,
was born, and suffered, belonged to none other but to the Lord: and
because, having become man, it was proper for these things to be predicated
of Him as man, to shew Him to have a body in truth, and not in seeming. 2.
But just as from these things He was known to be bodily present, so from
the works He did in the body He made Himself known to be Son of God. Whence
also He cried to the unbelieving Jews; "If [2] 1 do not the works of My
Father, believe Me not. But if I do them, though ye believe not Me, believe
My works; that ye may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I
in the Father." 3. For just as, though invisible, He is known through the
works of creation; so, having become man, and being in the body unseen, it
may be known from His works that He Who can do these is not man, but the
Power and Word of God. 4. For His charging evil spirits, and their being
driven forth, this deed is not of man, but of God. Or who that saw Him
healing the diseases to which the human race is subject, can still think
Him man and not God? For He cleansed lepers, made lame men to walk, opened
the hearing of deaf men, made blind men to see again, and in a word drove
away from men all diseases and infirmities: from which acts it was possible
even for the most ordinary observer to see His Godhead. For who that saw
Him give back [3] what was deficient to men born lacking, and open the eyes
of the man blind from his birth, would have failed to perceive that the
nature of men was subject to Him, and that He was its Artificer and Maker?
For He that gave back that which the man from his birth had not, must be,
it is surely evident, the Lord also of men's natural birth. 5. Therefore,
even to begin with, when He was descending to us, He fashioned His body for
Himself from a Virgin, thus to afford to all no small proof of His Godhead,
in that He Who formed this is also Maker of everything else as well. For
who, seeing a body proceeding forth from a Virgin alone without man, can
fail to infer that He Who appears in it is Maker and Lord of other bodies
also? 6. Or who, seeing the substance of water changed and transformed into
wine, fails to perceive that He Who did this is Lord and Creator of the
substance of all waters? For to this end He went upon the sea also as its
Master, and walked as on dry land, to afford evidence to them that saw it
of His lordship over all things. And in feeding so vast a multitude on
little, and of His own self yielding abundance where none was, so that from
five loaves five thousand had enough, and left so much again over, did He
shew Himself to be any other than the very Lord Whose Providence is over
all things ?

# 19. Man, unmoved by nature, was to be taught to know God by that sacred
Manhood, Whose deity all nature confessed, especially in His Death.

   But all this it seemed well for the Saviour to do; that since men had
failed to know His Providence, revealed in the Universe, and had failed to
perceive His Godhead shewn in creation, they might at any rate from the
works of His body recover their sight, and through Him receive an idea of
the knowledge of the Father, inferring, as I said before, from particular
cases His Providence over the whole. 2. For who that saw His power over
evil spirits, or who that saw the evil spirits confess that He was their
Lord, will hold his mind any longer in doubt whether this be the Son and
Wisdom and Power of God? 3. For He made even the creation break silence: in
that even at His death, marvellous to relate, or rather at His actual
trophy over death--the Cross I mean--all creation was confessing that He
that was made manifest and suffered in the body was not man merely, but the
Son of God and Saviour of all. For the sun hid His face, and the earth
quaked and the mountains were rent: all men were awed. Now these things
shewed that Christ on the Cross was God, while all creation was His slave,
and was witnessing by its fear to its Master's presence. Thus, then, God
the Word shewed Himself to men by His works. But our next step must be to
recount and speak of the end of His bodily life and course, and of the
nature of the death of His body; especially as this is the sum of our
faith, and all men without exception are full of it: so that you may know
that no whir the less from this also Christ is known to be God and the Son
of God.

# 20. None, then, could bestow incorruption, but He Who had made, none
restore the likeness of God, save His Own Image, none quicken, but the
Life, none teach, but the Word. And He, to pay our debt of death, must also
die for us, and rise again as our first-fruits from the grave. Mortal
therefore His body must be; corruptible, His Body could not be.

   We have, then, now stated in part, as far as it was possible, and as
ourselves had been able to understand, the reason of His bodily appearing;
that it was in the power of none other to turn the corruptible to
incorruption, except the Saviour Himself, that had at the beginning also
made all things out of naught and that none other could create anew the
likeness of God's image for men, save the Image of the Father; and that
none other could render the mortal immortal, save our Lord Jesus Christ,
Who is the Very Life [4]; and that none other could teach men of the
Father, and destroy the worship of idols, save the Word, that orders all
things and is alone the true Only-begotten Son of the Father. 2. But since
it was necessary also that the debt owing from all should be paid again:
for, as I have already said [5], it was owing that all should die, for
which especial cause, indeed, He came among us: to this intent, after the
proofs of His Godhead from His works, He next offered up His sacrifice also
on behalf of all, yielding His Temple to death in the stead of all, in
order firstly to make men quit and free of their old trespass, and further
to shew Himself more powerful even than death, displaying His own body
incorruptible, as first-fruits of the resurrection of all. 3. And do not be
surprised if we frequently [6] repeat the same words on the same subject.
For since we are speaking of the counsel of God, therefore we expound the
same sense in more than one form, lest we should seem to be leaving
anything out, and incur the charge of inadequate treatment: for it is
better to submit to the blame of repetition than to leave out anything!
that ought to be set down. 4. The body, then, as sharing the same nature
with all, for it was a human body, though by an unparalleled miracle it was
formed of a virgin only, yet being mortal, was to die also, conformably to
its peers. But by virtue of the union of the Word with it, it was no longer
subject to corruption according to its own nature, but by reason of the
Word that was come to dwell [7] in it it was placed out of the reach of
corruption. 5. And so it was that two marvels came to pass at once, that
the death of all was accomplished in the Lord's body, and that death and
corruption were wholly done away by reason of the Word that was united with
it. For there was need of death, and death must needs be suffered on behalf
of all, that the debt owing from all might be paid. 6. Whence, as I said
before, the Word, since it was not possible for Him to die, as He was
immortal, took to Himself a body such as could die, that He might offer it
as His own in the stead of all, and as suffering, through His union [7]
with it, on behalf of all, "Bring [8] to naught Him that had the power of
death, that is the devil; and might deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage."

# 21. Death brought to naught by the death of Christ. Why then did not
Christ die privately, or in a more honourable way? He was not subject to
natural death, but had to die at the hands of others. Why then did He die?
Nay but for that purpose He came, and but for that, He could not have
risen.

   Why, now that the common Saviour of all has died on our behalf, we, the
faithful in Christ, no longer die the death as before, agreeably to the
warning of the law; for this condemnation has ceased; but, corruption
ceasing and being put away by the grace of the Resurrection, henceforth we
are only dissolved, agreeably to our bodies' mortal nature, at the time God
has fixed for each, that we may be able to gain a better resurrection. 2.
For like the seeds which are cast into the earth, we do not perish by
dissolution, but sown in the earth, shall rise again, death having been
brought to naught by the grace of the Saviour. Hence it is that blessed
Paul, who was made a surety of the Resurrection to all, says: "This
corruptible [9] must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality; but when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and
this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death where
is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory ?" 3. Why, then, one might say,
if it were necessary for Him to yield up His body to death in the stead of
all, did He not lay it aside as man privately, instead of going as far as
even to be crucified? For it were more fitting for Him to have laid His
body aside honourably, than ignominiously to endure a death like this. 4.
Now, see to it, I reply, whether such an objection be not merely human,
whereas what the Saviour did is truly divine and for many reasons worthy of
His Godhead. Firstly, be cause the death which befalls men comes to them
agreeably to the weakness of their nature; for, unable to continue in one
stay, they are dissolved with time. Hence, too, diseases befall them, and
they fall sick and die. But the Lord is not weak, but is the Power of God
and Word of God and Very Life. 5. If, then, He had laid aside His body
somewhere in private, and upon a bed, after the manner of men, it would
have been thought that He also did this agreeably to the weakness of His
nature, and because there was nothing in him more than in other men. But
since He was, firstly, the Life and the Word of God, and it was necessary,
secondly, for the death on behalf of all to be accomplished, for this
cause, on the one hand, because He was life and power, the body gained
strength in Him; 6. while on the other, as death must needs come to pass,
He did not Himself take, but received at others' hands, the occasion of
perfecting His sacrifice. Since it was not fit, either, that the Lord
should fall sick, who healed the diseases of others; nor again was it right
for that body to lose its strength, in which He gives strength to the
weaknesses of others also. 7. Why, then, did He not prevent death, as He
did sickness? Because it was for this that He had the body, and it was
unfitting to prevent it, lest the Resurrection also should be hindered,
while yet it was equally unfitting for sickness to precede His death, lest
it should be thought weakness on the part of Him that was in the body. Did
He not then hunger? Yes; He hungered, agreeably to the properties of His
body. But He did not perish of hunger, because of the Lord that wore it.
Hence, even if He died to ransom all, yet He saw not corruption. For [His
body] rose again in perfect soundness, since the body belonged to none
other, but to the very Life.

# 22. But why did He not withdraw His body from the Jews, and so guard its
immortality?

(1) It became Him not to inflict death on Himself, and yet not to shun it.
(2) He came to receive death as the due of others, therefore it should come
to Him from without. (3) His death must be certain, to guarantee the truth
of His Resurrection. Also, He could not die from infirmity, lest He should
be mocked in His healing of others.

   But it were better, one might say, to have hidden from the designs of
the Jews, that He might guard His body altogether from death. Now let such
an one be told that this too was unbefitting the Lord. For as it was not
fitting for the Word of God, being the Life, to inflict death Himself on
His own body, so neither was it suitable to fly from death offered by
others, but rather to follow it up unto destruction, for which reason He
naturally neither laid aside His body of His own accord, nor, again, fled
from the Jews when they took counsel against Him. 2. But this did not shew
weakness on the Word's part, but, on the contrary, shewed Him to be Saviour
and Life; in that He both awaited death to destroy it, and hasted to
accomplish the death offered Him for the salvation of all. 3. And besides,
the Saviour came to accomplish not His own death, but the death of men;
whence He did not lay aside His body by a death of His own [1] -- for He
was Life and had none--but received that death which came from men, in
order perfectly to do away with this when it met Him in His own body. 4.
Again, from the following also one might see the reasonableness of the
Lord's body meeting this end. The Lord was especially concerned for the
resurrection of the body which He was set to accomplish. For what He was to
do was to manifest it as a monument of victory over death, and to assure
all of His having effected the blotting out of corruption, and of the
incorruption of their bodies from thenceforward; as a gage of which and a
proof of the resurrection in store for all, He has preserved His own body
in-corrupt. 5. If, then, once more, His body had fallen sick, and the word
had been sundered from it in the sight of all, it would have been
unbecoming that He who healed the diseases of others should suffer His own
instrument to waste in sickness. For how could His driving out the diseases
of others have been believed [2] in if His own temple fell sick in Him [3]?
For either He had been mocked as unable to drive away diseases, or if He
could, but did not, He would be thought insensible toward others also.

# 23. Necessity of a public death for the doctrine of the Resurrection.

   But even if, without any disease and without any pain, He had hidden
His body away privily and by Himself "in [4] a corner," or in a desert
place, or in a house, or anywhere, and afterwards suddenly appeared and
said that He had been raised from the dead, He would have seemed on all
hands to be telling idle tales [5], and what He said about the Resurrection
would have been all the more discredited, as there was no one at all to
witness to His death. Now, death must precede resurrection, as it would be
no resurrection did not death precede; so that if the death of His body had
taken place anywhere in secret, the death not being apparent nor taking
place before witnesses, His Resurrection too had been hidden and without
evidence. 2. Or why, while when He had risen He proclaimed the
Resurrection, should He cause His death to take place in secret? or why,
while He drove out evil spirits in the presence of all, and made the man
blind from his birth recover his sight, and changed the water into wine,
that by these  means He might be believed to be the Word of God, should He
not manifest His mortal nature as incorruptible in the presence of all,
that He might be believed Himself to be the Life? 3. Or how were His
disciples to have boldness in speaking of the Resurrection, were they not
able to say that He first died? Or how could they be believed, saying that
death had first taken place and then the Resurrection, had they not had as
witnesses of His death the men before whom they spoke with boldness? For
if, even as it was, when His death and Resurrection had taken place in the
sight of all, the Pharisees of that day would not believe, but compelled
even those who had seen the Resurrection to deny it, why, surely, if these
things had happened in secret, how many pretexts for disbelief would they
have devised? 4. Or how could the end of death, and the victory over it be
proved, unless challenging it before the eyes of all He had shewn it to be
dead, annulled for the future by the incorruption of His body ?

#24. Further objections anticipated. He did not choose His manner of death;
for He was to prove Conqueror of death in all or any of its forms: (simple
of a good wrestler). The death chosen to disgrace Him proved the Trophy
against death: moreover a preserved His body undivided.

   But what others also might have said, we must anticipate in reply. For
perhaps a man  might say even as follows: If it was necessary for His death
to take place before all, and with witnesses, that the story of His
Resurrection also might be believed, it would have been better at any rate
for Him to have devised for Himself a glorious death, if only to escape the
ignominy of the Cross. 2. But had He done even this, He would give ground
for suspicion against Himself, that He was not powerful against every
death, but only against the death devised for [6] Him; and so again there
would have been a pretext for disbelief about the Resurrection all the
same. So death came to His body, not from Himself, but from hostile
counsels, in order that whatever death they offered to the Saviour, this He
might utterly do away. 3. And just as a noble wrestler, great in skill and
courage, does not pick out his antagonists for himself, lest he should
raise a suspicion of his being afraid of some of them, but puts it in the
choice of the onlookers, and especially so if they happen to be his
enemies, so that against whomsoever they match him, him he may throw, and
be believed superior to them all; so also the Life of all, our Lord and
Saviour, even Christ, did not devise a death for His own body, so as not to
appear to be fearing some other death; but He accepted on the Cross, and
endured, a death inflicted by others, and above all by His enemies, which
they thought dreadful and ignominious and not to be faced; so that this
also being destroyed, both He Himself might be believed to be the Life, and
the power of death be brought utterly to nought. 4. So something surprising
and startling has happened; for the death, which they thought to inflict as
a disgrace, was actually a monument of victory against death itself. Whence
neither did He suffer the death of John, his head being severed, nor, as
Esaias, was He sawn in sunder; in order that even in death He might still
keep His body undivided and in perfect soundness, and no pretext be
afforded to those that would divide the Church.

# 25. Why the Cross, of all deaths? (1) He had to bear the curse for us.
(2) On it He held out His hands to unite all, Jews and Gentiles, in
Himself. (3) He defeated the "Prince of the powers of the air" in his own
region, clearing the way to heaven and opening for us the everlasting
doors.

   And thus much in reply to those without who pile up arguments for
themselves. But if any of our own people also inquire, not from love of
debate, but from love of learning, why He suffered death in none other way
save on the Cross, let him also be told that no. other way than this was
good for us, and that it was well that the Lord suffered this for our
sakes. 2. For if He came Himself to bear the curse laid upon us, how else
could He have "become [7] a curse," unless He received the death set for a
curse? and that is the Cross. For this is exactly what is written: "Cursed
[8] is he that hangeth on a tree." 3. Again, if the Lord's death is the
ransom of all, and by His death "the middle [9] wall of partition" is
broken down, and the calling of the nations is brought about, how would He
have called us to Him, had He not been crucified? For it is only on the
cross that a man dies with his hands spread out. Whence it was fitting for
the Lord to bear this also and to spread out His hands, that with the one
He might draw the ancient people, and with the other those from the
Gentiles, and unite both in Himself. 4. For this is what He Himself has
said, signifying by what manner of death He was to ransom all: "I, when [1]
I am lifted up," He saith, "shall draw all men unto Me." 5. And once more,
if the devil, the enemy of our race, having fallen from heaven, wanders
about our lower atmosphere, and there bearing rule over his fellow-spirits,
as his peers in disobedience, not only works illusions by their means in
them that are deceived, but tries to hinder them that are going up (and
about this [2] the Apostle says: "According to the prince of the power of
the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience ");
while the Lord came to cast down the devil, and clear the air and prepare
the way for us up into heaven, as said the Apostle: "Through [3] the veil,
that is to say, His flesh "--and this must needs be by death--well, by what
other kind of death could this have come to pass, than by one which took
place in the air, I mean the cross? for only he that is perfected on the
cross dies in the air. Whence it was quite fitting that the Lord suffered
this death. 6. For thus being lifted up He cleared the air [4] of the
malignity both of the devil and of demons of all kinds, as He says: "I
beheld [5] Satan as lightning fall from heaven ;" and made a new opening of
the way up into heaven as He says once more: "Lift [6] up your gates, O ye
princes, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors." For it was not the Word
Himself that needed an opening of the gates, being Lord of all; nor were
any of His works closed to their Maker; but we it was that needed it whom
He carried up by His own body. For as He offered it to death on behalf of
all, so by it He once more made ready the way up into the heavens.

# 26. Reasons for His rising on the Third Day. (I) Not sooner for else His
real death would be denied, nor (2) later; to (a) guard the identity of His
body, (b) not to keep His disciples too long in suspense, nor (c) to wait
till the witnesses of His death were dispersed, or its memory faded.

   The death on the Cross, then, for us has proved seemly and fitting, and
its cause has been shewn to be reasonable in every respect; and it may
justly be argued that in no other way than by the Cross was it right for
the salvation of all to take place. For not even thus--not even on the
Cross--did He leave Himself concealed; but far otherwise, while He made
creation witness to the presence of its Maker, He suffered not the temple
of His body to remain long, but having merely shewn it to be dead, by the
contact of death with it, He straightway raised it up on the third day,
bearing away, as the mark of victory and the triumph over death, the
incorruptibility and impassibility which resulted to His body. 2. For He
could, even immediately on death, have raised His body and shewn it alive;
but this also the Saviour, in wise foresight, did not do. For one might
have said that He had not did at all, or that death had not come into
perfect contact with Him, if He had manifested the Resurrection at once. 3.
Perhaps, again, had the interval of His dying and rising again been one of
two days [7] only, the glory of His incorruption would have been obscure.
So in order that the body might be proved to be dead, the Word tarried yet
one intermediate day, and on the third shewed it incorruptible to all. 4.
So then, that the death on the Cross might be proved, He raised His body on
the third day. 5. But lest, by raising it up when it had remained a long
time and been completely corrupted, He should be disbelieved, as though He
had exchanged it for some other body for a man might also from lapse of
time distrust what he saw, and forget what had taken place--for this cause
He waited not more than three days; nor did He keep long in suspense those
whom He had told about the Resurrection: 6. but while the word was still
echoing in their ears and their eyes were still expectant and their mind in
suspense, and while those who had slain Him were still living on earth, and
were on the spot and could witness to the death of the Lord's body, the Son
of God Himself, after an interval of three days, shewed His body, once
dead, immortal and incorruptible; and it was made manifest to all that it
was not from any natural weakness of the Word that dwelt in it that the
body had died, but m order that in it death might be done away by the power
of the Saviour.

# 27. The change wrought by the Cross in the relation of Death to Man.

   For that death is destroyed, and that the Cross is become the victory
over it, and that it has no more power but is verily dead, this is no small
proof, or rather an evident warrant, that it is despised by all Christ's
disciples, and that they all take the aggressive against it and no longer
fear it; but by the sign of the Cross and by faith in Christ tread it down
as dead. 2. For of old, before the divine sojourn of the Saviour took
place, even to the saints death was terrible [8], and all wept for the dead
as though they perished. But now that the Saviour has raised His body,
death is no longer terrible; for all who believe in Christ tread him under
as nought, and choose rather to die than to deny their faith in Christ. For
they verily know that when they die they are not destroyed, but actually
[begin to] live, and become incorruptible through the Resurrection. 3. And
that devil that once maliciously exulted in death, now that its [9] pains
were loosed, remained the only one truly dead. And a proof of this is, that
before men believe Christ, they see in death an object of terror, and play
the coward before him. But when they are gone over to Christ's faith and
teaching, their contempt for death is so great that they even eagerly rush
upon it, and become witnesses for the Resurrection the Saviour has
accomplished against it. For while still tender in years they make haste to
die, and not men only, but women also, exercise themselves by bodily
discipline against it. So weak has he become, that even women who were
formerly deceived by him, now mock at him as dead and paralyzed. 4. For as
when a tyrant has been defeated by a real king, and bound hand and foot,
then all that pass by laugh him to scorn, buffeting and reviling him, no
longer fearing his fury and barbarity, because of the king who has
conquered him; so also, death having been conquered and exposed by the
Saviour on the Cross, and bound hand and foot, all they who are in Christ,
as they pass by, trample on him, and witnessing to Christ scoff at death,
jesting at him, and saying what has been written against him of old: "O
death [1], where is thy victory? O grave, where is thy sting."

# 28. This exceptional fact must be tested by experience. Let those who
doubt it become Christians.

   Is this, then, a slight proof of the weakness of death? or is it a
slight demonstration of the victory won over him by the Saviour, when the
youths and young maidens that are in Christ despise this life and practise
to die? 2. For man is by nature afraid of death and of the dissolution of
the body; but there is this most startling fact, that he who has put on the
faith of the Cross despises even what is naturally fearful, and for
Christ's sake is not afraid of death. 3. And just as, whereas fire has the
natural property of burning, if some one said there was a substance which
did not fear its burning, but on the contrary proved it weak--as the
asbestos among the Indians is said to do--then one who did not believe the
story, if he wished to put it to the test, is at any rate, after putting on
the fireproof material and touching the fire, thereupon assured of the
weakness attributed [2] to the fire: 4. or if any one wished to see the
tyrant bound, at any rate by going into the country and domain of his
conqueror he may see the man, a terror to others, reduced to weakness; so
if a man is incredulous even still after so many proofs and after so many
who have become martyrs in Christ, and after the scorn shewn for death
every day by those who are illustrious in Christ, still, if his mind be
even yet doubtful as to whether death has been brought to nought and had an
end, he does well to wonder at so great a thing, only let him not prove
obstinate in incredulity, nor case hardened in the face of what is so
plain. 5. But just as he who has got the asbestos knows that fire has no
burning power over it, and as he who would see the tyrant bound goes over
to the empire of his conqueror, so too let him who is incredulous about the
victory over death receive the faith of Christ, and pass over to His
teaching, and he shall see the weakness of death, and the triumph over it.
For many who were formerly incredulous and scoffers have afterwards
believed and so despised death as even to become martyrs for Christ
Himself.

# 29. Here then are wonderful effects, and a sufficient cause, the Cross,
to account for them, as sunrise accounts for daylight.

   Now if by the sign of the Cross, and by faith in Christ, death is
trampled down, it must be evident before the tribunal of truth that it is
none other than Christ Himself that has displayed trophies and triumphs
over death, and made him lose all his strength. 2. And if, while previously
death was strong, and for that reason terrible, now after the sojourn of
the Saviour and the death and Resurrection of His body it is despised, it
must be evident that death has been brought to nought and conquered by the
very Christ that ascended the Cross. 3. For as, if after night-time the sun
rises, and the whole region of earth is illumined by him, it is at any rate
not open to doubt that it is the sun who has revealed his light everywhere,
that has also driven away the dark and given light to all things; so, now
that death has come into contempt, and been trodden under foot, from the
time when the Saviour's saving manifestation in the flesh and His death on
the Cross took place, it must be quite plain that it is the very Saviour
that also appeared in the body, Who has brought death to nought, and Who
displays the signs of victory over him day by day in His own disciples. 4.
For when one sees men, weak by nature, leaping forward to death, and not
fearing its corruption nor frightened of the descent into Hades, but with
eager soul challenging it; and not flinching from torture, but on the
contrary, for Christ's sake electing to rush upon death in preference to
life upon earth, or even if one be an eye-witness of men and females and
young children rushing and leaping upon death for the sake of Christ's
religion; who is so silly, or who is so incredulous, or who so maimed in
his mind, as not to see and infer that Christ, to Whom the people witness,
Himself supplies and gives to each the victory over death, depriving him of
all his power in each one of them that hold His faith and bear the sign of
the Cross. 5. For he that sees the serpent trodden under foot, especially
knowing his former fierceness no longer doubts that he is dead and has
quite lost his strength, unless he is perverted in mind and has not even
his bodily senses sound. For who that sees a lion, either, made sport of by
children, fails to see that he is either dead or has lost all his power? 6.
Just as, then, it is possible to see with the eyes the truth of all this,
so, now that death is made sport of and despised by believers in Christ let
none any longer doubt, nor any prove incredulous, of death having been
brought to nought by Christ, and the corruption of death destroyed and
stayed.

# 30. The reality of the Resurrection prayed by facts: (1) the victory over
death described above: (2) the Wonders of Grace are the work of one Living,
of One who is God:: (3) if the gads be (as alleged) real and living, a
fortiori He Who shatters their power is alive.

   What we have so far said, then, is no small proof that death has been
brought to naught, and that the Cross of the Lord is a sign of victory over
him. But of the Resurrection of the body to immortality thereupon
accomplished by Christ, the common Saviour and true Life of all, the
demonstration by facts is clearer than arguments to those whose mental
vision is sound. 2. For if, as our argument shewed, death has been brought
to naught, and because of Christ all tread him under foot, much more did He
Himself first tread him down with His own body, and bring him to nought.
But supposing death slain by Him, what could have happened save the rising
again of His body, and its being displayed as a monument of victory against
death? or how could death have been shewn to be brought to nought unless
the Lord's body had risen? But if this demonstration of the Resurrection
seem to any one insufficient, let him be assured of what is said even from
what takes place before his eyes. 3. For whereas on a man's decease he can
put forth no power, but his influence lasts to the grave and thenceforth
ceases; and actions, and power over men, belong to the living only; let him
who will, see and be judge, confessing the truth from what appears to
sight. 4. For now that the Saviour works so great things among men, and day
by day is invisibly persuading so great a multitude from every side, both
from them that dwell in Greece and in foreign lands, to come over to His
faith, and all to obey His teaching, will any one still hold his mind in
doubt whether a Resurrection has been accomplished by the Saviour, and
whether Christ is alive, or rather is Himself the Life? 5. Or is it like a
dead man to be pricking the consciences of men, so that they deny their
hereditary laws and bow before the teaching of Christ? Or how, if he is no
longer active (for this is proper to one dead), does he stay from their
activity those who are active and alive, so that the adulterer no longer
commits adultery, and the murderer murders no more, nor is the inflicter of
wrong any longer grasping, and the profane is henceforth religious? Or how,
if He be not risen but is dead, does He drive away, and pursue, and cast
down those false gods said by the unbelievers to be alive, and the demons
they worship? 6. For where Christ is named, and His faith, there all
idolatry is deposed and all imposture of evil spirits is exposed, and any
spirit is unable to endure even the name, nay even on barely hearing it
flies and disappears. But this work is not that of one dead, but of one
that lives--and especially of God. 7. In particular, it would be ridiculous
to say that while the spirits cast out by Him and the idols brought to
nought are alive, He who chases them away, and by His power prevents their
even appearing, yea, and is being confessed by them all to be Son of God,
is dead.

# 31. If Power is the sign of life, what do we learn from the impotence of
idols, for goad or evil, and the constraining power of Christ and of the
Sign of the Cross? Death and the demons are by this proved to have lost
their sovereignty. Coincidence of the above argument from facts with that
from the Personality of Christ.

   But they who disbelieve in the Resurrection afford a strong proof
against themselves, if instead of all the spirits and the gods worshipped
by them casting out Christ, Who, they say, is dead, Christ on the contrary
proves them all to be dead. 2. For if it be true that one dead can exert no
power, while the Saviour does daily so many works, drawing men to religion,
persuading to virtue, teaching of immortality, leading on to a desire for
heavenly things, revealing the knowledge of the Father, inspiring strength
to meet death, shewing Himself to each one, and displacing the godlessness
of idolatry, and the gods and spirits of the unbelievers can do none of
these things, but rather shew themselves dead at the presence of Christ,
their pomp being reduced to impotence and vanity; whereas by the sign of
the Cross all magic is stopped, and all witchcraft brought to nought, and
all the idols are being deserted and left, and every unruly pleasure is
checked, and every one is looking up from earth to heaven: Whom is one to
pronounce dead? Christ, that is doing so many works? But to work is not
proper to one dead. Or him that exerts no power at all, but lies as it were
without life? which is essentially proper to the idols and spirits, dead as
they are. 3. For the Son of God is [3] "living and active," and works day
by day, and brings about the salvation of all. But death is daily proved to
have lost all his power, and idols and spirits are proved to be dead rather
than Christ, so that henceforth no man can any longer doubt of the
Resurrection of His body.

4. But he who is incredulous of the Resurrection of the Lord's body would
seem to be ignorant of the power of the Word and Wisdom of God. For if He
took a body to Himself at all, and--in reasonable consistency, as our
argument shewed-- appropriated it as His own, what was the Lord to do with
it? or what should be the end of the body when the Word   had once
descended upon it? For it could not but die, inasmuch as it was mortal, and
to be offered unto death on behalf of all: for which purpose it was that
the Saviour fashioned it for Himself. But it was impossible for it to
remain dead, because it had been made the temple of life. Whence, while it
died as mortal, it came to life again by reason of the Life in it; and of
its Resurrection the works are a sign.

# 32. But who is to see Him risen, so as to believe? Nay, God is ever
invisible and known by His works only: and here the works cry out in proof.
If you do not believe, look at those who do, and perceive the Godhead of
Christ. The demons see this, though men be blind. Summary of the argument
so far.

   But if, because He is not seen, His having risen at all is disbelieved,
it is high time for those who refuse belief to deny the very course of
Nature. For it is God's peculiar property at once to be invisible and yet
to be known from His works, as has been already stated above. 2. If, then,
the works are not there, they do well to disbelieve what does not appear.
But if the works cry aloud and shew it clearly, why do they choose to deny
the life so manifestly due to the Resurrection? For even if they be maimed
in their intelligence, yet even with the external senses men may see the
unimpeachable power and Godhead of Christ. 3. For even a blind man, if he
see not the sun, yet if he but take hold of the warmth the sun gives out,
knows that there is a sun above the earth. Thus let our opponents also,
even if they believe not as yet, being still blind to the truth, yet at
least knowing His power by others who believe, not deny the Godhead of
Christ and the Resurrection accomplished by Him. 4. For it is plain that if
Christ be dead, He could not be expelling demons and spoiling idols; for a
dead man the spirits would not have obeyed. But if they be manifestly
expelled by the naming of His name, it must be evident that He is not dead;
especially as spirits, seeing even what is unseen by men, could tell if
Christ were dead and refuse Him any obedience at all. 5. But as it is, what
irreligious men believe not, the spirits see--that He is God,-and hence
they fly and fall at His feet, saying just what they uttered when He was in
the body: "We [4] know Thee Who Thou art, the Holy One of God;" and, "Ah,
what have we to do with Thee, Thou Son of God? I pray Thee, torment me
not." 6. As then demons confess Him, and His works bear Him witness day by
day, it must be evident, and let none brazen it out against the truth, both
that the Saviour raised His own body, and that He is the true Son of God,
being from Him, as from His Father, His own Word, and Wisdom, and Power,
Who in ages later took a body for the salvation of all, and taught the
world concerning the Father, and brought death to nought, and bestowed
incorruption upon all by the promise of the Resurrection, having raised His
own body as a first-fruits of this, and having displayed it by the sign of
the Cross as a monument of victory over death and its corruption.

# 33. UNBELIEF OF JEWS AND SCOFFING OF GREEKS. THE FORMER confounded by
their own Scriptures. Prophecies of His coming as God and as Man.

   These things being so, and the Resurrection of His body and the victory
gained over death by the Saviour being clearly proved, come now let us put
to rebuke both the disbelief of the Jews and the scoffing of the Gentiles.
2. For these, perhaps, are the points where Jews express incredulity, while
Gentiles laugh, finding fault with the unseemliness of the Cross, and of
the Word of God becoming man. But our argument shall not delay to grapple
with both especially as the proofs at our command against them are clear as
day. 3. For Jews in their incredulity may be refuted from the Scriptures,
which even themselves read; for this text and that, and, in a word, the
whole inspired Scripture, cries aloud concerning these things, as even its
express words abundantly shew. For prophets proclaimed beforehand
concerning the wonder of the Virgin and the birth from her, saying: "Lo,
the [5] Virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a Son, and they
shall call his name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, God with us." 4.
But Moses, the truly great, and whom they believe to speak truth, with
reference to the Saviour's becoming man, having estimated what was said as
important, and assured of its truth, set it down in these words: "There [6]
shall rise a star out of Jacob, and a man out of Israel, and he shall break
in pieces the captains of Moab." And again: "How lovely are thy habitations
O Jacob, thy tabernacles O Israel, as shadowing gardens, and as parks by
the rivers, and as tabernacles which the Lord hath fixed, as cedars by the
waters. A man shall come forth out of his seed, and shall be Lord over many
peoples." And again, Esaias: "Before [7] the Child know how to call father
or mother, he shall take the power of Damascus and the spoils 'of Samaria
before the king of Assyria." 5. That a man, then, shall appear is foretold
in those words. But that He that is to come is Lord of all, they predict
once more as follows: "Behold [8] the Lord sitteth upon a light cloud, and
shall come into Egypt, and the graven images of Egypt shall be shaken." For
from thence also it is that the Father calls Him back, saying: "I called
[9] My Son out of Egypt."

# 34. Prophecies of His passion and death in all its circumstances.

   Nor is even His death passed over in silence: on the contrary, it is
referred to in the divine Scriptures, even exceeding clearly. For to the
end that none should err for want of instruction :in the actual events,
they feared not to mention even the cause of His death,--that He suffers
it not for His own sake, but for the immortality and salvation of all, and
the counsels of the Jews against Him and the indignities offered  Him at
their hands. 2. They say then: "A man [1] in stripes, and knowing how to
bear weakness, for his face is turned away: he was dishonoured and held in
no account. He beareth our sins, and is in pain on our account; and we
reckoned him to be in labour, and in stripes, and in ill-usage; but he was
wounded for our sins, and made weak for our wickedness. The chastisement of
our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we were healed." O marvel at the
loving-kindness of the Word, that for our sakes He is dishonoured, that we
may be brought to honour. "For all we," it says, "like sheep were gone
astray; man had erred in his way; and the Lord delivered him for our sins;
and he openeth not his mouth, because he hath been evilly entreated. As a
sheep was he brought to the slaughter, and as a lamb dumb before his
shearer, so openeth he not his mouth: in his abasement his judgment was
taken away [2]." 3. Then lest any should from His suffering conceive Him to
be a common man, Holy Writ anticipates the surmises of man, and declares
the power (which worked) for Him [3], and the difference of His nature
compared with ourselves, saying: "But who shall declare his generation? For
his life is taken away [2] from the earth. From the wickedness of the
people was he brought to death. And I will give the wicked instead of his
burial, and the rich instead of his death; for he did no wickedness,
neither was guile found in his mouth. And the Lord will cleanse him from
his stripes."

# 35. Prophecies of the Cross. How these prophecies are satisfied in Christ
alone.

   But, perhaps, having heard the prophecy of His death, you ask to learn
also what is set forth concerning the Cross. For not even this is passed
over: it is displayed by the holy men with great plainness. 2. For first
Moses predicts it, and that with a loud voice, when he says: "Ye shall see
[4] your Life hanging before your eyes, and shall not believe." 3. And
next, the prophets after him witness of this, saying: "But s I as an
innocent lamb brought to be slain, knew it not; they counselled an evil
counsel against me, saying, Hither and let us cast a tree upon his [6]
bread, and efface him from the land of the living." 4. And again: "They
pierced [7] my hands and my feet, they numbered all my bones, they parted
my garments among them, and for my vesture they cast lots." 5. Now a death
raised aloft and that takes place on a tree, could be none other than the
Cross: and again, in no other death are the hands and feet pierced, save on
the Cross only. 6. But since by the sojourn of the Saviour among men all
nations also on every side began to know God; they did not leave this
point, either, without a reference but mention is made of this matter as
well in the Holy Scriptures. For "there a shall be," he saith, "the root of
Jesse, and he that riseth to rule the nations, on him shall the nations
hope." This then is a little in proof of what has happened. 7. But all
Scripture teems with refutations of the disbelief of the Jews. For which of
the righteous men and holy prophets, and patriarchs, recorded in the divine
Scriptures, ever had his corporal birth of a virgin only? Or what woman has
sufficed without man for the conception of human kind? Was not Abel born of
Adam, Enoch of Jared, Noe of Lamech, and Abraham of Tharra, Isaac of
Abraham, Jacob of Isaac? Was not Judas born of Jacob, and Moses and Aaron
of Ameram? Was not Samuel born of Elkana, was not David of Jesse, was not
Solomon of David, was not Ezechias of Achaz, was not Josias of Amos, was
not Esaias of Amos, was not Jeremy of Chelchias, was not Ezechiel of Buzi?
Had not each a father as author of his existence? Who then is he that is
born of a virgin only? For the prophet made exceeding much of this sign. 8.
Or whose birth did a star in the skies forerun, to announce to the world
him that was born? For when Moses was born, he was hid by his parents:
David was not heard of, even by those of his neighbourhood, inasmuch as
even the great Samuel knew him not, but asked, had Jesse yet another son?
Abraham again became known to his neighbours as [9] a great man only
subsequently to his birth. But of Christ's birth the witness was not man,
but a star in that heaven whence He was descending.

# 36. Prophecies of Christ's sovereignty, flight into Egypt, &c.

   But what king that ever was, before he had strength to call father or
mother, reigned and gained triumphs over his enemies [10]? Did not David
come to the throne at thirty years of age, and Solomon, when he had grown
to be a young man? Did not Joas enter on the kingdom when seven years old,
and Josias, a still later king, receive the government about the seventh
year of his age? And yet they at that age had strength to call father or
mother. 2. Who, then, is there that was reigning and spoiling his enemies
almost before his birth? Or what king of this sort has ever been in Israel
and in Juda--let the Jews, who haves searched out the matter, tell us--in
whom all the nations have placed their hopes and had peace, instead of
being at enmity with them on every side? 3. For as long as Jerusalem stood
there was war without respite betwixt them, and they all fought with
Israel; the Assyrians oppressed them, the Egyptians persecuted them, the
Babylonians fell upon them; and, strange to say, they had even the Syrians
their neighbours at war against them. Or did not David war against them of
Moab, and smite the Syrians, Josias guard against his neighbours, and
Ezechias quail at the boasting of Senacherim, and Amalek make war against
Moses, and the Amorites oppose him, and the inhabitants of Jericho array
themselves against Jesus son of Naue? And, in a word, treaties of
friendship had no place between the nations and Israel. Who, then, it is on
whom the nations are to set their hope, it is worth while to see. For there
must be such an one, as it is impossible for the prophet to have spoken
falsely. 4. But which of the holy prophets or of the early patriarchs has
died on the Cross for the salvation of all? Or who was wounded and
destroyed for the healing of all? Or which of the righteous men, or kings,
went down to Egypt, so that at his coming the idols of Egypt fell [1]? For
Abraham went thither, but idolatry prevailed universally all the same.
Moses was born there, and the deluded worship of the people was there none
the less.

# 37. Psalm xxii. 16, &c. Majesty of His birth  and death.Confusion of
oracles and demons in Egypt.

   Or who among those recorded in Scripture was pierced in the hands and
feet, or hung at all upon a tree, and was sacrificed on a cross for the
salvation of all? For Abraham died, ending his life on a bed; Isaac and
Jacob also died with their feet raised on a bed; Moses and Aaron died on
the mountain; David in his house, without being the object of any
conspiracy at the hands of the people; true, he was pursued by Saul, but he
was preserved unhurt. Esaias was sawn asunder, but not hung on a tree.
Jeremy was shamefully treated, but did not die under condemnation; Ezechiel
suffered, not however for the people, but to indicate what was to come upon
the people. 2. Again, these, even where they suffered, were men resembling
all in their common nature; but he that is declared in Scripture to suffer
on behalf of all is called not merely man, but the Life of all, albeit He
was in fact like men in nature. For "ye shall [2] see," it says, "your Life
hanging before your eyes;" and "who shall declare his generation?" For one
can ascertain the genealogy of all the saints, and declare it from the
beginning, and of whom each was born; but the generation of Him that is the
Life the Scriptures refer to as not to be declared. 3. Who then is he of
whom the Divine Scriptures say this? Or who is so great that even the
prophets predict of him such great things? None else, now, is found in the
Scriptures but the common Saviour of all, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus
Christ. For He it is that proceeded from a virgin and appeared as man on
the earth, and whose generation after the flesh cannot be declared. For
there is none that can tell His father after the flesh, His body not being
of a man, but of a virgin alone; 4. so that no one can declare the corporal
generation of the Saviour from a man, in the same way as one can draw up a
genealogy of David and of Moses and of all the patriarchs. For He it is
that caused the star also to mark the birth of His body; since it was fit
that the Word, coming down from heaven, should have His constellation also
from heaven, and it was fitting that the King of Creation when He came
forth should be openly recognized by all creation. 5. Why, He was born in
Judaea, and men from Persia came to worship Him. He it is that even before
His appearing in the body won the victory over His demon adversaries and a
triumph over idolatry. All heathen at any rate from every region, abjuring
their hereditary tradition and the impiety of idols, are now placing their
hope in Christ, and enrolling themselves under Him, the like of which you
may see with your own eyes. 6. For at no other time has the impiety of the
Egyptians ceased, save when the Lord of all, riding as it were upon a
cloud, came down there in the body and brought to nought the delusion of
idols, and brought over all to Himself, and through Himself to the Father.
7. He it is that was crucified before the sun and all creation as
witnesses, and before those who put Him to death: and by His death has
salvation come to all, and all creation been ransomed. He is the Life of
all, and He it is that as a sheep yielded His body to death as a
substitute, for the salvation of all, even though the Jews believe it not.

# 38. Other clear prophecies of the coming of God in the flesh. Christ's
miracles unprecedented.

   For if they do not think these proofs sufficient, let them be persuaded
at any rate by other reasons, drawn from the oracles they themselves
possess. For of whom do the prophets say: "I was [3] made manifest to them
that sought me not, I was found of them that asked not for me: I said
Behold, here am I, to the nation that had not called upon my name; I
stretched out my hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people." 2. Who,
then, one might say to the Jews, is he that was made manifest? For if it is
the prophet, let them say when he was hid, afterward to appear again. And
what manner of prophet is this, that was not only made manifest from
obscurity, but also stretched out his hands on the Cross? None surely of
the righteous, save the Word of God only, Who, incorporeal by nature,
appeared for our sakes in the body and suffered for all. 3. Or if not even
this is sufficient for them, let them at least be silenced by another
proof, seeing how clear its demonstrative force is. For the Scripture says:
"Be strong [4] ye hands that hang down, and feeble knees; comfort ye, ye of
faint mind; be strong, fear not. Behold, our God recompenseth judgment; He
shall come and save us. Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the
ears of the deaf shall hear; then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and
the tongue of the stammerers shall be plain." 4. Now what can they say to
this, or how can they dare to face this at all? For the prophecy not only
indicates that God is to sojourn here, but it announces the signs and the
time of His coming. For they connect the blind recovering their sight, and
the lame walking, and the deaf hearing, and the tongue of the stammerers
being made plain, with the Divine Coming which is to take place. Let them
say, then, when such signs have come to pass in Israel, or where in Jewry
anything of the sort has occurred. 5. Naaman, a leper, was cleansed, but no
deaf man heard nor lame walked. Elias raised a dead man; so did Eliseus;
but none blind from birth regained his sight. For in good truth, to raise a
dead man is a great thing, but it is not like the wonder wrought by the
Saviour. Only, if Scripture has not passed over the case of the leper, and
of the dead son of the widow, certainly, had it come to pass that a lame
man also had walked and a blind man recovered his sight, the narrative
would not have omitted to mention this also. Since then nothing is said in
the Scriptures, it is evident that these things had never taken place
before. 6. When, then, have they taken place, save when the Word of God
Himself came in the body? Or when did He come, if not when lame men walked,
and stammerers were made to speak plain, and deaf men heard, and men blind
from birth regained their sight? For this was the very thing the Jews said
who then witnessed it, because they had not heard of these things having
taken place at any other time: "Since [5] the world began it was never
heard that any one opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were
not from God, He could do nothing."

# 39. Do you look for another? But Daniel foretells the escort time.
Objections to this removed.

   But perhaps, being unable, even they, to fight continually against
plain facts, they will, without denying what is written, maintain that they
are looking for these things, and that the Word of God is not yet come. For
this it is on which they are for ever harping, not blushing to brazen it
out in the face of plain facts. 2. But on this one point, above all, they
shall be all the more refuted, not at our hands, but at those of the most
wise Daniel, who marks both the actual date, and the divine sojourn of the
Saviour, saying: "Seventy [6] weeks are cut short upon thy people, and upon
the holy city, for a full end to be made of sin, and for sins to be sealed
up, and to blot out iniquities, and to make atonement for iniquities, and
to bring everlasting righteousness, and to seal vision and prophet, and to
anoint a Holy of Holies; and thou shalt know and understand from the going
forth of the word to restore [7] and to build Jerusalem unto Christ the
Prince" 3. Perhaps with regard to the other (prophecies) they may be able
even to find excuses and to put off what is written to a future time. But
what can they say to this, or can they face it at all? Where not only is
the Christ referred to, but He that is to be anointed is declared to be not
man simply, but Holy of Holies; and Jerusalem is to stand till His coming,
and thenceforth, prophet and vision cease in Israel. 4. David was anointed
of old, and Solomon and Ezechias; but then, nevertheless, Jerusalem and the
place stood, and prophets were prophesying: God and Asaph and Nathan; and,
later, Esaias and Osee and Amos and others. And again, the actual men that
were anointed were called holy, and not Holy of Holies. 5. But if they
shield themselves with the captivity, and say that because of it Jerusalem
was not, what can they say about the prophets too? For in fact when first
the people went down to Babylon, Daniel and Jeremy were there, and Ezechiel
and Aggaeus and Zachary were prophesying.

# 40. Argument (I)from the withdrawal of prophecy and destruction of
Jerusalem, (2) from the conversion of the Gentiles, and that to the God of
Moses. What more remains for the Messiah to do, that Christ has not done?

   So the Jews are trifling, and the time in question, which they refer to
the future, is actually come. For when did prophet and vision cease from
Israel, save when Christ came, the Holy of Holies? For it is a sign, and an
important proof, of the coming of the Word of God, that Jerusalem no longer
stands, nor is any prophet raised up nor vision revealed to them,--and that
very naturally. 2. For when He that was signified was come, what need was
there any longer of any to signify Him? When the truth was there, what need
any more of the shadow? For this was the reason of their prophesying at
all,--namely, till the true Righteousness should come, and He that was to
ransom the sins of all. And this was why Jerusalem stood till then- namely,
that there they might be exercised in the types as a preparation for the
reality. 3. So when the Holy of Holies was come, naturally vision and
prophecy were sealed and the kingdom of Jerusalem ceased. For kings were to
be anointed among them only until the Holy of Holies should have been
anointed; and Jacob prophesies that the kingdom of the Jews should be
established until Him, as follows :-"The ruler s shall not fail from Juda,
nor the Prince from his loins, until that which is  laid up for him shall
come; and he is the expectation of the nations." 4. Whence the Saviour also
Himself cried aloud and said: "The [9] law and the prophets prophesied
until John." If then there is now among the Jews king or prophet or vision,
they do well to deny the Christ that is come. But if there is neither king
nor vision, but from that time forth all prophecy is sealed and the city
and temple taken, why are they so irreligious and so perverse as to see
what has happened, and yet to deny Christ, Who has brought it all to pass?
Or why, when they see even heathens deserting their idols, and placing
their hope, through Christ, on the God of Israel, do they deny Christ, Who
was born of the root of Jesse after the flesh and henceforth is King? For
if the nations were worshipping some other God, and not confessing the God
of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Moses, then, once more, they would be
doing well in alleging that God had not come. 5. But if the Gentiles are
honouring  the same God that gave the law to Moses and  made the promise to
Abraham, and Whose word  the Jews dishonoured,--why are they ignorant, or
rather why do they choose to ignore, that the Lord foretold by the
Scriptures has shone forth upon the world, and appeared to it in bodily
form, as the Scripture said: "The [1] Lord God hath shined upon us;" and
again: "He [2] sent His Word and healed them ;" and again: "Not [3] a
messenger, not an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them?" 6. Their state
may be compared to that of one out of his right mind, who sees the earth
illumined by the sun, but denies the sun that illumines it. For what more
is there for him whom they expect to do, when he is come? To call the
heathen? But they are called already. To make prophecy, and king, and
vision to cease? This too has already come to pass. To expose the
godlessness of idolatry? It is already exposed and condemned. Or to destroy
death? He is already destroyed. 7. What then has not come to pass, that the
Christ must do? What is left unfulfilled, that the Jews should now
disbelieve with impunity? For if, I say, -which is just what we actually
see,--there is no longer king nor prophet nor Jerusalem nor sacrifice nor
vision among them, but even the  whole earth is tilled with the knowledge
of God, and gentiles, leaving their godlessness,  are now taking refuge
with the God of Abraham, through the Word, even our Lord Jesus  Christ,
then it must be plain, even to those who  are exceedingly obstinate, that
the Christ is come, and that He has illumined absolutely all with His
light, and given them the true and divine teaching concerning His Father.
8. So one can fairly refute the Jews by these and by other arguments from
the Divine Scriptures.

# 41. Answer to the Greeks. Do they recognized the Logos? If He manifests
Himself in the organism of the Universe, why not in one Body? For a human
body is a part of the same whole.

   But one cannot but be utterly astonished at the Gentiles, who, while
they laugh at what is no matter for jesting, are themselves insensible to
their own disgrace, which they do not see that they have set up in the
shape of stocks and stones. [2]. Only, as our argument is not lacking in
demonstrative proof, come let us put them also to shame on reasonable
grounds, --mainly from what we ourselves also see. For what is there on our
side that is absurd, or worthy of derision? Is it merely our saying that
the Word has been made manifest in the body? But this even they will join
in owning to have happened without any absurdity, if they show themselves
friends of truth. 3. If then they deny that there is a Word of God at all,
they do so gratuitously [4], jesting at what they know not. 4. But if they
confess that there is a Word of God, and He ruler of the universe, and that
in Him the Father has produced the creation, and that by His Providence the
whole receives light and life and being, and that He reigns over oil, so
that from the works of His providence He is known, and through Him the
Father,--consider, I pray you, whether they be not unwittingly raising the
jest against themselves. 5. The philosophers of the Greeks say that the
universe is a great body 5; and rightly so. For we see it and its parts as
objects of our senses. If, then, the Word of God is in the Universe, which
is a body, and has united Himself with the whole and with all its parts,
what is there surprising or absurd if we say that He has united Himself [6]
with man also. 6. For if it were absurd for Him to have been in a body at
all, it would be absurd for Him to be united with the whole either, and to
be giving light and movement to all things by His providence. For the whole
also is a body. 7. But if it beseems Him to unite Himself with the
universe, and to be made known in the whole, it must beseem Him also to
appear in a human body, and that by Him it should be  illumined and work.
For mankind is part of the whole as well as the rest. And if it be unseemly
for a part to have been adopted as His instrument to teach men of His
Godhead, it must be most absurd that He should be made known even by the
whole universe.

# 42. His union with the body is based upon His relation to Creation as a
whole. He used a human body, since to man it was that He wished to reveal
Himself.

   For just as, while the whole body is quickened and illumined by man,
supposing one said it were absurd that man's power should also be in the
toe, he would be thought foolish; because, while granting that he pervades
and works in the whole, he demurs to his being in the part also; thus he
who grants and believes that the Word of God is in the whole Universe, and
that the whole is illumined and moved by Him, should not think it absurd
that a single human body also should receive movement and light from Him.
2. But if it is because the human race is a thing created and has been made
out of nothing, that they regard that manifestation of the Saviour in man,
which we speak of, as not seemly, it is high time for them to eject Him
from creation also; for it too has been brought into existence by the Word
out of nothing. 3. But if, even though creation be a thing made, it is not
absurd that the Word should be in it, then neither is it absurd that He
should be in man. For whatever idea they form of the whole, they must
necessarily apply the like idea to the part. For man also, as I said
before, is a part of the whole. 4. Thus it is not at all unseemly that the
Word should be in man, while all things are deriving from Him their light
and movement and light, as also their authors say, "In [7] him we live and
move and have our being." 5. So, then, what is there to scoff at in what we
say, if the Word has used that, wherein He is, as an instrument to manifest
Himself? For were He not in it, neither could He have used it; but if we
have previously allowed that He is in the whole and in its parts, what is
there incredible in His, manifesting Himself in that wherein He is? 6. For
by His own power He is united s wholly with each and all, and orders all
things without stint, so that no one could have called it out of place for
Him to speak, and make known Himself and His Father, by means of sun, if He
so willed, or moon, or heaven, or earth, or waters, or fire [9]; inasmuch
as He holds in one all things at once, and is in fact not only in oil but
also in the part in question, and there invisibly manifests Himself. In
like manner it cannot be absurd if, ordering as He does the whole, and
giving life to all things, and having willed to make Himself known through
men, He has used as His instrument a human body to manifest the truth and
knowledge of the Father. For humanity, too, is an actual part of the whole.
7. And as Mind, pervading man all through, is interpreted by a part of the
body, I mean the tongue, without any one saying, I suppose, that the
essence of the mind is on that account lowered, so if the Word, pervading
all things, has used a human instrument, this cannot appear unseemly. For,
as I have said previously, if it be unseemly to have used a body as an
instrument, it is unseemly also for Him to be in the Whole.

#43. He came in human rather than in any nobler forth, because (1) He came
to save, not to impress; (2) Man alone of creatures had sinned. As men
would not recognise His works in thee Universe, He came and worked among
them as Man; in the sphere to which they had limited themselves.

   Now, if they ask, Why then did He not appear by means of other and
nobler parts of creation, and use some nobler instrument, as the sun, or
moon, or stars, or fire, or air, instead of man merely? let them know that
the Lord came not to make a display, but to heal and teach those who were
suffering. 2. For the way for one aiming at display would be, just to
appear, and to dazzle the beholders; but for one seeking to heal and teach
the way is, not simply to sojourn here, but to give himself to the aid of
those in want, and to appear as they who need him can bear it; that he may
not, by exceeding the requirements of the sufferers, trouble the very
persons that need him, rendering God's appearance useless to them. 3. Now,
nothing in creation had gone astray with regard to their notions of God,
save man only. Why, neither sun, nor moon, nor heaven, nor the stars, nor
water, nor air had swerved from their order; but knowing their Artificer
and Sovereign, the Word, they remain as they were made [1]. But men alone,
having rejected what was good, then devised things of nought instead of the
truth, and have ascribed the honour due to God, and their knowledge of Him,
to demons and men in the shape of stones. 4. With reason, then, since it
were unworthy of the Divine Goodness to overlook so grave a matter, while
yet men were not able to recognise Him as ordering and guiding the whole,
He takes to Himself as an instrument a part of the whole, His human body,
and unites [2]  Himself with that, in order that since men could not
recognise Him in the whole, they should not fail to know Him in the part;
and since they could not look up to His invisible power, might be able, at
any rate, from what resembled themselves to reason to Him and to
contemplate Him. 5. For, men as they are, they will be able to know His
Father more quickly and directly by a body of like nature and by the divine
works wrought through it, judging by comparison that they are not human,
but the works of God, which are done by Him, 6. And if it were absurd, as
they say, for the Word to be known through the works of the body, it would
likewise be absurd for Him to be known through the works of the universe.
For just as He is in creation, and yet does not partake of its nature in
the least degree, but rather all things partake s of His power; so while He
used the body as His instrument He partook of no corporeal property, but,
on the contrary, Himself sanctified even the body. 7. For if even Plato,
who is in such repute among the Greeks, says [4] that its author, beholding
the universe tempest-tossed, and in peril of going down to the place of
chaos, takes his seat at the helm of the soul and comes to the rescue and
corrects all its calamities; what is there incredible in what we say, that,
mankind being in error, the Word lighted down [5] upon it and appeared as
man, that He might save it in its tempest by His guidance and goodness ?

# 44. As God made man by a word, why not  restore him by a word? But (I)
creation out of nothing is different from reparation of  what already
exists. (2) Man was there with a definite need, calling for a definite
remedy. Death was ingrained in man's nature: He then must wind life closely
to human nature. Therefore the Word became Incarnate that He  might meet
and conquer death in His usurped territory. (Simile of straw and asbestos.)

   But perhaps, shamed into agreeing with this,  they will choose to say
that God, if He wished  to reform and to save mankind, ought to have  done
so by a mere fiat [6], without His word  taking a body, in just the same
way as He did  formerly, when He produced them out of nothing. 2. To this
objection of theirs a reasonable answer would be: that formerly, nothing
being in existence at all, what was needed to make everything was a fiat
and the bare will to do so. But when man had once been made, and necessity
demanded a cure, not for things that were not, but for things that had come
to be, it was naturally consequent that the Physician and Saviour should
appear in what had come to be, in order also to cure the things that were.
For this cause, then, He has become man, and used His body as a human
instrument. 3. For if this were not the right way, how was the Word,
choosing to use an instrument, to appear? or whence was He to take it, save
from those already in being, and in need of His Godhead by means of one
like themselves? For it was not things without being that needed salvation,
so that a bare command should suffice, but man, already in existence, was
going to corruption and ruin [7]. It was then natural and right that the
Word should use a human instrument and reveal Himself everywhither. 4.
Secondly, you must know this also, that the corruption which had set in was
not external to the body, but had become attached to it; and it was
required that, instead of corruption, life should cleave to it; so that,
just as death has been engendered in the body, so life may be engendered in
it also. 5. Now if death were external to the body, it would be proper for
life also to have been engendered externally to it. But if death was wound
closely to the body and was ruling over it as though united to it, it was
required that life also should be would closely to the body, that so the
body, by putting on life in its stead, should cast off corruption. Besides,
even supposing that the Word had come outside the body, and not in it,
death would indeed have been defeated by Him, in perfect accordance with
nature, inasmuch as death has no power against the Life; but the corruption
attached to the body would have remained in it none the less [8]. 6. For
this cause the Saviour reasonably put on Him a body, in order that the
body, becoming wound closely to the Life, should no longer, as mortal,
abide in death, but, as having put on immortality, should thenceforth rise
again and remain immortal. For, once it had put on corruption, it could not
have risen again unless it had put on life. And death likewise could not,
from its very nature, appear, save in the body. Therefore He put on a body,
that He night find death in the body, and blot it out. For how could the
Lord have been proved at all to be the Life, had He not quickened what was
mortal? 7. And just as, whereas stubble is naturally destructible by fire,
supposing (firstly) a man keeps fire away from the stubble, though it is
not burned, yet the stubble remains, for all that, merely stubble, fearing
the threat of the fire--for fire has the natural property of consuming it;
while if a man (secondly) encloses it with a quantity of asbestos, the
substance said [9] to be an antidote to fire, the stubble no longer dreads
the fire, being secured by its enclosure in incombustible matter; 8. in
this very way one may say, with regard to the body and death, that if death
had been kept from the body by a mere command on His part, it would none
the less have been mortal and corruptible, according to the nature of
bodies; but, that this should not be, it put on the incorporeal Word of
God, and thus no longer fears either death or corruption, for it has life
as a garment, and corruption is done away in it.

# 45. Thus once again every part of creation manifests the glory of God.
Nature, the witness to her Creator, yields (by miracles) a second testimony
to God Inncarnate. The witness of Nature, perverted by man's sin, was thus
forced back to truth. If these reasons suffice not, let the Greeks look at
facts.

   Consistently, therefore, the Word of God took a body and has made use
of a human instrument, in order to quicken the body also, and as He is
known in creation by His works so to work in man as well, and to shew
Himself everywhere, leaving nothing void of His own divinity, and of the
knowledge of Him. 2. For I resume, and repeat what I said before, that the
Saviour did this in order that, as He fills all things on all sides by His
presence, so also He might fill all things with the knowledge of Him, as
the divine Scripture also says [1]: "The whole earth was filled with the
knowledge of the Lord." 3. For if a man will but look up to heaven, he sees
its Order, or if he cannot raise his face to heaven, but only to man, he
sees His power, beyond comparison with that of men, shewn by His works, and
learns that He alone among men is God the Word. Or if a man is gone astray
among demons, and is in fear of them, he may see this man drive them out,
and make up his mind that He is their Master. Or if a man has sunk to the
waters [2], and thinks that they are God,-as the Egyptians, for instance,
reverence the water, --he may see its nature changed by Him,  and learn
that the Lord is Creator of the waters. 4. But if a man is gone down even
to Hades, and stands in awe of the heroes who have descended thither,
regarding them as gods, yet he may see the fact of Christ's Resurrection
and victory over death, and infer that among them also Christ alone is true
God and Lord. 5. For the Lord touched all parts of creation, and freed and
undeceived all of them from every illusion; as Paul says: "Having [3] put
off from Himself the principalities and the powers, He triumphed on the
Cross :" that no one might by any possibility be any longer deceived, but
everywhere might find the true Word of God. 6. For thus man, shut in on
every side [4], and beholding the divinity of the Word unfolded everywhere,
that is, in heaven, in Hades, in man, upon earth, is no longer exposed to
deceit concerning God, but is to worship Christ alone, and through Him come
rightly to know the Father. 7. By these arguments, then, on grounds of
reason, the Gentiles in their turn will fairly be put to shame by us. But
if they deem the arguments insufficient to shame them, let them be assured
of what we are saying at any rate by facts obvious to the sight of all.

# 46. Discredit, from the date of the Incarnation, of idol-cultus, oracles,
mythologies, demoniacal energy, magic, and Gentile philosophy. And whereas
the old cults were strictly local and independent, the warship of Christ is
catholic and uniform.

   When did men begin to desert the worship-ping of idols, save since God,
the true Word of God, has come among men? Or when have the oracles among
the Greeks, and everywhere, ceased and become empty, save when the Saviour
has manifested Himself upon earth? 2. Or when did those who are called gods
and heroes in the poets begin to be convicted of being merely mortal men
[5], save since the Lord erected His conquest of death, and preserved
incorruptible the body he had taken, raising it from the dead? 3. Or when
did the deceitfulness and madness of demons fall into contempt, save when
the power of God, the Word, the Master of all these as well, condescending
because of man's weakness, appeared on earth? Or when [6] did the art and
the schools of magic begin to be trodden down, save when the divine
manifestation of the Word took place among men? 4. And, in a word, at what
time has the wisdom of the Greeks become foolish, save when the true Wisdom
of God manifested itself on earth? For formerly the whole world and every
place was led astray by the worship-ping of idols, and men regarded nothing
else but the idols as gods. But now, all the world over, men are deserting
the superstition of the idols, and taking refuge with Christ; and,
worshipping Him as God, are by His means coming to know that Father also
Whom they knew not. 5. And, marvellous fact, whereas the objects of worship
were various and of vast number, and each place had its own idol, and he
who was accounted a god among them had no power to pass over to the
neighbouring place, so as to persuade those of neighbouring peoples to
worship him, but was barely served even among his own people; for no one
else worshipped his neighbour's god--on the contrary, each man kept to his
own idol [7], thinking it to be lord of all ;--Christ alone is worshipped
as one and the same among all peoples; and what the weakness of the idols
could not do--to persuade, namely, even those dwelling close at hand,--this
Christ has done, persuading not only those close at hand, but simply the
entire world, to worship one and the same Lord, and through Him God, even
His Father.

# 47. The numerous oracles,--fancied of apparitions in sacred places, &c.,
dispelIed by the sign of the Cross. The old gods prove to have been mere
men. Magic is exposed. And whereas Philosophy could only persuade select
and local cliques of Immortality, and goodness,--men of little intellect
have infused into the multitudes of the churches the principle of a
supernatural life.

   And whereas formerly every place was full of the deceit of the oracles
[8], and the oracles at Delphi and Dodona, and in Boeotia [9] and Lycia [1]
and Libya [2] and Egypt and those of the Cabiri [3], and the Pythoness,
were held in repute by men's imagination, now, since Christ has begun to be
preached everywhere, their madness also has ceased and there is none among
them to divine any more. 2. And whereas formerly demons used to deceive [4]
men's fancy, occupying springs or rivers, trees or stones, and thus imposed
upon the simple by their juggleries; now, after the divine visitation of
the Word, their deception has ceased. For by the Sign of the Cross, though
a man but use it, he drives out their deceits. 3. And while formerly men
held to be gods the Zeus and Cronos and Apollo and the heroes mentioned in
the poets, and went astray in honouring them; now that the Saviour has
appeared among men, those others have been exposed as mortal men [5], and
Christ alone has been recognised among men as the true God, the Word of
God. 4. And what is one to say of the magic [6] esteemed among them? that
before the Word sojourned among us this was strong and active among
Egyptians, and Chaldees, and Indians, and inspired awe in those who saw it;
but that by the presence of the Truth, and the Appearing of the Word, it
also has been thoroughly confuted, and brought wholly to nought. 5. But as
to Gentile wisdom, and the sounding pretensions of the philosophers, I
think none can need our argument, since the wonder is before the eyes of
all, that while the wise among the Greeks had written so much, and were
unable to persuade even a few [7] from their own neighbourhood, concerning
immortality and a virtuous life, Christ alone, by ordinary language, and by
men not clever with the tongue, has throughout all the world per suaded
whole churches full of men to despise death, and to mind the things of
immortality; to overlook what is temporal and to turn their eyes to what is
eternal; to think nothing of earthly glory and to strive only for the
heavenly.

# 48. Further facts. Christian continence of virgins and ascetics. Martyrs.
The power of the Cross against demons and magic. Christ by His Power shews
Himself more than a man, mare than a magician, more than a spirit. For all
these are totally subject to Him. Therefore He is the Word of God.

   Now these arguments of ours do not amount merely to words, but have in
actual experience a witness to their truth. 2. For let him that will, go up
and behold the proof of virtue in the virgins of Christ and in the young
men that practise holy chastity [8], and the assurance of immortality in so
great a band of His martyrs. 3. And let him come who would test by
experience what we have now said, and in the very presence of the deceit of
demons and the imposture of oracles and the marvels of magic, let him use
the Sign of that Cross which is laughed at among them, and he shall see how
by its means demons fly, oracles cease, all magic and witchcraft is brought
to nought. 4. Who, then, and how great is this Christ, Who by His own Name
and Presence casts into the shade and brings to nought all things on every
side, and is alone strong against all, and has filled the whole world with
His teaching? Let the Greeks tell us, who are pleased to laugh, and blush
not. 5. For if He is a man, how then has one man exceeded the power of all
whom even themselves bold to be gods, and convicted them by His own power
of being nothing? But if they call Him a magician, how can it be that by a
magician all magic is destroyed, instead of being confirmed? For if lie
conquered particular magicians, or prevailed over one only, it would be
proper for them to hold that He excelled the rest by superior skill; 6. but
if His Cross has won the victory over absolutely all magic, and over the
very name of it, it must be plain that the Saviour is not a magician,
seeing that even those demons who are invoked by the other magicians fly
from Him as their Master.

7. Who He is, then, let the Greeks tell us, whose only serious pursuit is
jesting. Perhaps they might say that He, too, was a demon, and hence His
strength. But say this as they will, they will have the laugh against them,
for they can once more be put to shame by our former proofs. For how is it
possible that He should be a demon who drives the demons out? 8. For if He
simply drove out particular demons, it might property be held that by the
chief of demons He prevailed against the lesser, just as the Jews said to
Him when they wished to insult Him. But if, by His Name being named,  all
madness of the demons is uprooted and chased away, it must be evident that
here, too, they are wrong, and that our Lord and Saviour Christ is not, as
they think, some demoniacal power. 9. Then, if the Saviour is neither a man
simply, nor a magician, nor some demon, but has by His own Godhead brought
to nought and cast into the shade both the doctrine found in the poets and
the delusion of the demons and the wisdom of the Gentiles, it must be plain
and will be owned by all, that this is the true Son of God, even the Word
and Wisdom and Power of the Father froth the beginning. For this is why His
works also are no works of man, but are recognised to be above man, and
truly God's works, both from the facts in themselves, and from comparison
with [the rest of] mankind.

# 49. His Birth and Miracles. You call Asclepius, Heracles, and Dionysus
gods for their works. Contrast their works with His, and the wonders at His
death, &c.

   For what man, that ever was born, formed a body for himself from a
virgin alone? Or what man ever healed such diseases as the common Lord of
all? Or who has restored what was wanting to man's nature, and made one
blind from his birth to see? 2. Asclepius was deified among them, because
he practised medicine and found out herbs for bodies that were sick; not
forming them himself out of the earth, but discovering them by science
drawn from nature. But what is this to what was done by the Saviour, in
that, instead of healing a wound, He modified a man's original nature, and
restored the body whole. 3. Heracles is worshipped as a god among the
Greeks because he fought against men, his peers, and destroyed wild beasts
by guile. What is this to what was done by the Word, in driving away from
man diseases and demons and death itself? Dionysus is worshipped among them
because he has taught man drunkenness; but the true Saviour and Lord of
all, for teaching temperance, is mocked by these people. 4. But let these
matters pass. What will they say to the other miracles of His Godhead? At
what man's death was the sun darkened and the earth shaken? Lo even to this
day men are dying, and they died also of old. When did any such-like wonder
happen in their case? 5. Or, to pass over the deeds done through His body,
and mention those after its rising again: what man's doctrine that ever was
has prevailed everywhere, one and the same, from one end of the earth to
the other, so that his worship has winged its way through every land? 6. Or
why, if Christ is, as they say, a man, and not God the Word, is not His
worship prevented by the gods they have from passing into the same land
where they are? Or why on the contrary does the Word Himself, sojourning
here, by His teaching stop their worship and put their deception to shame ?

# 50. Impotence and rivalries of the Sophists tint to shame by the Death of
Christ. His Resurrection unparalleled even in Greek legend.

   Many before this Man have been kings and tyrants of the world, many are
on record who have been wise men and magicians, among the Chaldaeans and
Egyptians and Indians; which of these, I say, not after death, but while
still alive, was ever able so far to prevail as to fill the whole earth
with his teaching and reform so great a multitude from the superstition of
idols, as our Saviour has brought over from idols to Himself? 2. The
philosophers of the Greeks have composed many works with plausibility and
verbal skill; what result, then, have they exhibited so great as has the
Cross of Christ? For the refinements they taught were plausible enough till
they died; but even the influence they seemed to have while alive was
subject to their mutual rivalries; and they were emulous, and declaimed
against one another. 3. But the Word of God, most strange fact, teaching in
meaner language, has cast into the shade the choice sophists; and while He
has, by drawing all to Himself, brought their schools to nought, He has
filled His own churches; and the marvellous thing is, that by going down as
man to death, He has brought to nought the sounding utterances of the wise
[9] concerning idols. 4. For whose death ever drove out demons? or whose
death did demons ever fear, as they did that of Christ? For where the
Saviour's name is named, there every demon is driven out. Or who has so rid
men of the passions of the natural man, that whoremongers are chaste, and
murderers no longer hold the sword, and those who were formerly mastered by
cowardice play the man? 5. And, in short, who persuaded men of barbarous
countries and heathen men in divers places to lay aside their madness, and
to mind peace, if it be not the Faith of Christ and the Sign of the Cross?
Or who else has given men such assurance of immortality, as has the Cross
of Christ, and the Resurrection of His Body? 6. For although the Greeks
have told all manner of false tales, yet they were not able to feign a
Resurrection of their idols,--for it never crossed their mind, whether it
be at all possible for the body again to exist after death. And here one
would most especially accept their testimony, inasmuch as by this opinion
they have exposed the weakness of their own idolatry, while leaving the
possibility open to Christ, so that hence also He might be made known among
all as Son of God.

# 51. The new virtue of continence. Revolution of Society purified and
pacified by Christianity.

   Which of mankind, again, after his death, or else while living, taught
concerning virginity, and that this virtue was not impossible among men?
But Christ, our Saviour and King of all, had such power in His teaching
concerning it, that even children not yet arrived at the lawful age vow
that virginity which lies beyond the law. 2. What man has ever yet been
able to pass so far as to come among Scythians and Ethiopians, or Persians
or Armenians or Goths, or those we hear of beyond the ocean or those beyond
Hyrcania, or even the Egyptians and Chaldees, men that mind magic and are
superstitious beyond nature and savage in their ways, and to preach at all
about virtue and self-control, and against the worshipping of idols, as has
the Lord of all, the Power of God, our Lord Jesus Christ? 3. Who not only
preached by means of His own disciples, but also carried persuasion to
men's mind, to lay aside the fierceness of their manners, and no longer to
serve their ancestral gods, but to learn to know Him, and through Him to
worship the Father. 4. For formerly, while in idolatry, Greeks and
Barbarians used to war against each other, and were actually cruel to their
own kin. For it was impossible for any one to cross sea or land at all,
without arming the hand with swords [1], because of their implacable
fighting among themselves. 5. For the whole course of their life was
carried on by arms, and the sword with them took the place of a staff, and
was their support in every emergency; and still, as I said before, they
were serving idols, and offering sacrifices to demons, while for all their
idolatrous superstition they could not be reclaimed from this spirit. 6.
But when they have come over to the school of Christ, then, strangely
enough, as men truly pricked in conscience, they have laid aside the
savagery of their murders and no longer mind the things of war: but all is
at peace with them, and from henceforth what makes for friendship is to
their liking.

# 52. Wars, &c., roused by demons, lulled by Christianity.

   Who then is He that has done this, or who is He that has united in
peace men that hated one another, save the beloved Son of the Father, the
common Saviour of all, even Jesus Christ, Who by His own love underwent all
things for our salvation? For even from of old it was prophesied of the
peace He was to usher in, where the Scripture says: "They [2] shall beat
their swords into ploughshares, and their pikes into sickles, and nation
shall not take the sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any
more." 2. And this is at least not incredible, inasmuch as even now those
barbarians who have an innate savagery of manners, while they still
sacrifice to the idols of their country, are mad against one another, and
cannot endure to be a single hour without weapons: 3. but when they hear
the teaching of Christ, straightway instead of fighting they turn to
husbandry, and instead of arming their hands with weapons they raise them
in prayer, and in a word, in place of fighting among themselves, henceforth
they arm against the devil and against evil spirits, subduing these by
self-restraint and virtue of soul. 4. Now this is at once a proof of the
divinity of the Saviour, since what men could not learn among idols [3]
they have learned from Him; and no small exposure of the weakness and
nothingness of demons and idols. For demons, knowing their own weakness,
for this  reason formerly set men to make war against one another, lest, if
they ceased from mutual strife, they should turn to battle against demons.
5. Why, they who become disciples of Christ, instead of warring with each
other, stand arrayed against demons by their habits and their virtuous
actions: and they rout them, and mock at their captain the devil; so that
in youth they are self-restrained, in temptations endure, in labours
persevere, when insulted are patient, when robbed make light of it: and,
wonderful as it is, they despise even death and become martyrs of Christ.

# 53. The whole fabric of Gentilism levelled at a blow by Christ secretly
addressing the conscience of man.

   And to mention one proof of the divinity of the Saviour, which is
indeed utterly surprising, --what mere man or magician or tyrant or king
was ever able by himself to engage with so many, and to fight the battle
against all idolatry and the whole demoniacal host and all magic, and all
the wisdom of the Greeks, while they were so strong and still flourishing
and imposing upon all, and at one onset to check them all, as was our Lord,
the true Word of God, Who, invisibly exposing each man's error, is by
Himself bearing off all men from them all, so that while they who were
worshipping idols now trample upon them, those in repute for magic burn
their books, and the wise prefer to all studies the interpretation of the
Gospels? 2. For whom they used to worship, them they are deserting, and
Whom they used to mock as one crucified, Him they worship as Christ,
confessing Him to be God. And they that are called gods among them are
routed by the Sign of the Cross, while the Crucified Saviour is proclaimed
in all the world as God and the Son of God. And the gods worshipped among
the Greeks are falling into ill repute at their hands, as scandalous
beings; while those who receive the teaching of Christ live a chaster life
than they. 3. If, then, these and the like are human works, let him who
will point out similar works on the part of men of former time, and so
convince us. But if they prove to be, and are, not men's works, but God's,
why are the unbelievers so irreligious as not to recognise the Master that
wrought them? 4. For their case is as though a man, from the works of
creation, failed to know God their Artificer. For if they knew His Godhead
from His power over the universe, they would have known that the bodily
works of Christ also are not human, but are the works of the Saviour of
all, the Word of God. And did they thus know, "they would not," as Paul
said [4], "have crucified the Lord of glory."

# 54. The Word Incarnate, as is the case with the Invisible God, is known
to us by His works. By them we recognise His deifying mission. Let us be
content to enumerate a few of them, leaving their dazzling plentitude to
him who will behold.

   As, then, if a man should wish to see God, Who is invisible by nature
and not seen at all, he may know and apprehend Him from His works: so let
him who fails to see Christ with  his understanding, at least apprehend Him
by the works of His body, and test whether they be human works or God's
works. 2. And if they be human, let him scoff; but if they are not human,
but of God, let him recognise it, and not laugh at what is no matter for
scoffing; but rather let him marvel that by so ordinary a means things
divine have been manifested to us, and that by death immortality has
reached to all, and that by the Word becoming man, the universal Providence
has been known, and its Giver and Artificer the very Word of God. 3. For He
was made man that we might be made God [5]; and He manifested Himself by a
body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured
the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality. For while He
Himself was in no way injured, being impossible and incorruptible and very
Word and God, men who were suffering, and for whose sakes He endured all
this, He maintained and preserved in His own impossibility. 4. And, in a
word, the achievements of the Saviour, resulting from  His becoming man,
are of such kind and number, that if one should wish to enumerate them, he
may be compared to men who gaze at the expanse of the sea and wish to count
its waves. For as one cannot take in the whole of the waves with his eyes,
for those which are coming on baffle the sense of him that attempts it; so
for him that would take in all the achievements of Christ in the body, it
is impossible to take in the whole, even by reckoning them up, as those
which go beyond his thought are more than those he thinks he has taken in.
5. Better is it, then, not to aim at speaking of the whole, where one
cannot do justice even to a part, but, after mentioning one more, to leave
the whole for you to marvel at. For all alike are marvellous, and wherever
a man turns his glance, he may behold on that side the divinity of the
Word, and be struck with exceeding great awe.

# 55. Summary of foregoing. Cessation of pagan oracles, &c.: propagation of
the faith. The true King has come forth and silenced all usurpers.

   This, then, after what we have so far said, it is right for you to
realize, and to take as the sum of what we have already stated, and to
marvel at exceedingly; namely, that since the Saviour has come among us,
idolatry not only has no longer increased, but what there was is
diminishing and gradually coming to an end: and not only does the wisdom of
the Greeks no longer advance, but what there is is now fading away: and
demons, so far from cheating any more by illusions and prophecies and magic
arts, if they so much as dare to make the attempt, are put to shame by the
sign of the Cross. 2. And to sum the matter up: behold how the Saviour's
doctrine is everywhere increasing, while all idolatry and everything
opposed to the faith of Christ is daily dwindling, and losing power, and
falling. And thus beholding, worship the Saviour, "who is above all" and
mighty, even God the Word; and condemn those who are being worsted and done
away by Him. 3. For as, when the sun is come, darkness no longer prevails,
but if any be still left anywhere it is driven away; so, now that the
divine Appearing of the Word of God is come, the darkness of the idols
prevails no more, and all parts of the world in every direction are
illumined by His teaching. 4. And as, when a king is reigning in some
country without appearing but keeps at home in his own house, often some
disorderly persons, abusing his retirement, proclaim themselves; and each
of them, by assuming the character, imposes on the simple as king, and so
men are led astray by the name, hearing that there is a king, but not
seeing him, if for no other reason, because they cannot enter the house;
but when the real king comes forth and appears, then the disorderly
impostors are exposed by his presence, while men, seeing the real king,
desert those who previously led them astray: 5. in like manner, the evil
spirits formerly used to deceive men, investing themselves with God's
honour; but when the Word of God appeared in a body, and made known to us
His own Father, then at length the deceit of the evil spirits is done away
and stopped, while men, turning their eyes to the true God, Word of the
Father, are deserting the idols, and now coming to know the true God. 6.
Now this is a proof that Christ is God the Word, and the Power of God. For
whereas human things cease, and the Word of Christ abides, it is clear to
all eyes that what ceases is temporary, but that He Who abides is God, and
the true Son of God, His only-begotten Word.

# 56. Search then, the Scriptures, if you can, and so fill up this sketch.
Learn to look for the Second Advent and Judgment.

   Let this, then, Christ-loving man, be our offering to you, just for a
rudimentary sketch and outline, in a short compass, of the faith of Christ
and of His Divine appearing to usward. But you, taking occasion by this, if
you light upon the text of the Scriptures, by genuinely applying your mind
to them, will learn from them more completely and clearly the exact detail
of what we have said. 2. For they were spoken and written by God, through
men who spoke of God. But we impart of what we have learned from inspired
teachers who have been conversant with them, who have also become martyrs
for the deity of Christ, to your zeal for learning, in turn. 3. And you
will also learn about His second glorious and truly divine appearing to us,
when no longer in lowliness, but in His own glory,--no longer in humble
guise, but in His own magnificence,--He is to come, no more to suffer, but
thenceforth to render to all the fruit of His own Cross, that is, the
resurrection and incorruption; and no longer to be judged, but to judge
all, by what each has done in the body, whether good or evil; where there
is laid up for the good the kingdom of heaven, but for them that have done
evil everlasting fire and outer darkness. 4. For thus the Lord Himself also
says: "Henceforth [6] ye shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand
of power, and coming on the clouds of heaven in the glory of the Father."
5. And for this very reason there is also a word of the Saviour to prepare
us for that day, in these words: "Be [7] ye ready and watch, for He cometh
at an hour ye know not." For, according to the blessed Paul: "We [8] must
all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. that each one may receive
according as he hath done in the body, whether it be good or bad."

# 57. Above all, so live that you may have the right to eat of this tree of
knowledge and life, and so come to eternal joys. Doxology.

   But for the searching or the Scriptures and true knowledge of them, an
honourable life is needed, and a pure soul, and that virtue which is
according to Christ; so that the intellect guiding its path by it, may be
able to attain what it desires, and to comprehend it, in so far as it is
accessible to human nature to learn concerning the Word of God. 2. For
without a pure mind and a modelling of the life after the saints, a man
could not possibly comprehend the words of the saints. 3. For just as, if a
man wished to see the light of the sun, he would at any rate wipe and
brighten his eye, purifying himself in some sort like what he desires, so
that the eye, thus becoming light, may see the light of the sun; or as, if
a man would see a city or country, he at any rate comes to the place to see
it;--thus he that would comprehend the mind of those who speak of God must
needs begin by washing and cleansing his soul, by his manner of living, and
approach the saints themselves by imitating their works; so that,
associated with them in the conduct of a common life, he may understand
also what has been revealed to them by God, and thenceforth, as closely
knit to them, may escape the peril of the sinners and their fire at the day
of judgment, and receive what is laid up for the saints in the kingdom of
heaven, which "Eye hath not seen [9], nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man," whatsoever things are prepared for them that live a
virtuous life, and love the God and Father, in Christ Jesus our Lord:
through Whom and with Whom be to the Father Himself, with the Son Himself,
in the Holy Spirit, honour and might and glory for ever and ever. Amen.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF II/IV, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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