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| Chapter XIII.—Description of the Gnostic Continued.
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Chapter XIII.—Description of the Gnostic Continued.
He never remembers those who have sinned
against him, but forgives them. Wherefore also he righteously
prays, saying, “Forgive us; for we also forgive.”3637
For this also is one of the things which God wishes,
to covet nothing, to hate no one. For all men are the work of one
will. And is it not the Saviour, who wishes the Gnostic to be perfect
as “the heavenly Father,”3638
that is, Himself,
who says, “Come, ye children, hear from me the fear of the
Lord?”3639
He wishes him no longer to
stand in need of help by angels, but to receive it from Himself, having
become worthy, and to have protection from Himself by obedience.
Such an one demands from the Lord, and does not merely
ask. And in the case of his brethren in want, the Gnostic will not ask
himself for abundance of wealth to bestow, but will pray that the
supply of what they need may be furnished to them. For so the Gnostic
gives his prayer to those who are in need, and by his
prayer they are supplied, without his knowledge, and
without vanity.
Penury and disease, and such trials, are often sent for
admonition, for the correction of the past, and for care for the
future. Such an one prays for relief from them, in virtue of possessing
the prerogative of knowledge, not out of vainglory; but from the very
fact of his being a Gnostic, he works beneficence, having become the
instrument of the goodness of God.
They say in the traditions3640
| 3640 [See book ii. p. 358, also
book vii. cap. 17, infra.] | that Matthew the
apostle constantly said, that “if the neighbour of an elect man
sin, the elect man has sinned. For had he conducted himself as the Word
prescribes, his neighbour also would have been filled with such
reverence for the life he led as not to sin.”
What, then, shall we say of the Gnostic himself?
“Know ye not,” says the apostle, “that ye are the
temple of God?”3641
The Gnostic is consequently divine, and
already holy, God-bearing, and God-borne. Now the Scripture, showing
that sinning is foreign to him, sells those who have fallen away to
strangers, saying, “Look not on a strange woman, to
lust,”3642
plainly pronounces sin foreign and contrary to
the nature of the temple of God. Now the temple is great, as the
Church, and it is small, as the man who preserves the seed of Abraham.
He, therefore, who has God resting in him will not desire aught else.
At once leaving all hindrances, and despising all matter which
distracts him, he cleaves the heaven by knowledge. And passing through
the spiritual Essences, and all rule and authority, he touches the
highest thrones, hasting to that alone for the sake of which alone he
knew.
Mixing, then, “the serpent with the
dove,”3643
he lives at once perfectly and with a good
conscience, mingling faith with hope, in order to the expectation of
the future. For he is conscious of the boon he has received, having
become worthy of obtaining it; and is translated from slavery to
adoption, as the consequence of knowledge; knowing God, or rather known
of Him, for the end, he puts forth energies corresponding to the worth
of grace. For works follow knowledge, as the shadow the body.
Rightly, then, he is not disturbed by anything which
happens; nor does he suspect those things, which, through divine
arrangement, take place for good. Nor is he ashamed to die, having a
good conscience, and being fit to be seen by the Powers. Cleansed, so
to speak, from all the stains of the soul, he knows right well that it
will be better with him after his departure.
Whence he never prefers pleasure and profit to the
divine arrangement, since he trains himself by the commands, that in
all things he may be well pleasing to the Lord, and praiseworthy in the
sight of the world, since all things depend on the one Sovereign God.
The Son of God, it is said, came to His own, and His own received Him
not. Wherefore also in the use of the things of the world he not only
gives thanks and praises the creation, but also, while using them as is
right, is praised; since the end he has in view terminates in
contemplation by gnostic activity in accordance with the
commandments.
Thence now, by knowledge collecting materials to be the
food of contemplation, having embraced nobly the magnitude of
knowledge, he advances to the holy recompense of translation hence. For
he has heard the Psalm which says: “Encircle Zion, and encompass
it, tell upon its towers.”3644
For it intimates, I
think, those who have sublimely embraced the Word, so as to become
lofty towers, and to stand firmly in faith and knowledge.
Let these statements concerning the Gnostic, containing
the germs of the matter in as brief terms as possible, be made to the
Greeks. But let it be known that if the [mere] believer do rightly one
or a second of these things, yet he will not do so in all nor with the
highest knowledge, like the Gnostic.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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