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| Chapter X.
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Chapter X.
But as to those who think that not here, that is,
not within this environment of earth, nor during this period of
existence, nor before men possessing this nature shared by us all, has
confession been appointed to be made, what a supposition is theirs,
being at variance with the whole order of things of which we have
experience in these lands, and in this life, and under human
authorities! Doubtless, when the souls have departed from their bodies,
and begun to be put upon trial in the several stories of the heavens,
with reference to the engagement (under which they have come to Jesus),
and to be questioned about those hidden mysteries of the heretics, they
must then confess before the real powers and the real men,—the
Teleti,8274
to wit, and the
Abascanti,8275
| 8275 The
spell-resisting. | and the
Acineti8276
of
Valentinus! For, say
they, even the Demiurge himself did not uniformly approve of the
men of our world, whom he counted as a drop of a bucket,8277
and the dust of the threshing-floor, and
spittle and locusts, and put on a level even with brute beasts.
Clearly, it is so written. Yet not therefore must we understand that
there is, besides us, another kind of man, which—for it is
evidently thus (in the case proposed)—has been able to
assume without invalidating a comparison between the two kinds,
both the characteristics of the race and a unique property. For even if
the life was tainted, so that condemned to contempt it might be likened
to objects held in contempt, the nature was not forthwith taken away,
so that there might be supposed to be another under its name.
Rather is the nature preserved, though the life blushes; nor does
Christ know other men than those with reference to whom He says,
“Whom do men say that I am?”8278
And, “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye likewise so
to, them.”8279
| 8279 Matt. vii. 12 and Luke vi. 31. | Consider whether He
may not have preserved a race such that He is looking for a testimony
to Himself from them, as well as consisting of those on whom He enjoins
the interchange of righteous dealing. But if I should urgently demand
that those heavenly men be described to me, Aratus will sketch more
easily Perseus and Cepheus, and Erigone, and Ariadne, among the
constellations. But who prevented the Lord from clearly prescribing
that confession by men likewise has to be made where He plainly
announced that His own would be; so that the statement might have run
thus: ”Whosoever shall confess in me before men in heaven, I also
will confess in him before my Father who is in heaven?” He ought
to have saved me from this mistake about confession on earth, which He
would not have wished me to take part in, if He had commanded one in
heaven; for I knew no other men but the inhabitants of the earth, man
himself even not having up to that time been observed in heaven.
Besides, what is the credibility of the things (alleged), that, being
after death raised to heavenly places, I should be put to the test
there, whither I would not be translated without being already tested,
that I should there be tried in reference to a command where I could
not come, but to find admittance? Heaven lies open to the Christian
before the way to it does; because there is no way to heaven, but to
him to whom heaven lies open; and he who reaches it will enter.
What powers, keeping guard at the gate, do I hear you affirm to exist
in accordance with Roman superstition, with a certain Carnus, Forculus,
and Limentinus? What powers do you set in order at the railings? If you
have ever read in David, “Lift up your gates, ye princes, and let
the everlasting gates be lifted up; and the King of glory shall enter
in;”8280
if you have also
heard from Amos, “Who buildeth up to the heavens his way of
ascent, and is such as to pour forth his abundance (of waters) over the
earth;”8281
know that both that
way of ascent was thereafter levelled with the ground, by the footsteps
of the Lord, and an entrance thereafter opened up by the might of
Christ, and that no delay or inquest will meet Christians on the
threshold, since they have there to be not discriminated from one
another, but owned, and not put to the question, but received in.
For though you think heaven still shut, remember that the Lord left
here to Peter and through him to the Church, the keys of it, which
every one who has been here put to the question, and also made
confession, will carry with him. But the devil stoutly affirms that we
must confess there, to persuade us that we must deny here. I shall send
before me fine documents, to be sure,8282
| 8282 In support of my
cause. | I
shall carry with me excellent keys, the fear of them who kill the body
only, but do nought against the soul: I shall be graced by the neglect
of this command: I shall stand with credit in heavenly places,
who could not stand in earthly: I shall hold out against the greater
powers, who yielded to the lesser: I shall deserve to be at
length let in, though now shut out. It readily occurs to one to remark
further, “If it is in heaven that men must confess, it is here
too that they must deny.” For where the one is, there both are.
For contraries always go together. There will need to be carried on in
heaven persecution even, which is the occasion of confession or denial.
Why, then, do you refrain, O most presumptuous heretic, from
transporting to the world above the whole series of means proper to the
intimidation of Christians, and especially to put there the very hatred
for the name, where Christ rules at the right hand of the Father? Will
you plant there both synagogues of the Jews—fountains of
persecution—before which the apostles endured the scourge, and
heathen assemblages with their own circus, forsooth, where they readily
join in the cry, Death to the third race?8283
| 8283 More literally,
“How long shall we suffer the third race!” The
Christians are meant; the first race being the heathen, and the second
the Jews.—Tr. |
But ye are bound to produce in the same place both our brothers,
fathers, children, mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law and those of our
household, through whose agency the betrayal has been appointed;
likewise kings, governors, and armed authorities, before whom the
matter at issue must be contested. Assuredly there will be in heaven a
prison also, destitute of the sun’s rays or full of light
unthankfully, and fetters of the zones perhaps, and, for a rack-horse,
the axis itself which whirls the heavens round. Then, if a
Christian is to be stoned, hail-storms will be near; if burned,
thunderbolts are at hand; if butchered, the armed Orion will exercise
his function; if put an end to by beasts, the north will send forth the
bears, the Zodiac the bulls and the lions. He who will endure these
assaults to the end, the same shall be saved. Will there be then, in
heaven, both an end, and suffering, a killing, and the first
confession? And where will be the flesh requisite for all this? Where
the body which alone has to be killed by men? Unerring reason has
commanded us to set forth these things in even a playful manner; nor
will any one thrust out the bar consisting in this objection (we have
offered), so as not to be compelled to transfer the whole array of
means proper to persecution, all the powerful instrumentality which has
been provided for dealing with this matter, to the place where he has
put the court before which confession should be made. Since confession
is elicited by persecution, and persecution ended in confession, there
cannot but be at the same time, in attendance upon these, the
instrumentality which determines both the entrance and the exit, that
is, the beginning and the end. But both hatred for the name will
be here, persecution breaks out here, betrayal brings men forth here,
examination uses force here, torture rages here, and confession or
denial completes this whole course of procedure on the earth.
Therefore, if the other things are here, confession also is not
elsewhere; if confession is elsewhere, the other things also are not
here. Certainly the other things are not elsewhere; therefore
neither is confession in heaven. Or, if they will have it that the
manner in which the heavenly examination and confession take place is
different, it will certainly be also incumbent on them to devise a mode
of procedure of their own of a very different kind, and opposed to that
method which is indicated in the Scriptures. And we may be able
to say, Let them consider (whether what they imagine to exist does so),
if so be that this course of procedure, proper to examination and
confession on earth—a course which has persecution as the source
in which it originates, and which pleads dissension in the
state—is preserved to its own faith, if so be that we must
believe just as is also written, and understand just as is
spoken. Here I endure the entire course (in question), the Lord
Himself not appointing a different quarter of the world for my doing
so. For what does He add after finishing with confession and
denial? “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth,
but a sword,”—undoubtedly on the earth. “For I am
come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter
against her mother, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law.
And a man’s foes shall be they of his own
household.”8284
For so is it
brought to pass, that the brother delivers up the brother to death, and
the father the son: and the children rise up against the parents, and
cause them to die. And he who endureth to the end let that man be
saved.8285
So that this whole
course of procedure characteristic of the Lord’s sword, which has
been sent not to heaven, but to earth, makes confession also to be
there, which by enduring to the end is to issue in the suffering of
death.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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