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| Truth Rather to Be Appealed to Than Custom, and Truth Progressive in Its Developments.
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III.
On the Veiling of Virgins.274
| 274 [Written,
possibly, as early as a.d. 204.] |
[Translated by the Rev. S.
Thelwall.]
————————————
Chapter I.—Truth Rather to Be
Appealed to Than Custom, and Truth Progressive in Its
Developments.
Having already undergone
the trouble peculiar to my opinion, I will show in Latin also that it
behoves our virgins to be veiled from the time that they have passed
the turning-point of their age: that this observance is exacted
by truth, on which no one can impose prescription—no space of
times, no influence of persons, no privilege of regions. For
these, for the most part, are the sources whence, from some ignorance
or simplicity, custom finds its beginning; and then it is
successionally confirmed into an usage, and thus is maintained in
opposition to truth. But our Lord Christ has surnamed Himself
Truth,275
not Custom. If Christ is always, and
prior to all, equally truth is a thing sempiternal and ancient.
Let those therefore look to themselves, to whom that is new which is
intrinsically old. It is not so much novelty as truth which
convicts heresies. Whatever savours of opposition to truth, this
will be heresy, even (if it be an) ancient custom. On the other
hand, if any is ignorant of anything, the ignorance proceeds from his
own defect. Moreover, whatever is matter of ignorance ought to
have been as carefully inquired into as whatever is matter of
acknowledgment received. The rule of faith, indeed, is
altogether one, alone immoveable and irreformable; the rule, to wit, of
believing in one only God omnipotent, the Creator of the universe, and
His Son Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary, crucified under Pontius
Pilate, raised again the third day from the dead, received in the
heavens, sitting now at the right (hand) of the Father, destined to
come to judge quick and dead through the resurrection of the flesh as
well (as of the spirit). This law of faith being constant, the
other succeeding points of discipline and conversation admit the
“novelty” of correction; the grace of God, to wit,
operating and advancing even to the end. For what kind of
(supposition) is it, that, while the devil is always operating and
adding daily to the ingenuities of iniquity, the work of God should
either have ceased, or else have desisted from advancing? whereas the
reason why the Lord sent the Paraclete was, that, since human
mediocrity was unable to take in all things at once, discipline should,
little by little, be directed, and ordained, and carried on to
perfection, by that Vicar of the Lord, the Holy Spirit.
“Still,” He said, “I have many things to say to you,
but ye are not yet able to bear them: when that Spirit of truth
shall have come, He will conduct you into all truth, and will report to
you the supervening (things).”276
But above,
withal, He made a declaration concerning this His work.277
What, then, is the Paraclete’s
administrative office but this: the direction of discipline, the
revelation of the Scriptures, the reformation of the intellect, the
advancement toward the “better things?”278
Nothing is without stages of
growth: all things await their season. In short, the
preacher says, “A time to everything.”279
Look how creation itself advances
little by little to fructification. First comes the grain, and
from the grain arises the shoot, and from the shoot struggles out the
shrub: thereafter boughs and leaves gather strength, and the
whole that we call a tree expands: then follows the swelling of
the germen, and from the germen bursts the flower, and from the flower
the fruit opens: that fruit itself, rude for a while, and
unshapely, little by little, keeping the straight course of its
development, is trained to the mellowness of its flavour.280
So, too, righteousness—for the
God of righteousness and of creation is the same—was first in a
rudimentary state, having a natural fear of God: from that stage
it advanced, through the Law and the Prophets, to infancy; from that
stage it passed, through the Gospel, to the fervour of youth:
now, through the Paraclete, it is settling into maturity. He will
be, after Christ, the only one to be called and revered as
Master;281
for He speaks not from Himself, but what is
commanded by Christ.282
He is the only
prelate, because He alone succeeds Christ. They who have received
Him set truth before custom. They who have heard Him prophesying
even to the present time, not of old, bid virgins be wholly
covered.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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