13. My brethren, I indeed am
a disciple of Christ, and, moreover, an apostle of Jesus; and it is
owing to the exceeding kindness of Marcellus that I have hastened
hither, with the view of showing him clearly in what manner he ought to
keep the system of divine religion, so that the said Marcellus verily,
who at present has put himself, like one who has surrendered himself
prisoner, under the doctrine of Archelaus, may not, like the dumb
animals, which are destitute of intellect and understand not what they
do, be fatally smitten to the ruin of his soul, in consequence of any
failure in the possession of further facilities for setting about the
right observance of divine worship. I know, furthermore, and am
certain, that if Marcellus is once set right,1549
| 1549
Reading emendato. Codex Casinensis gives enim
dato. |
it will be quite possible that all of you
may also have your
salvation effected; for your city hangs suspended
upon his
judgment. If
vain presumption is
rejected by every one
of you, and if those things which are to be declared by me be heard
with a real
love for the
truth, ye will receive the inheritance of the
age to come, and the
kingdom of
heaven. I, in sooth, am the
Paraclete, whose mission was
announced of old time by
Jesus, and who
was to come to “convince the
world of
sin and
unrighteousness.”
1550
| 1550 John xvi.
8. Injustitia. This reading, de injustitia,
may be due to an error on the part of the scribe, but is more probably
to be referred to the practice pursued by Manes in altering and
corrupting the sacred text to suit his own tenets. See Epiphanius
on this heresy, num. 53, and cap. 53, infra. [“He
introduced much new matter.”] |
And even as
Paul, who was sent before
me, said of himself, that “he knew in part, and prophesied in
part,”
1551
so I reserve the
perfect for myself, in order that I may do away with that which is in
part. Therefore receive ye this third
testimony, that I am an
elect apostle of
Christ; and if ye choose to accept my words, ye will
find
salvation; but if ye refuse them,
eternal fire will have you to
consume you. For as Hymenæus and
Alexander were
“
delivered unto
Satan, that they might
learn not to
blaspheme,”
1552
so will all ye
also be
delivered unto the
prince of punishments, because ye have done
injury to the
Father of
Christ, in so
far as ye declare Him to be the
cause of all evils, and the founder of
unrighteousness, and the creator
of all
iniquity. By such
doctrine ye do, indeed, bring forth from
the same
fountain both sweet
water and
bitter,—a thing which can
in no possible way be either done or
apprehended. For who ought
to be believed? Should it be those masters of yours whose
enjoyment is in the
flesh, and who pamper themselves with the richest
delights; or our Saviour
Jesus Christ, who says, as it is written in
the book of the Gospels, “A good
tree cannot bring forth
evil
fruit, neither can a
corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit,”
1553
and who in
another place assures us that the “
father of the
devil1554
is a
liar and a
murderer from the beginning,”
1555
and tells us again that men’s desire
was for the
darkness,
1556
so that they would not follow that Word that had been sent forth in the
beginning from the
light,
1557
| 1557 The
text gives, “ut insequerentur.…Verbum, et inimicum,”
etc. The sense seems to be as above, supposing either that the
verb insequerentur is used with the meaning of assailing,
persecuting, or that the ut is put for ut ne, as is the
case with the excæcat ut at the close of the sentence. |
and (once more shows us) the man who is the
enemy of the same, the
sower of tares,
1558
and the
god
and
prince of the age of this
world, who blinds the minds of men that
they may not be
obedient to the
truth in the
Gospel of
Christ?
1559
Is that
God
good who has no wish that the men who are his own should be
saved? And, not to go over a multitude of other matters, and
waste much time, I may defer
1560
| 1560 Reading
differens. But Codex Casinensis gives
disserens. |
till another opportunity the exposition of the true
doctrine; and
taking it for granted that I have said enough on this subject for the
present, I may revert to the matter immediately before me, and
endeavour satisfactorily to demonstrate the absurdity of these
men’s teaching, and show that none of these things can be
attributed to the
God and
Father of our
Lord and Saviour, but that we
must take
Satan to be the cause of all our ills. To him,
certainly, these must be carried back, for all ills of this
kind are
generated by him. But those things also which are written in the
prophets and the
law are none the less to be ascribed to him; for he it
is who spake then in the
prophets, introducing into their minds very
many ignorant notions of
God, as well as
temptations and
passions. They, too, set forth that devourer of
blood and
flesh;
and to that
Satan and to his
prophets all these things properly pertain
which he wished to transfer
1561
to the
Father of
Christ, prepared as he was to
write a few things in
the way of
truth, that by means of these he might also
gain credence
for those other statements of his which are false. Hence it is
well for us to receive nothing at all of all those things which have
been written of old even down to John, and indeed to embrace only the
kingdom of
heaven, which has been
preached in the
Gospel since his
days; for they verily but made a mockery of themselves, introducing as
they did things ridiculous and ludicrous, keeping some
small words
given in obscure outline in the
law, but not understanding that, if
good things are mixed up with
evil, the result is, that by the
corruption of these
evil things, even those others which are good are
destroyed. And if, indeed, there is any one who may
prove himself
able to demonstrate that the
law upholds the right, that
law ought to
be kept; but if we can show it to be
evil, then it ought to be done
away with and
rejected, inasmuch as it contains the ministration of
death, which was
graven,
1562
which also covered and
destroyed the
glory on the
countenance of
Moses.
1563
It is a
thing not without
peril, therefore, for any one of you to
teach the New
Testament along with the
law and the
prophets, as if they were of one
and the same origin; for the
knowledge of our Saviour
renews the
one from day to day, while the other grows old and infirm, and
passes almost into utter
destruction.
1564
And this is a fact manifest to those
who are capable of exercising
discernment. For just as, when the
branches of a
tree become aged, or when the trunk ceases to bear fruit
any more, they are
cut down; and just as, when the members of the body
suffer mortification, they are amputated, for the
poison of the
mortification diffuses itself from these members through the whole
body, and unless some remedy be found for the
disease by the skill of
the
physician, the whole body will be vitiated; so, too, if ye receive
the
law without understanding its origin, ye will
ruin your
souls, and
lose your
salvation. For “the
law and the
prophets were
until John;”
1565
but since John the
law of
truth, the
law of the
promises, the
law of
heaven, the new
law, is made known to the race of man. And, in
sooth, as long as there was no one to exhibit to you this most true
knowledge of our
Lord Jesus, ye had not
sin. Now, however, ye
both see and hear, and yet ye desire to
walk in ignorance,
1566
| 1566 In
inscitias ire vultis. It is proposed to read inficias =
and yet ye desire to deny the truth. Routh suggests, et
odistis et in inscitiam ire vultis = and ye hate it, and choose to
take your way into ignorance. |
in order that ye
may keep
1567
| 1567
Supplying observetis in the clause ut legem, etc. |
that
law which
has been
destroyed and abandoned. And
Paul, too, who is held to
be the most approved
apostle with us, expresses himself to the
same effect in one of his
epistles, when he says: “For if I
build again the things which I
destroyed, I make myself a
prevaricator.”
1568
| 1568
Prævaricatorem. Gal. ii. 18 [Vulgate. But see p. 176]. |
And in saying this he pronounces
on them as Gentiles, because they were under the
elements of the
world,
1569
before the
fulness of faith came, believing then as they did in the law and the
prophets.
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