 CHAPTER 8 The gifts of the Holy Spirit which we receive prepare us for incorruption, render us spiritual, and separate us from carnal men. These two classes are signified by the clean and unclean animals in the legal dispensation. 1. But we do now receive a certain portion of his spirit, tending towards perfection and preparing us for incorruption, being little by little accustomed to receive and bear God, which also the Apostle calls an earnest, that is, a part of the honor which has been promised us by God, where he says in the epistle to the Ephesians, in which ye also having heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, believing in which ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance. This earnest, therefore, thus dwelling in us, renders us spiritual even now, and the mortal is swallowed up by immortality. For ye, he declares, are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. This however does not take place by a casting away of the flesh, but by the impartation of the spirit. For those to whom he was writing were not without flesh, but they were those who had received the spirit of God by which we cry Abba, Father. If therefore at the present time, having the earnest, we do cry Abba, Father, what shall it be when on rising again we behold him face to face, when all the members shall burst out into a continuous hymn of triumph, glorifying him who raised them from the dead and gave the gift of eternal life? For if the earnest, gathering men into itself, does even now cause him to cry Abba, Father, what shall the complete grace of the spirit effect which shall be given to men by God? It will render us like unto him, and accomplish the will of the Father, for it shall make man after the image and likeness of God. 2. Those persons then who possess the earnest of the spirit, and who are not enslaved by the lusts of the flesh, but are subject to the spirit, and who in all things walk according to the light of reason, does the apostle properly term, spiritual, because the spirit of God dwells in them. 3. Now spiritual men shall not be in corporeal spirits, but our substance, that is the union of flesh and spirit, receiving the spirit of God, makes up the spiritual man. But those who do indeed reject the spirit's counsel, and are the slaves of fleshly lusts, and lead lives contrary to reason, and who without restraint plunge headlong into their own desires, having no longing after the divine spirit, do live after the manner of swine, and of dogs. These men I say, does the apostle very properly term, carnal, because they have no thought of anything else except carnal things. 3. For the same reason too, do the prophets compare them to irrational animals, on account of the irrationality of their conduct, saying, they have become as horses, raging for the females, each one of them neighing after his neighbor's wife. But again, man, when he was in honor, was made like unto cattle. This denotes that, for his own fault, he is likened to cattle, by rivaling their irrational life, and we also, as the custom is, do designate men of this stamp as cattle and irrational beasts. 4. Now the law has figuratively predicted all these, delineating man by the various animals. Whatsoever of these says the scripture, have a double hoof and ruminate, it proclaims is clean. But whatsoever of them do not possess one or other of these properties, it sets aside by themselves as unclean. Who then are the clean? Those who make their way by faith steadily toward the Father and the Son. For this is denoted by the steadiness of those who divide the hoof. And they meditate day and night upon the words of God, that they may be adorned with good works, for this is the meaning of the ruminance. The unclean, however, are those which do neither divide the hoof nor ruminate, that is, those persons who have neither faith in God nor do meditate on his words, and such is the abomination of the Gentiles. But as to those animals which do indeed chew the cud, but have not the double hoof, and are themselves unclean, we have in them a figurative description of the Jews, who certainly have the words of God in their mouth, but who do not fix their rooted steadfastness in the Father and in the Son. Wherefore they are an unstable generation. For those animals which have the hoof all in one piece easily slip, but those which have it divided are more sure-footed, their cleft hooves succeeding each other as they advance and the one hoof supporting the other. In like manner, too, those are unclean, which have the double hoof but do not ruminate. This is plainly an indication of all heretics, and of those who do not meditate on the words of God, neither are adorned with works of righteousness, to whom also the Lord says, Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say to you? For men of this stamp do indeed say that they believe in the Father and the Son, but they never meditate as they should upon the things of God, neither are they adorned with works of righteousness. But as I have already observed, they have adopted the lives of swine and of dogs, giving themselves over to filthiness, to gluttony, and recklessness of all sorts. Justly therefore did the apostle call all such, carnal, and animal. All those namely who, through their own unbelief and luxury, do not receive the Divine Spirit, and in their various phases cast out from themselves the life-giving Word, and walk stupidly after their own lusts. The prophets, too, spake of them as beasts of burden and wild beasts. Custom likewise has viewed them in the light of cattle and the irrational creatures, and the law has pronounced them unclean. CHAPTER IX. Showing how that passage of the apostle which the heretics pervert should be understood, Bees, flesh and blood shall not possess the kingdom of God. ONE. Among the other truths proclaimed by the apostle there is also this one, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This is the passage which is adduced by all the heretics in support of their folly, with an attempt to annoy us and to point out that the handiwork of God is not saved. They do not take this fact into consideration, that there are three things out of which, as I have shown, the complete man is composed. Flesh, soul, and spirit. One of these does indeed preserve and fashion the man. This is the spirit. While as to another it is united and formed, that is, the flesh. Then comes that which is between these two, that is, the soul, which sometimes indeed when it follows the spirit is raised up by it, but sometimes it sympathizes with the flesh and falls into carnal lusts. Those then, as many as they be, who have not that which saves and forms us into life eternal, shall be and shall be called mere flesh and blood. For these are they who have not the spirit of God in themselves. Wherefore men of this stamp are spoken of by the Lord as dead, for says he, let the dead bury their dead, because they have not the spirit which quickens man. Two. On the other hand, as many as fear God and trust in his son's advent, and who through faith do establish the spirit of God in their hearts, such men as these shall be properly called both pure and spiritual and those living to God, because they possess the spirit of the Father who purifies man and raises him up to the life of God. For as the Lord has testified that the flesh is weak, so does he also say that the spirit is willing. For this latter is capable of working out its own suggestions. If therefore any one admits the ready inclination of the spirit to be as it were a stimulus to the infirmity of the flesh, it inevitably follows that what is strong will prevail over the weak, so that the weakness of the flesh will be absorbed by the strength of the spirit, and that the man in whom this takes place cannot in that case be carnal but spiritual because of the fellowship of the spirit. Thus it is therefore that the martyrs bear their witness and despise death, not after the infirmity of the flesh but because of the readiness of the spirit. For when the infirmity of the flesh is absorbed, it exhibits the spirit as powerful, and again when the spirit absorbs the weakness of the flesh it possesses the flesh as an inheritance in itself, and from both of these is formed a living man, living indeed because he partakes of the spirit, but man because of the substance of flesh. 3. The flesh therefore, when destitute of the spirit of God, is dead, not having life, and cannot possess the kingdom of God. It is as irrational blood, like water poured out upon the ground, and therefore he says, as is the earthy, such are they that are earthy. But where the spirit of the Father is, there is a living man. There is the rational blood preserved by God for the avenging of those who shed it. There is the flesh possessed by the spirit, forgetful indeed of what belongs to it in adopting the quality of the spirit being made conformable to the word of God. And on this account he, the apostle, declares, as we have born the image of him who is of the earth, we shall also bear the image of him who is from heaven. What therefore is the earthly, that which was fashioned? And what is the heavenly, the spirit? As therefore he says, when we were destitute of the celestial spirit we walked in former times in the oldness of the flesh, not obeying God. So now let us receiving the spirit walk in newness of life, obeying God. Inasmuch therefore as without the spirit of God we cannot be saved, the apostle exhorts us through faith and chaste conversation to preserve the spirit of God, lest having become non-participators of the divine spirit, we lose the kingdom of heaven. And he exclaims that flesh in itself and blood cannot possess the kingdom of God. 4. If however we must speak strictly, we would say that the flesh does not inherit, but is inherited. As also the Lord declares, blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth by inheritance. As if in the future kingdom the earth from whence exists the substance of our flesh is to be possessed by inheritance. This is the reason for his wishing the temple, i.e. the flesh, to be clean, that the spirit of God may take delight therein as a bridegroom with a bride. As therefore the bride cannot be said to wed, but to be wedded, when the bridegroom comes and takes her. So also the flesh cannot by itself possess the kingdom of God by inheritance, but it can be taken for an inheritance into the kingdom of God. For a living person inherits the goods of the deceased, and it is one thing to inherit, another to be inherited. The former rules and exercises power over, and orders the things inherited at his will. But the latter things are in a state of subjection, and are under order, and are ruled over by him who has obtained the inheritance. What therefore is it that lives? The spirit of God, doubtless. What again are the possessions of the deceased? The various parts of the man surely, which rot in the earth. But these are inherited by the spirit when they are translated into the kingdom of heaven. For this cause too, did Christ die, that the gospel covenant being manifested and known to the whole world, might in the first place set free his slaves, and then afterwards, as I have already shown, might consist them heirs of his property, when the spirit possesses them by inheritance. For he who lives inherits, but the flesh is inherited. In order that we may not lose life by losing that spirit which possesses us, the apostle, exhorting us by the communion of the spirit, has said according to reason, in those words already quoted, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Just as if he were to say, do not err, for unless the word of God dwell with and the spirit of God be in you, and if ye shall live frivolously and carelessly as if ye were this only, these mere flesh and blood, ye cannot inherit the kingdom of God. 10. By a comparison drawn from the wild olive tree, whose quality, but not whose nature is changed by grafting, he proves more important things. He points out also that man without the spirit is not capable of bringing forth fruit, or of inheriting the kingdom of God. 1. This truth therefore he declares in order that we may not reject the engrafting of the spirit while pampering the flesh. But thou, being a wild olive tree, he says, has been grafted into the good olive tree, and been made a partaker of the fatness of the olive tree. As therefore, when the wild olive has been engrafted, if it remain in its former condition, be's a wild olive, it is cut off and cast into the fire. But if it takes kindly to the graft, and is changed into the good olive tree, it becomes a fruit-bearing olive planted as it were in a king's park, Paradiso. So likewise men, if they do truly progress by faith towards better things, and receive the spirit of God, and bring forth the fruit thereof, shall be spiritual as being planted in the paradise of God. But if they cast out the spirit, and remain in their former condition, desirous of being of the flesh rather than of the spirit, then it is very justly said, with regard to men of this stamp, that flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Just as if any one were to say that the wild olive is not received into the paradise of God. Admirebly therefore does the apostle exhibit our nature, and God's universal appointment in his discourse about flesh and blood in the wild olive. For as the good olive, if neglected for a certain time, if left to grow wild and to run to wood, does itself become a wild olive. Or again if the wild olive be carefully tended and grafted, it naturally reverts to its former fruit-bearing condition. So men also, when they become careless, and bring forth for fruit the lusts of the flesh, like woody produce, are rendered by their own fault unfruitful in righteousness. For when men sleep, the enemy sows the material of tears, and for this cause did the Lord command his disciples to be on the watch. And again those persons who are not bringing forth the fruits of righteousness, and are as it were covered over and lost among brambles, if they use diligence, and receive the word of God as a graft, arrive at the pristine nature of man, that which was created after the image and likeness of God. 2. But as the engrafted wild olive does not certainly lose the substance of its wood, but changes the quality of its fruit and receives another name, being now not a wild olive, but a fruit-bearing olive, and is called so. So also when man is grafted in by faith and receives the spirit of God, he certainly does not lose the substance of flesh, but changes the quality of the fruit brought forth, i.e., of his works, and receives another name, showing that he has become changed for the better, being now not mere flesh and blood, but a spiritual man, and is called such. 3. Then again, as the wild olive, if it be not grafted in, remains useless to its Lord because of its woody quality, and is cut down as a tree bearing no fruit and cast into the fire. So also man, if he does not receive through faith the engrafting of the spirit, remains in his old condition, and being mere flesh and blood, he cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Rightly therefore does the apostle declare flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God, not repudiating by these words the substance of flesh, but showing that into it the spirit must be infused. And for this reason he says, the mortal must put on immortality, and this corruptible must put on incorruption. And again he declares, but ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you. He sets this forth still more plainly, where he says, the body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies because of his spirit dwelling in you. And again he says, in the Epistle to the Romans, for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die. Now by these words he does not prohibit them from living their lives in the flesh, for he was himself in the flesh when he wrote to them. But he cuts away the lusts of the flesh which bring death upon a man. And for this reason he says in continuation, but if ye through the spirit do mortify the works of the flesh ye shall live. For whosoever are led by the spirit of God these are the sons of God. End of chapters 8 through 10. Recording by J. A. Carter, www.authenticlight.org. Chapters 11 through 13 of Irenaeus Against Heresies, Book 5. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by G. Mitchell, Irenaeus Against Heresies, Book 5. Translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambo, Chapter 11. Treats upon the actions of carnal and of spiritual persons. Also that the spiritual cleansing is not to be referred to the substance of our bodies but to the manner of our former life. 1. The Apostle, foreseeing the wicked speeches of unbelievers, has particularized the works which he terms carnal, and he explains himself lest any room for doubt be left to those who do dishonestly pervert his meaning, thus saying in the epistle to the Galatians, Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are adulteries, fornications, uncleanness, luxuriousness, idolatries, witchcrafts, hatreds, contentions, jealousies, wraths, emulations, animosities, irritable speeches, dissensions, heresies, enviings, drunkenness, carousings, and such like, of which I warn you, as also I have warned you, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Thus does he point out to his hearers in a more explicit manner what it is he means when he declares, flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, for they who do these things, since they do indeed walk after the flesh, have not the power of living unto God, and then again he proceeds to tell us the spiritual actions which vivify a man, that is the engrafting of the Spirit, thus saying, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, benignity, faith, meekness, continence, chastity, against these there is no law. As therefore he who has gone forward to the better things, and has brought forth the fruit of the Spirit, is saved altogether because of the communion of the Spirit, so also he who has continued in the aforesaid works of the flesh, being truly reckoned as carnal, because he did not receive the Spirit of God, shall not have power to inherit the kingdom of heaven. As again the same apostle testifies, saying to the Corinthians, Know ye not that the righteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not err. He says, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor revilers, nor rapacious persons shall inherit the kingdom of God, and these ye indeed have been, but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God. He shows in the clearest manner through what things it is that man goes to destruction if he has continued to live after the flesh, and then on the other hand he points out through what things he is saved. Now he says that the things which save are the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of God. Two, since therefore in that passage he recounts those works of the flesh which are without the Spirit, which bring death upon their doers, he exclaimed at the end of his epistle in accordance with what he had already declared, and as we have borne the image of him who is of the earth, we shall also bear the image of him who is from heaven. For this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Now this which he says, as we have borne the image of him who is of the earth, is analogous to what has been declared, and as such ye were, but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God. When therefore did we bear the image of him who is of the earth? Doubtless it was when those actions spoken of as works of the flesh used to be wrought in us. And then again, when do we bear the image of the heavenly? Doubtless when he says, ye have been washed, believing in the name of the Lord and receiving his Spirit. Now we have washed away not the substance of our body, nor the image of our primary formation, but the former vain conversation. In these members therefore, in which we were going to destruction by working the works of corruption. In these very members are we made alive by working the works of the Spirit. Chapter 12 of the difference between life and death, of the breath of life and the vivifying spirit, also how it is that the substance of flesh revives which once was dead. 1. For as the flesh is capable of corruption, so it is also of incorruption. And as it is of death, so is it also of life. These two do mutually give way to each other, and both cannot remain in the same place, but one is driven out by the other, and the presence of the one destroys that of the other. If then, when death takes possession of a man, it drives life away from him and proves him to be dead. Much more does life, when it has obtained power over the man, drive out death and restore him as living unto God. For if death brings mortality, why should not life, when it comes, vivify man? Just as Eseus the prophet says, death devoured when it had prevailed. And again, God has wiped away every tear from every face. Thus that former life is expelled, because it was not given by the spirit, but by the breath. 2. For the breath of life, which also rendered man an animated being, is one thing, and the vivifying spirit another, which also caused him to become spiritual. And for this reason, Eiseus said, Thus saith the Lord, who made heaven and established it, who founded the earth and the things therein, and gave breath to the people upon it, and spirit to those walking upon it. Thus telling us that breath is indeed given in common to all people upon the earth. But that the spirit is theirs alone, who tread down earthly desires. And therefore Eisea himself, distinguishing the things already mentioned, exclaims, For the spirit shall go forth from me, and I have made every breath. Thus does he attribute the spirit as peculiar to God, which in last times he pours forth upon the human race by the adoption of sons. But he shows that breath was common throughout the creation, and points it out as something created. Now what has been made is a different thing from him who makes it. The breath then is temporal, but the spirit eternal. The breath too increases in strength for a short period, and continues for a certain time. After that it takes its departure, leaving its former abode, destitute of breath. But when the spirit pervades the man within and without, in as much as it continues there, it never leaves him. But that is not first which is spiritual, says the apostle, speaking as if with reference to us human beings. But that is first which is animal, afterwards that which is spiritual, in accordance with reason. For there had been a necessity that, in the first place, a human being should be fashioned, and that what was fashioned should receive the soul. Afterwards that it should thus receive the communion of the spirit. Wherefore also, the first atom was made, by the Lord, a living soul, the second atom, a quickening spirit. As then he who was made a living soul forfeited life, when he turned aside to what was evil, so, on the other hand, the same individual, when he reverts to what is good, and receives the quickening spirit, shall find life. 3. For it is not one thing which dies and another which is quickened, as neither is it one thing which is lost and another which is found, but the Lord came seeking for that same sheep which had been lost. What was it then which was dead? Undoubtedly it was the substance of the flesh, the same two which had lost the breath of life, and had become breathless and dead. This same, therefore, was what the Lord came to quicken, that as in Adam we do all die, as being of an animal nature, in Christ we may all live, as being spiritual, not laying aside God's handiwork, but the lusts of the flesh, and receiving the Holy Spirit. As the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Colossians, Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth, and what these are he himself explains. Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry. The laying aside of these is what the Apostle preaches, and he declares that those who do such things, as being merely flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven. For their soul, tending towards what is worse, and descending to earthly lusts, has become a partaker in the same designation which belongs to these lusts. Viz. Earthly. Which, when the Apostle commands us to lay aside, he says in the same Epistle, cast ye off the old man with his deeds. But when he said this he does not remove away the ancient formation of man, for in that case it would be incumbent on us to rid ourselves of its company by committing suicide. V. But the Apostle himself also, being one who had been formed in a womb, and had issued thence, wrote to us and confessed in his Epistle to the Philippians that, to live in the flesh was the fruit of his work. Thus expressing himself. Now the final result of the work of the Spirit is the salvation of the flesh. For what other visible fruit is there of the invisible spirit than the rendering of the flesh mature and capable of incorruption? If then, he says, To live in the flesh this is the result of labor to me. He did not surely condemn the substance of flesh in that passage where he said, Put ye off the old man with his works. But he points out that we should lay aside our former conversation, that which waxes old and becomes corrupt, and for this reason he goes on to say, And put ye on the new man, that which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him who created him. In this therefore that he says, which is renewed in knowledge, he demonstrates that he, the self-same man who was in ignorance in times past, that is in ignorance of God, is renewed by that knowledge which has respect to him, for the knowledge of God renews man. And when he says, After the image of the Creator, he sets forth the recapitulation of the same man who was at the beginning made after the likeness of God. Five. And that he, the apostle, was the very same person who had been born from the womb, that is of the ancient substance of flesh, he does himself declare in the epistle to the Galatians. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by his grace, to reveal his son in me that I might preach him among the Gentiles, it was not, as I have already observed, one person who had been born from the womb and another who preached the gospel of the Son of God, but that same individual who formerly was ignorant, and used to persecute the church, when the revelation was made to him from heaven, and the Lord conferred with him, as I have pointed out in the third book, preached the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, his former ignorance being driven out by his subsequent knowledge, just as the blind men whom the Lord healed did certainly lose their blindness, but received the substance of their eyes perfect and obtained the power of vision in the very same eyes with which they formerly did not see, the darkness being merely driven away by the power of vision, while the substance of the eyes was retained, in order that by means of those eyes through which they had not seen exercising again the visual power, they might give thanks to him who had restored them again to sight, and thus also he whose withered hand was healed, and all who were healed generally, did not change those parts of their bodies which had at their birth come forth from the womb, but simply obtained these anew in a healthy condition. 6. For the maker of all things, the word of God, who did also from the beginning form man, when he found his handiwork impaired by wickedness, performed upon it all kinds of healing. At one time he did so as regards each separate member, as it is found in his own handiwork, and at another time he did once for all restore man sound and whole in all points, preparing him perfect for himself unto the resurrection. For what was his object in healing different portions of the flesh, and restoring them to their original condition, if those parts which had been healed by him were not in a position to obtain salvation? For if it was merely a temporary benefit which he conferred, he granted nothing of importance to those who were the subjects of his healing. Or how can they maintain that the flesh is incapable of receiving life which flows from him when it received healing from him, for life is brought about through healing, and in corruption through life? He therefore who confers healing, the same does also confer life, and he who gives life also surrounds his own handiwork within corruption. In the dead who were raised by Christ, we possess the highest proof of the resurrection, and our hearts are shown to be capable of life eternal, because they can now receive the Spirit of God. 1. Let our opponents, that is those who speak against their own salvation, inform us as to this point. The deceased daughter of the high priest, the widow's dead son, who was being carried out to burial near the gate of the city, and Lazarus, who had lain four days in the tomb. In what bodies did they rise again? In those same, no doubt, in which they had also died, for if it were not in the very same, then certainly those same individuals who had died did not rise again. For the scripture says, 1. Again he called Lazarus with a loud voice, saying, Lazarus come forth, and he that was dead came forth bound with bandages, feet, and hands. This was symbolical of that man who had been bound in sins, and therefore the Lord said, Loose him, and let him depart, As therefore those who were healed were made whole in those members which had in times past been afflicted, and the dead rose in the identical bodies, their limbs and bodies receiving health, and that life which was granted by the Lord, who prefigures eternal things by temporal, and shows that it is he who is himself able to extend both healing and life to his handiwork, that his words concerning its future resurrection may also be believed. So also at the end, when the Lord utters his voice, By the last trumpet the dead shall be raised, as he himself declares, The hour shall come in which all the dead which are in the tombs shall hear the voice of the son of man, and shall come forth those that have done good to the resurrection of life, and those that have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. 2. Vain, therefore, and truly miserable are those who do not choose to see what is so manifest and clear, but shun the light of truth blinding themselves like the tragic Oedipus, and as those who are not practiced in wrestling when they contend with others laying hold with a determined grasp of some part of their opponent's body really fall by means of that which they grasp, yet when they fall imagine that they are gaining the victory because they have obstinately kept their hold upon that part which they seized at the outset, and besides falling become subjects of ridicule. So is it with respect to that favorite expression of the heretics, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God? While taking two expressions of Paul's without having perceived the Apostles' meaning, or examined critically the force of the terms, but keeping fast hold of the mere expressions by themselves, they die in consequence of their influence. 3. Overturning as far as in them lies the entire dispensation of God. 3. For thus they will allege that this passage refers to the flesh, strictly so called, and not to fleshly works, as I have pointed out, so representing the Apostle as contradicting himself. For immediately following in the same epistle he says conclusively speaking thus in reference to the flesh, For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O death, where is thy victory? Now these words shall be, appropriately said, at the time when this mortal and corruptible flesh, which is subject to death, which also is pressed down by a certain dominion of death, rising up into life shall put on incorruption and immortality. For then, indeed, shall death be truly vanquished, when that flesh which is held down by it shall go forth from under its dominion. And again, to the Philippians he says, But our conversation is in heaven. From whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus, who shall transfigure the body of our humiliation conformable to the body of his glory, even as he is able, Ita ut posit, according to the working of his own power. What then is this body of humiliation, which the Lord shall transfigure, so as to be conformed to the body of his glory? Plainly, it is this body composed of flesh, which is indeed humbled when it falls into the earth. Now, its transformation takes place thus, that while it is mortal and corruptible, it becomes immortal and incorruptible, not after its own proper substance, but after the mighty working of the Lord, who is able to invest the mortal with immortality and the corruptible within corruption. Therefore, he says, That mortality may be swallowed up of life. He who has perfected us for this very thing is God, who also has given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. He uses these words most manifestly in reference to the flesh, for the soul is not mortal, neither is the Spirit. Now, what is mortal shall be swallowed up of life, when the flesh is dead no longer, but remains living and incorruptible, hymning the praises of God, who has perfected us for this very thing? In order, therefore, that we may be perfected for this, aptly does he say to the Corinthians, Glorify God in your body, now God is he who gives rise to immortality. 4. That he uses these words with respect to the body of flesh, and to none other, he declares to the Corinthians manifestly, indubitably, and free from all ambiguity, always bearing about in our body the dying of Jesus, that also the life of Jesus Christ might be manifested in our body, for if we who live are delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, it is that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh, and that the Spirit lays hold on the flesh, he says in the same epistle, that ye are the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, inscribed not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but in the fleshly tablets of the heart. If, therefore, in the present time fleshly hearts are made partakers of the Spirit, what is there astonishing if, in the resurrection, they receive that life which is granted by the Spirit, of which resurrection the apostle speaks in the epistle to the Philippians, having been made conformable to his death, if by any means I might attain to the resurrection which is from the dead? In what other mortal flesh therefore can life be understood as being manifested, unless in that substance, which is also put to death on account of that confession which is made of God, as he has himself declared, if as a man I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageeth it me, if the dead rise not? For if the dead rise not, neither has Christ risen. Now if Christ has not risen, our preaching is vain, and your faith is vain. In that case too we are found false witnesses for God, since we have testified that he raised up Christ, whom upon that supposition he did not raise up. For if the dead rise not, neither has Christ risen. But if Christ be not risen, your faith is vain, since ye are yet in your sins. Therefore those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are more miserable than all men. But now Christ has risen from the dead, the first fruits of those that sleep, for as by man came death, by man also came the resurrection of the dead. In all these passages therefore, as I have already said, these men must either allege that the Apostle expresses opinions contradicting himself with respect to that statement, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, or, on the other hand, they will be forced to make perverse and crooked interpretations of all the passages, so as to overturn and alter the sense of the words. For what sensible thing can they say, if they endeavor to interpret otherwise this which he writes? For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal put on immortality, and that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh, and all the other passages in which the Apostle does manifestly and clearly declare the resurrection and incorruption of the flesh. And thus shall they be compelled to put a false interpretation on passages such as these, they who do not choose to understand one correctly. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, Recording by David Cole. Irenaeus Against Heresies, Book 5, translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rombeau, Chapter 14. Unless the flesh were to be saved, the word would not have taken upon him flesh of the same substance as ours. From this it would follow that neither should we have been reconciled by him. 1. And inasmuch as the Apostle has not pronounced against the very substance of flesh and blood, that it cannot inherit the kingdom of God, the same Apostle has everywhere adopted the term flesh and blood with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ, partly indeed to establish his human nature, for he did himself speak of himself as the Son of Man, and partly that he might confirm the salvation of our flesh. For if the flesh were not in a position to be saved, the word of God would in no wise have become flesh. And if the blood of the righteous were not to be inquired after, the Lord would certainly not have had blood in his composition. But inasmuch as blood cries out, Wakalis est. From the beginning of the world, God said to Cain, when he had slain his brother, the voice of thy brother's blood cryeth to me. And as their blood will be inquired after, he said to those with Noah, For your blood of your souls will I require, even from the hand of all beasts, and again, whosoever will shed man's blood, it shall be shed for his blood. In like manner, too, did the Lord say to those who should afterwards shed his blood, all righteous blood shall be required which is shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barakaius, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Verily I say unto you, all these things shall come upon this generation. He thus points out the recapitulation that should take place in his own person of the effusion of blood from the beginning, of all the righteous men and of the prophets, and that by means of himself there should be a requisition of their blood. Now this blood could not be required, unless he'd also had the capability of being saved, nor would the Lord have summed up these things in himself, unless he had himself been made flesh and blood after the way of the original formation of man, saving in his own person at the end, that which had in the beginning perished in Adam. Two. But if the Lord became incarnate for any other order of things, and took flesh of any other substance, he has not then summed up human nature in his own person, nor in that case can he be termed flesh. For flesh has been truly made to consist in a transmission of that thing molded originally from the dust. But if it had been necessary for him to draw the material of his body from another substance, the Father would at the beginning have molded the material of flesh from a different substance than from what he actually did. But now the case stands thus, that the word has saved that which really was created viz, humanity, which had perished, affecting by means of himself that communion which should be held with it and seeking out its salvation. But the thing which had perished possessed flesh and blood, for the Lord taking dust from the earth molded man, and it was upon his behalf that all the dispensation of the Lord's advent took place. He had himself, therefore, flesh and blood, recapitulating in himself, not a certain other, but that original handy work of the Father, seeking out that thing which had perished. And for this cause the apostle in the Epistle to the Colossians says, And though ye were formerly alienated and enemies to his knowledge by evil works, yet now ye have been reconciled in the body of his flesh through his death, to present yourselves wholly in chaste and without fault in his sight. He says, You have been reconciled in the body of his flesh, because the righteous flesh has reconciled that flesh which was being kept under bondage in sin, and brought it into friendship with God. Three. If then any one allege that in this respect the flesh as a Lord was different from ours, because it indeed did not commit sin, neither was deceit found in his soul, while we on the other hand are sinners, he says what is the fact. But if he pretends that the Lord possessed another substance of flesh, the sayings respecting reconciliation will not agree with that man. For that thing is reconciled which had formerly been in enmity. Now if the Lord had taken flesh from another substance, he would not, by so doing, have reconciled that one to God which had become inimical through transgression. But now, by means of communion with himself, the Lord has reconciled man to God the Father, in reconciling us to himself by the body of his own flesh, and redeeming us by his own blood, as the Apostle says to the Ephesians, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins. And again to the same, he says, ye who formerly were far off, have been brought near in the blood of Christ, and again, abolishing in his flesh the eminities, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances. And in every epistle the Apostle plainly testifies that through the flesh of our Lord, and through his blood, we have been saved, for if therefore flesh and blood are the things which procure for us life, it has not been declared a flesh and blood in the literal meaning, property, of the terms, that they cannot inherit the kingdom of God, but these words apply to those carnal deeds already mentioned, which perverting man to sin deprive him of life. And for this reason he says in the Epistle to the Romans, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body to be under its control. Neither yield you your members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves to God as being a life from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. In these same members, therefore, in which we use to serve sin, and bring forth fruit unto death, does he wish us to be obedient unto righteousness, that we might bring forth fruit into life. Remember therefore, my beloved friend, that thou hast been redeemed by the flesh of our Lord, reestablished by his blood, and holding the head from which the whole body of the church, having been fitted together, takes increase, that is acknowledging the advent in the flesh of the Son of God, and his divinity, deum, and looking forward with constancy to his human nature, hominem, availing thyself also of these proofs drawn from Scripture. Thou dost easily overthrow, as I have pointed out, all those notions of the heretics which were concocted afterwards. Chapter 15 proofs the resurrection from Isaiah and Ezekiel, the same God who created us will also raise us up. 1. Now that he who at the beginning created man, did promise him a second birth after his dissolution into earth, Isaiah thus declares, The dead shall rise again, and they who are in the tombs shall arise, and they who are in the earth shall rejoice, for the Jew which is from thee is health to them, and again I will comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem, and ye shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish as the grass, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to those who worship him. And Ezekiel speaks as follows, and the hand of the Lord came upon me, and the Lord led me forth in the spirit, and set me down in the midst of the plain, and this place was full of bones. And he caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there were many upon the surface of the plain very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I said, Lord, thou who hast made them dost know? And he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones, and thou shalt say to them, Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus seth the Lord to these bones. Behold, I will cause the spirit of life to come upon you, and I will lay sinews upon you, and bring up flesh again upon you, and I will stretch skin upon you, and will put my spirit into you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. And I prophesied as the Lord had commanded me. And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that behold an earthquake, and the bones were drawn together, each one to his own articulation, and I beheld, and lo the sinews and flesh were produced upon them, and the skins rose upon them round about, but there was no breath in them. And he said unto me, prophesy to the breath, Son of man, and say to the breath, These things, saith the Lord, come from the four winds, spiritibus, and breathe upon these dead, that they may live. So I prophesied as the Lord had commanded me, and the breath entered into them, and they did live, and stood upon their feet, and exceedingly great gathering. And again, he says, Thus seth the Lord. Behold, I will set your graves open, and cause you to come out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel, and ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall open your sepulchres, that I may bring my people again out of the sepulchres, and I will put my spirit into you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your land, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. I have said and I will do, saith the Lord. As we at once perceive that the Creator, Demi-ergo, is in this passage represented as vivifying our dead bodies, and promising resurrection to them, and resuscitation from their sepulchres and tombs, conferring upon them immortality also, he says, For as the tree of life, so shall their days be. He is shown to be the only God who accomplishes these things, and as himself the good Father, benevolently conferring life upon those who have not life from themselves. 2. And for this reason did the Lord most plainly manifest himself, and the Father to his disciples, lest for sooth, they might seek after another God besides him who formed man, and who gave him the breath of life, and that men might not rise to such a pitch of madness as to feign another Father above the Creator. And thus also he healed by a word all the others who were in a weakly condition because of sin, to whom also he said, Behold, thou art made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee. Pointing out by this that, because of the sin of disobedience, infirmities have come upon men. To that man, however, who had been blind from his birth, he gave sight. Not by means of a word, but by an outward action. Doing this not without a purpose, or because it so happened, but that he might show forth the hand of God, that which he at the beginning had moulded man. And therefore, when his disciples asked him for what cause the man had been born blind, whether for his own or his parents' fault, he replied, Neither has this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. Now the work of God is the fashioning of man, for as the Scripture says, he made man by a kind of process. And the Lord took clay from the earth and formed man. Wherefore also the Lord spat on the ground and made clay, and smeared it upon the eyes, pointing out the original fashioning of man, how it was effected, and manifesting the hand of God to those who can understand by what hand man was formed out of the dust. For that which the Artificer, the Word, had omitted to form in the womb, vis the blind man's eyes, he then supplied in public that the works of God might be manifested in him, in order that we might not be seeking out another hand by which man is fashioned, nor another father, knowing that this hand of God which formed us at the beginning, and which does form us in the womb, has in the last times sought us out who were lost, winning back his own, and taking up the lost sheep upon his shoulders, and with joy restoring it to the fold of life. 3. Now that the Word of God forms us in the womb, he says to Jeremiah, Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee, and before thou wentest forth from the belly, I sanctified thee, and appointed thee a prophet among the nations. 4. And Paul too says in like manner, But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, that I might declare him among the nations. 5. As therefore we are by the Word formed in the womb, this very same Word formed the visual power in him who had been blind from his birth, showing openly who it is that fashions us in secret, since the Word himself had been made manifest to men, and declaring the original formation of Adam and the manner in which he was created, and by what hand he was fashioned, indicating the whole from apart. For the Lord who formed the visual powers is he who made the whole man carrying out the will of the Father, and inasmuch as man with respect to that formation which was after Adam having fallen into transgression, needed the labour of regeneration, the Lord said to him, upon whom he had conferred sight, after he had smeared his eyes with the clay, go to Siloam and wash, thus restoring to him both his perfect confirmation and that regeneration which takes place by means of the labour. And for this reason, when he was washed he came seeing, that he might both know him who had fashioned him, and that man might learn to know him who had conferred upon him life. 4. All the followers of Valentinus therefore lose their case when they say that man was not fashioned out of this earth, but from a fluid and diffused substance. 4. From the earth out of which the Lord formed eyes of that man, from the same earth it is evident that man was also fashioned at the beginning. For it were incompatible that the eyes should indeed be formed from one source and the rest of the body from another, as neither would it be compatible that one being fashioned the body and another the eyes. But he, the very same who formed Adam at the beginning, with whom also the Father spake saying, let us make man after our image and likeness, revealing himself in these last times to men, formed visual organs, whizionem, for him who had been blind in that body which he had derived from Adam. Wherefore also the scripture, pointing at what should come to pass, says that when Adam had hit himself because of his disobedience, the Lord came to him at even time, called him false and said, where art thou? That means that in the last times the very same word of God came to call man, reminding him of his doings, living in which he had been hidden from the Lord. For just as at that time God spake to Adam at even time, searching him out. So in the last times, by means of the same voice, searching out his posterity, he has visited them. Chapter 16. Since our bodies return to the earth, it follows that they have their substance from it. Also by the advent of the word, the image of God in us appeared in a clearer light. One, and since Adam was moulded from this earth which we belong, the scripture tells us that God said to him, in the sweat of thy face shall thou eat thy bread, until thou turnest again to the dust from whence thou were taken. If then, after death, our bodies return to any other substance, it follows that from it also they have their substance. But if it be into this very earth, it is manifest that it is also from it that man's frame was created, as also the Lord clearly showed, when from this very substance he formed eyes for the man to whom he gave sight. And thus was the hand of God plainly shown forth, by which Adam was fashioned, and we too have been formed, and since there is one and the same father, whose voice from the beginning even to the end is present with his handiwork, and the substance from which we were formed is plainly declared through the gospel. We should therefore not seek after another father besides him, nor look for another substance from which we have been formed, besides what was mentioned beforehand, and shown forth by the Lord. Nor another hand of God besides that which, from the beginning even to the end, forms us and prepares us for life, and is present with his handiwork, and perfects it after the image and likeness of God. Two, and then again this word was manifested when the word of God was made man, assimilating himself to man and man to himself, so that by means of his resemblance to the Son, man might become precious to the father. For in times long past it was said that man was created after the image of God, but it was not actually shown, for the word was as yet invisible after whose image man was created, wherefore also he did easily lose the similitude. When, however, the word of God became flesh, he confirmed both these, for he both showed forth the image truly, since he became himself what was his image, and he re-established the similitude after a sure manner by assimilating man to the invisible father through means of the visible word. Three, and not by the aforesaid things alone has the Lord manifested himself, but he has done this also by means of his passion. For doing away with the effects of that disobedience of man which had taken place at the beginning by the occasion of a tree, he became obedient unto death even the death of the cross, rectifying that disobedience which had occurred by reason of a tree through that obedience which was wrought out upon the tree of the cross. Now he would not have come to do away by means of that same image, the disobedience which had been incurred towards our maker if he proclaimed another father. But inasmuch as it was by these things that we disobeyed God, and did not give credit to his word, so it was also by the same that he brought in obedience and consent as respects his word, by which things he clearly shows forth God himself, whom indeed we had offended in the first Adam when he did not perform his commandment. In the second Adam, however, we are reconciled, being made obedient even unto death, for we were debtors to none other but to him whose commandment we had transgressed at the beginning. Chapter 17 There is but one Lord and one God, the Father and Creator of all things, who has loved us in Christ, given us commandments and remitted our sins, whose son and word Christ proved himself to be when he forgave our sins. One. Now this being is the Creator, Demi-ergus, who is, in respect of his love, the Father, but in respect of his power he is Lord, and in respect of his wisdom our maker and fashioner, by transgressing whose commandment we become his enemies, and therefore in the last times the Lord has restored us into friendship through his incarnation, having become the mediator between God and men, propitiating indeed for us the Father against whom we had sinned, and cancelling, consulatus, our disobedience by his own obedience, conferring also upon us the gift of communion with, and subjection to, our maker. For this reason also he has taught us to say in prayer, and forgive us our debts, since indeed he is our Father, whose debt as we are, having transgressed his commandments. But who is this being? Is he someone known one, and a Father who gives no commandment to any one? Or is he the God who is proclaimed in our scriptures, to whom we are debtors, having transgressed his commandment? Now the commandment was given to man by the word, for Adam it is said, heard the voice of the Lord God. Rightly then does his word say to man, thy sins are forgiven thee. He, the same against whom we had sinned in the beginning, grants forgiveness of sins in the end. But if indeed we had disobeyed the command of any other, while it was a different being who said, thy sins are forgiven thee, such a one is neither good nor true nor just. For how can he be good, who does not give from what belongs to himself? Or how can he be just, who snatches away the goods of another? And in what way can sins be truly remitted, unless that he against whom we have sinned, as himself granted remission, through the bowels of mercy of our God, in which he has visited us through his son? Two, and therefore, when he had healed the man sick of the palsy, the evangelist says, the people upon seeing it glorified God, who gave such power unto men. What God then did the bystanders glorify? Was it indeed that unknown father invented by the heretics? And how could they glorify him who was altogether unknown to them? It is evident, therefore, that the Israelites glorified him, who has been proclaimed as God by the law and the prophets, who is also the father of our Lord, and therefore he taught men by the evidence of their senses through those signs which he accomplished to give glory to God. If, however, he himself had come from another father, and men glorified a different father, when they beheld his miracles, he, in that case, rendered them ungrateful to that father, who had sent the gift of healing. But as the only begotten son had come for man's salvation from him who is God, he did both stir up the incredulous by the miracles which he was in the habit of working to give glory to the father, and to the Pharisees who did not admit the advent of his son, and who consequently did not believe in the omission of sins which was conferred by him, he said, that ye may know that the son of man hath power to forgive sins. And when he had said this, he commanded the paralytic man to take up the pallet upon which he was lying, and go into his house. By this work of his he confounded the unbelievers, and showed that he is himself the voice of God, by which man received commandments, which he broke and became a sinner, for the paralysis followed as a consequence of sins. Three, therefore by remitting sins he did indeed heal man, whilst he also manifested himself who he was. For if no one can forgive sins but God alone, while the Lord remitted them and healed men, it is plain that he was himself the word of God, made the son of man, receiving from the father the power of remission of sins, since he was man and since he was God, in order that since as man he suffered for us, so is God he might have compassion on us, and forgive us our debts, in which we were made debtors to God our Creator. And therefore David said beforehand, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin. Pointing out thus that remission of sins which follows upon his advent, by which he has destroyed the handwriting of our debt, and fastened it to the cross, so that as by means of a tree we were made debtors to God, so also by means of a tree we may obtain the remission of our debt. Four, this fact has been strikingly set forth by many others, and especially through means of Elisha the Prophet. For when his fellow prophets were hewing wood for the construction of a tabernacle, and when the iron head shaken loose from the axe had fallen into the Jordan and could not be found by them, upon Elisha's coming to the place and learning what had happened he threw some wood into the water. Then when he had done this the iron part of the axe loaded up, and they took up from the surface of the water what they had previously lost. By this action the Prophet pointed out that the sure word of God, which we had negligently lost by means of a tree, and were not in the way of finding again, we should receive anew by the dispensation of a tree vis the cross of Christ. For that which the word of God is likened to an axe John the Baptist declares when he says in reference to it, but now also is the axe laid to the root of the trees. Jeremiah also says to the same purport, the word of God cleaveeth a rock as knacks. This word then, what was hidden from us, did the dispensation of the tree make manifest, as I have already remarked. For as we lost it by means of a tree, by means of a tree again, was it made manifest to all, showing the height, the length, the breadth, the depth in itself, and as a certain man among our predecessors observed, through the extension of the hands of a divine person, gathering together the two peoples to one God. For these were two hands, because there were two peoples scattered to the ends of the earth, but there was one head in the middle, as there is but one God, who is above all and through all, and in us all. End of Book 5, chapters 14 through 17, recording by David Cole, Medway, Massachusetts 18. God the Father and His Word have formed all created things which they use by their own power and wisdom, not out of defect or ignorance. The Son of God, who received all power from the Father, would otherwise never have taken flesh upon Him. And such or so important the dispensation He did not bring about by means of the creations of others, but by His own, neither by those things which were created out of ignorance and defect, but by those which had their substance from the wisdom and power of His Father. For He was neither unrighteous, so that He should covet the property of another, nor needy, that He could not by His own means impart life to His own, and make use of His own creation for the salvation of man. For indeed the creation could not have sustained Him on the cross if He had sent forth, simply by commission, what was the fruit of ignorance and defect. Now we have repeatedly shown that the Incarnate Word of God was suspended upon a tree, and even the very heretics do acknowledge that He was crucified. How then could the fruit of ignorance and defect sustain Him who contains the knowledge of all things and is true and perfect? Or how could that creation which was concealed from the Father and far removed from Him have sustained His Word? And if this world were made by the angels, it matters not whether we suppose their ignorance or their cognizance of the Supreme God when the Lord declared, For I am in the Father and the Father in me. How could this workmanship of the angels have borne to be burdened at once with the Father and the Son? How again could that creation which is beyond the plerama have contained Him who contains the entire plerama? Inasmuch then, as all these things are impossible and incapable of proof, that preaching of the Church is alone true which proclaims that His own creation bear Him, which subsists by the power, the skill and the wisdom of God, which is sustained indeed after an invisible manner by the Father, but on the contrary, after a visible manner it bore His Word, and this is the true Word. For the Father bears the creation and His Word simultaneously, and the Word borne by the Father grants the Spirit to all as the Father wills. To some He gives after the manner of creation what is made, but to others He gives after the manner of adoption, that is, what is from God, namely generation, and thus one God the Father is declared, who is above all and through all and in all. The Father is indeed above all, and He is the Head of Christ, but the Word is through all things and is Himself the Head of the Church, while the Spirit is in us all, and He is the Living Water which the Lord grants to those who rightly believe in Him and love Him and know that there is one Father who is above all and through all and in us all. And to these things does John also, the disciple of the Lord, bear witness when he speaks to us in the Gospel. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. This was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made, and then He said of the Word Himself. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. To His own things He came, and His own people received Him not. However, as many as did receive Him, to these gave Him power to become the sons of God, to those that believe in His name. And again, showing the dispensation with regard to His human nature, John said, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and in continuation He says, and we beheld His glory, the glories of the only begotten by the Father, full of grace and truth. He thus plainly points out to those willing to hear, that is, to those having ears, that there is one God, the Father overall, and one Word of God, who is through all, by whom all things have been made, and that this world belongs to Him, and was made by Him according to the Father's will, and not by angels, nor by apostasy, defect, and ignorance, nor by any power of prunikas, whom certain of them also call the mother, nor by any other maker of the world ignorant of the Father. For the Creator of the world is truly the Word of God, and this is our Lord, who in the last times was made man, existing in this world, and who in an invisible manner contains all things created, and is inherent in the entire creation, since the Word of God governs and arranges all things, and therefore He came to His own in a visible manner, and was made flesh, and hung upon the tree, that He might sum up all things in Himself, and His own peculiar people did not receive Him, as Moses declared this very thing among the people, and thy life shall be hanging before thine eyes, and thou wilt not believe thy life. Those therefore who did not receive Him did not receive life, but to as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, for it is He who has power from the Father over all things, since He is the Word of God, and very man communicating with invisible beings after the manner of the intellect, and appointing a law observable to the outward senses, that all things should continue each in its own order, and He reigns manifestly over things visible and pertaining to men, and brings in just judgment and worthy upon all, as David also clearly pointing to this says, Our God shall openly come, and will not keep silence. Then he shows also the judgment which is brought in by him saying, A fire shall burn in his sight, and a strong tempest shall rage around about him. He shall call upon the heaven from above, and the earth to judge his people. Chapter 19 A comparison is instituted between the disobedient and sinning Eve, and the Virgin Mary, her patroness. Various and discordant heresies are mentioned, that the Lord then was manifestly coming to his own things, and was sustaining them by means of that creation which is supported by himself, and was making a recapitulation of that disobedience which had occurred in connection with a tree, through the obedience which was exhibited by himself when he hung upon a tree, the effects also of that deception being done away with, by which that Virgin Eve, who was already espoused to a man, was unhappily misled, was happily announced through means of the truth spoken by the angel to the Virgin Mary, who was also espoused to a man. For just as the former was led astray by the word of an angel, so that she fled from God when she had transgressed his word, so did the latter, by an angelic communication, receive the glad tidings that she should sustain, portadette, God, being obedient to his word. And if the former did disobey God, yet the latter was persuaded to be obedient to God, in order that the Virgin Mary might become the patroness Advocata of the Virgin Eve. And thus, as a human race fell into bondage to death by means of a virgin, so is it rescued by a virgin, virginal disobedience having been balanced in the opposite scale by virginal obedience. For in the same way the sin of the first created man, protoplasti, receives amendment by the correction of the first begotten, and the coming of the serpent is conquered by the harmlessness of the dove, those bonds being unloosed by which we had been fast bound to death. The heretics being all unlearned and ignorant of God's arrangements, and not acquainted with that dispensation by which it took upon him human nature, inciedus quiesce cundum hominem dispensationes, inasmuch as they blind themselves with regard to the truth, do in fact speak against their own salvation. Some of them introduce another father besides the creator, some again say that the world and its substance was made by certain angels. Certain others maintain that it was widely separated by horrors, from him whom they represent as being the father, that its sprang forth floris of itself, and from itself was born. Then again, others of them assert that it obtains substance in those things which are contained by the father, from defect and ignorance. Others still despise the advent of the Lord manifest to the senses, for they do not admit his incarnation, while others, ignoring the arrangement that he should be born of a virgin, maintain that he was begotten by Joseph, and still further, some affirm that neither their soul nor their body can receive eternal life, but merely the inner man. Moreover, they will have it that this inner man is that which is the understanding, sensome in them, and which they decree as being the only thing to ascend to the perfect. Others maintain, as I have said in the first book, that while the soul is saved, their body does not participate in the salvation which comes from God, in which book I have also said forward the hypothesis of all these men, and in the second have pointed out their weakness and inconsistency. Chapter 20. Those pastors are to be heard to whom the apostles committed the churches, possessing one and the same doctrine of salvation. The heretics, on the other hand, are to be avoided. We must think soberly with regard to the mysteries of the faith. Chapter 21. Now all these heretics are of much later date than the bishops to whom the apostles committed the churches, which fact I have in the third book taken all pains to demonstrate. It follows then, as a matter of course, that these heretics are forementioned, since they are blind to the truth, and deviate from the right way, will walk in various roads, and therefore the footsteps of their doctrine are scattered here and there without agreement or connection. But the path of those belonging to the church circumscribes the whole world, as possessing the sure tradition from the apostles, and gives on to us to see that the faith of all is one and the same, since all receive one and the same God the Father, and believe in the same dispensation regarding the incarnation of the Son of God, and the cognizant of the same gift of the Spirit, and are conversant with the same commandments, and preserve the same form of ecclesiastical constitution, and expect the same advent of the Lord, and await the same salvation of the complete man, that is of the soul and body, and undoubtedly the preaching of the church is true and steadfast, in which one and the same way of salvation is shown throughout the whole world. For to her is entrusted the light of God, and therefore the wisdom of God, by means of which she saves all men, is declared in its going forth, it uttereth its voice faithfully in the streets, is preached on the tops of the walls, and speaks continually in the gates of the city. For the church preaches the truth everywhere, and she is the seven-branched candlestick which bears the light of Christ. Those therefore who desert the preaching of the church, call in question the knowledge of the holy presbyters, not taking into consideration of how much greater consequence is a religious man, even in a prior station, than a blasphemous and impudent sophist. Now such are all the heretics, and those who imagine that they have hit upon something more beyond the truth, so that by following those things already mentioned, proceeding on their way variously, inharmoniously, and foolishly, not keeping always to the same opinions with regard to the same things, as blind men are led by the blind, they shall deservedly fall into the ditch of ignorance lying in their path, ever seeking and never finding out the truth. It behoves us therefore to avoid their doctrines, and to take careful heed lest we suffer an injury from them, but to flee to the church, and be brought up in her bosom, and be nourished with the Lord's scriptures. For the church has been planted as a garden, paradiseous in this world, therefore says the Spirit of God. They are mayest freely eat from every tree of the garden, that is, eat ye from every scripture of the Lord, but ye shall not eat with an uplifted mind, nor touch any heretical discord. For these men do profess that they have themselves the knowledge of good and evil, and they set their own impious minds above the God who made them. They therefore form opinions on what is beyond the limits of the understanding. For this cause also the apostle says, Be not wise beyond what it is fitting to be wise, but be wise prudently, that we be not cast forth by eating of the knowledge of these men, that knowledge which knows more than it should do, from the paradise of life. Into this paradise the Lord has introduced those who obey his call, summing up in himself all things which are in heaven, and which are on earth. But the things in heaven are spiritual, while those on earth constitute the dispensation in human nature. These things therefore he recapitulated in himself. By uniting man to the Spirit, and causing the Spirit to dwell in man, he is himself made the head of the Spirit, and gives the Spirit to be the head of man, for through him the Spirit we see and hear and speak. Chapter 21 Christ is the head of all things already mentioned. It was fitting that he should be sent by the Father, the Creator of all things, to assume human nature, and should be tempted by Satan, that he might fulfill the promises, and carry off a glorious and perfect victory. He has therefore in his work of recapitulation summed up all things, both waging war against our enemy, and crushing him who at the beginning led us away captives in Adam, and trampled upon his head, as thou canst perceive in Genesis that God said to the serpent, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, he shall be on the watch for, of said Vabbit, thy head, and thou on the watch for his heel, for from that time, he who should be born of a woman, namely from the Virgin after the lightness of Adam, was preached as keeping watch for the head of the serpent. This is the seed of which the Apostle says in the Epistle to the Galatians, that the law of works was established until the seed should come to whom the promise was made. This fact is exhibited in a still clearer light in the same Epistle, where he thus speaks, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, for indeed the enemy would not have been fairly vanquished, unless it had been a man born of a woman who conquered him. For it was by means of a woman that he got the advantage over man at first, setting himself up as man's opponent, and therefore does the Lord profess himself to be the son of man, comprising in himself that original man out of whom the woman was fashioned. In order that, as our species went down to death through a vanquished man, so we may ascend to life again through a victorious one, and as through a man death received the palm of victory against us, so again by a man we may receive the palm against death. Now, the Lord would not have recapitulated in himself that ancient and primary enmity against the serpent, fulfilling the promise of the Creator, Demiurgy, and performing his command if he had come from another Father. But as he is one and the same who formed us at the beginning and sent his Son at the end, the Lord did perform his command, being made of a woman, by both destroying our adversary and perfecting man after the image and likeness of God. And for this reason he did not draw the means of confounding him from any other source than from the words of the law, and made use of the Father's commandment as a help towards the destruction and confusion of the apostate angel. Fasting 40 days, like Moses and Elias, he afterwards hungered. First, in order that we may perceive that he was a real and substantial man, for it belongs to a man to suffer hunger and fasting, and secondly, that his opponent might have an opportunity of attacking him, and as at the beginning it was by means of food that the enemy persuaded man, although not suffering hunger, to transgress God's commandments, so in the end he did not succeed in persuading him that was hungered to take that food which proceeded from God. For when tempting him he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread, but the Lord repulsed him by the commandment of the law saying, it is written, man doth not live by bread alone. As to those words of his enemy, if thou be the Son of God, the Lord made no remark, but by thus acknowledging his human nature he baffled his adversary and exhausted the force of his first attack by means of his father's word. The corruption of man, therefore, which occurred in paradise by both of our first pair and seating, was done away with by the Lord's want of food in this world, but he, being thus vanquished by the law, endeavored again to make an assault by himself quoting a commandment of the law. For, bringing him to the highest pinnacle of the temple, he said to him, if thou art the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, that God shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest per chance thou dash thy foot against a stone, thus concealing a falsehood under the guise of scripture, as is done by all the heretics. For that was indeed written, namely, that he hath given his angels charge concerning him, but cast thyself from hands, no scripture said in reference to him. This kind of persuasion the devil produced from himself. The Lord therefore computed him out of the law, when he said, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord, thy God, pointing out by the word contained in the law, that which is the duty of man, that he should not tempt God, and in regard to himself, since he appeared in human form, declaring that he would not tempt the Lord his God. The pride of reason, therefore, which was in the serpent, was put to naught by the humility found in the man Christ, and now, twice was the devil conquered from scripture, when he was detected as advising things contrary to God's commandment, and was shown to be the enemy of God by the expression of his thoughts. He then, having been thus signally defeated, and then, as it were, concentrating his forces, drawing up in order all his available power for falsehood, and in the third place showed him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, saying, as Luke relates, all these will I give thee, for they are delivered to me, and to whom I will I give them, if thou will fall down and worship me. The Lord then, exposing him in his true character, says, depart, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. He both revealed him by his name, and showed at the same time who he himself was. For the Hebrew word Satan signifies an apostate, and thus vanquish him for the third time, his spurned him from him finally as being conquered out of the law, and there was done away with that infringement of God's commandment, which had occurred in Adam by means of the precept of the law, which the Son of Man observed, who did not transgress the commandment of God. Who then is this Lord God, to whom Christ bears witness, whom no man shall tempt, whom all should worship and serve him alone? It is, beyond all manner of doubt, that God who also gave the law. For these things had been predicted in the law, and by the words Cententium of the law, the Lord showed that the law does indeed declare the word of God from the Father, and the apostate angel of God is destroyed by its voice, being exposed in his true colors, and vanquished by the Son of Man keeping the commandment of God. For as in the beginning he enticed man to transgress his maker's law, and thereby got him into his power, yet his power consists in transgression and apostasy, and with these he bound man to himself. So again, on the other hand, it was necessary that through man himself he should, when conquered, be bound with the same chains with which he had bound man. In order that man, being set free, might return to his Lord, leaving to him, Satan, those bonds by which he himself had been fettered, that is, sin. For when Satan is bound, man is set free, since none can enter a strong man's house and spoil his goods, unless he first bind the strong man himself. The Lord therefore exposes him as speaking contrary to the word of that God who made all things, and subdues him by means of the commandment. Now the law is the commandment of God. The man proves him to be a fugitive from and a transgressor of the law, an apostate also from God. After the man had done this, the word bound him securely as a fugitive from himself, and made spoil of his goods, namely those men whom he held in bondage, and whom he unjustly used for his own purposes. And justly indeed is he led captive, who had led men unjustly into bondage, while man, who had been led captive in times past, was rescued from the grasp of his possessor, according to the tender mercy of God the Father, who had compassion on his own handiwork, and gave to its salvation, restoring it by means of the word, that is, by Christ, in order that men might learn by actual proof that he receives incorruptibility, not of himself, but by the free gift of God. End of book 5 chapters 18 through 21