 CHAPTER 26-27 of IRONIUS AGAINST HERESES, BOOK 4. This is the LibriVarx recording. All LibriVarx recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVarx.org. Recording by Bill McGilvery. IRONIUS AGAINST HERESES, BOOK 4, translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambo. CHAPTER 26. The treasure hid in the Scriptures is Christ. The true exposition of the Scripture is to be found in the church alone. 1. If anyone therefore reads the Scriptures with attention, he will find in them an account of Christ and a foreshadowing of the new calling, vocationis. For Christ is the treasure which was held in the field, that is, in this world. For the field is the world, but the treasure hid in the Scriptures is Christ, since he was pointed out by means of types and parables. Hence his human nature could not be understood prior to the consummation of those things which had been predicted, that is, the advent of Christ. And therefore it was said to Daniel the Prophet, Shut up the words and seal the book, even to the time of consummation, until many learn and knowledge be completed. For at that time, when the dispersion shall be accomplished, they shall know all these things. But Jeremiah also said, in the last days they shall understand these things. For every prophecy before its fulfillment is to men full of enigmas and ambiguities. But when the time has arrived and the prediction has come to pass, then the prophecies have a clear and certain exposition. And for this reason indeed, when at the present time the law reads to the Jews, it is like a fable, for they did not possess the explanation of all things, pertaining to the advent of the Son of God, which took place in human nature. But when it is read by Christians, it is a treasure, hidden indeed in the field, but brought to light by the cross of Christ, and explained both enriching the understanding of men, and showing forth the wisdom of God, and declaring his dispensations with regard to man, and forming the kingdom of Christ beforehand, and preaching by anticipation the inheritance of the Holy Jerusalem, and proclaiming beforehand that the man who loves God shall arrive at such excellence as even to see God, and hear his word, and from the hearing of his discourse be glorified to such an extent that others cannot behold the glory of his countenance as was said by Daniel, Those who do understand shall shine as the brightness of the fromament, and many of the righteous as the stars forever and ever. Thus then I have shown it to be if anyone reads the Scriptures. But thus it was that the Lord discourse with the Deceitful, after his resurrection from the dead, proving to them from the Scriptures themselves that Christ must suffer and enter into his glory, and that remission of sins should be preached in his name throughout all the world. And the Deceitful will be perfected and rendered like the Householder, who bringeth forth from the treasure things new and old. 2. Wherefore it is incumbent to obey the Presbyteres, who are in the church, those who, as I have shown, possess the succession from the apostles, those who, together with the succession of the Episcopate, have received the certain gift of truth, according to the good pleasure of the Father. But it is also incumbent to hold in suspicion others who depart from the primitive succession and assemble themselves together in any place whatsoever, looking upon them either as heretics of perverse minds or as schematics, puffed up in self-pleasing, or again as hypocrites, acting thus for the sake of lucre and vain glory. For all these have fallen from the truth, and the heretics indeed who bring strange fire to the altar of God, namely strange doctrines, shall be burned up by the fire from heaven, as were Nadab and Abwid, but such as rise up in opposition to the truth and exhort others against the church of God, shall remain among those in hell, apud, infernos, being swallowed up by the earthquake, even as those who were with Chur, Dathan, and Aberon, but those who cleave asunder and separate the unity of the church, shall receive from God the same punishment as Jeroboam did. 3. Those, however, who are believed to be presbyters, by many, but serve their own lusts and do not place the fear of God supreme in their hearts, but conduct themselves with contempt towards others and are puffed up with the pride of holding the chief seat and work evil deeds in secret, saying, No man sees us, shall be convicted by the Word who does not judge after outward appearance, say Kundum Glorium, nor look upon the countenance but the heart, and they shall hear those words to be found in Daniel the prophet, O Thou seat of Canaan and not of Judah, beauty has deceived thee and lust perverted thy heart. Thou that art waxen old in wicked days, now the sins which thou hast committed a forced time are come to light. For thou hast pronounced false judgments and hast been accustomed to condemn the innocent and to let the guilty go free, albeit the Lord saith, the innocent and the righteous shall thou not slay, of whom also did the Lord say, but if the evil servant shall say in his heart, my Lord delayeth his coming and shall begin to smite the manservants and maidens and to eat and drink and be drunken. The Lord of that servant shall come in a day that he locus not for him and in an hour that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. For from all such persons, therefore, it behoves us to keep aloof, but to adhere to those who, as I have already observed, do hold the doctrine of the apostles and who, together with the order of the priesthood, presbytery or dine, display sound speech and blameless conduct for the confirmation and correction of others. In this way, Moses, to whom such a leadership was entrusted, relying on a good conscience, cleared himself before God, saying, I have not in covetousness taken anything belonging to one of these men, nor have I done evil to one of them. In this way, too, Samuel, who judged the people so many years and bore rule over Israel without any pride, in the end, cleared himself, saying, I have walked before you from my childhood, even unto this day. Answer me in the sight of God and before his anointed, Christe Eus, whose ox or whose ass of yours have I taken, or over whom have I tyrannized, or whom have I oppressed, or if I have received from the hand of any bribe, or so much as a shoe, speak out against me, and I will restore to you. And when the people had said to him, thou has not tyrannized, neither has thou oppressed us, neither has thou taken ought of any man's hand. He called the Lord to witness, saying, the Lord is witness, and his anointed is witness to stay, that ye have not found ought in my hand, and they said to him, he is witness. In this strain also the apostle Paul, inasmuch as he had good conscience, said to the Corinthians, for we are not as many who corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God speak we in Christ. We have injured no man, corrupted no man, circumvented no man. Five. Such presbyters does the church nourish, of whom also the prophets sayeth, I will give thy rulers in peace, and thy bishops in righteousness, of whom also did the Lord declare, who then shall be a faithful steward, actor, good and wise, whom the Lord sets over his household, to give them their meat in due season. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Paul then, teaching us where one may find such, says, God has placed in the church first apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, where therefore the gift of the Lord have been placed. There it behooves us to learn the truth, namely from those who possess that succession of the church, which is from the apostles, and among whom exist that which is sound and blameless in conduct, as well as that which is unadulterated and incorrupt in speech. For these also preserve the faith of ours in one God, who created all things. And they increase that love, which we have for the Son of God, who accomplishes such a marvelous dispensation for our sake. And they expound the scriptures to us without danger, neither blaspheming God, nor dishonoring the patriarchs, nor despising the prophets. End of Chapter 26 Chapter 27 The sins of the men of all time, which incurred the displeasure of God, were, by his providence, committed to writing, that we might derive instructions thereby and not be filled with pride. We must not therefore infer that there was another God than he whom Christ preached. We should rather fear least the one and the same God who inflicted punishment on the ancients should bring down heavier upon us. 1. As I have heard from a certain Presbyter, who had heard it from those who had seen the apostles, and from those who had been their disciples, the punishment declared in Scripture was sufficient for the ancients in regard to what they did, without the Spirit's guidance. For as God is no respecter of persons, he inflicted a proper punishment on deeds displeasing to him. As in the case of David, when he suffered persecution from Saul for righteousness' sake, and fled from King Saul and would not avenge himself of his enemy, he both sung the advent of Christ and instructed the nations in wisdom, and did everything after the Spirit's guidance and pleased God. But when his lust prompted him to take Bathsheba, the wife of Urea, the Scripture said concerning him, Now the thing, Sermol, which David has done, appeared wicked in the eyes of the Lord, and Nathan the prophet is sent to him, pointing out to him his crime, in order that he, passing sentence upon and condemning himself, might obtain mercy and forgiveness from Christ. And Nathan said to him, There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, saved one little eulam, which he possessed and nourished up, and it had been with him and his children together. It did eat of his own bread and drank of his cup and was to him as a daughter. And there came a guest unto the rich man, and he spared to take of the flock of his own eulams and from the herds of his own oxen to entertain the guest. But he took the eulam of the poor man and said it before the man that had come unto him. And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, As that Lord liveth, the man that has done these things shall surely die. Phileus mortus est, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he has done this thing, and because he had no pity on the poor man. And Nathan said to him, Thou art the man who has done this, and then he proceeds with the rest of the narrative, unbraiding him and recounting God's benefits towards him and showing him how much his conduct has displeased the Lord. For he declared that works of this nature were not pleasing to God, but that great wrath was suspended over his house. David, however, was struck with remorse on hearing this and exclaimed, I have sinned against the Lord and he sung a penitential psalm, waiting for the coming of the Lord, who washes and makes clean the man who had been fast bound with the chain of sin. In like manner it was with regard to Solomon, while he continued to judge uprightly and to declare the wisdom of God and build the temple as a type of truth and set forth the glories of God and announced the peace about to come upon the nations and prefigured the kingdom of Christ and spake 3,000 parables about the Lord's advent and 5,000 songs singing praise to God and expounded the wisdom of God in creation, discoursing as to the nature of every tree, every herb and of all fowls, quadrupeds and fishes. And he said, Will God, whom the heavens cannot contain, really dwell with men upon the earth? And he pleased God and was the admiration of all and all kings of the earth sought to interview with him. Quare bant fasem eius that they may hear the wisdom which God had conferred upon him. The Queen of the South, too, came to him from the ends of the earth to ascertain the wisdom that was in him, she whom the Lord also referred to as one who should rise up in the judgment with the nations of those men who do hear his words and do not believe in him and should condemn them in as much as she submitted herself to the wisdom announced by the servant of God while these men despised that wisdom which proceeded directly from the Son of God. For Solomon was a servant but Christ is indeed the Son of God in the Lord of Solomon while therefore he served God without blame and ministered to his dispensations. Then was he glorified but when he took wives from all nations and permitted them to set up idols in Israel, the scriptures speak thus concerning him. And King Solomon was a lover of women and he took to himself foreign women and it came to pass when Solomon was old. His heart was not perfect with the Lord his God. And the foreign women turned away his heart after strange gods. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not walk after the Lord as did David his father. And the Lord was angry with Solomon for his heart was not perfect with the Lord as was the heart of David his father. The scripture has thus sufficiently removed him as the Presbyter remarked in order that no flesh may glory in the sight of the Lord. 2. It was for this reason too that the Lord descended into the regions beneath the earth preaching his advent there also and declaring the verbition of sins received by those who believed in him. Now all those who believed in him who had hoped towards him that is those who proclaimed his advent and submitted to his dispensations the righteous men, the prophets and the patriarchs to whom he remitted sins in the same way as he did to us which sins we should not lay to their charge if we would not despise the grace of God. For as these men did not impute unto us the Gentiles our transgressions which we wrought before Christ was manifest among us so also it is not right that we should lay blame upon those who sinned before Christ's coming for all men come short of the glory of God and are not justified of themselves but by the advent of the Lord. They who earnestly direct their eyes towards his light and it is now our instruction that their actions have been committed to writing that we might know in the first place that our God and theirs is one and that sins do not please him although committed by men of renown and in the second place that we should keep from wickedness for if these men of old time who preceded us in the gifts bestowed upon them and for whom the Son of God had not yet suffered when they committed any sin and served fleshly lust were rendered objects of such disgrace what shall the men of the present day suffer who have despised the Lord's coming and become the slaves of their own lusts and truly the death of the Lord became the means of healing and remission of the sins to the former but Christ shall not die again in behalf of those who now commit sin for death shall no more have dominion over him but the Son shall come in the glory of the Father requiring from his stewards and dispenses the money which he had entrusted to them with usury and from those to whom he had given most shall be demanded most we ought not therefore as a Presbyterian remarks to be puffed up not to be severe upon those of old time but ought ourselves to fear least perchance after we have come to the knowledge of Christ if we do things displeasing to God we obtain no further forgiveness of sins but be shut out from his kingdom and therefore it was Paul said for if God speared not the natural branches take heed least he also speared not thee who when thou word a wild olive tree were grafted into the fatness of the olive tree and were made a partaker of its fatness 3 thou wilt notice 2 that the transgressions of the common people have been described in a like manner not for the sake of those who did then transgress but as a means of instruction unto us and that we should understand that it is one and the same God against whom these men sinned and against whom certain persons do now transgress from among those who profess to have believed in him but this also as a Presbyterist states has Paul declared most plainly in the epistle to the Corinthians when he says brethren I would not that ye should be ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and were all baptized unto Moses in the sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and did all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them and the rock was Christ but with many of them God was not well pleased for they were overthrown in the wilderness these things were for our example in figurum nostri to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lust it neither be ye idolaters as were some of them as it is written the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play neither let us commit fornication as some of them also did and fell in one day three and twenty thousand neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents neither murmur ye as some of them murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer but all these things happened to them in a figure and were written for our admonition upon whom the end of the world succulorum is come wherefore let him that think as he standeth take heed, least ye fall four since therefore beyond all doubt and contradiction the apostle shows that there is one and the same God who did both enter into judgment with these former things and who does inquire into those of the present time and point out why these things have been committed to writing all these men are found to be unlearned and presumptuous nay even destitute of common sense who because of the transgressions of them of all time and because of the disobedience of a vast number of them do allege that there was indeed one God of these men and that he was the maker of the world and existed in a state of degeneracy but that there was another Father declared by Christ and that this being is he who has been conceived by the mind of each of them not understanding that as in the former case God showed himself not well pleased in many instances towards those who sinned so also in the latter many are called but few are chosen as then the unrighteous the idolaters the fornicators perished so also is it now for both the Lord declares that such persons are sent into eternal fire and the Apostle says no ye not the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God be not deceived neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor effeminate nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God and as it was not those who are without that he said these things but to us least we should be cast forth from the kingdom of God by doing any such thing he proceeds to say and such indeed were ye but ye are washed but ye are sanctified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God and just as then those who led vicious lives and put other people astray were condemned and cast out so also even now the offending eye is plucked out and the foot and the hand least the rest of the body perished in like manner and we have the precept if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator or covetous or an idolater or a railer or a drunkard or an extortioner with such and one go not to eat and again does the Apostle say let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of mistrust be not ye therefore partakers with them and as then the condemnation of sin is extended to others who are proved to them and joined in their society so also is it the case at present that a little leaveness the whole lump and as the wrath of God did then descend upon the unrighteous here also does the Apostle likewise say for the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those men who hold back the truth in unrighteousness and as in those times vengeance came from God upon the Egyptians who were subjecting Israel to unjust punishment so is it now the Lord truly declaring and shall not God avenge his own elect which cried day and night unto him I tell you that he will avenge them speedily so says the Apostle in like manner in the epistle to the Thessalonians seeing it is the righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us as the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ from heaven with his mighty angels and in a flame of fire to take vengeance upon those who know not God and upon those that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall also be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all of them who have believed in him End of Book 4, Chapter 26-27 Recording by Bill McGilvery, Hingham, Massachusetts CHAPTERS 28-30 OF IRONEUS AGAINST HERESIES Book 4 This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org IRONEUS AGAINST HERESIES Book 4 Translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambo CHAPTER 28 Those persons prove themselves senseless who exaggerate the mercy of Christ but are silent as to the judgment and look only at the more abundant grace of the New Testament but forgetful of the greater degree of perfection which it demands from us they endeavor to show that there is another God beyond him who created the world 1 In as much then as in both Testaments there is the same righteousness of God displayed when God takes vengeance in the one case indeed typically, temporarily and more moderately but in the other really, enduringly and more rigidly for the fire is eternal and the wrath of God which shall be revealed from heaven from the face of our Lord as David also says but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth entails a heavier punishment on those who incur it the elders pointed out that those men are devoid of sense who, arguing from what happened to those who formerly did not obey God do endeavor to bring in another father setting over against these punishments what great things the Lord had done at his coming to save those who received him taking compassion upon them while they keep silence with regard to his judgment and all those things which shall come upon such as have heard his words but done them not and that it were better for them if they had not been born and that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment than for that city which did not receive the word of his disciples two for as in the New Testament that faith of men to be placed in God has been increased receiving in addition to what was already revealed the Son of God that man too might be a partaker of God so is also our walk in life required to be more circumspect when we are directed not merely to abstain from evil actions but even from evil thoughts and from idle words and empty talk and scurrilous language thus also the punishment of those who do not believe the word of God and despise his advent and are turned away backwards is increased being not merely temporal but rendered also eternal for to whomsoever the Lord shall say depart for me he cursed into everlasting fire these shall be damned forever and to whomsoever he shall say come you blessed of my father inherit the kingdom prepared for you for eternity these do receive the kingdom forever and make constant advance in it since there is one and the same God the Father and his word who has been always present with the human race by means indeed of various dispensations and has wrought out many things and saved from the beginning those who are saved for these are they who love God and follow the word of God according to the class to which they belong and has judged those who are judged that is those who forget God and are blasphemous and transgressors of his word 3 for these same heretics already mentioned by us have fallen away from themselves by accusing the Lord in whom they say that they believe for those points to which they call attention with regard to the God who then awarded temporal punishments to the unbelieving and smote the Egyptians while he saved those that were obedient these same facts I say shall nevertheless repeat themselves in the Lord who judges for eternity those whom he doth judge and let's go free for eternity those whom he does let go free and he shall thus be discovered according to the language used by these men as having been the cause of their most heinous sin to those who laid hands upon him and pierced him for if he had not so come it follows that these men could not have become the slayers of their Lord and if he had not sent prophets to them they certainly could not have killed them nor the apostles either to those therefore who assail us and say if the Egyptians had not been afflicted with plagues and when pursuing after Israel been choked in the sea God could not have saved his people this answer may be given unless then the Jews had become the slayers of the Lord which did indeed take eternal life away from them and by killing the apostles and persecuting the church had fallen into an abyss of wrath we could not have been saved for as they were saved by means of the blindness of the Egyptians so are we too by that of the Jews if indeed the death of the Lord is the condemnation of those who fastened him to the cross and who did not believe his advent but the salvation of those who believe in him for the apostle does also say in the second epistle to the Corinthians for we are unto God a sweet saver of Christ in them which are saved and in them which perish to the one indeed the saver of death unto death but to the other the saver of life unto life to whom then is there the saver of death unto death unless to those who believe not neither are subject to the word of God and who are they that did even then give themselves over to death those men doubtless who did not believe nor submit themselves to God and again who are they that have been saved and receive the inheritance those doubtless who do believe God and who have continued in his love as did Caleb the son of Jefune and Joshua the son of Nun and innocent children who have had no sense of evil but who are they that are saved now and receive life eternal is it not those who love God and who believe his promises and who in malice have become as little children Chapter 29 refutation of the arguments of the Marcianites who attempted to show that God was the author of sin because he blinded Pharaoh and his servants 1 but say they God hardened the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants those then who alleged such difficulties do not read in the Gospel that passage where the Lord replied to his disciples when they asked him why speakest thou unto them in parables? because it is given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom of heaven but to them I speak in parables that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not hear understanding they may not understand in order that the prophecy of Isaiah regarding them may be fulfilled saying make the heart of this people gross and make their ears dull and blind their eyes but blessed are your eyes which see the things that ye see and your ears which hear what ye do hear for one and the same God that blesses others inflicts blindness upon those who do not believe but who said him and not just as the son which is a creature of his acts with regard to those who by reason of any weakness of the eyes cannot behold his light but to those who believe in him and follow him he grants a fuller and greater illumination of mind in accordance with this word therefore does the apostle say in the second epistle to the Corinthians in whom the God of this world have blinded the minds of them that believe not lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine into them and again in that to the Romans and as they did not think fit to have God in their knowledge God gave them up to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient speaking of antichrist too he says clearly in the second to the Thessalonians and for this cause God shall send them the working of error that they should believe a lie that they all might be judged who believed not the truth but consented to iniquity 2 if therefore in the present time also God knowing the number of those who will not believe since he foreknows all things has given them over to unbelief and turned away his face from the men of the stamp leaving them in the darkness which they have themselves chosen for themselves what is their wonderful if he did also at that time give over to their unbelief Pharaoh who never would have believed along with those who were with him as the word spake to Moses from the bush and I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless by a mighty hand and for the reason that the Lord speak in parables and brought blindness upon Israel that seeing they might not see since he knew the spirit of unbelief in them for the same reason did he harden Pharaoh's heart in order that while seeing that it was the finger of God which led forth the people he might not believe but be precipitated into a sea of unbelief resting in the notion that the exit of these Israelites was accomplished by magical power and that it was not by the operation of God that the Red Sea afforded a passage to the people but that this occurred by merely natural causes set netraliter seek sehabede Chapter 30 Refutation of another argument adduced by the Marcyonites that God directed the Hebrews to spoil the Egyptians 1. Those again who cavill in fine fault because the people did by God's command upon the eve of their departure take vessels of all kinds in raiment from the Egyptians and so went away from which spoils to the tabernacle was constructed in the wilderness prove themselves ignorant of the righteous dealings of God and of his dispensations as also the Presbyter remarked for if God had not accorded this in the typical Exodus no one could now be saved in our true Exodus that is in the faith in which we have been established and by which we have been brought forth from among the number of the Gentiles for in some cases there follows us as small and in others a large amount of property which we have acquired from the mammon of unrighteousness for from what source do we derive the houses in which we dwell the garments in which we are clothed the vessels which we use and everything else ministering to our everyday life unless it be from those things which when we were Gentiles we acquired by avarice or received them from our heathen parents relations or friends who unrighteously obtained them not to mention that even now we acquire such things when we are in the faith for who is there that sells and does not wish to make a profit from him who buys or who purchases anything and does not wish to obtain good value from the seller or who is there that carries on a trade and does not do so so that he may obtain a livelihood thereby and as to those believing ones who are in the royal palace do they not derive the utensils they employ from the property which belongs to Caesar and to those who have not does not each one of these Christians give according to his ability the Egyptians were debtors to the Jewish people not alone as to property but as to their very lives because of the kindness of the patriarch Joseph in former times but in what way are the heathen debtors to us from whom we receive both gain and profit whatsoever they amass with labor these things do we make use of without labor although we are in the faith 2 up to that time the people served the Egyptians in the most abject slavery as say the scripture and the Egyptians exercise their power rigorously upon the children of Israel and they made life bitter to them by severe labors in mortar and in brick and in all manner of service in the field which they did by all the works in which they oppressed them with rigor and with immense labor they built for them fenced cities increasing the substance of these men throughout a long course of years and by means of every species of slavery while these masters were not only ungrateful towards them but had in contemplation their utter annihilation in what way then did the Israelites act unjustly if out of many things they took a few they who might have possessed much property had they not served them and might have gone forth wealthy while in fact by receiving only a very insignificant recompense for their heavy servitude they went away poor it is just as if any free man being forcibly carried away by another and serving him for many years and increasing his substance should be thought when he ultimately obtained some support to possess some small portion of his master's property but should in reality depart having obtained only a little as the result of his own great labors and out of vast possessions which have been acquired and this should be made by any one a subject of accusation against him as if he had not acted properly he the accuser will rather appear as an unjust judge against him who had been forcibly carried away into slavery of this kind then are these men also who charge the people with blame because they appropriated a few things out of many but who bring no charge against those who did not render them the recompense due to their father's services nay but even reducing them to the most irksome slavery obtained the highest profit from them and these objectors alleged that the Israelites acted dishonestly because for sooth they took away for the recompense of their labors as I have observed unstamped gold and silver in a few vessels while they say that they themselves for let truth be spoken although to some it may seem ridiculous do act honestly when they carry away in their girdles from the labors of others coined gold and silver and brass with Caesar's inscription and image upon it three if however a comparison be instituted between us and them I would ask which party shall seem to have received their worldly goods in the fairer manner will it be the Jewish people who took from the Egyptians who are at all points their debtors or we who receive property from the Romans and other nations who are under no similar obligation to us moreover through their instrumentality the world is at peace and we walk on the highways without fear and sale where we will therefore against men of this kind namely the heretics the word of the Lord applies which says thou hypocrite first cast the beam out of thine eye and then shall thou see clearly to pull out the moat out of thy brother's eye for if he who lays these things to thy charge and glories in his own wisdom has been separated from the company of the Gentiles and possesses nothing derived from other people's goods but is literally naked and barefoot and dwells homeless among the mountains as any of those animals do which feed on grass he will stand excused in using such language as being ignorant of the necessities of our mode of life but if he do partake of what in the opinion of men is the property of others and if at the same time he runs down their type he proves himself most unjust turning this kind of accusation against himself for he will be found carrying about property not belonging to him and coveting goods which are not his and therefore has the Lord said judge not that ye be not judged for with that judgment ye shall judge ye shall be judged the meaning is not certainly that we should not find fault with sinners nor that we should consent to those who act wickedly but that we should not pronounce an unfair judgment on the dispensations of God in as much as he has himself made provision that all things shall turn out for good in a way consistent with justice for because he knew what we would make a good use of our substance which we should possess by receiving it from another he says he that hath two cloaks let him impart to him that hath none and he that hath meat let him do likewise and for I wasn't hungered and he gave me meat I was thirsty and he gave me drink I was naked and he clothed me and when thou dost dine alms let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth and we are proved to be righteous by whatsoever else we do well redeeming as it were our property from strange hands but thus do I say from strange hands not as if the world were not God's possession but that we have gifts of this sort and receive them from others in the same way as these men had them from the Egyptians who knew not God and by means of these same do we erect in ourselves the tabernacle of God for God dwells in those who act uprightly as the Lord says make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that they, when ye shall be put to flight may receive you into eternal tabernacles for whatsoever we acquired from unrighteousness when we were heathen we are proved righteous when we have become believers by applying it to the Lord's advantage 4 as a matter of course therefore these things were done beforehand in a type and from them was the tabernacle of God constructed those persons justly receiving them as I have shown while we were pointed out beforehand in them we who should afterwards serve God by the things of others for the whole of exodus of the people out of Egypt which took place under divine guidance was a type and image of the exodus of the church which should take place from among the Gentiles and for this cause he leads it out at last from this world into his own inheritance which Moses the servant of God did not bestow but which Jesus the son of God shall give for an inheritance and if anyone will devote a close attention to those things which are stated by the prophets with regard to the time of the end and those which John the disciple of the Lord saw in the apocalypse he will find that the nations are to receive the same plagues universally as Egypt then did particularly end of book 4 chapters 28 through 30 recording by J. R. Omehan chapters 31 through 33 of Irenaeus against Heresies book 4 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Irenaeus against Heresies book 4 translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambeau chapter 31 we should not hastily impute as crimes to the men of old time those actions which the scripture has not condemned but should rather seek in them types of things to come an example of this in the incest committed by lot 1 when recounting certain matters of this kind respecting them of old time the presbyter before mentioned was in the habit of instructing us and saying with respect to those misdeeds for which the scriptures themselves blame the patriarchs and the prophets we ought not to invade against them nor become like Ham who ridiculed the shame of his father and so fell under a curse but we should rather give thanks to God in their behalf in as much as their sins have been forgiven them through the advent of our Lord for he said that they gave thanks for us and gloried in our salvation with respect to those actions again on which the scriptures pass no censure but which are simply set down as having occurred we ought not to become the accusers of those who committed them for we are not more exact than God nor can we be superior to our master but we should search for a type in them for not one of those things which have been set down in scripture without being condemned is without significance an example is found in the case of lot who led forth his daughters from Sodom and these then conceived by their own father and who left behind him within the confines of the land his wife who remains a pillar of salt unto this day for lot not acting under the impulse of his own will nor at the prompting of carnal concupiscence nor having any knowledge or thought of anything of the kind did in fact work out a type of future events as says the scripture and that night the elder went in and lay with her father and lot knew not when she lay down nor when she arose and the same thing took place in the case of the younger and he knew not it is said when she slept with him nor when she arose since therefore lot knew not what he did nor was a slave to lust in his actions the arrangement designed by God was carried out by which the two daughters that is the two churches who gave birth to children begotten of one and the same father were pointed out apart from the influence of the lust of the flesh for there was no other person as they supposed who could impart to them quickening seed and the means of their giving birth to children as it is written and the elder said unto the younger and there is not a man on the earth to enter in unto us after the manner of all the earth come let us make our father drunk with wine and let us lie with him and raise up seed from our father 2 thus after their simplicity and innocence did these daughters of lot so speak imagining that all mankind had perished even as the sodomites had done and that the anger of God had come down upon the whole earth wherefore also they are to be held excusable since they suppose that they only along with their father were left for the preservation of the human race and for this reason it was that they deceived their father moreover by the words they use this fact was pointed out that there is no other one who can confer upon the elder and younger church the power of giving birth to children besides our father now the father of the human race is the word of God as Moses points out when he says is not he thy father who hath obtained thee by generation and formed thee and created thee at what time then did he pour out upon the human race the life-giving seed that is the spirit of the remission of sins through means of whom we are quickened was it not then when he was eating with men and drinking wine upon the earth for it is said the son of man came eating and drinking and when he had lain down he fell asleep and took repose as he does himself saying in David I slept and took repose and because he used us to act while he dwelt and lived among us he says again and my sleep became sweet unto me now this whole matter was indicated through lot that the seed of the father of all that is of the spirit of God by whom all things were made was commingled and united with flesh that is with his own workmanship by which comexture and unity the two synagogues that is the two churches produced from their own father living sons to the living God and while these things were taking place his wife remained in the territory of Sodom no longer corruptible flesh but a pillar of salt which endures forever and by those natural processes which appertain to the human race indicating that the church also which is the salt of the earth has been left behind within the confines of the earth and subject to human sufferings and while entire members are often taken away from it the pillar of salt still endures thus typifying the foundation of the faith which make it strong and sends forward children to their father Chapter 32 that one God was the author of both testaments is confirmed by the authority of a presbyter who had been taught by the apostles one after this fashion also did a presbyter a disciple of the apostles reasoned with respect to the two testaments proving that both were truly from one and the same God for he maintained that there was no other God besides him who made and fashioned us and that the discourse of those men has no foundation who affirm that this world of ours was made either by angels or by any other power whatsoever or by another God for if a man be once moved away from the creator of all things and if he grant that this creation to which we belong was formed by any other or through any other than the one God he must of necessity fall into much inconsistency and many contradictions of this sort to which he will be able to furnish no explanations which can be regarded as either probable or true and for this reason those who introduce other doctrines conceal from us the opinion which they themselves hold respecting God because they are aware of the untenable and absurd nature of their doctrine and are afraid less should they be vanquished they should have some difficulty in making good their escape but if anyone believes in only one God who also made all things by the word as Moses likewise says God said let there be light and there was light and as we read in the Gospel all things were made by him and without him was nothing made and the apostle Paul says in like manner there is one Lord one faith one baptism one God and Father who is above all and through all and in us all this man will first of all hold the head from which the whole body is compacted and bound together and through means of every joint according to the measure of the ministration of each several part make it increase of the body to the edification of itself in love and then shall every word also seem consistent to him if he for his part diligently read the scriptures in company with those who are presbyters in the church among whom is the apostolic doctrine as I have pointed out to for all the apostles taught that there were indeed two testaments among the two peoples but that it was one in the same God who appointed both for the advantage of those men for who sakes the testaments were given who were to believe in God I have proved in the third book from the very teaching of the apostles and that the first testament was not given without reason or to no purpose or an accidental sort of manner but that it subdued those to whom it was given to the service of God for their benefit for God needs no service for men and exhibited a type of heavenly things in as much as man was not yet able to see the things of God through means of immediate vision and foreshadowed the images of those things which now actually exist in the church in order that our faith might be firmly established and contained a prophecy of things to come in order that man might learn that God has foreknowledge of all things chapter 33 who so ever confesses that one God is the author of both testaments and diligently reads the scriptures in company with the presbyters of the church is a true spiritual disciple and he will rightly understand and interpret all that the prophets have declared respecting Christ and the liberty of the New Testament one a spiritual disciple of this sort truly receiving the spirit of God who was from the beginning in all the dispensations of God present with mankind and announce things future revealed things present and narrated things past such a man does indeed judge all men but is himself judged by no man for if he judges the Gentiles who serve the creature more than the creator and with a reprobate mind spend all their labor on vanity and he also judges the Jews who do not accept the word of liberty nor are willing to go forth free although they have a deliverer present with them but they pretend at a time unsuitable for such conduct to serve with observance is beyond those required by the law God who stands in need of nothing and do not recognize the advent of Christ which he accomplished for the salvation of men nor are willing to understand that all prophets announced his two events the one indeed in which he became a man subject to stripes and knowing what it is to bear infirmity and sat upon the full of an ass and was a stone rejected by the builders and was led as a sheep to the slaughter and by the stretching forth of his hands destroyed Amalek while he gathered from the ends of the earth into his father's fold the children who were scattered abroad and remembered his own dead ones who had formerly fallen asleep and came down to them that he might deliver them but the second in which he will come on the clouds bringing on the day which burns as a furnace and smiting the earth with the word of his mouth and slaying the empires with the breath of his lips and having a fan in his hands and cleansing his floor and gathering the wheat indeed into his barn but burning the chaff with unquenchable fire two moreover he shall also examine the doctrine of Marcian inquiring how he holds that there are two gods separated from each other by an infinite distance or how can he be good who draws away men that do not belong to him from him who made them and calls them into his own kingdom and why is his goodness which does not save all thus defective also why does he indeed seem to be good as respects men but most unjust with regard to him who made men and as much as he deprives him of his possessions moreover how could the Lord with any justice if he belonged to another father have acknowledged the bread to be his body while he took it from that creation to which we belong and affirmed the mixed cup to be his blood and why did he acknowledge himself to be the son of man if he had not gone through that birth which belongs to a human being how to could he forgive us those sins for which we are answerable to our maker and God and how again supposing that he was not flesh but was a man merely in appearance could he have been crucified and could blood and water have issued from his pierced side what body moreover was it that those who buried him consigned to the tomb and what was that which rose again from the dead three this spiritual man shall also judge all the followers of Valentinas because they do indeed confess with the tongue one God the father and that all things derive their existence from him but do at the same time maintain that he who formed all things is the fruit of an apostasy or defect he shall judge them too because they do in like manner confess with the tongue one Lord Jesus Christ the son of God but a sign in their system of doctrine a production of his own to the only begotten one of his own also to the word another to Christ and yet another to the Savior so that according to them all these beings are indeed said in scripture to be as it were one while they maintain not withstanding that each one of them should be understood to exist separately from the rest and to have had his own special origin according to his peculiar conjunction it appears then that their tongues alone for sooth have conceded the unity of God while their real opinion and their understanding by their habit of investigating profundities have fallen away from this doctrine of unity and taken up the notion of manifold deities this I say must appear when they shall be examined by Christ as to the points of doctrine which they have invented him too they affirm to have been born at a later period that the play Roma of the aeons and that his production took place after the occurrence of a degeneracy or apostasy and they maintain that on account of the passion which was experienced by Sophia they themselves were brought to the birth but their own special prophet Homer listening to whom they have invented such doctrines shall himself reprove them when he expresses himself as follows hateful to me that man is Hades Gates who one thing thinks while he another states this spiritual man shall also judge the vain speeches of the perverse nostics by showing that they are the disciples of Simon Magus for he will judge also the ebionites for how can they be saved unless it was God who wrought out their salvation upon earth or how shall man pass into God unless God is first passed into man and how shall he man escape from the generation subject to death if not by means of a new generation given in a wonderful and unexpected manner but as a sign of salvation by God I mean that regeneration which flows from the virgin through faith or how shall they receive adoption from God if they remain in this kind of generation which is naturally possessed by man in this world and how could he Christ have been greater than Solomon or greater than Jonah or have been the Lord of David who is of the same substance as they were how to could he have subdued him who was stronger than men who had not only overcome man but also retained him under his power and conquered him who had conquered while he set free mankind who had been conquered unless he had been greater than man who had thus been vanquished but who else is superior to and more eminent than that man who was formed after the likeness of God except the son of God after whose image man was created and for this reason he did in these last days exhibit the similitude for the son of God was made man assuming the ancient production of his hands into his own nature as I have shown in the immediately proceeding book 5 he shall also judge those who describe Christ as having become man only in human opinion for how can they imagine that they do themselves carry on a real discussion when their master was a mere imaginary being or how can they receive anything steadfast from him if he was a merely imagined being and not a verity and how can these men really be partakers of salvation if he in whom they profess to believe manifested himself as a merely imaginary being everything therefore connected with these men is unreal and nothing possessed of the character of truth and in these circumstances it may be made a question whether since perchance they themselves in like manner are not men but mere dumb animals they do not present in most cases simply a shadow of humanity 6 he shall also judge false prophets who without having received the gift of prophecy from God and not possessed of the fear of God but either for the sake of Vainglory or with a view to some personal advantage or acting in some other way under the influence of a wicked spirit pretend to utter prophecies while at the same time they lie against God 7 he shall also judge those who give rise to schisms who are destitute of the love of God and who look to their own special advantage rather than to the unity of the church and who for trifling reasons or any kind of reason which occurs to them cut in pieces and divide the great and glorious body of Christ and so far as in them lies positively destroy it men who pray to peace while they give rise to war and do in truth strain out a net but swallow a camel for no reformation of so great importance can be effected by them as will compensate for the mischief arising from their schism he shall also judge all those who are beyond the pale of the truth that is who are outside the church but he himself shall be judged by no one for to him all things are consistent he has a full faith in one God Almighty of whom are all things and in the Son of God Jesus Christ our Lord by whom are all things and in the dispensations connected with him by means of which the Son of God became man and a firm belief in the Spirit of God who furnishes us with a knowledge of the truth and has set forth the dispensations of the Father and the Son in virtue of which he dwells with every generation of men according to the will of the Father 8 true knowledge is that which consists in the doctrine of the Apostles and the ancient constitution of the church throughout all the world and the distinctive manifestation of the body of Christ according to the successions of the bishops by which they have handed down that church which exists in every place and has come even unto us being guarded and preserved without any forging of scriptures by a very complete system of doctrine and now they're receiving addition nor suffering curtailment in the truths which she believes and it consists in reading the Word of God without falsification and a lawful and diligent exposition in harmony with the scriptures both without danger and without blasphemy and above all it consists in the preeminent gift of love which is more precious than knowledge more glorious than prophecy and which excels all the other gifts of God 9 wherefore the church does in every place because of that love which she cherishes towards God send forward throughout all time a multitude of martyrs to the Father while all others not only have nothing of this kind to point to among themselves but even maintain that such witness bearing is not at all necessary for that their system of doctrines is the true witness for Christ with the exception perhaps that one or two among them during the whole time which has elapsed since the Lord appeared on earth have occasionally along with our martyrs born the reproach of the name as if he too the heretic had obtained mercy and have been led forth with them to death being as it were a sort of retinue granted unto them for the church alone sustains with purity the reproach of those who suffer persecution for righteousness sake and endure all sorts of punishments and are put to death because of the love which they bear to God and their confession of his son often weakened indeed yet immediately increasing her members and becoming whole again after the same manner as her type lost wife who became a pillar of salt thus to she passes through an experience similar to that of the ancient prophets as the Lord declares for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you in as much as she does indeed in a new fashion suffer persecution from those who do not receive the word of God while the self same-spirit rests upon her as upon these ancient prophets 10 and indeed the prophets along with other things which they predicted also foretold this that all those on whom the spirit of God should rest and who would obey the word of the father and serve him according to their ability should suffer persecution and be stoned and slain for the prophets prefigured in themselves all these things because of their love to God and on account of his word for since they themselves were members of Christ each one of them in his place as a member did in accordance with this set forth the prophecy assigned him all of them although many prefiguring only one and proclaiming the things which pertain to one for just as the working of the whole body is exhibited through means of our members while the figure of a complete man is not displayed by one member but through means of all taken together so also did all the prophets prefigure the one Christ while every one of them in his special place as a member did in accordance with this fill up the established dispensation and shadowed forth beforehand that particular working of Christ which was connected with that member 11 for some of them beholding him in glory saw his glorious life conversatione at the father's right hand others beheld him coming on the clouds as the son of man and those who declared regarding him they shall look on him whom they have pierced indicated his second advent concerning which he himself says thinkest thou that when the son of man cometh he shall find faith on the earth Paul also refers to this event when he says if however it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you that are troubled rest with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with his mighty angels and in a flame of fire others again speaking of him as a judge and referring as if it were a burning furnace to the day of the Lord who gathers the wheat into his barn but will burn of the chaff with unquenchable fire were accustomed to threaten those who were unbelieving concerning whom also the Lord himself declares depart from me he cursed into everlasting fire which my father has prepared for the devil and his angels and the apostle in like manner says of them who shall be punished with everlasting death from the face of the Lord and from the glory of his power when he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in those who believe in him there are also some of them who declare thou art fairer than the children of men and God thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows and gird thy sword upon thy thigh oh most mighty with thy beauty and thy fairness and go forward and proceed prosperously and rule thou because of truth and meekness and righteousness and whatever other things of a like nature are spoken regarding him these indicated that beauty and splendor which exist in his kingdom along with a transcendent and preeminent exaltation belonging to all who are under his sway that those who hear might desire to be found there doing such things as our pleasing to God again there are those who say he is a man and who shall know him and I came unto the prophetess and she bear a son and his name is called wonderful counselor the mighty God and those of them who proclaimed him as Immanuel born of the virgin exhibited the union of the word of God with his own workmanship declaring that the word should become flesh and the son of God the son of man the pure one opening purely that pure womb which regenerates men into God and which he himself made pure and having become this which we also are he nevertheless is the mighty God and possesses a generation which cannot be declared and there are also some of them who say the Lord has spoken in Zion and uttered his voice from Jerusalem and in Judah is God known these indicated his advent which took place in Judea those again who declare that God comes from the south and from a mountain thick with foliage announced his advent at Bethlehem as I have pointed out in the preceding book from that place also he who rules and who feeds the people of his father has come those again who declare that at his coming the lame man shall leap as an art and the tongue of the dumb shall speak plainly and the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the death shall hear and that the hands which hang down and the feeble knees shall be strengthened and that the dead which are in the grave shall arise and that he himself shall take upon him our weaknesses and bear our sorrows all of these proclaimed those works of healing which were accomplished by him 12 some of them moreover when they predicted that as a weakened in glorious man and as one who knew what it was to bear infirmity and sitting upon the full of an ass he should come to Jerusalem and that he should give his back to stripes and his cheeks to palms which struck him and that he should be led as a sheep to the slaughter and that he should have vinegar and gall giving him to drink and that he should be forsaken by his friends and those nearest to him and that he should stretch forth his hands the whole day long and that he should be mocked and maligned by those who looked upon him and that his garments should be parted and lots cast upon his raiment and that he should be brought down to the dust of death with all the other things of alike nature prophesied his coming in the character of a man as he entered Jerusalem in which by his passion and crucifixion he endured all the things which have been mentioned others again when they said the Holy Lord remembered his own dead ones who slept in the dust and came down to them to raise them up that he might save them furnished us with the reason on account of which he suffered all these things those moreover who said in that day saith the Lord the sun shall go down at noon and there shall be darkness over the earth in the clear day and I will turn your feast days into morning and all your songs into lamentation plainly announced that obscuration of the sun which at the time of his crucifixion took place from the six hour onwards and that after this event those days which were their festivals according to the law and their songs should be changed into grief and lamentation when they were handed over to the Gentiles Jeremiah too makes this point still clearer when he thus speaks concerning Jerusalem she that hath borne seven languages her soul hath become weary her son hath gone down while it was yet noon she hath been confounded and suffered reproach the remainder of them will I give to the sword in the sight of their enemies 13 those of them again who spoke of his having slumbered and taken sleep and of his having risen again because the Lord sustained him and who enjoined the principalities of heaven to set open the everlasting doors that the king of glory might go in proclaimed beforehand his resurrection from the dead through the Father's power and his reception into heaven and when they express themselves thus his going forth is from the height of heaven and his returning even to the highest heaven and there is no one who can hide himself from his heat they announced that very truth of his being taken up again to the place from which he came down and that there is no one who can escape his righteous judgment and those who said the Lord hath reigned let the people be enraged even he who sitteth upon the chair of him let the earth be moved were thus predicting partly that wrath from all nations which after his ascension came upon those who believed in him with the movement of the whole earth against the church and partly the fact that when he comes from heaven with his mighty angels the whole earth shall be shaken as he himself declares there shall be a great earthquake such as has not been from the beginning and again when one says whosoever is judged let him stand opposite and whosoever is justified let him draw near to the servant of God and woe unto you for ye shall all wax old as doth the garment and the moth shall eat you up and all flesh shall be humbled and the Lord alone shall be exalted in the highest it is thus indicated that after his passionate ascension God shall cast down under his feet all who were opposed to him and he shall be exalted above all and there shall be no one who can be justified or compared to him 14 and those of them who declare that God would make a new covenant with men not such as that which he made with the fathers at Mount Horeb and would give to men a new heart and a new spirit and again and remember he not the things of old behold I make new things which shall not arise and ye shall know it and I will make away in the desert and rivers in a dry land to give drink to my chosen people my people whom I have acquired that they may show forth my praise plainly announced that liberty which distinguishes the new covenant and the new wine which was put into new bottles that is the faith which is in Christ by which he has proclaimed the way of righteousness sprung up in the desert and the streams of the Holy Spirit in dry land to give water to the elect people of God whom he has acquired that they might show forth his praise but not that they might blaspheme him who made these things that is God 15 and all those other points which I have shown the prophets to have uttered by means of so long a series of scriptures he who is truly spiritual will interpret by pointing out in regard to every one of the things which have been spoken to what special point in the dispensation of the Lord is referred and by this exhibiting the entire system of the work of the Son of God knowing always the same God and always acknowledging the same word of God although he has but now been manifested to us acknowledging also at all times the same spirit of God although he has been poured out upon us after a new fashion in these last times knowing that he descend even from the creation of the world to its end upon the human race simply as such from whom those who believe God and follow his word receive that salvation which flows from him those on the other hand who depart from him and despise his precepts and by their deeds bring dishonor on him who made them and by their opinions blaspheme him who nourishes them heap up against themselves most righteous judgment he therefore i.e. the spiritual man sifts and tries them all but he himself is tried by no man he neither blasphemes his father nor sets aside his dispensations nor invades against the fathers nor dishonors the prophets by maintaining that they were sent from another God than he worships or again that their prophecies were derived from different sources end of book 4 chapters 31 through 33 read by J. R. Omehan chapters 34 through 35 of Irenaeus against Heresies book 4 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Irenaeus against Heresies book 4 translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambo chapter 34 proof against the Markianites that the prophets referred in all their predictions to our Christ now I shall simply say in opposition to all the heretics and principally against the followers of Markian and against those who are like to these in maintaining that the prophets were from another God than he who is announced in the gospel read with earnest care that gospel which has been conveyed to us by the apostles and read with earnest care the prophets and you will find that the whole conduct and all the doctrine and all the sufferings of our Lord were predicted through them but if a thought of this kind should then suggest itself to you to say what then did the Lord bring to us by his advent no ye that he brought all possible novelty by bringing himself who had been announced for this very thing was proclaimed beforehand that a novelty should come to renew and quicken mankind for the advent of the King is previously announced by those servants who were sent before him in order to the preparation and equipment of those men who are to entertain their Lord but when the King has actually come and those who are his subjects have been filled with that joy which was proclaimed beforehand and have attained to that liberty which he bestows and share in the sight of him and have listened to his words and have enjoyed the gifts which he confers the question will not then be asked by any that are possessed of sense what new thing the King has brought beyond that proclaimed by those who announced his coming for he has brought himself and has bestowed on men those good things which were announced beforehand which things the angels desired to look into but the servants would then have been proved false and not sent by the Lord if Christ on his advent by being found exactly such as he was previously announced had not fulfilled their words wherefore he said think not that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets I came not to destroy but to fulfill for verily I say unto you until heaven and earth pass away one jot or one tittle shall not pass from the law and the prophets till all come to pass for by his advent he himself fulfilled all things and does still fulfill in the church the new covenant foretold by the law onwards to the consummation of all things to this effect Paul his apostle says in the epistle to the Romans but now without the law has the righteousness of God been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets for the just shall live by faith but this fact that the just shall live by faith had been previously announced by the prophets but when scoot the prophets have had the power to predict the advent of the king and to preach beforehand that liberty which was bestowed by him and previously to announce all things which were done by Christ his words his works and his sufferings and to predict the new covenant if they had received prophetical inspiration from another God than he who is revealed in the gospel they being ignorant as Yeledge of the ineffable father of his kingdom and his dispensations which the son of God fulfilled when he came upon the earth in these last times neither are ye in a position to say that these things came to pass by a certain kind of chance as if they were spoken by the prophets in regard to some other person while like events happened to the Lord for all the prophets prophesied these same things but they never came to pass in the case of any one of the ancients for if these things had happened to any man among them of old time those prophets whose lived subsequently would certainly not have prophesied that these events should come to pass in the last times moreover there is in fact none among the fathers nor the prophets nor the ancient kings in whose case any one of these things properly and specifically took place for all indeed prophesied as to the sufferings of Christ but they themselves were far from enduring sufferings similar to what was predicted and the points connected with the passion of the Lord which were foretold were realized in no other case for neither did it happen at the death of any man among the ancients that the son set at midday nor was the veil of the temple rent nor did the earth quake nor were the rocks rent nor did the dead rise up nor was any one of these men of old raised up on the third day nor received into heaven nor at his assumption where the heavens opened and nor did the nations believe in the name of any other nor did any from among them having been dead and rising again lay open the new covenant of liberty therefore the prophets spake not of any one else but of the Lord in whom all these aforesaid tokens conferred if anyone however advocating the cause of the Jews do maintain that this new covenant consisted in the rearing of the temple which was built under Zerubbabel after the emigration to Babylon and in the departure of the people from thence after the lapse of 70 years let him know that the temple constructed of stones was indeed then rebuilt for as yet that law was observed which had been made upon tables of stone yet no new covenant was given but they used the mosaic law until the coming of the Lord but from the Lord's advent the new covenant which brings back peace and the law which gives life has gone forth over the whole earth as the prophet said for out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he shall rebuke many people and they shall break down their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks and they shall no longer learn to fight if therefore another law and word going forth from Jerusalem brought in such a reign of peace among the Gentiles which received the word and convinced through them many a nation of its folly then it appears that the prophets spake of some other person but if the law of liberty that is the word of God preached by the apostles who went forth from Jerusalem throughout all the earth caused such a change in the state of things that these nations did form the swords and war lances into plowshares and changed them into pruning hooks for reaping the corn into instruments used for peaceful purposes and that they are now unaccustomed to fighting but when smitten offer also the other cheek then the prophets have not spoken these things of any other person but of him who affected them this person is our Lord and in him is that declaration borne out since it is he himself who has made the plow and introduced the pruning hook that is the first semination of man which was the creation exhibited in Adam and the gathering in of the produce in the last times by the word and for this reason since he joined the beginning to the end and is the Lord of both he has finally displayed the plow in that the wood has been joined to the iron and has thus cleansed his land because the word having been firmly united to flesh and in its mechanism fixed with pins has reclaimed the savage earth in the beginning he figured forth the pruning hook by means of able pointing out that there should be a gathering in of a righteous race of men he says for behold how the just man perishes and no man considers it and righteous men are taken away and no man layeth it to heart these things were acted beforehand in able which were also previously declared by the prophets but were accomplished in the Lord's person and the same is still true with regard to us the body following the example of the head such are the arguments proper to be used in opposition to those who maintained that the prophets were inspired by a different God and that our Lord came from another father if perchance these heretics may at length desist from such extreme folly this is my earnest object in adducing these scriptural proofs that confuting them as far as in me lies by these very passages I may restrain them from such great blasphemy and from insanely fabricating a multitude of Gods Chapter 35 a refutation of those who alleged that the prophets authored some predictions under the inspiration of the highest others from the Demiurge disagreements of the Valentinians among themselves with regard to these same predictions then again in opposition to the Valentinians and the other Gnostics falsely so called who maintained that some parts of scripture were spoken at one time from the Pleroma a Sumitate through means of the sea derived from that place but at another time from the intermediate abode through means of the audacious Mother Prunika but that many are due to the Creator of the world from whom also the prophets had their mission we say it is altogether irrational to bring down the father of the universe to such straits as that he should not be possessed of his own proper instruments by which the things in the Pleroma might be perfectly proclaimed for of whom was he afraid so that he should not reveal his will after his own way and independently freely and without being involved with that spirit which came into being in a state of degeneracy and ignorance was it that he feared that very many would be saved when more should have listened to the unadulterated truth or on the other hand was he incapable of preparing for himself those who should announce the saviour's advent but if when the saviour came to this earth he sent his apostles into the world to proclaim with accuracy his advent and to teach the father's will having nothing in common with the doctrine of the Gentiles or of the Jews much more while yet existing in the Pleroma would he have appointed his own heralds to proclaim his future advent into this world and having nothing in common with those prophecies originating from the Demiurge but if when within the Pleroma he availed himself of those prophets who were under the law and declared his own matters through their instrumentality much more would he upon his arrival hither have made use of these same teachers and have preached the gospel to us by their means therefore let them not any longer assert that Peter and Paul and the other apostles proclaimed the truth but that it was the scribes and Pharisees and the others through whom the law was propounded but if at his advent he sent forth his own apostles in the spirit of truth and not in that of error he did the very same also in the case of the prophets for the word of God was always the self-same and if the spirit from the Pleroma was according to these men's system the spirit of light the spirit of truth the spirit of perfection and the spirit of knowledge while that from the Demiurge with the spirit of ignorance degeneracy and error and the offspring of obscurity how can it be that in one and the same being there exists perfection and defect knowledge and ignorance error and truth light and darkness but if it was impossible that such should happen in the case of the prophets for they preached the word of the Lord from one God and proclaimed the advent of his son much more would the Lord himself never have uttered words on one occasion from above but on another from degeneracy below thus becoming the teacher at once of knowledge and of ignorance nor would he ever have glorified his father at one time the founder of the world and at another him who is above this one as he does himself declare no man puteth a piece of a new garment upon an old one nor do they put new wine into old bottles let these men therefore either have nothing whatever to do with the prophets as with those that are ancients and allege no longer that these men being sent beforehand by the demi-urge spake certain things under that new influence which pertains to the Pleroma or on the other hand let them be convinced by our Lord when he declares that new wine cannot be put into old bottles but from what source could the offspring of their mother derive his knowledge of the mysteries within the Pleroma and power to discourse regarding them suppose that the mother while beyond the Pleroma did bring forth this very offspring but what is beyond the Pleroma that they represent as being beyond the pale of knowledge that is ignorance how then could that seed which was conceived in ignorance possess the power of declaring knowledge or how did the mother herself a shapeless and undefined being one cast out of doors as an abortion obtain knowledge of the mysteries within the Pleroma she who was organized outside it and given a form there and prohibited by Horus from entering within and who remains outside the Pleroma till the consummation of all things that is beyond the pale of knowledge then again when they say that the Lord's passion is a type of the extension of the Christ above which he affected through Horus and so imparted a form to their mother they are refuted in the other particulars of the Lord's passion for they have no semblance of a type to show with regard to them for when did the Christ above have vinegar and gall given him to drink or when was his raiment parted or when was he pierced and blood and water came forth or when did he sweat great drops of blood and the same may be demanded as to the other particulars which happened to the Lord of which the prophets have spoken from Wednesday did the mother or her offspring divine the things which had not yet taken place but which should occur afterwards they affirm that certain things still besides these were spoken from the Pleroma but are confuted by those which are referred to in the scriptures as bearing on the advent of Christ but what these are that are spoken from the Pleroma they are not agreed but give different answers regarding them for if anyone wishing to test them to question one by one with regard to any passage those who are their leading men he shall find one of them referring the passage in question to the propator that is to Bethus another attributing it to Archie that is to the only begotten another to the father of all that is to the word while another again will say that it was spoken of that one aeon who was formed from the joint contributions of the aeons in the Pleroma others will regard the passage as referring to Christ while another will refer it to the savior one again more skilled than these after a long protracted silence declares that it was spoken of horrors another that it signifies the Sophia which is within the Pleroma another that it announces the mother outside the Pleroma while another will mention the God who made the world the Demiurge such are the variations existing among them with regard to one passage holding discordant opinions as to the same scriptures and when the same identical passage is read out they all begin to purse up their eyebrows and to shake their heads and say that they might indeed utter a discourse transcendentally lofty but that all cannot comprehend the greatness of that thought which is implied in it and that therefore among the wise the chief thing is silence for that siggy silence which is above must be typified by that silence which they preserve thus do they as many as they are all depart from each other holding so many opinions as to one thing and bearing about their clever notions in secret within themselves when therefore they shall have agreed among themselves as to the things predicted in the scriptures then also shall they be confuted by us for though holding wrong opinions they do in the meanwhile however convict themselves since they are not of one mind with regard to the same words but as we follow for our teacher the one and only true God and possess his words as the rule of truth we do all speak alike with regard to the same things knowing but one God the creator of this universe who sent the prophets who led forth the people from the land of Egypt who in these last times manifested his own son that he might put the unbelievers to confusion and search out the fruit of righteousness End of book 4 chapters 34 through 35 End of Against Heresies by Saint Irenaeus translated by Alexander Roberts and W. H. Rambo