211

After their fantasy none do, nor doth Christ. Truth, are apart from all lying: for lying hath no fellowship with the Truth, as darkness hath no fellowship with light, but the presence of the one excludes the other. Our Lord therefore, being the Truth, told no lie: and whom He knew to be the offspring of decay, him of course He would not own as God, yea as God of all, and the supreme King, and His own Father :-the perfect speaking so of the imperfect, the spiritual of him who is merely animal, He in the Pleroma of him without the Pleroma. Nor would His Disciples name any other, God, or call him Lord, save Him Who is truly God and Lord of all: not as these say, vainest as they are of all Sophists; that the Apostles framed their teaching hypocritically according to the capacity of their hearers, and their answers according to the prejudices of those who enquired of them; with the blind discoursing blindly according to their blindness, and with the sick according to their sickness, and with the erring according to their error-that to such as imagined the Creator to be the only God, they proclaimed Him, but for those who are capable of the Father Who cannot be named, they framed by parables and riddles the unutterable mystery: so that the Lord and the Apostles put forth their instruction, not as the very Truth is, but feignedly, and according as one could receive it.

the Physi

bit, not

LORD'S

But this were not to heal, nor to quicken, but rather § 2. to aggravate and heighten their ignorance. Yea, we shall Not such find the Law more real than all this, pronouncing as it cian's hadoes a curse on every one, who guides amiss the blind such the in his way. For the Apostles, who were sent to find the Deut. erring, and for the sight of those who saw not, and for xxvii. 18. the healing of the sick, did of course speak to them not according to their momentary notion, but as the manifestation of the truth required. For neither would any men be doing rightly, should they encourage blind persons, just on the point of being carried headlong, to abide in that most perilous way, as if it were in truth the right way, and as if they would come to a good end. But what Physician, wishing to heal his patient, would do according

v. 31, 32.

212

CHRIST preached to Jews and Gentiles.

By

Book 3. to the desires of the diseased, and not according to the propriety of the medical art? Now that the Lord came to be the Physician of the sick, He Himself testifies, sayS. Luke ing, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. How then are the sick to be strengthened? and how are sinners to perform their penitency? perseverance in the very same conduct, or on the contrary, by submitting to a great change and departure from their former conversation, by which they have brought on themselves no small sickness, and many sins? Now Ignorance, the mother of all these, is done away with by better knowledge. The Lord therefore provided knowledge for His Disciples, whereby He both cured the sick, and restrained the sinners from their sin. He did not then speak unto them at that time according to their former way of thinking, nor did He answer enquirers according to their prejudices, but as sound doctrine required, both unfeignedly and impartially.

§ 3. Actual teaching of our LORD and

tles

And this is proved no less from our Lord's discourses: Who on the one hand to those of the Circumcision used to demonstrate the Son of God, Him Whom the Prophets had His Apos- preached, even Christ: i. e., He manifested Himself, as the restorer of liberty to men, and the Giver of the Inheritance of Incorruption. On the other hand, the Apostles used to teach the Gentiles that they should leave the vain stocks and stones which they imagined to be Gods, and worship the true God, Who established and made all mankind, and continued by His creatures to nourish and increase them, and strengthen them, and give them being:-and wait for His Son Jesus Christ, Who redeemed us from apostasy by His own Blood, to the end that we too might be a people made holy-Who shall descend from Heaven in the power of the Father, both to execute judgment on all, and to bestow on such as shall have kept His commandments the good things which are of God. He, appearing in the last Eph. ii. times, even the chief corner-stone, gathered into one and united those who are afar off and those who are nigh, i. e.,

17.

1

the circumcision and the uncircumcision; enlarging Japhet Gen. ix. and setting him in the house of Shem.

27.

VI.

$1.

SON Lord

Neither therefore the Lord, nor the Holy Ghost, nor the CHAP. Apostles, would at any time have named him who was not God, God in the definite and absolute sense of the word, Gop the had He not been truly God: nor would they have called any one in his proper person Lord, but Him Who rules over all, God the Father, and His Son, Who received from His Father the dominion of all creation, as it is in the saying, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou on My Right Ps. cx. 1. Hand, until I make Thine enemies the footstool of Thy Feet. For it signifies that the Father spoke to the Son: giving Him the inheritance of the Gentiles, and subduing under Cf. Ps. ii. Him all enemies. The Father then being really Lord, and the Son being really Lord, well hath the Holy Ghost marked them with the title of Lord.

8.

24.

And again in the destruction of Sodom the Scripture Instances saith, And the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrha fire Gen. xix. and brimstone from the Lord out of Heaven. For here it is meant that the Son, Who also conversed with Abraham, received power from the Father to judge the Sodomites for their iniquity.

6, 7.

The same is the tenor of the following: Thy Throne, O Ps. xlv. God, is for ever; a rod of guidance is the rod of Thy Kingdom. Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed Thee. Thus hath the Spirit sealed both with the title of God, as well Him Who is anointed, the Son, and Him Who anoints, i. e., the Father.

lxxxii. 1.

And again, God stood in the congregation of Gods, and Ps. in the midst He judgeth among Gods. He speaketh of the Father and the Son, and of those who have received Adoption: now these are the Church. For this is the congregation of God, which God, i. e., the Son, did by Himself gather together. Concerning whom again He saith, The Ps. 1. 1. God of Gods, the Lord, hath spoken, and called the world. What God? He of Whom he said, God will come evident- Ib. 3. ly, even our God, and will not keep silence: i. e., the Son,

1.

Ps.

214

The Son GOD: Gods so called who.

Book 3. Who in His Manifestation cometh unto men; Who saith, I Isa. lxv. openly appeared unto them who seek Me not. And of what Gods? Those to whom He saith, I said, Ye are Gods, lxxxii. 6. and all children of the Most High: to those namely, who Rom. viii. have won the grace of Adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father.

15.

§ 2. No one therefore besides, as I said before, is named God, The FA- or entitled Lord, except Him Who is God and Lord of

THER and

witness

One to the Other

14.

Ib. 8.

the SON all; Who said also to Moses, I am that I am : And thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent Exod. iii. me unto you:-and His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Who makes the believers in His Name Sons of God. And again, where the Son is speaking to Moses, I am come down, saith He, to deliver this people. For it is He Himself Who came down, and went np, for the salvation of men. By the Son, therefore, Who is in the Father, and hath in Him the Father, He Who IS, is declared to be God; the Father bearing witness to the Son, and the Son Isa. xliii. announcing the Father. As Esaias also saith: Both I, saith he, am witness, saith the Lord, and My Servant Whom I have chosen, that ye may know, and believe, and understand, that I am He.

10.

§ 3. Holy Scripture distinct

5.

lxxxi. 9.

But when Scripture names those who are not Gods, it does not, as I said before, signify that they are altogether Gods, but with some addition, and indication whereby they Ps. xcvi. are shewn, not to be Gods. As in David: The Gods of Deut. vi. the Heathen are images of Demons. And, Strange Gods ye 14, cf. Ps. shall not follow. For by saying, the Gods of the Heathen, (now the Heathen know not the true God), and by naming them strange Gods, he hath taken away their being as Gods. But in that which stands in his own person, he saith of them, They are indeed, so he speaks, images of Isa. xliv. devils. And Esaias, Confounded be all they that blaspheme God, and grave things without profit; and I am witness, saith the Lord. He hath taken away their being as Gods, but the term alone he uses for this purpose, that we may know what he is speaking of. And the very same doth Jer. x. 11. Jeremias also: The Gods, saith he, which made not Heaven

9,10.

LXX.

S. Irenaeus' prayer. S. Paul distinguishes.

215

xviii. 21.

nibus

and Earth, let them perish from the earth, which is under the Heaven. Thus by adding their perdition, he signifies them not to be Gods. And Elias again, all Israel being convoked to Mount Carmel, willing to turn them from idolatry, saith unto them, How long will ye halt upon 1 Kings both thighs? If the Lord God is one, come after Him. suffragiAnd again over the burnt offering thus he speaks to the Priests of the Idols, Ye shall call upon the name of your Ib. 24. Gods, and I will call upon the Name of the Lord my God; and the God Who will hear this day, He is God. The Prophet, I say, in so expressing himself, while he proves those not to be Gods, who among these were thought to be Gods: he turns them towards that God, Who was both believed by him, and was truly God; on Whom also he was calling in prayer, O Lord God of Abraham, God of Ib. 36. Isaac, and God of Jacob, hear me this day; and let all this people understand, that Thou art God of Israel.

S. Irenae

us prays

work

And I therefore call on Thee, O Lord God of Abraham, § 4. and God of Isaac, and God of Jacob and Israel, Who art the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: O God Who by the over his multitude of Thy mercy hast been well pleased in us, that we may know Thee;-Who hast made Heaven and Earth, Who art Lord of all, Who art the only and true God, over Whom is no other God;-by our Lord Jesus Christ do Thou bestow the command also of the Holy Spirit: Grant to every one who reads this writing, to acknowledge Thee, that Thou art the only God; and to be strengthened in Thee, and to withdraw from all heresy, all godless, all impious opinions.

Gal. iv. 8, 9.

S. Paul's

same as

And the Apostle Paul too, saying, For if ye did service § 5. to those which were not Gods, now that ye know God or ra- distincther are known of God, hath separated those who were tion the not, from Him Who is God. And again, speaking of An- Moses' tichrist, who opposeth (so he speaks) and exalteth him- 2 Thess. self above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; he ü. 4. means those who are called Gods by such as are ignorant of God, i. e., the idols. For as the Father of all is called God, and is so; so not above Him shall the Antichrist be