19-21.

cising of the Ogdoad on high. And in a word, whatsoever things are found in the Scriptures reducible to the number eight, they say, fulfil the mystery of the Ogdoad. Also that the Decad is meant by the ten nations which God pro- Gen. xv. mised to give Abraham for a possession: and the Economy too about Sarah, how after ten years she gives him her own Ib. xvi. 3. handmaid Hagar, to raise himself up children by her, they say declares the same. The Servant again of Abraham sent after Rebecca, and his gift to her at the well of bracelets Ib. xxiv. with ten pieces of gold, and her brethren detaining her ten b. 55. days; moreover also Jeroboam who takes the ten tribal 1 Reg. xi. sceptres, and the ten curtains of the Tabernacle, and the Exod. pillars of ten cubits, and the ten sons of Jacob, sent first Ib. 21. to Egypt to buy corn, and the ten Apostles to whom the Gen. xlii. Lord manifests Himself after His resurrection, Thomas S. John xx. 19, 24. not being present; were types according to them of the Invisible Ten.

3

22.

31.

xxxvi. 8.

3.

breast

Exod.

xxxix.

Ib. xxiv.

Jos. iv.

9, 20.

1 Kings xviii. 31.

But as to the number twelve, in which they say the mys- § 4. terious Passion of Defect took place, from which Passion they will have all things visible to have been framed: they say it occurs everywhere in a marked and evident manner: 3i. e. the as the twelve sons of Jacob, of whom are the twelve tribes ; plate, and the oracle of embroidered work having twelve stones, Ex: 10. and the twelve bells, and the twelve stones placed by Moses Ib. 25. under the mountain: and in like manner too those placed 4. by Joshua in the river, and others on the opposite side, and those who bear the Ark of the Covenant, and those set by Elias in the whole burnt-offering of the bullock; and the number too of the Apostles: and all things in short, as many as keep the number twelve, they say denote their Dodecad. i. e. 8, But the uniting of all these which is named the Thirty, they making eagerly and disputatiously exhibit by the Ark under Noe, Gen. vi. thirty cubits high; and by Samuel causing Saul to sit down 15. first among the thirty guests; and by David, when for thirty 22. days he was hidden in the field; and by those who went 19. with him into the cave; and by the length of the holy taber- xxiii. 13. nacle having been thirty cubits; and by whatsoever things they find equal in number to these.

10, 12,

30.

1 Sam. ix.

Cf ib. xx.

Cf 2 Sam.

other Exod.

xxxvi. 21, 23.

BOOK 1.
СПАР.

§ 1.

62

Other passages of Holy Scripture distorted by them.

I have thought it right to add to these such points as they XIX. try to make out by selection from the Scriptures concerning their First Father, who was unknown to all before the coming of Christ: whereby they would exhibit our Lord as proclaiming another Father, besides the Maker of the Universe; whom, as we have said before, they in their impiety affirm to be the offspring of Defect. Thus, the Prophet Isaiah havIsa. i. 3. ing said, But Israel hath not known Me, and My people hath not understood Me, they distort as though he had spoken of the ignorance of the Invisible Deep. And that Hos. iv.1. which is said by Hosea, There is no truth in them, nor knowledge of God, they are positive, tends the same way. And, Ps. xiv. 2, There is none that understandeth, nor searcheth out God: they are all gone aside, they have together become useless, they refer to the ignorance of the Deep. The saying moreover of Moses, None shall see God, and live, has reference, they argue, to Him.

3.

Exod.

xxxii. 20.

§ 2.

For as to the Creator, they falsely say that He was seen by the Prophets; but the saying, None shall see God, and live, they will have to be spoken of that Greatness which is invisible and unknown to all. Now that the invisible Father and Maker of all is He of Whom it is said, None shall see God, is manifest to us all: but that it is not spoken of The Deep whom they wrongly imagine, but of the Creator, and that He is Himself the Invisible God, shall be shewn in the course of our argument. And Daniel too, they say, signifies this same, when he asks the Angel the solutions of the Parables, as though not knowing them. Yea, that the Angel also, hiding from him the great Mystery of the Deep, Dan. xii. said unto him, "Haste away, Daniel: for these words are shut up, until the understanding understand, and the white are whitened." And they flatter themselves that they are the white, and the truly intelligent.

9, 10.

CHAP.
XX.

And besides all this, they privily bring in an unspeakable §1. multitude of apocryphal and spurious scriptures, which themselves have devised to astound the foolish, and those who know not the writings of the truth. And they add to this the following forgery also: that the Lord being a child,

Other perversions. Two apocryphal sayings of the Lord. 63

and learning letters, and His master having bidden Him, as the custom is, say Alpha, He said Alpha. And again the Teacher having bidden Him say Beta, the Lord answered, Tell thou Me first what is Alpha, and then I will tell thee what is Beta. And this they relate, as though He only knew that unknown thing which He made manifest under the Type of Alpha.

ii. 49.

xix. 16.

Ib. xxi.

23.

And some also of the things set down in the Gospel they § 2. adapt to this stamp: as His answer to His mother at the age of twelve years: Wist ye not that I must be about the things S. Luke that are My Father's? And, say they, they knew not that He was telling them of the Father. And that He therefore sent out His disciples to the twelve tribes, proclaiming to them the unknown God. And that to him that called Him Good Master, He confessed that God who is truly good, S. Matt. saying, Why callest thou Me good? one is good, My Father Ib. 17. in the Heavens: and by Heavens, here, the ons they say are meant. And whereas He made no answer to those who said to Him, By what power doest Thou this? but they were confounded by His counter-question, they declare that by His not speaking He shewed the ineffable nature of the Father. Yea and His saying "I have often desired to hear one of these words, and had none to tell Me," they say is an indication, by the word one, of Him Who is truly one God, Whom they had not known. Moreover in His weeping over Jerusalem when He drew near it, and saying, Hadst thou S. Luke known, even thou, to-day, the things which belong to thy peace, but they are hidden from thee: by the word Hidden, they say, He set forth the hidden Nature of the Deep. And again that in saying, Come unto Me, all that labour and are heavy S. Matt. laden, and I will refresh you; and learn of Me; He proclaimed the Father of the Truth. For what they knew not, saith He, that He promised to teach them.

xix. 42.

xi. 28, 29.

But for the highest demonstration, and keystone (so to § 3. call it) of their argument, they produce these words: I will Ib. 25-27. thank Thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for it seemed good

64

Their vagaries about Holy Baptism.

Book 1. in Thy sight. All things were delivered unto Me of My Father and no man knoweth the Father but the Son; nor the Son, but the Father, and to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. In these they say He hath expressly made declaration, as though before His coming no one had ever known the Father of Truth whom they have devised for themselves. And they want to make it out as though the Creator and Maker had always been known by all: and that our Lord said this about the Father, who is unknown to all, whom they declare.

CHAP. XXI. $1.

§ 2.

As to their tradition about the Redemption, it proves to be invisible and incomprehensible, being as it is a mother of those things which cannot be holden nor seen. And therefore being unstable, it cannot be set forth simply, nor in one manner of speech: because they deliver it as they will, each one of them. For according to the number of initiators into this way of thinking, so many are the Redemptions. Now that this kind is forged by Satan to the denying of Baptism, our new Birth unto God, and to the rejection of the whole Faith, we will declare in the course of our refutation of them, in the proper place.

However, their statement is, that it is requisite for those who have won the perfect knowledge, i. e., for their being regenerated into the power which is above all: it being else impossible to enter within the Pleroma: since it is this which brings them quite into the Deep. For the Baptism of the visible Jesus they hold to relate to the forgiveness of sins, but the Redemption of the Christ who came down therein, to perfection; the one natural, the other spiritual. And that Baptism was proclaimed by John unto Repentance, but Redemption brought hither by S. Luke Jesus unto Perfection. And that of this He saith, I have also another Baptism to be baptized with, and I am greatly urged on to the same. Yea also to the sons of Zebedee, when their mother was asking for them to sit on the right hand and on the left with Him, in His Kingdom, they say S. Matt. that of this additional Redemption the Lord said, Can ye be baptized with the Baptism which I am about to be baptized

xii. 50.

XX. 22.

Diverse forms of their initiation.

65

with? And Paul they say hath in terms indicated, and that often, the Redemption in Christ Jesus: and that this is the same which is variously and discordantly delivered by them.

For some of them frame a bridal chamber, and solemnize $3. an initiation, with certain invocations upon those who are being perfected, and they say that what they do is a spiritual marriage, after the similitude of the marriages on high. Others bring them to water, and baptizing say over them, Into the Name of the unknown Father of all, into Truth the Mother of all, into him that descended upon Jesus, for uniting, and redemption, and communion of their virtues. While others utter certain Hebrew names, the more to astound the initiated, thus: Basema, &c. Of which the interpretation is like this: "That which is above all power of the Father I invoke, which is named Light, and a good Spirit and Life: for thou hast reigned in the body." And others again rehearse the form of Redemption thus: "The name which is hidden from all Godhead, and Dominion, and Truth, which Jesus of Nazareth put on in the lives of the light of Christ, of Christ who lives by the Holy Spirit, unto Angelical Redemption." The name of Restitution: "Messiah Uphareg &c:" and of these the interpretation runs thus: "I: divide not the Spirit, the heart, and the supercelestial Power, the merciful one. May I profit by Thy Name, O Saviour of Truth!" And while the initiators themselves rehearse these forms, the initiated answers, "I have been confirmed, and ransomed, and ransom my own soul from this world, and from all things that are of it, in the name of IAO, who purchased his own soul unto redemption, in Christ the Living." Then those who are present subjoin, "Peace to all, upon whom this Name resteth." Then they besmear the initiated with the juice of balsam. For this ointment they say is the type of the fragrance that is above all.

But some of them say that bringing to the water is super- § 4. fluous, but mix oil and water together, and with invocations. like what we have said cast it on the head of the initiated. And this they will have to be redemption. And they too anoint him with balsam.

Others again rejecting all these

F