{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/004/0040030.htm","path":"chr/ecf/004/0040030.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/004/0040030.htm","text":"(Author Uncertain.)\nBook I.-Of the Divine Unity, and the Resurrection of the Flesh.\nAfter the Evil One's impiety\nProfound, and his life-grudging mind, entrapped\nSeduced men with empty hope, it laid\nThem bare, by impious suasion to false trust\n5 In him,-not with impunity, indeed;\nFor he forthwith, as guilty of the deed,\nAnd author rash of such a wickedness,\nReceived deserved maledictions. Thus,\nThereafter, maddened, he, most desperate foe,\n10 Did more assail and instigate men's minds\nIn darkness sunk. He taught them to forget\nThe Lord, and leave sure hope, and idols vain\nFollow, and shape themselves a crowd of gods,\nLots, auguries, false names of stars, the show Is\n15 Of being able to o'errule the births\nOf embryos by inspecting entrails, and\nExpecting things to come, by hardihood\nOf dreadful magic's renegadoes led,\nWondering at a mass of feigned lore;\n20 And he impelled them headlong to spurn life,\nSunk in a criminal insanity;\nTo joy in blood; to threaten murders fell;\nTo love the wound, then, in their neighbour's flesh;\nOr, burning, and by pleasure's heat entrapped,\n25 To transgress nature's covenants, and stain\nPure bodies, manly sex, with an embrace\nUnnameable, and uses feminine\nMingled in common contact lawlessly;\nUrging embraces chaste, and dedicate\n30 To generative duties, to be held\nFor intercourse obscene for passion's sake.\nSuch in time past his deeds, assaulting men,\nThrough the soul's lurking-places, with a flow\nOf scorpion-venom,-not that men would blame\n35 Him, for they followed of their own accord:\nHis suasion was in guile; in freedom man\nPerformed it.\nWhileas the perfidious one\nContinuously through the centuries1\nIs breathing such ill fumes, and into hearts\n40 Seduced injecting his own counselling\nAnd hoping in his folly (alas!) to find\nForgiveness of his wickedness, unware\nWhat sentence on his deed is waiting him;\nWith words of wisdom's weaving,2 and a voice\n45 Presaging from God's Spirit, speak a host\nOf prophets. Publicly he3 does not dare\nNakedly to speak evil of the Lord,\nHoping by secret ingenuity\nHe possibly may lurk unseen. At length\n50 The soul's Light4 as the thrall of flesh is held;\nThe hope of the despairing, mightier\nThan foe, enters the lists; the Fashioner,\nThe Renovator, of the body He;\nTrue Glory of the Father; Son of God;\n55 Author unique; a Judge and Lord He came,\nThe orb's renowned King; to the oppress\nPrompt to give pardon, and to loose the bound;\nWhose friendly aid and penal suffering\nBlend God and renewed man in one. With child\n60 Is holy virgin: life's new gate opes; words\nOf prophets find their proof, fulfilled by facts;\nPriests5 leave their temples, and-a star their guide-\nWonder the Lord so mean a birth should choose.\nWaters-sight memorable!-turn to wine;\n65 Eyes are restored to blind; fiends trembling cry,\nOutdriven by His bidding, and own Christ!\nAll limbs, already rotting, by a word\nAre healed; now walks the lame; the deaf forthwith\nHears hope; the maimed extends his hand; the dumb\n70 Speaks mighty words: sea at His bidding calms,\nWinds drop; and all things recognise the Lord:\nConfounded is the foe, and yields, though fierce,\nNow triumphed over, to unequal6 arms!\nWhen all his enterprises now revoked\n75 He7 sees; the flesh, once into ruin sunk,\nNow rising; man-death vanquisht quite-to heavens\nSoaring; the peoples sealed with holy pledge\nOutpoured;8 the work and envied deeds of might\nMarvellous;9 and hears, too, of penalties\n80 Extreme, and of perpetual dark, prepared\nFor himself by the Lord by God's decree\nIrrevocable; naked and unarmed,\nDamned, vanquisht, doomed to perish in a death\nPerennial, guilty now, and sure that he\n85 No pardon has, a last impiety\nForthwith he dares,-to scatter everywhere\nA word for ears to shudder at, nor meet\nFor voice to speak. Accosting men cast off\nFrom God's community,10 men wandering\n90 Without the light, found mindless, following\nThings earthly, them he teaches to become\nDepraved teachers of depravity.\nBy11 them he preaches that there are two Sires,\nAnd realms divided: ill's cause is the Lord12\n95 Who built the orb, fashioned breath-quickened flesh,\nAnd gave the law, and by the seers' voice spake.\nHim he affirms not good, but owns Him just;\nHard, cruel, taking pleasure fell in war;\nIn judgment dreadful, pliant to no prayers.\n100 His suasion tells of other one, to none\nE'er known, who nowhere is, a deity\nFalse, nameless, constituting nought, and who\nHath spoken precepts none. Him he calls good;\nWho judges none, but spares all equally,\n105 And grudges life to none. No judgment waits\nThe guilty; so he says, bearing about\nA gory poison with sweet honey mixt\nFor wretched men. That flesh can rise-to which\nHimself was cause of ruin, which he spoiled\n110 Iniquitously with contempt (whence,13 cursed,\nHe hath grief without end), its ever-foe,-\nHe doth deny; because with various wound\nLife to expel and the salvation whence\nHe fell he strives: and therefore says that Christ\n115 Came suddenly to earth,14 but was not made,\nBy any compact, partner of the flesh;\nBut Spirit-form, and body feigned beneath\nA shape imaginary, seeks to mock\nMen with a semblance that what is not is.\n120 Does this, then, become God, to sport with men\nBy darkness led? to act an impious lie?\nOr falsely call Himself a man? He walks,\nIs carried, clothed, takes due rest, handled is,\nSuffers, is hung and buried: man's are all\n125 Deeds which, in holy body conversant,\nBut sent by God the Father, who hath all\nCreated, He did perfect properly,\nReclaiming not another's but His own;\nDiscernible to peoples who of old\n130 Were hoping for Him by His very work,\nAnd through the prophets' voice to the round world15\nBest known: and now they seek an unknown Lord,\nWandering in death's threshold manifest,\nAnd leave behind the known. False is their faith,\n135 False is their God, deceptive their reward,\nFalse is their resurrection, death's defeat\nFalse, vain their martyrdoms, and e'en Christ's name\nAn empty sound: whom, teaching that He came\nLike magic mist, they (quite demented) own\n140 To be the actor of a lie, and make\nHis passion bootless, and the populace16\n(A feigned one!) without crime! Is God thus true?\nAre such the honours rendered to the Lord?\nAh! wretched men! gratuitously lost\n145 In death ungrateful! Who, by blind guide led,\nHave headlong rushed into the ditch!17 and as\nIn dreams the fancied rich man in his store\nOf treasure doth exult, and with his hands\nGrasps it, the sport of empty hope, so ye, so\n150 Deceived, are hoping for a shadow vain\nOf guerdon!\nAh! ye silent laughingstocks,\nOr doomed prey, of the dragon, do ye hope,\nStern men for death in room of gentle peace?18\nDare ye blame God, who hath works\n155 So great? in whose earth, 'mid profuse displays\nOf His exceeding parent-care, His gifts\n(Unmindful of Himself!) ye largely praise,\nRushing to ruin! do ye reprobate-\nApproving of the works-the Maker's self,\n160 The world's19 Artificer, whose work withal\nYe are yourselves? Who gave those little selves\nGreat honours; sowed your crops; made all the brutes20\nYour subjects; makes the seasons of the year\nFruitful with stated months; grants sweetnesses,\n165 Drinks various, rich odours, jocund flowers,\nAnd the groves' grateful bowers; to growing herbs\nGrants wondrous juices; founts and streams dispreads\nWith sweet waves, and illumes with stars the sky\nAnd the whole orb: the infinite sole Lord,\n170 Both Just and Good; known by His work; to none\nBy aspect known; whom nations, flourishing\nIn wealth, but foolish, wrapped in error's shroud,\n(Albeit 'tis beneath an alien name\nThey praise Him, yet) their Maker knowing! dread\n175 To blame: nor e'en one21 -save you, hell's new gate!-\nThankless, ye choose to speak ill of your Lord!\nThese cruel deadly gifts the Renegade\nTerrible has bestowed, through Marcion-thanks\nTo Cerdo's mastership-on you; nor come'\n180 The thought into your mind that, from Christ's name\nSeduced, Marcion's name has carried you\nTo lowest depths.22 Say of His many acts\nWhat one displeases you? or what hath God\nDone which is not to be extolled with praise?\n185 Is it that He permits you, all too long,\n(Unworthy of His patience large,) to see\nSweet light? you, who read truths,23 and, docking them,\nTeach these your falsehoods, and approve as past\nThings which are yet to be?24 What hinders, else,\n190 That we believe your God incredible?25\nNor marvel is't if, practiced as he26 is,\nHe captived you unarmed, persuading you\nThere are two Fathers (being damned by One),\nAnd all, whom he had erst seduced, are gods;\n195 And after that dispread a pest, which ran\nWith multiplying wound, and cureless crime,\nTo many. Men unworthy to be named,\nFull of all magic's madness, he induced\nTo call themselves \"Virtue Supreme; \"and feign\n200 (With harlot comrade) fresh impiety;\nTo roam, to fly.27 He is the insane god\nOf Valentine, and to his Aeonage\nAssigned heavens thirty, and Profundity\nTheir sire.28 He taught two baptisms, and led\n205 The body through the flame. That there are gods\nSo many as the year hath days, he bade\nA Basilides to believe, and worlds\nAs many. Marcus, shrewdly arguing\nThrough numbers, taught to violate chaste form\n210 'Mid magic's arts; taught, too, that the Lord's cup\nIs an oblation, and by prayers is turned\nTo blood. His29 suasion prompted Hebion\nTo teach that Christ was born from human seed;\nHe taught, too, circumcision, and that room\n215 Is still left for the Law, and, though Law's founts\nAre lost,30 its elements must be resumed.\nUnwilling am I to protract in words\nHis last atrocity, or to tell all\nThe causes, or the names at length. Enough\n220 It is to note his many cruelties\nBriefly, and the unmentionable men,\nThe dragon's organs fell, through whom he now,\nSpeaking so much profaneness, ever toils\nTo blame the Maker of the world.31 But come;\n225 Recall your foot from savage Bandit's cave,\nWhile space is granted, and to wretched men\nGod, patient in perennial parent-love,\nCondones all deeds through error done! Believe\nTruly in the true Sire, who built the orb;\n230 Who, on behalf of men incapable\nTo bear the law, sunk in sin's whirlpool, sent\nThe true Lord to repair the ruin wrought,\nAnd bring them the salvation promised\nOf old through seers. He who the mandates gave\n235 Remits sins too. Somewhat, deservedly,\nDoth He exact, because He formerly\nEntrusted somewhat; or else bounteously,\nAs Lord, condones as it were debts to slaves:\nFinally, peoples shut up 'neath the curse,\n240 And meriting the penalty, Himself\nDeleting the indictment, bids be washed!\nThe whole man, then, believes; the whole is washed;\nAbstains from sin, or truly suffers wounds\nFor Christ's name's sake: he rises a true32 man,\n245 Death, truly vanquish, shall be mute. But not\nPart of the man,-his soul,-her own part33 left\nBehind, will win the palm which, labouring\nAnd wrestling in the course, combinedly\nAnd simultaneously with flesh, she earns.\n250 Great crime it were for two in chains to bear\nA weight, of whom the one were affluent\nThe other needy, and the wretched one\nBe spurned, and guerdons to the happy one\nRendered. Not so the Just-fair Renderer\n255 Of wages-deals, both good and just, whom we\nBelieve Almighty: to the thankless kind\nFull is His will of pity. Nay, whate'er\nHe who hath greater mortal need34 doth need35\nThat, by advancement, to his comrade he\n260 May equalled be, that will the affluent\nBestow the rather unsolicited:\nSo are we bidden to believe, and not\nBe willing to cast blame unlawfully\nOn the Lord in our teaching, as if He\n265 Were one to raise the soul, as having met\nWith ruin, and to set her free from death\nSo that the granted faculty of life\nUpon the ground of sole desert (because\nShe bravely acted), should abide with her;36\n270 While she who ever shared the common lot\nOf toil, the flesh, should to the earth be left,\nThe prey of a perennial death. Has, then,\nThe soul pleased God by acts of fortitude?\nBy no means could she Him have pleased alone\n275 Without the flesh. Hath she borne penal bonds?37\nThe flesh sustained upon her limbs the bonds.\nContemned she death? But she hath left the flesh\nBehind in death. Groaned she in pain?\nThe flesh Is slain and vanquisht by the wound. Repose\n280 Seeks she? The flesh, spilt by the sword in dust,\nIs left behind to fishes, birds, decay,\nAnd ashes; torn she is, unhappy one!\nAnd broken; scattered, she melts away.\nHath she not earned to rise? for what could she\n285 Have e'er committed, lifeless and alone?\nWhat so life-grudging38 cause impedes, or else\nForbids, the flesh to take God's gifts, and live\nEver, conjoined with her comrade soul,\nAnd see what she hath been, when formerly\n290 Converted into dust?39 After, renewed\nBear she to God deserved meeds of praise,\nNot ignorant of herself, frail, mortal, sick.40\nContend ye as to what the living might41\nOf the great God can do; who, good alike\n295 And potent, grudges life to none? Was this\nDeath's captive?42 shall this perish vanquished\nWhich the Lord hath with wondrous wisdom made,\nAnd art? This by His virtue wonderful\nHimself upraises; this our Leader's self\n300 Recalls, and this with His own glory clothes\nGod's art and wisdom, then, our body shaped\nWhat can by these be made, how faileth it\nTo be by virtue reproduced?43 No cause\nCan holy parent-love withstand; (lest else\n305 Ill's cause44 should mightier prove than Power Supreme;)\nThat man even now saved by God's gift, ma, learn45\n(Mortal before, now robed in light immense\nInviolable, wholly quickened,46 soul\nAnd body) God, in virtue infinite,\n310 In parent-love perennial, through His King\nChrist, through whom opened is light's way; and now,\nStanding in new light, filled now with each gift,47\nGlad with fair fruits of living Paradise,\nMay praise and laud Him to eternity,48\n315 Rich in the wealth of the celestial hall.\nBook II.-Of the Harmony of the Old and New Laws.49\nAfter the faith was broken by the dint\nOf the foe's breathing renegades,50 and sworn\nWith wiles the hidden pest51 emerged; with lies\nSelf-prompted, scornful of the Deity\n5 That underlies the sense, he did his plagues\nConcoct: skilled in guile's path, he mixed his own\nWords impious with the sayings of the saints.\nAnd on the good seed sowed his wretched tares,\nThence willing that foul ruin's every cause\n10 Should grow combined; to wit, that with more speed\nHis own iniquitous deeds he may assign\nTo God clandestinely, and may impale\nOn penalties such as his suasion led;\nFalse with true veiling, turning rough with smooth,\n15 And, (masking his spear's point with rosy wreaths,)\nSlaying the unwary unforeseen with death\nSupreme. His supreme wickedness is this:\nThat men, to such a depth of madness sunk!\nOff-broken boughs!52 should into parts divide\n20 The endlessly-dread Deity; Christ's deeds\nSublime should follow with false praise, and blame\nThe former acts,53 God's countless miracles,\nNe'er seen before, nor heard, nor in a heart\nConceived;54 and should so rashly frame in words\n25 The impermissible impiety\nOf wishing by \"wide dissimilitude\nOf sense\" to prove that the two Testaments\nSound adverse each to other, and the Lord's\nOppose the prophets' words; of drawing down\n30 All the Law's cause to infamy; and eke\nOf reprobating holy fathers' life\nOf old, whom into friendship, and to share\nHis gifts, God chose. Without beginning, one\nIs, for its lesser part, accepted.55 Though\n35 Of one are four, of four one,56 yet to them\nOne part is pleasing, three they (in a word)\nReprobate: and they seize, in many ways,\nOn Paul as their own author; yet was he\nUrged by a frenzied impulse of his own\n40 To his last words:57 all whatsoe'er he spake\nOf the old covenant58 seems hard to them\nBecause, deservedly, \"made gross in heart.\"59\nWeight apostolic, grace of beaming word,\nDazzles their mind, nor can they possibly\n45 Discern the Spirit's drift. Dull as they are,\nSeek they congenial animals! But ye\nWho have not yet, (false deity your guide,\nReprobate in your very mind,60 ) to death's\nInmost caves penetrated, learn there flows\n50 A stream perennial from its fount, which feeds\nA tree, (twice sixfold are the fruits, its grace!)\nAnd into earth and to the orb's four winds\nGoes out: into so many parts doth flow\nThe fount's one hue and savour.61 Thus, withal,\n55 From apostolic word descends the Church,\nOut of Christ's womb, with glory of His Sire\nAll filled, to wash off filth, and vivify\nDead fates.62 The Gospel, four in number, one\nIn its diffusion 'mid the Gentiles, this,\n60 By faith elect accepted, Paul hands down\n(Excellent doctor!) pure, without a crime;\nAnd from it he forbade Galatian saints\nTo turn aside withal; whom \"brethren false,\"\n(Urging them on to circumcise themselves,\n65 And follow \"elements,\"leaving behind\nTheir novel \"freedom,\") to \"a shadow old\nOf things to be\" were teaching to be slaves.\nThese were the causes which Paul had to write\nTo the Galatians: not that they took out\n70 One small part of the Gospel, and held that\nFor the whole bulk, leaving the greater part\nBehind. And hence 'tis no words of a book,\nBut Christ Himself, Christ sent into the orb,\nWho is the gospel, if ye will discern;\n75 Who from the Father came, sole Carrier\nOf tidings good; whose glory vast completes\nThe early testimonies; by His work\nShowing how great the orb's Creator is:\nWhose deeds, conjoined at the same time with words,\n80 Those faithful ones, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,\nRecorded unalloyed (not speaking words\nExternal), sanctioned by God's Spirit, 'neath\nSo great a Master's eye! This paschal Lamb\nIs hung, a victim. on the tree: Him Paul,\n85 Writing decrees to Corinth, with his torch,63\nHands down as slain, the future life and God\nPromised to the fathers, whom before\nHe had attracted.\nSee what virtue, see\nWhat power, the paschal image64 has; ye thus\n90 Will able be to see what power there is\nIn the true Passover. Lest well-earned love\nShould tempt the faithful sire and seer,65 to whom\nHis pledge and heir66 was dear, whom God by chance67\nHad given him, to offer him to God\n95 (A mighty execution!), there is shown\nTo him a lamb entangled by the head\nIn thorns; a holy victim-holy blood\nFor blood-to God. From whose piacular death,\nThat to the wasted race68 it might be sign\n100 And pledge of safety, signed are with blood\nTheir posts and thresholds many:69 -aid immense!\nThe flesh (a witness credible) is given\nFor food. The Jordan crossed, the land possessed,\nJoshua by law kept Passover with joy,\n105 And immolates a lamb; and the great kings\nAnd holy prophets that were after him,\nNot ignorant of the good promises\nOf sure salvation; full of godly fear\nThe great Law to transgress, (that mass of types\n110 In image of the Supreme Virtue once\nTo come,) did celebrate in order due\nThe mirrorly-inspected passover.70\nIn short, if thou recur with rapid mind\nTo times primordial, thou wilt find results\n115 Too fatal following impious words. That man\nEasily credulous, alas! and stripped\nOf life's own covering, might covered be\nWith skins, a lamb is hung: the wound slays sins,\nOr death by blood effaces or enshrouds\n120 Or cherishes the naked with its fleece.\nIs sheep's blood of more worth than human blood,\nThat, offered up for sins, it should quench wrath?\nOr is a lamb (as if he were more dear!)\nOf more worth than much people's? aid immense\n125 As safeguard of so great salvation, could\nA lamb, if offered, have been price enough\nFor the redeemed? Nay: but Almighty God,\nThe heaven's and earth's Creator, infinite,71\nLiving, and perfect, and perennially\n130 Dwelling in light, is not appeased by these,\nNor joys in cattle's blood. Slain be all flocks;\nBe every herd upburned into smoke;\nThat expiatively 't may pardon win\nOf but one sin: in vain at so vile price;\n135 Will the stained figure of the Lord-foul flesh-\nPrepare, if wise, such honours:72 but the hope\nAnd faith to mortals promised of old-\nGreat Reason's counterpart73 -hath wrought to bring\nThese boons premeditated and prepared\n140 Erst by the Father's passing parent-love;\nThat Christ should come to earth, and be a man!\nWhom when John saw, baptism's first opener, John,\nComrade of seers, apostle great, and sent\nAs sure forerunner, witness faithful; John,\n145 August in life, and marked with praise sublime,74\nHe shows, to such as sought of olden time\nGod's very Paschal Lamb, that He is come\nAt last, the expiation of misdeed,\nTo undo many's sins by His own blood,\n150 In place of reprobates the Proven One,\nIn place of vile the dear; in body, man;\nAnd, in life, God: that He, as the slain Lamb,\nMight us accept,75 and for us might outpour\nHimself Thus hath it pleased the Lord to spoil\n155 Proud death: thus wretched man will able be\nTo hope salvation. This slain paschal Lamb\nPaul preaches: nor does a phantasmal shape\nOf the sublime Lord (one consimilar\nTo Isaac's silly sheep76 ) the passion bear,\n160 Wherefore He is called Lamb: but 'tis because,\nAs wool, He these renewed bodies clothes,\nGiving to many covering, yet Himself\nNever deficient. Thus does the Lord shroud\nIn His Sire's virtue, those whom, disarrayed\n165 Of their own light, He by His death redeemed,\nVirtue which ever is in Him. So, then,\nThe Shepherd who hath lost the sheep Himself\nRe-seeks it. He, prepared to tread the strength\nOf the vine, and its thorns, or to o'ercome\n170 The wolf's rage, and regain the cattle lost,\nAnd brave to snatch them out, the Lion He\nIn sheepskin-guise, unasked presents Himself\nTo the contemned77 teeth, baffling by His garb\nThe robber's bloody jaws. Thus everywhere\n175 Christ seeks force-captured Adam; treads the path\nHimself where death wrought ruin; permeates\nAll the old heroes' monuments;78 inspects\nEach one; the One of whom all types were full;\nBegins e'en from the womb to expel the death\n180 Conceived simultaneously with seed\nOf flesh within the bosom; purging all\nLife's stages with a silent wisdom; debts\nAssuming;79 ready to cleanse all, and give\nTheir Maker back the many whom the one80\n185 Had scattered. And, because one direful man\nDown-sunk in pit iniquitous did fall,\nBy dragon-subdued virgin's81 suasion led;\nBecause he pleased her wittingly;82 because\nHe left his heavenly covering83 behind:\n190 Because the \"tree\" their nakedness did prove;\nBecause dark death coerced them: in like wise\nOut of the self-same mass84 re-made returns\nRenewed now,-the flower of flesh, and host\nOf peace,-a flesh from espoused virgin born,\n195 Not of man's seed; conjoined to its own\nArtificer; without the debt of death.\nThese mandates of the Father through bright stars\nAn angel carries down, that angel-fame\nThe tidings may accredit; telling how\n200 \"A virgin's debts a virgin, flesh's flesh,\nShould pay.\" Thus introduced, the Giant-Babe,\nThe Elder-Boy, the Stripling-Man, pursues\nDeath's trail. Thereafter, when completed was\nThe ripe age of man's strength, when man is wont\n205 To see the lives that were his fellows drop\nBy slow degrees away, and to be changed\nIn mien to wrinkles foul and limbs inert,\nWhile blood forsakes his veins, his course he stayed,\nAnd suffered not his fleshly garb to age.\n210 Upon what day or in what place did fall\nMost famous Adam, or outstretched his hand\nRashly to touch the tree, on that same day,\nReturning as the years revolve, within\nThe stadium of the \"tree\" the brave Athlete,\n215'Countering, outstretched His hands, and, penalty\nFor praise pursuing,85 quite did vanquish death,\nBecause He left death of His own accord\nBehind, disrobing Him of fleshly slough,\nAnd of death's dues; and to the \"tree\" affixed\n220 The serpent's spoil-\"the world's86 prince\" vanquisht quite!\nGrand trophy of the renegades: for sign\nWhereof had Moses hung the snake, that all,\nWho had by many serpents stricken been,\nMight gaze upon the dragon's self, and see\n225 Him vanquisht and transfixt. When, afterwards,\nHe reached the infernal region's secret waves,\nAnd, as a victor, by the light which aye\nAttended Him, revealed His captive thrall,\nAnd by His virtue thoroughly fulfilled\n230 The Father's bidding, He Himself re-took\nThe body which, spontaneous, He had left:\nThis was the cause of death: this same was made\nSalvation's path: a messenger of guile\nThe former was; the latter messenger\n235 of peace: a spouse her man87 did slay; a spouse\nDid bear a lion:88 hurtful to her man89\nA virgin90 proved; a man91 from virgin born\nProved victor: for a type whereof, while sleep\nHis92 body wrapped, out of his side is ta'en\n240 A woman,93 who is her lord's94 rib; whom, he,\nAwaking, called \"flesh from his flesh, and bones\nFrom his own bones; \"with a presaging mind\nSpeaking. Faith wondrous! Paul deservedly,\n(Most certain author!) teaches Christ to be\n245 \"The Second Adam from the havens.\"95 Truth,\nUsing her own examples, doth refulge;\nNor covets out of alien source to show\nHer paces keen:96 this is a pauper's work,\nNeedy of virtue of his own! Great Paul\n250 These mysteries-taught to him-did teach; to wit,\nDiscerning that in Christ thy glory is,\nO Church! from His side, hanging on high \"tree,\"\nHis lifeless body's \"blood and humour\" flowed.\nThe blood the woman97 was; the waters were\n255 The new gifts of the font:98 this is the Church,\nTrue mother of a living people; flesh\nNew from Christ's flesh, and from His bones a bone.\nA spot there is called Golgotha,-of old\nThe fathers' earlier tongue thus called its name,-\n260 \"The skull-pan of a head: \"here is earth's midst;\nHere victory's sign; here, have our elders. taught,\nThere was a great head99 found; here the first man,\nWe have been taught, was buried; here the Christ\nSuffers; with sacred blood the earth100 grows moist.\n265 That the old Adam's dust may able be,\nCommingled with Christ's blood, to be upraised\nBy dripping water's virtue. The \"one ewe\"\nThat is, which, during Sabbath-hours, alive\nThe Shepherd did resolve that He would draw\n270 Out of th' infernal pit. This was the cause\nWhy, on the Sabbaths, He was wont to cure\nThe prematurely dead limbs of all flesh;\nOr perfected for sight the eyes of him\nBlind from his birth-eyes which He had not erst\n275 Given; or, in presence of the multitude,\nCalled, during Sabbath-hours, one wholly dead\nTo life, e'en from the sepulchre.101 Himself\nThe new man's Maker, the Repairer good\nOf th' old, supplying what did lack, or else\n280 Restoring what was lost. About to do-\nWhen dawns \"the holy day\"-these works, for such\nAs hope in Him, in plenitude, (to keep\nHis plighted word,) He taught men thus His power\nTo do them.\nWhat? If flesh dies, and no hope\n285 Is given of salvation, say, what grounds\nChrist had to feign Himself a man, and head\nMen, or have care for flesh? If He recalls102\nSome few, why shall He not withal recall\nAll? Can corruption's power liquefy\n290 The body and undo it, and shall not\nThe virtue of the Lord be powerful\nThe undone to recall?\nThey, who believe\nTheir bodies are not loosed from death, do no,\nBelieve the Lord, who wills to raise His own\n295 Works sunken; or else say they that the Good\nWills not, and that the Potent hath not power,-\nIgnorant from how great a crime they suck\nTheir milk, in daring to set things infirm\nAbove the Strong.103 In the grain lurks the tree;\n300 And if this104 rot not, buried in the earth,\nIt yields not tree-graced fruits.105 Soon bound will be\nThe liquid waters: 'neath the whistling cold\nThey will become, and ever will be stones,\nUnless a mighty power, by leading on\n305 Soft-breathing warmth, undo them. The great bunch\nLurks in the tendril's slender body: if\nThou seek it, it is not; when God doth will,\n'Tis seen to be. On trees their leaves, on thorns\nThe rose, the seeds on plains, are dead and fail,\n310 And rise again, new living. For man's use\nThese things doth God before his eyes recall\nAnd form anew-man's, for whose sake at first106\nThe wealthy One made all things bounteously.\nAll naked fall; with its own body each\n315 He clothes. Why man alone, on whom He showered\nSuch honours, should He not recall in all\nHis first perfection107 to Himself? man, whom\nHe set o'er all? Flesh, then, and blood are said\nTo be not worthy of God's realm, as if\n320 Paul spake of flesh materially. He\nIndeed taught mighty truths; but hearts inane\nThink he used carnal speech: for pristine deeds\nHe meant beneath the name of \"flesh and blood; \"\nRemembering, heavenly home-slave that he is,\n325 His heavenly Master's words; who gave the name\nOf His own honour to men born from Him\nThrough water, and from His own Spirit poured\nA pledge;108 that, by whose virtue men had been\nRedeemed, His name of honour they withal\n330 Might, when renewed, receive. Because, then, He\nRefused, on the old score, the heavenly realm\nTo peoples not yet from His fount re-born,\nStill with their ancient sordid raiment clad-\nThese are \"the dues of death\"-saying that that\n335 Which human is must needs be born again,-\n\"What hath been born of flesh is flesh; and what\nFrom Spirit, life; \"109 and that the body, washed,\nChanging with glory its old root's new seeds,110\nIs no more called \"from flesh: \"Paul follows this;\n340 Thus did he speak of \"flesh.\" In fine, he said111\nThis frail garb with a robe must be o'erclad,\nThis mortal form be wholly covered;\nNot that another body must be given,\nBut that the former one, dismantled,112 must\n345 Be with God's kingdom wholly on all sides\nSurrounded: \"In the moment of a glance,\"\nHe says, \"it shall be changed: \"as, on the blade,\nDispreads the red corn's113 face, and changes 'neath\nThe sun's glare its own hue; so the same flesh,\n350 From \"the effulgent glory\"114 borrowing,\nShall ever joy, and joying,115 shall lack death;\nExclaiming that\"the body's cruel foe\nIs vanquisht quite; death, by the victory\nOf the brave Christ, is swallowed; \"116 praises high\n355 Bearing to God, unto the highest stars.\nBook III.-Of the Harmony of the Fathers of the Old and New Testaments.\nNow hath the mother, formerly surnamed\nBarren, giv'n birth:117 now a new people, born\nFrom the free woman,118 joys: (the slave expelled,\nDeservedly, with her proud progeny;\n5 Who also leaves ungratefully behind\nThe waters of the living fount,119 and drinks-\nErrant on heated plains-'neath glowing star:120 )\nNow can the Gentiles as their parent claim\nAbraham; who, the Lord's voice following,\n10 Like him, have all things left,121 life's pilgrimage\nTo enter. \"Be glad, barren one; \"conceive\nThe promised people; \"break thou out, and cry,\"\nWho with no progeny wert blest; of whom\nSpake, through the seers, the Spirit of old time:\n15 She hath borne, out of many nations, one;\nWith whose beginning are her pious limbs\nEver in labour.\nHers \"just Abel\"122 was,\nA pastor and a cattle-master he;\nWhom violence of brother's right hand slew\n20 Of old. Her Enoch, signal ornament,\nLimb from her body sprung, by counsel strove\nTo recall peoples gone astray from God\nAnd following misdeed, (while raves on earth\nThe horde of robber-renegades,123 ) to flee\n25 The giants'sacrilegious cruel race;\nFaithful in all himself. With groaning deep124\nDid he please God, and by deserved toil\nTranslated125 is reserved as a pledge,\nWith honour high. Perfect in praise, and found\n30 Faultless, and just-God witnessing126 the fact-\nIn an adulterous people, Noah (he\nWho in twice fifty years127 the ark did weave)\nBy deeds and voice the coming ruin told.\nFavour he won, snatched Out of so great waves\n35 Of death, and, with his progeny, preserved.\nThen, in the generation128 following,\nIs Abraham, whose sons ye do deny\nYourselves to be; who first-race, country, sire,\nAll left behind-at suasion of God's voice\n40 Withdrew to realms extern: such honours he\nAt God's sublime hand worthily deserved\nAs to be father to believing tribes\nAnd peoples. Jacob with the patriarchs\n(Himself their patriarch) through all his own\n45 Life's space the gladdest times of Christ foresang\nBy words, act, virtue, toil. Him follows-free\nFrom foul youth's stain-Joseph, by slander feigned,\nDoomed to hard penalty and gaol: his groans\nGlory succeeds, and the realm's second crown, so\n50 And in dearth's time large power of furnishing\nBread: so appropriate a type of Christ,\nSo lightsome type of Light, is manifest\nTo all whose mind hath eyes, that they may see\nIn a face-mirror129 their sure hope.\nHimself\n55 The patriarch Judah, see; the origin\nOf royal line,130 whence leaders rose, nor kings\nFailed ever from his seed, until the Power\nTo come, by Gentiles looked for, promised long,\nCame.\nMoses, leader of the People, (he\n60 Who, spurning briefly-blooming riches, left\nThe royal thresholds,) rather chose to bear\nHis people's toils, afflicted, with bowed neck,\nBy no threats daunted, than to gain himself\nEnjoyments, and of many penalties\n65 Remission: admirable for such faith\nAnd love, he, with God's virtue armed, achieved\nGreat exploits: smote the nation through with plagues;\nAnd left their land behind, and their hard king\nConfounds, and leads the People back; trod waves;\n70 Sunk the foes down in waters; through a \"tree\"131\nMade ever-hitter waters sweet; spake much\n(Manifestly to the People) with the Christ,132\nFrom whose face light and brilliance in his own\nReflected shone; dashed on the ground the law\n75 Accepted through some few,133 -implicit type,\nAnd sure, of his own toils!-smote through the rock;\nAnd, being bidden, shed forth streams; and stretched\nHis hands that, by a sign,134 he vanquish might\nThe foe; of Christ all severally, all135\n80 Combined through Christ, do speak. Great and approved,\nHe136 rests with praise and peace. But Joshua,\nThe son of Nun, erst called Oshea-this man\nThe Holy Spirit to Himself did join\nAs partner in His name:137 hence did he cleave\n85 The flood; constrained the People to pass o'er;\nFreely distributed the land-the prize\nPromised the fathers!-stayed both sun and moon\nWhile vanquishing the foe; races extern\nAnd giants' progeny outdrave; razed groves;\n90 Altars and temples levelled; and with mind\nLoyal138 performed all due solemnities:\nType of Christ's name; his virtue's image. What\nTouching the People's Judges shall I say\nSingly? whose virtues,139 it unitedly\n95 Recorded, fill whole volumes numerous\nWith space of words. But vet the order due\nOf filling out the body of my words,\nDemands that, out of many, I should tell\nThe life of few.\nOf whom when Gideon, guide\n100 Of martial band, keen to attack the foe,\n(Not keen to gain for his own family,\nBy virtues,140 tutelary dignity,141 )\nAnd needing to be strengthened142 in the faith\nExcited in his mind, seeks for a sign\n105 Whereby he either could not, or could, wage\nVictorious war; to wit, that v. with the dew\nA fleece, exposed for the night, should be\nMoistened, and all the ground lie dry around\n(By this to show that, with the world,143 should dry144\n110 The enemies' palm); and then again, the fleece\nAlone remaining dry, the earth by night\nShould with the self-same145 moisture be bedewed:\nFor by this sign he prostrated the heaps\nOf bandits; with Christ's People 'countering them\n115 Without much soldiery, with cavalry146\nThree hundred-the Greek letter Tau, in truth,\nThat number is147 -with torches armed, and horns\nOf blowers with the mouth: then148 was the fleece,\nThe people of Christ's sheep, from holy seed\n120 Born (for the earth means nations various,\nAnd scattered through the orb), which fleece the word\nNourishes; night death's image; Tau the sign\nOf the dear cross; the horn the heraldings\nOf life; the torches shining in their stand149\n125 The glowing Spirit: and this testing, too,\nForsooth, an image of Christ's virtue was:150\nTo teach that death's fierce battles should not be\nBy trump angelic vanquished before\nTh' indocile People be deservedly\n130 By their own fault left desolate behind,\nAnd Gentiles, flourishing in faith, received\nIn praise.\nYea, Deborah, a woman far\nAbove all fame, appears; who, having braced\nHerself for warlike toil, for country's sake,\n135 Beneath the palm-tree sang how victory\nHad crowned her People; thanks to whom it was\nThat the foes, vanquisht, turned at once their backs,\nAnd Sisera their leader fled; whose flight\nNo man, nor any band, arrested: him,\n140 Suddenly renegade, a woman's hand-\nJael's151 -with wooden weapon vanquished quite,\nFor token of Christ's victory. With firm faith\nJephthah appears, who a deep-wounding vow\nDared make-to promise God a grand reward\n145 Of war: him152 then, because he senselessly\nHad promised what the Lord not wills, first meets\nThe pledge153 dear to his heart; who suddenly\nFell by a lot unhoped by any. He,\nTo keep his promise, broke the sacred laws\n150 Of parenthood: the shade of mighty fear\nDid in his violent mind cover his vow\nOf sin: as solace of his widowed life\nFor154 wickedness, renown, and, for crime, praise,\nHe won.\nNor Samson's strength, all corporal might\n155 Passing, must we forget; the Spirit's gift\nWas this; the power was granted to his head.155\nAlone he for his People, daggerless,\nArmless, an ass-jaw grasping, prostrated\nA thousand corpses; and no bonds could keep\n160 The hero bound: but after his shorn pride\nForsook him thralled, he fell, and, by his death,-\nThough vanquisht,-bought his foes back 'neath his power.\nMarvellous Samuel, who first received\nThe precept to anoint kings, to give chrism\n165 And show men-Christs,156 so acted laudably\nIn life's space as, e'en after his repose,\nTo keep prophetic rights.157\nPsalmographist\nDavid, great king and prophet, with a voice\nSubmiss was wont Christ's future suffering\n170 To sing: which prophecy spontaneously\nHis thankless lawless People did perform:\nWhom158 God had promised that in time to come,\nFruit of his womb,159 a holy progeny,\nHe would on his sublime throne set: the Lord's\n175 Fixt faith did all that He had promised.\nCorrector of an inert People rose\nEmulous160 Hezekiah; who restored\nIniquitous forgetful men the Law:161\nAll these God's mandates of old time he first\n180 Bade men observe, who ended war by prayers,162\nNot by steel's point: he, dying, had a grant\nOf years and times of life made to his tears:\nDeservedly such honour his career Obtained.\nWith zeal immense, Josiah, prince\n185 Himself withal, in like wise acted: none\nSo much, before or after!-Idols he\nDethroned; destroyed unhallowed temples; burned\nWith fire priests on their altars; all the bones\nOf prophets false updug; the altars burned,\n190 The carcases to be consumed did serve\nFor fuel!\nTo the praise of signal faith,\nNoble Elijah, (memorable fact!)\nWas rapt;163 who hath not tasted yet death's dues;\nSince to the orb he is to come again.\n195 His faith unbroken, then, chastening with stripes\nPeople and frenzied king, (who did desert\nThe Lord's best service), and with bitter flames\nThe foes, shut up the stars; kept in the clouds\nThe rain; showed all collectively that God\n200 Is; made their error patent;-for a flame,\nComing with force from heaven at his prayers,\nAte up the victim's parts, dripping with flood,\nUpon the altar:164 -often as he willed,\nSo often from on high rushed fire;165 the stream\n205 Dividing, he made pathless passable;166\nAnd, in a chariot raised aloft, was borne\nTo paradise's hall.\nDisciple his Elisha was, succeeding to his lot:167\nWho begged to take to him Elijah's lot168\n210 In double measure; so, with forceful stripe,\nThe People to chastise:169 such and so great\nA love for the Lord's cause he breathed. He smote\nThrough Jordan; made his feet a way, and crossed\nAgain; raised with a twig the axe down-sunk\n215 Beneath the stream; changed into vital meat\nThe deathful food; detained a second time,\nDouble in length,170 the rains; cleansed leprosies;171\nEntangled foes in darkness; and when one\nOffcast and dead, by bandits'slaughter slain\n220 His limbs, after his death, already hid\nIn sepulchre, did touch, he-light recalled-\nRevived.\nIsaiah, wealthy seer, to whom\nThe fount was oped,-so manifest his faith!\nPoured from his mouth God's word forth. Promised was\n225 The Father's will, bounteous through Christ; through him\nIt testified before the way of life,\nAnd was approved:172 but him, though stainless found,\nAnd undeserving, the mad People cut\nWith wooden saw in twain, and took away\n230 With cruel death.\nThe holy Jeremy\nFollowed; whom the Eternal's Virtue bade\nBe prophet to the Gentiles, and him told\nThe future: who, because he brooded o'er\nHis People's deeds illaudable, and said\n235 (Speaking with voice presaging) that, unless\nThey had repented of betaking them\nTo deeds iniquitous against their slaves,173\nThey should be captived, bore hard bonds, shut up\nIn squalid gaol; and, in the miry pit,\n240 Hunger exhausted his decaying limbs.\nBut, after he did prove what they to hear\nHad been unwilling, and the foes did lead\nThe People bound in their triumphal trains,\nHardly at length his wrinkled right hand lost\n245 Its chains: it is agreed that by no death\nNor slaughter was the hero ta'en away.\nFaithful Ezekiel, to whom granted was\nRich grace of speech, saw sinners' secrets; wailed\nHis own afflictions; prayed for pardon; saw\n250 The vengeance of the saints, which is to be\nBy slaughter; and, in Spirit wrapt, the place\nOf the saints' realm, its steps and accesses,\nAnd the salvation of the flesh, he saw.\nHosea, Amos, Micah, Joel, too,\n255 With Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, come;\nHabakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai,\nAnd Zechariah who did violence\nSuffer, and Malachi-angel himself!\nAre here: these are the Lord's seers; and their choir,\n260 As still they sing, is heard; and equally\nTheir proper wreath of praise they all have earned.\nHow great was Daniel! What a man!\nWhat power!\nWho by their own mouth did false witnesses\nBewray, and saved a soul on a false charge\n265 Condemned;174 and, before that, by mouth resolved\nThe king's so secret dreams; foresaw how Christ\nDissolves the limbs of kingdoms; was accused\nFor his Lord's was made the lions' prey;\nAnd, openly preserved175 before all eyes,\n270 Rested in peace.\nHis Three Companions, scarce\nWith due praise to be sung, did piously\nContemn the king's iniquitous decree,\nOut of so great a number: to the flames\nTheir bodies given were; but they preferred,\n275 For the Great Name, to yield to penalties\nThemselves, than to an image stretch their palms\nOn bended knees. Now their o'erbrilliant faith,\nNow hope outshining all things, the wild fires\nHath quencht, and vanquisht the iniquitous!\n280 Ezra the seer, doctor of Law, and priest\nHimself (who, after full times, back did lead\nThe captive People), with the Spirit filled\nOf memory, restored by word of mouth\nAll the seers' volumes, by the fires and mould176\n285 Consumed.\nGreat above all born from seed\nIs John whose praises hardly shall we skill\nTo tell: the washer177 of the flesh: the Lord's\nOpen forerunner; washer,178 too, of Christ,\nHimself first born again from Him: the first\n290 Of the new convenant, last of the old,\nWas he; and for the True Way's sake he died,\nThe first slain victim.\nSee God-Christ! behold\nAlike, His Twelve-Fold Warrior-Youth!179 in all\nOne faith, one dove, one power; the flower of men;\n295 Lightening the world180 with light; comrades of Christ\nAnd apostolic men; who, speaking truth,\nHeard with their ears Salvation,181 with their eyes\nSaw It, and handled with their hand the late\nFrom death recovered body,182 and partook\n300 As fellow-guests of food therewith, as they\nThemselves bear witness.\nHim did Paul as well (Forechosen apostle, and in due time sent),\nWhen rapt into the heavens,183 behold: and sent\nBy Him, he, with his comrade Barnabas,\n305 And with the earlier associates\nJoined in one league together, everywhere\nAmong the Gentiles hands the doctrine down\nThat Christ is Head, whose members are the Church,\nHe the salvation of the body, He\n310 The members' life perennial;\nHe, made flesh, He, ta'en away for all, Himself first rose\nAgain, salvation's only hope; and gave\nThe norm to His disciples: they at once\nAll variously suffered, for His Name,\n315 Unworthy penalties.\nSuch members bears\nWith beauteous body the free mother, since\nShe never her Lord's precepts left behind,\nAnd in His home hath grown old, to her Lord\nEver most choice, having for His Name's sake\n320 Penalties suffered. For since, barren once,\nNot yet secure of her futurity,\nShe hath outgiven a people born of seed\nCelestial, and184 been spurned, and borne the spleen185\nOf her own handmaid; now 'tis time to see\n325 This former-barren mother have a son\nThe heir of her own liberty; not like\nThe handmaid's heir, yoked in estate to her,\nAlthough she bare him from celestial seed\nConceived. Far be it that ye should with words\n330 Unlawful, with rash voice, collectively\nWithout distinction, give men exemplary\n(Heaven's glowing constellations, to the mass\nOf men conjoined by seed alone or blood),\nThe rugged bondman's186 name; or that one think\n335 That he may speak in servile style about\nA People who the mandates followed\nOf the Lord's Law. No: but we mean the troop\nOf sinners, empty, mindless, who have placed\nGod's promises in a mistrustful heart;\n340 Men vanquisht by the miserable sweet\nOf present life: that troop would have been bound\nCapital slavery to undergo,\nBy their own fault, if sin's cause shall impose\nLaw's yoke upon the mass. For to serve God,\n345 And be whole-heartedly intent thereon,\nUntainted faith, and freedom, is thereto\nPrepared spontaneous.\nThe just fathers, then, And holy stainless prophets, many, sang\nThe future advent of the Lord; and they\n350 Faithfully testify what Heaven bids\nTo men profane: with them the giants,187 men\nWith Christ's own glory satiated, made\nThe consorts of His virtue, filling up\nThe hallowed words, have stablished our faith;\n355 By facts predictions proving.\nOf these men\nDisciples who succeeded them throughout\nThe orb, men wholly filled with virtue's breath,\nAnd our own masters, have assigned to us\nHonours conjoined with works.\nOf whom the first\n360 Whom Peter bade to take his place and sit\nUpon this chair in mightiest Rome where he\nHimself had sat,188 was Linus, great, elect,\nAnd by the mass approved. And after him\nCletus himself the fold's flock undertook;\n365 As his successor Anacletus was\nBy lot located: Clement follows him;\nWell known was he to apostolic men:189\nNext Evaristus ruled without a crime\nThe law.190 To Sixtus Sextus Alexander\n370 Commends the fold: who, after he had filled\nHis lustral times up, to Telesphorus\nHands it in order: excellent was he,\nAnd martyr faithful. After him succeeds\nA comrade in the law,191 and master sure:\n375 When lo! the comrade of your wickedness,\nIts author and forerunner-Cerdo highs-\nArrived at Rome, smarting with recent wounds:\nDetected, for that he was scattering\nVoices and words of venom stealthily:\n380 For which cause, driven from the band, he bore\nThis sacrilegious brood, the dragon's breath\nEngendering it. Blooming in piety\nUnited stood the Church of Rome, compact\nBy Peter: whose successor, too, himself,\n385 And now in the ninth place, Hyginus was,\nThe burden undertaking of his chair.\nAfter him followed Pius-Hermas his\nOwn brother192 was; angelic \"Pastor\" he,\nBecause he spake the words delivered him:193\n390 And Anicetus194 the allotted post\nIn pious order undertook.'Neath whom\nMarcion here coming, the new Pontic pest,\n(The secret daring deed in his own heart\nNot yet disclosed,) went, speaking commonly,\n395 In all directions, in his perfidy,\nWith lurking art. But after he began\nHis deadly arrows to produce, cast off\nDeservedly (as author of a crime\nSo savage), reprobated by the saints,\n400 He burst, a wondrous monster! on our view.\nBook IV.-Of Marcion's Antitheses.195\nWhat the Inviolable Power bids\nThe youthful people,196 which, rich, free, and heir,\nPossesses an eternal hope of praise\n(By right assigned) is this: that with great zeal\n5 Burning, armed with the love of peace-yet not\nAs teachers (Christ alone doth all things teach197 ),\nBut as Christ's household-servants-o'er the earth\nThey should conduct a massive war;198 should raze\nThe wicked's lofty towers, savage walls,\n10 And threats which 'gainst the holy people's bands\nRise, and dissolve such empty sounds in air.\nWherefore we, justly speaking emulous words,199\nOut of his200 own words even strive to express\nThe meaning of salvation's records,201 which Is\n15 Large grace hath poured profusely; and to ope\nTo the saints' eyes the Bandit's202 covert plague:\nLest any untrained, daring, ignorant,\nFall therein unawares, and (being caught)\nForfeit celestial gifts. God, then, is One\n20 To mortals all and everywhere; a Realm\nEternal, Origin of light profound;\nLife's Fount; a Draught fraught203 with all wisdom. HE\nProduced the orb whose bosom all things girds;\nHim not a region, not a place, includes as\n25 In circuit: matter none perennial is,204\nSo as to be self-made, or to have been\nEver, created by no Maker: heaven's,\nEarth's, sea's, and the abyss's205 Settler206 is\nThe Spirit; air's Divider, Builder, Author,\n30 Sole God perpetual, Power immense, is He.207\nHim had the Law the People208 shown to be\nOne God,209 whose mighty voice to Moses spake\nUpon the mount. Him this His Virtue, too,\nHis Wisdom, Glory, Word, and Son, this Light\n35 Begotten from the Light immense,210 proclaims\nThrough the seers' voices, to be One: and Paul,211\nTaking the theme in order up, thus too\nHimself derives; \"Father there is One212\nThrough whom were all things made: Christ One, through whom\n40 God all things made; \"213 to whom he plainly owns\nThat every knee doth bow itself;214 of whom\nIs every fatherhood215 in heaven and earth\nCalled: who is zealous with the highest love\nOf parent-care His people-ward; and wills\n45 All flesh to live in holy wise, and wills\nHis people to appear before Him pure\nWithout a crime. With such zeal, by a law216\nGuards He our safety; warns us loyal be;\nChastens; is instant. So, too, has the same\n50 Apostle (when Galatian brethren\nChiding)-Paul-written that such zeal hath he.217\nThe fathers'sins God freely rendered, then,\nSlaying in whelming deluge utterly Parents alike with progeny, and e'en\n55 Grandchildren in \"fourth generation\"218 now\nDescended from the parent-stock, when He\nHas then for nearly these nine hundred years\nAssisted them. Hard does the judgment seem?\nThe sentence savage? And in Sodom, too,\n60 That the still guiltless little one unarmed\nAnd tender should lose life: for what had e'er\nThe infant sinned? What cruel thou mayst think,\nIs parent-care's true duty. Lest misdeed\nShould further grow, crime's authors He did quench,\n65 And sinful parents' brood. But, with his sires,\nThe harmless infant pays not penalties\nPerpetual, ignorant and not advanced\nIn crime: but lest he partner should become\nOf adult age's guilt, death immature\n70 Undid spontaneous future ills.\nWhy, then,\nBids God libation to be poured to Him\nWith blood of sheep? and takes so stringent means\nBy Law, that, in the People, none transgress\nErringly, threatening them with instant death\n75 By stoning? and why reprobates, again,\nThese gifts of theirs, and says they are to Him\nUnwelcome, while He chides a People press\nWith swarm of sin?219 Does He, the truthful, bid,\nAnd He, the just, at the same time repel?\n80 The causes if thou seekst, cease to be moved\nErringly: for faith's cause is weightier\nThan fancied reason.220 Through a mirror221 -shade\nOf fulgent light!-behold what the calf's blood,\nThe heifer's ashes, and each goat, do mean:\n85 The one dismissed goes off, the other falls\nA victim at the temple.\nWith calfs blood\nWith water mixt the seer222 (thus from on high\nBidden) besprinkled People, vessels all,\nPriests, and the written volumes of the Law.\n90 See here not their true hope, nor yet a mere\nSemblance devoid of virtue:223 but behold\nIn the calf's type Christ destined bodily\nTo suffer; who upon His shoulders bare\nThe plough-beam's hard yokes,224 and with fortitude\n95 Brake His own heart with the steel share, and poured\nInto the furrows water of His own\nLife's blood. For these \"temple-vessels\" do\nDenote our bodies: God's true temple225 He,\nNot dedicated erst; for to Himself\n100 He by His blood associated men,\nAnd willed them be His body's priests, Himself\nThe Supreme Father's perfect Priest by right.\nHearing, sight, step inert, He cleansed; and, for a \"book,\"226\nSprinkled, by speaking.227 words of presage, those\n105 His witnesses: demonstrating the Law\nBound by His holy blood.\nThis cause withal Our victim through \"the heifer\" manifests\nFrom whose blood taking for the People's sake\nPiacular drops, them the first Levite228 bare\n110 Within the veil; and, by God's bidding, burned\nHer corse without the camp's gates; with whose ash\nHe cleansed lapsed bodies. Thus our Lord (who us\nBy His own death redeemed), without the camp229\nWillingly suffering the violence\n115 Of an iniquitous People, did fulfil\nThe Law, by facts predictions proving;230 who\nA people of contamination full\nDoth truly cleanse, conceding all things, as\nThe body's Author rich; within heaven's veil\n120 Gone with the blood which-One for many's deaths-\nHe hath outpoured.\nA holy victim, then,\nIs meet for a great priest; which worthily\nHe, being perfect, may be proved to have,\nAnd offer. He a body hath: this is\n125 For mortals a live victim; worthy this\nOf great price did He offer, One for all.\nThe231 semblance of the \"goats\" teaches that they\nAre men exiled out of the \"peoples twain\"232\nAs barren;233 fruitless both; (of whom the Lord\n130 Spake also, in the Gospel, telling how\nThe kids are severed from the sheep, and stand\nOn the left hand234 ): that some indeed there are\nWho for the Lord's Name's sake have suffered: thus\nThat fruit has veiled their former barrenness:\n135 And such, the prophet teaches, on the ground\nOf that their final merit worthy are\nOf the Lord's altar: others, cast away\n(As was th' iniquitous rich man, we read,\nBy Lazarus235 ), are such as have remained\n140 Exiled, persistent in their stubbornness.\nNow a veil, hanging in the midst, did both\nDissever,236 and had into portions twain\nDivided the one shrine.237 The inner parts\nWere called \"Holies of holiest\" Stationed there\n145 An altar shone, noble with gold; and there,\nAt the same time, the testaments and ark\nOf the Law's tablets; covered wholly o'er\nWith lambs'skins238 dyed with heaven's hue; within\nGold-clad;239 and all between of wood. Here are so\n150 The tablets of the Law; here is the urn\nReplete with manna; here is Aaron's rod\nWhich puts forth germens of the cross240 -unlike\nThe cross itself, yet born of storax-tree241 -And over it-in uniformity\n155 Fourfold-the cherubim their pinions spread,\nAnd the inviolable sanctities242\nCovered obediently.243 Without the veil\nPart of the shrine stood open: facing it,\nHeavy with broad brass, did an altar stand;\n160 And with two triple sets (on each side one)\nOf branches woven with the central stem,\nA lampstand, and as many244 lamps:\nThe golden substance wholly filled with light\nThe temple.245\nThus the temple's outer face,\n165 Common and open, does the ritual\nDenote, then, of a people lingering\nBeneath the Law; amid whose246 gloom there shone\nThe Holy Spirit's sevenfold unity\nEver, the People sheltering.247 And thus\n170 The Lampstand True and living Lamps do shine\nPersistently throughout the Law and Seers\nOn men subdued in heart. And for a type\nOf earth,248 the altar-so tradition says-\nWas made. Here constantly, in open space,\n175 Before all eyes were visible of old\nThe People's \"works,\"249 which ever-\"not without\nBlood\"250 -it did offer, shedding out the gore\nOf lawless life.251 There, too, the Lord-Himself\nMade victim on behalf of all-denotes\n180 The whole earth252 -altar in specific sense.\nHence likewise that new covenant author, whom\nNo language can describe, Disciple John,\nTestifies that beneath such altar he\nSaw souls which had for Christ's name suffered,\n185 Praying the vengeance of the mighty God\nUpon their slaughter.253 There,254 meantime, is rest.\nIn some unknown part there exists a spot\nOpen, enjoying its own light; 'tis called\n\"Abraham's bosom; \"high above the glooms,255\n190 And far removed from fire, yet 'neath the earth.256\nThe brazen altar this is called, whereon\n(We have recorded) was a dusky veil.257\nThis veil divides both parts, and leaves the one\nOpen, from the eternal one distinct\n195 In worship and time's usage. To itself'\nTis not unfriendly, though of fainter love,\nBy time and space divided, and yet linked\nBy reason.'Tis one house, though by a veil\nParted it seems: and thus (when the veil burst,\n200 On the Lord's passion) heavenly regions oped\nAnd holy vaults,258 and what was double erst\nBecame one house perennial. Order due\nTraditionally has interpreted\nThe inner temple of the people called\n205 After Christ's Name, with worship heavenly,\nGod's actual mandates following; (no \"shade\".\nIs herein bound, but persons real;259 ) complete\nBy the arrival of the \"perfect things.\"260\nThe ark beneath a type points out to us\n210 Christ's venerable body, joined, through \"wood,\"261\nWith sacred Spirit: the a\u00ebrial262 skins\nAre flesh not born of seed, outstretcht on \"wood; \"263\nAt the same time, with golden semblance fused,264\nWithin, the glowing Spirit joined is\n215 Thereto; that, with peace265 granted, flesh might bloom\nWith Spirit mixt. Of the Lord's flesh, again,\nThe urn, golden and full, a type doth bear.\nItself denotes that the new covenant's Lord\nIs manna; in that He, true heavenly Bread,\n220 Is, and hath by the Father been transfused266\nInto that bread which He hath to His saints\nAssigned for a pledge: this Bread will He\nGive perfectly to them who (of good works\nThe lovers ever) have the bonds of peace\n225 Kept. And the double tablets of the law\nWritten all over, these, at the same time,\nSignify that that Law was ever hid\nIn Christ, who mandate old and new fulfilled,\nArk of the Supreme Father as He is,\n230 Through whom He, being rich, hath all things given.\nThe storax-rod, too, nut's fruit bare itself;\n(The virgin's semblance this, who bare in blood\nA body:) on the \"wood\"267 conjoined 'twill lull\nDeath's bitter, which within sweet fruit doth lurk,\n235 By virtue of the Holy Spirit's grace:\nJust as Isaiah did predict \"a rod\"\nFrom Jesse's seed268 -Mary-from which a flower\nIssues into the orb.\nThe altar bright with gold\nDenotes the heaven on high, whither ascend\n240 Prayers holy, sent up without crime: the Lord\nThis \"altar\" spake of, where if one doth gifts\nOffer, he must first reconciliate\nPeace with his brother:269 thus at length his prayers\nCan flame unto the stars. Christ, Victor sole\n245 And foremost.270 Priest, thus offered incense born\nNot of a tree, but prayers.271 The cherubim272\nBeing, with twice two countenances, one,\nAnd are the one word through fourfold order led;273\nThe hoped comforts of life's mandate new,\n250 Which in their plenitude Christ bare Himself\nUnto us from the Father. But the wings\nIn number four times six,274 the heraldings\nOf the old world denote, witnessing things\nWhich, we are taught, were after done. On these275\n255 The heavenly words fly through the orb: with these\nChrist's blood is likewise held context, so told\nObscurely by the seers' presaging mouth.\nThe number of the wings doth set a seal\nUpon the ancient volumes; teaching us\n260 Those twenty-four have certainly enough\nWhich sang the Lord's ways and the times of peace:\nThese all, we see, with the new covenant\nCohere. Thus also John; the Spirit thus\nTo him reveals that in that number stand\n265 The enthroned elders white276 and crowned, who (as\nWith girding-rope) all things surround, before\nThe Lord's throne, and upon the glassy sea\nSubigneous: and four living creatures, winged\nAnd full of eyes within and outwardly,\n270 Do signify that hidden things are oped,\nAnd all things shut are at the same time seen,\nIn the word's eye. The glassy flame-mixt sea\nMeans that the laver's gifts, with Spirit fused\nTherein, upon believers are conferred.\n275 Who could e'en tell what the Lord's parentcare\nBefore His judgment-seat, before His bar,\nPrepared hath? that such as willing be\nHis forum and His judgment for themselves\nTo antedate, should 'scape! that who thus hastes\n280 Might find abundant opportunity!\nThus therefore Law and wondrous prophets sang;\nThus all parts of the covenant old and new,\nThose sacred rights and pregnant utterances\nOf words, conjoined, do flourish. Thus withal,\n285 Apostles' voices witness everywhere;\nNor aught of old, in fine, but to the new\nIs joined.\nThus err they, and thus facts retort\nTheir sayings, who to false ways have declined;\nAnd from the Lord and God, eternal King,\n290 Who such an orb produced, detract, and seek\nSome other deity 'neath feigned name,\nBereft of minds, which (frenzied) they have lost;\nWilling to affirm that Christ a stranger is\nTo the Law; nor is the world's277 Lord; nor doth will\n295 Salvation of the flesh; nor was Himself\nThe body's Maker, by the Father's power.278\nThem must we flee, stopping (unasked) our ears;\nLest with their speech they stain innoxious hearts.\nLet therefore us, whom so great grace279 of God\n300 Hath penetrated, and the true celestial words\nOf the great Master-Teacher in good ways\nHave trained, and given us right monuments;280\nPay honour ever to the Lord, and sing\nEndlessly, joying in pure faith, and sure\n305 Salvation. Born of the true God, with bread\nPerennial are we nourished, and hope\nWith our whole heart after eternal life.\nBook V.-General Reply to Sundry of Marcion's Heresies.281\nThe first Book did the enemy's words recall In\norder, which the senseless renegade\nComposed and put forth lawlessly; hence, too,\nTouched briefly flesh's hope, Christ's victory,\n5 And false ways' speciousness. The next doth teach\nThe Law's conjoined mysteries, and what\nIn the new covenant the one God hath\nDelivered. The third shows the race, create\nFrom freeborn mother, to be ministers\n10 Sacred to seers and patriarchs;282 whom Thou,\nO Christ, in number twice six out of all,283\nChosest; and, with their names, the lustral284 times\nOf our own elders noted, (times preserved\nOn record,) showing in whose days appeared i\n15 The author285 of this wickedness, unknown,\nLawless, and roaming, cast forth286 with his brood.\nThe fourth, too, the piacular rites recalls\nOf the old Law themselves, and shows them types\nIn which the Victim True appeared, by saints\n20 Expected long since, with the holy Seed.\nThis fifth doth many twists and knots untie,\nRolls wholly into sight what ills soe'er\nWere lurking; drawing arguments, but not\nWithout attesting prophet.\nAnd although\n25 With strong arms fortified we vanquish foes,\nYet hath the serpent mingled so at once\nAll things polluted, impious, unallowed,\nCommaculate, -the blind's path without light!\nA voice contaminant!-that, all the while\n30 We are contending the world's Maker is\nHimself sole God, who also spake by voice\nOf seers, and proving that there is none else\nUnknown; and, while pursuing Him with praise,\nWho is by various endearment287 known,\n35 Are blaming-among other fallacies-\nThe Unknown's tardy times: our subject's fault\nWill scarce keep pure our tongue. Yet, for all that,\nGuile's many hidden venoms us enforce\n(Although with double risk288 ) to ope our words.\n40 Who, then, the God whom ye say is the true,\nUnknown to peoples, alien, in a word,\nTo all the world?289 Him whom none knew before?\nCame he from high? If 'tis his own290 he seeks,\nWhy seek so late? If not his own, why rob\n45 Bandit-like? and why ply with words unknown\nSo oft throughout Law's rein a People still\nLingering 'neath the Law? If, too, he comes\nTo pity and to succour all combined,\nAnd to re-elevate men vanquisht quite\n50 By death's funereal weight, and to release\nSpirit from flesh's bond obscene, whereby\nThe inner man (iniquitously dwarfed)\nIs held in check; why, then, so late appear\nHis ever-kindness, duteous vigilance?\n55 How comes it that he ne at all before\nOffered himself to any, but let slip\nPoor souls in numbers?291 and then with his mouth\nSeeks to regain another's subjects: ne'er\nExpected; not known; sent into the orb.\n60 Seeking the \"ewe\" he had not lost before,\nThe Shepherd ought292 to have disrobed himself\nOf flesh, as if his victor-self withal\nHad ever been a spirit, and as such293\nWilled to rescue all expelled souls,\n65 Without a body, everywhere, and leave\nThe spoiled flesh to earth; wholly to fill\nThe world294 on one day equally with corpses\nTo leave the orb void; and to raise the souls\nTo heaven. Then would human progeny\n70 At once have ceased to be born; nor had\nThereafter any scion of your295 kith\nBeen born, or spread a new pest296 o'er the orb.\nOr (since at that time297 none of all these things\nIs shown to have been done) he should have set\n75 A bound to future race; with solid heart\nNuptial embraces would he, in that case\nHave sated quite;298 made men grow torpid, reft\nOf fruitful seed; made irksome intercourse\nWith female sex; and closed up inwardly\n80 The flesh's organs genital: our mind\nHad had no will, no potent faculty\nOur body: after this the \"inner man\"\nCould withal, joined with blood,299 have been infused\nAnd cleaved to flesh, and would have ever been\n85 Perishing. Ever perishes the \"ewe: \"\nAnd is there then no power of saving her?\nSince man is ever being born beneath\nDeath's doom, what is the Shepherd's work, if thus\nThe \"ewe\" is stated300 to be found? Unsought\n90 In that case, but not rescued, she is proved.\nBut now choice is allowed of entering\nWedlock, as hath been ever; and that choice\nSure progeny hath yoked: nations are born\nAnd folk scarce numerable, at whose birth\n95 Their souls by living bodies are received;\nNor was it meet that Paul (though, for the time,\nHe did exhort some few, discerning well\nThe many pressures of a straitened time)\nTo counsel men in like case to abide\n100 As he himself:301 for elsewhere he has bidden\nThe tender ages marry, nor defraud\nEach other, but their compact's dues discharge.\nBut say, whose suasion hash, with fraud astute,\nMade you \"abide,\" and in divided love\n105 Of offspring live secure, and commit crime\nAdulterous, and lose your life? and, though\n'Tis perishing, belie (by verbal name)\nThat fact.. For which cause all the so sweet sounds\nOf his voice pours he forth, that \"you must do,\n110 Undaunted, whatsoever pleases you; \"\nOutwardly chaste, stealthily stained with crime!\nOf honourable wedlock, by this plea,302\nHe hath deprived you. But why more? 'Tis well\n(Forsooth) to be disjoined! for the world, too,\n115 Expedient 'tis! lest any of your seed\nBe born! Then will death's organs303 cease at length!\nThe while you hope salvation to retain,\nYour \"total man\" quite loses part of man,\nWith mind profane: but neither is man said\n120 To be sole spirit, nor the flesh is called\n\"The old man; \"nor unfriendly are the flesh\nAnd spirit, the true man combined in one,\nThe inner, and he whom you call \"old foe; \"304\nNor are they seen to have each his own set\n125 Of senses. One is ruled; the other rules,\nGroans, joys, grieves, loves; himself305 to his own flesh\nMost dear, too; through which306 his humanity\nIs visible, with which commixt he is\nHeld ever: to its wounds he care applies;\n130 And pours forth tears; and nutriments of food\nTakes, through its limbs, often and eagerly:\nThis hopes he to have ever with himself\nImmortal; o'er its fracture doth he groan;\nAnd grieves to quit it limb by limb: fixt time\n135 Death lords it o'er the unhappy flesh; that so\nFrom light dust it may be renewed, and death\nUnfriendly fail at length, when flesh, released,\nRises again. This will that victory be\nSupreme and long expected, wrought by Him,\n140 The aye-to-be-revered, who did become\nTrue man; and by His Father's virtue won: Who\nman's redeemed limbs unto the heavens\nHath raised,307 and richly opened access up\nThither in hope, first to His nation; then\n145 To those among all tongues in whom His work\nIs ever doing: Minister imbued\nWith His Sire's parent-care, seen by the eye\nOf the Illimitable, He performed,\nBy suffering, His missions.308\nWhat say now\n150 The impious voices? what th' abandoned crew?\nIf He Himself, God the Creator's self,\nGave not the Law,309 He who from Egypt's vale310\nPaved in the waves a path, and freely gave\nThe seats which He had said of old, why comes\n155 He in that very People and that land\nAforesaid? and why rather sought He not\nSome other311 peoples or some rival312 realms?\nWhy, further, did He teach that, through the seers,\n(With Name foretold in full, yet not His own,)\n160 He had been often sung of? Whence, again,\nCould He have issued baptism's kindly gifts,\nPromised by some one else, as His own works?\nThese gifts men who God's mandates had transgressed,\nAnd hence were found polluted, longed for,\n165 And begged a pardoning rescue from fierce death.\nExpected long, they313 came: but that to those\nWho recognised them when erst heard, and now\nHave recognised them, when in due time found,\nChrist's true hand is to give them, this, with voice\n170 Paternal, the Creator-Sire Himself\nWarns ever from eternity, and claims;\nAnd thus the work of virtue which He framed,\nAnd still frames, arms, and fosters, and doth now\nVictorious look down on and reclothe\n175 With His own light, should with perennial praise Abide.314\nWhat315 hath the Living Power done\nTo make men recosnise what God can give\nAnd maul can suffer, and thus live?316 But since\nNeither predictions earlier nor facts\n180 The latest can suede senseless frantic317 men\nThat God became a man, and (after He\nHad suffered and been buried) rose; that they\nMay credit those so many witnesses\nHarmonious,318 who of old did cry aloud\n185 With heavenly word, let them both319 learn to trust\nAt least terrestrial reason.\nWhen the Lord\nChrist came to be, as flesh, born into the orb\nIn time of king Augustus' reign at Rome,\nFirst, by decree, the nations numbered are\n190 By census everywhere: this measure, then,\nThis same king chanced to pass, because the Will\nSupreme, in whose high reigning hand doth lie\nThe king's heart, had impelled him:320 he was first\nTo do it, and the enrolment was reduced\n195 To orderly arrangement. Joseph then\nLikewise, with his but just delivered wife\nMary,321 with her celestial Son alike,\nThemselves withal are numbered. Let, then, such\nAs trust to instruments of human skill,\n200 Who may (approving of applying them\nAs attestators of the holy word)\nInquire into this census, if it be\nBut found so as we say, then afterwards\nRepent they and seek pardon while time still\n205 Is had322\nThe Jews, who own323 to having wrought\nA grave crime, while in our disparagement\nThey glow, and do resist us, neither call\nChrist's family unknown, nor can324 affirm\nThey hanged a man, who spake truth, on a tree:325\n210 Ignorant that the Lord's flesh which they bound326\nWas not seed-gendered. But, while partially\nThey keep a reticence, so partially\nThey triumph; for they strive to represent\nGod to the peoples commonly as man.\n215 Behold the error which o'ercomes you both!327\nThis error will our cause assist, the while,\nWe prove to you those things which certain are.\nThey do deny Him God; you falsely call\nHim man, a body bodiless! and ah!\n220 A various insanity of mind\nSinks you; which him who hath presumed to hint\nYou both do, sinking, sprinkle:328 for His deeds\nWill then approve Him man alike and God\nCommingled, and the world329 will furnish signs\n225 No few.\nWhile then the Son Himself of God\nIs seeking to regain the flesh's limbs,330\nAlready robed as King, He doth sustain\nBlows from rude palms; with spitting covered is\nHis face; a thorn-inwoven crown His head\n230 Pierces all round; and to the tree331 Himself\nIs fixed; wine drugged with myrrh,332 is drunk, and gall333\nIs mixt with vinegar; parted His robe,334\nAnd in it335 lots are cast; what for himself\nEach one hath seized he keeps; in murky gloom,\n235 As God from fleshly body silently\nOutbreathes His soul, in darkness trembling day\nTook refuge with the sun; twice dawned one day;\nIts centre black night covered: from their base\nMounts move in circle, wholly moved was earth,\n240 Saints'sepulchres stood ope, and all things Joined\nIn fear to see His passion whom they knew!\nHis lifeless side a soldier with bare spear\nPierces, and forth flows blood, nor water less\nThence followed. These facts they336 agree to hide,\n245 And are unwilling the misdeed to own,\nWilling to blink the crime.\nCan spirit, then,\nWithout a body wear a robe? or is't\nSusceptible of penalty? the wound\nOf violence does it bear? or die? or rise?\n250 Is blood thence poured? from what flesh. since ye say\nHe had none? or else, rather, feigned He? if\n'Tis safe for you to say so; though you do\n(Headlong) so say, by passing over more\nIn silence. Is not, then, faith manifest?\n255 And are not all things fixed? The day before\nHe then337 should suffer, keeping Passover,\nAnd handing down a memorable rite338\nTo His disciples, taking bread alike\nAnd the vine's juice, \"My body, and My blood\n260 Which is poured339 for you, this is,\" did He say;\nAnd bade it ever afterward be done.\nOf what created elements were made,\nThink ye, the bread and wine which were (He said)\nHis body with its blood? and what must be\n265 Confessed? Proved He not Himself the world's340\nMaker, through deeds? and that He bore at once\nA body formed from flesh and blood?\nThis God\nThis true Man, too, the Father's Virtue 'neath\nAn Image,341 with the Father ever was,\n270 United both in glory and in age;342\nBecause alone He ministers the words\nOf the All-Holder; whom He343 upon earth\nAccepts;344 through whom He all things did create:\nGod's Son, God's dearest Minister, is He!\n275 Hence hath He generation, hence Name too,\nHence, finally, a kingdom; Lord from Lord;\nStream from perennial Fount! He, He it was\nWho to the holy fathers (whosoe'er\nAmong them doth profess to have \"seen God\"345 )-\n200 God is our witness-since the origin\nOf this our world,346 appearing, opened up\nThe Father's words of promise and of charge\nFrom heaven high: He led the People out;\nSmote through th'iniquitous nation; was Himself\n285 The column both of light and of cloud's shade;\nAnd dried the sea; and bids the People go\nRight through the waves, the foe therein involved\nAnd covered with the flood and surge: a way\nThrough deserts made He for the followers\n290 Of His high biddings; sent down bread in showers347\nFrom heaven for the People; brake the rock;\nBedewed with wave the thirsty;348 and from God\nThe mandate of the Law to Moses spake\nWith thunder, trumpet-sound, and flamey column\n295 Terrible to the sight, while men's hearts shook.\nAfter twice twenty years, with months complete,\nJordan was parted; a way oped; the wave\nStood in a mass; and the tribes shared the land,\nTheir fathers' promised boons! The Father's word,\n300 Speaking Himself by prophets' mouth, that He349\nWould come to earth and be a man, He did\nPredict; Christ manifestly to the earth\nForetelling.\nThen, expected for our aid,\nLife's only Hope, the Cleanser of our flesh,350\n305 Death's Router, from th' Almighty Sire's empire\nAt length He came, and with our human limbs\nHe clothed Him. Adam-virgin-dragon-tree,351\nThe cause of ruin, and the way whereby\nRash death us all had vanquisht! by the same\n310 Our Shepherd treading, seeking to regain\nHis sheep-with angel-virgin-His own flesh-\nAnd the \"tree's\" remedy;352 whence vanquisht man\nAnd doomed to perish was aye wont to go\nTo meet his vanquisht peers; hence, inter-posed,\n315 One in all captives' room, He did sustain\nIn body the unfriendly penalty\nWith patience; by His own death spoiling death;\nBecomes salvation's cause; and, having paid\nThroughly our debts by throughly suffering\n320 On earth, in holy body, everything,\nSeeks the infern! here souls, bound for their crime,\nWhich shut up all together by Law's weight,\nWithout a guard,353 were asking for the boons\nPromised of old, hoped for, and tardy, He\n325 To the saints'rest admitted, and, with light,\nBrought back. For on the third day mounting up,354\nA victor, with His body by His Sire's\nVirtue immense, (salvation's pathway made,)\nAnd bearing God and man is form create,\n330 He clomb the heavens, leading back with Him\nCaptivity's first-fruits (a welcome gift\nAnd a dear figure355 to the Lord), and took\nHis seat beside light's Father, and resumed\nThe virtue and the glory of which, while\n335 He was engaged in vanquishing the foe\nHe had been stripped;356 conjoined with Spirit; bound\nWith flesh, on our part. Him, Lord, Christ, King, God,\nJudgment and kingdom given to His hand,\nThe father is to send unto the orb.\n(N.B.-It has been impossible to note the changes which I have had to make in the text of the Latin. In some cases they will suggest themselves to any scholar who may compare the translation with the original; and in others I must be content to await a more fitting opportunity, if such ever arise, for discussing them.)","title":"Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol IV: 5. Five Books in Reply to Marcion.","type":"page"}