Church Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 04: 24.01.23 X Books to Marcion Part 3

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Church Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 04: 24.01.23 X Books to Marcion Part 3



TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 04 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 24.01.23 X Books to Marcion Part 3

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140 Exiled, persistent in their stubbornness.

Now a veil, hanging in the midst, did both

Dissever,hyperlink and had into portions twain

Divided the one shrine.hyperlink The inner parts

Were called "Holies of holiest" Stationed there

145 An altar shone, noble with gold; and there,

At the same time, the testaments and ark

Of the Law's tablets; covered wholly o'er

With lambs'skinshyperlink dyed with heaven's hue; within

Gold-clad;hyperlink and all between of wood. Here are so

150 The tablets of the Law; here is the urn

Replete with manna; here is Aaron's rod

Which puts forth germens of the crosshyperlink -unlike

The cross itself, yet born of storax-treehyperlink -And over it-in uniformity

155 Fourfold-the cherubim their pinions spread,

And the inviolable sanctitieshyperlink

Covered obediently.hyperlink Without the veil

Part of the shrine stood open: facing it,

Heavy with broad brass, did an altar stand;

160 And with two triple sets (on each side one)

Of branches woven with the central stem,

A lampstand, and as manyhyperlink lamps:

The golden substance wholly filled with light

The temple.hyperlink

Thus the temple's outer face,

165 Common and open, does the ritual

Denote, then, of a people lingering

Beneath the Law; amid whosehyperlink gloom there shone

The Holy Spirit's sevenfold unity

Ever, the People sheltering.hyperlink And thus

170 The Lampstand True and living Lamps do shine

Persistently throughout the Law and Seers

On men subdued in heart. And for a type

Of earth,hyperlink the altar-so tradition says-

Was made. Here constantly, in open space,

175 Before all eyes were visible of old

The People's "works,"hyperlink which ever-"not without

Blood"hyperlink -it did offer, shedding out the gore

Of lawless life.hyperlink There, too, the Lord-Himself

Made victim on behalf of all-denotes

180 The whole earthhyperlink -altar in specific sense.

Hence likewise that new covenant author, whom

No language can describe, Disciple John,

Testifies that beneath such altar he

Saw souls which had for Christ's name suffered,

185 Praying the vengeance of the mighty God

Upon their slaughter.hyperlink There,hyperlink meantime, is rest.

In some unknown part there exists a spot

Open, enjoying its own light; 'tis called

"Abraham's bosom; "high above the glooms,hyperlink

190 And far removed from fire, yet 'neath the earth.hyperlink

The brazen altar this is called, whereon

(We have recorded) was a dusky veil.hyperlink

This veil divides both parts, and leaves the one

Open, from the eternal one distinct

195 In worship and time's usage. To itself'

Tis not unfriendly, though of fainter love,

By time and space divided, and yet linked

By reason.'Tis one house, though by a veil

Parted it seems: and thus (when the veil burst,

200 On the Lord's passion) heavenly regions oped

And holy vaults,hyperlink and what was double erst

Became one house perennial. Order due

Traditionally has interpreted

The inner temple of the people called

205 After Christ's Name, with worship heavenly,

God's actual mandates following; (no "shade".

Is herein bound, but persons real;hyperlink ) complete

By the arrival of the "perfect things."hyperlink

The ark beneath a type points out to us

210 Christ's venerable body, joined, through "wood,"hyperlink

With sacred Spirit: the aërialhyperlink skins

Are flesh not born of seed, outstretcht on "wood; "hyperlink

At the same time, with golden semblance fused,hyperlink

Within, the glowing Spirit joined is

215 Thereto; that, with peacehyperlink granted, flesh might bloom

With Spirit mixt. Of the Lord's flesh, again,

The urn, golden and full, a type doth bear.

Itself denotes that the new covenant's Lord

Is manna; in that He, true heavenly Bread,

220 Is, and hath by the Father been transfusedhyperlink

Into that bread which He hath to His saints

Assigned for a pledge: this Bread will He

Give perfectly to them who (of good works

The lovers ever) have the bonds of peace

225 Kept. And the double tablets of the law

Written all over, these, at the same time,

Signify that that Law was ever hid

In Christ, who mandate old and new fulfilled,

Ark of the Supreme Father as He is,

230 Through whom He, being rich, hath all things given.

The storax-rod, too, nut's fruit bare itself;

(The virgin's semblance this, who bare in blood

A body:) on the "wood"hyperlink conjoined 'twill lull

Death's bitter, which within sweet fruit doth lurk,

235 By virtue of the Holy Spirit's grace:

Just as Isaiah did predict "a rod"

From Jesse's seedhyperlink -Mary-from which a flower

Issues into the orb.

The altar bright with gold

Denotes the heaven on high, whither ascend

240 Prayers holy, sent up without crime: the Lord

This "altar" spake of, where if one doth gifts

Offer, he must first reconciliate

Peace with his brother:hyperlink thus at length his prayers

Can flame unto the stars. Christ, Victor sole

245 And foremost.hyperlink Priest, thus offered incense born

Not of a tree, but prayers.hyperlink The cherubimhyperlink

Being, with twice two countenances, one,

And are the one word through fourfold order led;hyperlink

The hoped comforts of life's mandate new,

250 Which in their plenitude Christ bare Himself

Unto us from the Father. But the wings

In number four times six,hyperlink the heraldings

Of the old world denote, witnessing things

Which, we are taught, were after done. On thesehyperlink

255 The heavenly words fly through the orb: with these

Christ's blood is likewise held context, so told

Obscurely by the seers' presaging mouth.

The number of the wings doth set a seal

Upon the ancient volumes; teaching us

260 Those twenty-four have certainly enough

Which sang the Lord's ways and the times of peace:

These all, we see, with the new covenant

Cohere. Thus also John; the Spirit thus

To him reveals that in that number stand

265 The enthroned elders whitehyperlink and crowned, who (as

With girding-rope) all things surround, before

The Lord's throne, and upon the glassy sea

Subigneous: and four living creatures, winged

And full of eyes within and outwardly,

270 Do signify that hidden things are oped,

And all things shut are at the same time seen,

In the word's eye. The glassy flame-mixt sea

Means that the laver's gifts, with Spirit fused

Therein, upon believers are conferred.

275 Who could e'en tell what the Lord's parentcare

Before His judgment-seat, before His bar,

Prepared hath? that such as willing be

His forum and His judgment for themselves

To antedate, should 'scape! that who thus hastes

280 Might find abundant opportunity!

Thus therefore Law and wondrous prophets sang;

Thus all parts of the covenant old and new,

Those sacred rights and pregnant utterances

Of words, conjoined, do flourish. Thus withal,

285 Apostles' voices witness everywhere;

Nor aught of old, in fine, but to the new

Is joined.

Thus err they, and thus facts retort

Their sayings, who to false ways have declined;

And from the Lord and God, eternal King,

290 Who such an orb produced, detract, and seek

Some other deity 'neath feigned name,

Bereft of minds, which (frenzied) they have lost;

Willing to affirm that Christ a stranger is

To the Law; nor is the world'shyperlink Lord; nor doth will

295 Salvation of the flesh; nor was Himself

The body's Maker, by the Father's power.hyperlink

Them must we flee, stopping (unasked) our ears;

Lest with their speech they stain innoxious hearts.

Let therefore us, whom so great gracehyperlink of God

300 Hath penetrated, and the true celestial words

Of the great Master-Teacher in good ways

Have trained, and given us right monuments;hyperlink

Pay honour ever to the Lord, and sing

Endlessly, joying in pure faith, and sure

305 Salvation. Born of the true God, with bread

Perennial are we nourished, and hope

With our whole heart after eternal life.

Book V.-General Reply to Sundry of Marcion's Heresies.hyperlink

The first Book did the enemy's words recall In

order, which the senseless renegade

Composed and put forth lawlessly; hence, too,

Touched briefly flesh's hope, Christ's victory,

5 And false ways' speciousness. The next doth teach

The Law's conjoined mysteries, and what

In the new covenant the one God hath

Delivered. The third shows the race, create

From freeborn mother, to be ministers

10 Sacred to seers and patriarchs;hyperlink whom Thou,

O Christ, in number twice six out of all,hyperlink

Chosest; and, with their names, the lustralhyperlink times

Of our own elders noted, (times preserved

On record,) showing in whose days appeared i

15 The authorhyperlink of this wickedness, unknown,

Lawless, and roaming, cast forthhyperlink with his brood.

The fourth, too, the piacular rites recalls

Of the old Law themselves, and shows them types

In which the Victim True appeared, by saints

20 Expected long since, with the holy Seed.

This fifth doth many twists and knots untie,

Rolls wholly into sight what ills soe'er

Were lurking; drawing arguments, but not

Without attesting prophet.

And although

25 With strong arms fortified we vanquish foes,

Yet hath the serpent mingled so at once

All things polluted, impious, unallowed,

Commaculate, -the blind's path without light!

A voice contaminant!-that, all the while

30 We are contending the world's Maker is

Himself sole God, who also spake by voice

Of seers, and proving that there is none else

Unknown; and, while pursuing Him with praise,

Who is by various endearmenthyperlink known,

35 Are blaming-among other fallacies-

The Unknown's tardy times: our subject's fault

Will scarce keep pure our tongue. Yet, for all that,

Guile's many hidden venoms us enforce

(Although with double riskhyperlink ) to ope our words.

40 Who, then, the God whom ye say is the true,

Unknown to peoples, alien, in a word,

To all the world?hyperlink Him whom none knew before?

Came he from high? If 'tis his ownhyperlink he seeks,

Why seek so late? If not his own, why rob

45 Bandit-like? and why ply with words unknown

So oft throughout Law's rein a People still

Lingering 'neath the Law? If, too, he comes

To pity and to succour all combined,

And to re-elevate men vanquisht quite

50 By death's funereal weight, and to release

Spirit from flesh's bond obscene, whereby

The inner man (iniquitously dwarfed)

Is held in check; why, then, so late appear

His ever-kindness, duteous vigilance?

55 How comes it that he ne at all before

Offered himself to any, but let slip

Poor souls in numbers?hyperlink and then with his mouth

Seeks to regain another's subjects: ne'er

Expected; not known; sent into the orb.

60 Seeking the "ewe" he had not lost before,

The Shepherd oughthyperlink to have disrobed himself

Of flesh, as if his victor-self withal

Had ever been a spirit, and as suchhyperlink

Willed to rescue all expelled souls,

65 Without a body, everywhere, and leave

The spoiled flesh to earth; wholly to fill

The worldhyperlink on one day equally with corpses

To leave the orb void; and to raise the souls

To heaven. Then would human progeny

70 At once have ceased to be born; nor had

Thereafter any scion of yourhyperlink kith

Been born, or spread a new pesthyperlink o'er the orb.

Or (since at that timehyperlink none of all these things

Is shown to have been done) he should have set

75 A bound to future race; with solid heart

Nuptial embraces would he, in that case

Have sated quite;hyperlink made men grow torpid, reft

Of fruitful seed; made irksome intercourse

With female sex; and closed up inwardly

80 The flesh's organs genital: our mind

Had had no will, no potent faculty

Our body: after this the "inner man"

Could withal, joined with blood,hyperlink have been infused

And cleaved to flesh, and would have ever been

85 Perishing. Ever perishes the "ewe: "

And is there then no power of saving her?

Since man is ever being born beneath

Death's doom, what is the Shepherd's work, if thus

The "ewe" is statedhyperlink to be found? Unsought

90 In that case, but not rescued, she is proved.

But now choice is allowed of entering

Wedlock, as hath been ever; and that choice

Sure progeny hath yoked: nations are born

And folk scarce numerable, at whose birth

95 Their souls by living bodies are received;

Nor was it meet that Paul (though, for the time,

He did exhort some few, discerning well

The many pressures of a straitened time)

To counsel men in like case to abide

100 As he himself:hyperlink for elsewhere he has bidden

The tender ages marry, nor defraud

Each other, but their compact's dues discharge.

But say, whose suasion hash, with fraud astute,

Made you "abide," and in divided love

105 Of offspring live secure, and commit crime

Adulterous, and lose your life? and, though

'Tis perishing, belie (by verbal name)

That fact.. For which cause all the so sweet sounds

Of his voice pours he forth, that "you must do,

110 Undaunted, whatsoever pleases you; "

Outwardly chaste, stealthily stained with crime!

Of honourable wedlock, by this plea,hyperlink

He hath deprived you. But why more? 'Tis well

(Forsooth) to be disjoined! for the world, too,

115 Expedient 'tis! lest any of your seed

Be born! Then will death's organshyperlink cease at length!

The while you hope salvation to retain,

Your "total man" quite loses part of man,

With mind profane: but neither is man said

120 To be sole spirit, nor the flesh is called

"The old man; "nor unfriendly are the flesh

And spirit, the true man combined in one,

The inner, and he whom you call "old foe; "hyperlink

Nor are they seen to have each his own set

125 Of senses. One is ruled; the other rules,

Groans, joys, grieves, loves; himselfhyperlink to his own flesh

Most dear, too; through whichhyperlink his humanity

Is visible, with which commixt he is

Held ever: to its wounds he care applies;

130 And pours forth tears; and nutriments of food

Takes, through its limbs, often and eagerly:

This hopes he to have ever with himself

Immortal; o'er its fracture doth he groan;

And grieves to quit it limb by limb: fixt time

135 Death lords it o'er the unhappy flesh; that so

From light dust it may be renewed, and death

Unfriendly fail at length, when flesh, released,

Rises again. This will that victory be

Supreme and long expected, wrought by Him,

140 The aye-to-be-revered, who did become

True man; and by His Father's virtue won: Who

man's redeemed limbs unto the heavens

Hath raised,hyperlink and richly opened access up

Thither in hope, first to His nation; then

145 To those among all tongues in whom His work

Is ever doing: Minister imbued

With His Sire's parent-care, seen by the eye

Of the Illimitable, He performed,

By suffering, His missions.hyperlink

What say now

150 The impious voices? what th' abandoned crew?

If He Himself, God the Creator's self,

Gave not the Law,hyperlink He who from Egypt's valehyperlink

Paved in the waves a path, and freely gave

The seats which He had said of old, why comes

155 He in that very People and that land

Aforesaid? and why rather sought He not

Some otherhyperlink peoples or some rivalhyperlink realms?

Why, further, did He teach that, through the seers,

(With Name foretold in full, yet not His own,)

160 He had been often sung of? Whence, again,

Could He have issued baptism's kindly gifts,

Promised by some one else, as His own works?

These gifts men who God's mandates had transgressed,

And hence were found polluted, longed for,

165 And begged a pardoning rescue from fierce death.

Expected long, theyhyperlink came: but that to those

Who recognised them when erst heard, and now

Have recognised them, when in due time found,

Christ's true hand is to give them, this, with voice

170 Paternal, the Creator-Sire Himself

Warns ever from eternity, and claims;

And thus the work of virtue which He framed,

And still frames, arms, and fosters, and doth now

Victorious look down on and reclothe

175 With His own light, should with perennial praise Abide.hyperlink

Whathyperlink hath the Living Power done

To make men recosnise what God can give

And maul can suffer, and thus live?hyperlink But since

Neither predictions earlier nor facts

180 The latest can suede senseless frantichyperlink men

That God became a man, and (after He

Had suffered and been buried) rose; that they

May credit those so many witnesses

Harmonious,hyperlink who of old did cry aloud

185 With heavenly word, let them bothhyperlink learn to trust

At least terrestrial reason.

When the Lord

Christ came to be, as flesh, born into the orb

In time of king Augustus' reign at Rome,

First, by decree, the nations numbered are

190 By census everywhere: this measure, then,

This same king chanced to pass, because the Will

Supreme, in whose high reigning hand doth lie

The king's heart, had impelled him:hyperlink he was first

To do it, and the enrolment was reduced

195 To orderly arrangement. Joseph then

Likewise, with his but just delivered wife

Mary,hyperlink with her celestial Son alike,

Themselves withal are numbered. Let, then, such

As trust to instruments of human skill,

200 Who may (approving of applying them

As attestators of the holy word)

Inquire into this census, if it be

But found so as we say, then afterwards

Repent they and seek pardon while time still

205 Is hadhyperlink

The Jews, who ownhyperlink to having wrought

A grave crime, while in our disparagement

They glow, and do resist us, neither call

Christ's family unknown, nor canhyperlink affirm

They hanged a man, who spake truth, on a tree:hyperlink

210 Ignorant that the Lord's flesh which they boundhyperlink

Was not seed-gendered. But, while partially

They keep a reticence, so partially

They triumph; for they strive to represent

God to the peoples commonly as man.

215 Behold the error which o'ercomes you both!hyperlink

This error will our cause assist, the while,

We prove to you those things which certain are.

They do deny Him God; you falsely call

Him man, a body bodiless! and ah!

220 A various insanity of mind

Sinks you; which him who hath presumed to hint

You both do, sinking, sprinkle:hyperlink for His deeds

Will then approve Him man alike and God

Commingled, and the worldhyperlink will furnish signs

225 No few.

While then the Son Himself of God

Is seeking to regain the flesh's limbs,hyperlink

Already robed as King, He doth sustain

Blows from rude palms; with spitting covered is

His face; a thorn-inwoven crown His head

230 Pierces all round; and to the treehyperlink Himself

Is fixed; wine drugged with myrrh,hyperlink is drunk, and gallhyperlink

Is mixt with vinegar; parted His robe,hyperlink

And in ithyperlink lots are cast; what for himself

Each one hath seized he keeps; in murky gloom,

235 As God from fleshly body silently

Outbreathes His soul, in darkness trembling day

Took refuge with the sun; twice dawned one day;

Its centre black night covered: from their base

Mounts move in circle, wholly moved was earth,

240 Saints'sepulchres stood ope, and all things Joined

In fear to see His passion whom they knew!

His lifeless side a soldier with bare spear

Pierces, and forth flows blood, nor water less

Thence followed. These facts theyhyperlink agree to hide,

245 And are unwilling the misdeed to own,

Willing to blink the crime.

Can spirit, then,

Without a body wear a robe? or is't

Susceptible of penalty? the wound

Of violence does it bear? or die? or rise?

250 Is blood thence poured? from what flesh. since ye say

He had none? or else, rather, feigned He? if

'Tis safe for you to say so; though you do

(Headlong) so say, by passing over more

In silence. Is not, then, faith manifest?

255 And are not all things fixed? The day before

He thenhyperlink should suffer, keeping Passover,

And handing down a memorable ritehyperlink

To His disciples, taking bread alike

And the vine's juice, "My body, and My blood

260 Which is pouredhyperlink for you, this is," did He say;

And bade it ever afterward be done.

Of what created elements were made,

Think ye, the bread and wine which were (He said)

His body with its blood? and what must be

265 Confessed? Proved He not Himself the world'shyperlink

Maker, through deeds? and that He bore at once

A body formed from flesh and blood?

This God

This true Man, too, the Father's Virtue 'neath

An Image,hyperlink with the Father ever was,

270 United both in glory and in age;hyperlink

Because alone He ministers the words

Of the All-Holder; whom Hehyperlink upon earth

Accepts;hyperlink through whom He all things did create:

God's Son, God's dearest Minister, is He!

275 Hence hath He generation, hence Name too,

Hence, finally, a kingdom; Lord from Lord;

Stream from perennial Fount! He, He it was

Who to the holy fathers (whosoe'er

Among them doth profess to have "seen God"hyperlink )-

200 God is our witness-since the origin

Of this our world,hyperlink appearing, opened up

The Father's words of promise and of charge

From heaven high: He led the People out;

Smote through th'iniquitous nation; was Himself

285 The column both of light and of cloud's shade;

And dried the sea; and bids the People go

Right through the waves, the foe therein involved

And covered with the flood and surge: a way

Through deserts made He for the followers

290 Of His high biddings; sent down bread in showershyperlink

From heaven for the People; brake the rock;

Bedewed with wave the thirsty;hyperlink and from God

The mandate of the Law to Moses spake

With thunder, trumpet-sound, and flamey column

295 Terrible to the sight, while men's hearts shook.

After twice twenty years, with months complete,

Jordan was parted; a way oped; the wave

Stood in a mass; and the tribes shared the land,

Their fathers' promised boons! The Father's word,

300 Speaking Himself by prophets' mouth, that Hehyperlink

Would come to earth and be a man, He did

Predict; Christ manifestly to the earth

Foretelling.

Then, expected for our aid,

Life's only Hope, the Cleanser of our flesh,hyperlink

305 Death's Router, from th' Almighty Sire's empire

At length He came, and with our human limbs

He clothed Him. Adam-virgin-dragon-tree,hyperlink

The cause of ruin, and the way whereby

Rash death us all had vanquisht! by the same

310 Our Shepherd treading, seeking to regain

His sheep-with angel-virgin-His own flesh-

And the "tree's" remedy;hyperlink whence vanquisht man

And doomed to perish was aye wont to go

To meet his vanquisht peers; hence, inter-posed,

315 One in all captives' room, He did sustain

In body the unfriendly penalty

With patience; by His own death spoiling death;

Becomes salvation's cause; and, having paid

Throughly our debts by throughly suffering

320 On earth, in holy body, everything,

Seeks the infern! here souls, bound for their crime,

Which shut up all together by Law's weight,

Without a guard,hyperlink were asking for the boons

Promised of old, hoped for, and tardy, He

325 To the saints'rest admitted, and, with light,

Brought back. For on the third day mounting up,hyperlink

A victor, with His body by His Sire's

Virtue immense, (salvation's pathway made,)

And bearing God and man is form create,

330 He clomb the heavens, leading back with Him

Captivity's first-fruits (a welcome gift

And a dear figurehyperlink to the Lord), and took

His seat beside light's Father, and resumed

The virtue and the glory of which, while

335 He was engaged in vanquishing the foe

He had been stripped;hyperlink conjoined with Spirit; bound

With flesh, on our part. Him, Lord, Christ, King, God,

Judgment and kingdom given to His hand,

The father is to send unto the orb.

(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.)



Elucidations.

I'

Appendix, p. 127.

About these versifications, which are "poems" only as mules are horses, it is enough to say of them, with Dupin, "They are no more Tertullian's than they are Virgil's or Homer's. The poem called Genesis seems to be that which Gennadius attributes to Salvian, Bishop of Marseilles. That concerning the Judgment of God was, perhaps, composed by Verecundus, an African bishop. In the books Against Marcion there are some opinions different from those of Tertullian. There is likewise a poem To a Senator in Pamelius' edition, one of Sodom, and in the Bibliotheca Patrum one of Jonas and Nineve; the first of which is ancient, and the other two seem to be by the same author."

It is worth while to observe that this rhymester makes two bishops out of one.hyperlink Cletus and Anacletus he supposes different persons, which brings Clement into the fourth place in the see of Rome. Our author elsewhere makes St. Clement the immediate successor of the apostles.hyperlink

II

Or is there ought, etc., l. 136, p. 137.

In taking leave of Tertullian, it may be well to say a word of his famous saying, Cerlum est quia impossibile est. It occurs in the tract De Carne Chrisli,hyperlink and is one of those startling epigrammatic dicta of our author which is no more to be pressed in argument than any other bon-mot of a wit or a poet. It is evidently designed as a rhetorical climax, to enforce the same idea which we find in the hymn of Aquinas: -

"Et si sensus deficit, Ad

firmandum cor sincerum

Sola fides sufficit."

As Jeremy Taylorhyperlink argues, the condition is, that holy Scripture affirms it. If that be the case, then "all things are possible with God: "I believe; but I do not argue, for it is impossible with men. This is the plain sense of the great Carthaginian doctor's pithy rhetoric. But Dr. Bunsen sets it on all-fours, and treats it as if it were soberly designed to defy reason, -that reason to which Tertullian constantly makes his appeal against Marcion, and in many of his sayingshyperlink hardly less witty. Speaking of Hippolytus, that writer remarks,hyperlink "He might have said on some points, Credibile licet ineptum: he would never have exclaimed with Tertullian, `Credibile quia ineptum.'"Why attempt to prove the absurdity of such a reflection? As well attempt to defend St. John's hyperbolehyperlink against a mind incapable of comprehending a figure of speech.



Footnotes



236 i.e., in that the blood of the one was brought within the veil; the other was not.

237 Aedem.

238 The meaning seems to be, that the ark, when it had to be removed from place to place, has (as we learn from Num. iv. 5) to be covered with "the second veil" (as it is called in Heb. ix. 3), which was "of blue," etc. But that this veil was made "of lambs' skins" does not appear; on the contrary, it was made of "linen." The outer veil, indeed (not the outmost, which was of "badgers' skins," according to the Eng. ver.; but of "uakinqina dermata" - of what material is not said - according to the LXX.), was made "of rams' skins;" but then they were "dyed red" (hruqrodanwmena, LXX.), not "blue." So there is some confusion in our author.

239 The ark was overlaid with gold without as well as within. (See Ex. xxv. 10, 11, xxxvii. 1, 2; and this is referred to in Heb. ix. 3, 4 - kibwton ... perikekalummenhn - where our Eng. ver. rendering is defective, and in the context as well.) This, however, may be said to be implied in the following words: "and all between," i.e., between the layers above and beneath, "of wood."

240 Migne supposes some error in these words. Certainly the sense is dark enough; but see lower down.

241 It yielded "almonds," according to the Eng. ver. (Num. xvii. 8). But see the LXX.

242 Sagmina. But the word is a very strange one to use indeed. See the Latin Lexicons, s.v.

243 It might be questionable whether "jussa" refers to "cherubim" or to "sagmina."

244 i.e., twice three + the central one = 7.

245 Our author persists in calling the tabernacle temple.

246 i.e., the Law's.

247 "Tegebat," i.e., with the "fiery-cloudy pillar," unless it be an error for "regebat," which still might apply to the pillar.

248 Terrae.

249 "Operae," i.e., sacrifices. The Latin is a hopeless jumble of words without grammatical sequence, and any rendering is mere guesswork.

250 Heb. ix. 7.

251 i.e., of animals which, as irrational, were "without the Law."

252 Terram.

253 Rev. vi. 9, 10.

254 i.e., beneath the altar. See the 11th verse ib.

255 Or possibly, "deeper than the glooms:" "altior a tenebris."

256 Terra.

257 See 141, 142, above.

258 Caelataque sancta. We might conjecture "celataque sancta," = "and the sanctuaries formerly hidden."

259 This sense appears intelligible, as the writer's aim seems to be to distinguish between the "actual" commands of God, i.e., the spiritual, essential ones, which the spiritual people "follow," and which "bind" - not the ceremonial observance of a "shadow of the future blessings" (see Heb. x. 1), but "real persons," i.e., living souls. But, as Migne has said, the passage is probably faulty and mutilated.

260 Comp. Heb. vii. 19, x. 1, xi. 11, 12.

261 "Lignum:" here probably = "the flesh," which He took from Mary; the "rod" (according to our author) which Isaiah had foretold.

262 Aërial, i.e., as he said above, "dyed with heaven's hue."

263 "Ligno," i.e., "the cross," represented by the "wood" of which the tabernacle's boards, on which the coverings were stretched (but comp. 147-8, above), were made.

264 As the flame of the lamps appeared to grow out of and be fused with the "golden semblance" or "form" of the lampstand or candlestick.

265 Of which the olive - of which the pure oil for the lamps was to be made: Ex. xxvii. 20; Lev. xxiv. 2 - is a type. "Peace" is granted to "the flesh" through Christ's work and death in flesh.

266 Traditus.

267 In ligno. The passage is again in an almost desperate state.

268 Isa. xi. 1, 2.

269 Matt. v. 23, 24.

270 Primus.

271 See Rev. viii. 3, 4.

272 Here ensues a confused medley of all the cherubic figures of Moses, Ezekiel, and St. John.

273 i.e., by the four evangelists.

274 The cherubim, (or, "seraphim" rather,) of Isa. vi. have each six wings. Ezekiel mentions four cherubim, or "living creatures." St. John likewise mentions four "living creatures." Our author, combining the passages, and thrusting them into the subject of the Mosaic cherubim, multiplies the six (wings) by the four (cherubs), and so attains his end - the desired number "twenty-four" - to represent the books of the Old Testament, which (by combining certain books) may be reckoned to be twenty-four in number.

275 These wings.

276 There is again some great confusion in the text. The elders could not "stand enthroned:" nor do they stand "over," but "around" God's throne; so that the "insuper solio" could not apply to that.

277 Mundi.

278 Virtute.

279 Honestas.

280 Or, "records:" "monumenta," i.e., the written word, according to the canon.

281 I make no apology for the ruggedness of the versification and the obscurity of the sense in this book, further than to say that the state of the Latin text is such as to render it almost impossible to find any sense at all in many places, while the grammar and metre are not reducible to any known laws. It is about the hardest and most uninteresting book of the five.

282 Or, "consecrated by seers and patriarchs."

283 i.e., all the number of Thy disciples.

284 Tempora lustri, i.e., apparently the times during which these "elders" (i.e., the bishops, of whom a list is given at the end of book iii.) held office. "Lustrum" is used of other periods than it strictly implies, and this seems to give some sense to this difficult passage.

285 i.e., Marcion.

286 i.e., excommunicated.

287 Complexu vario.

288 Ancipiti quamquam cum crimine. The last word seems almost = "discrimine;" just as our author uses "cerno" = "discerno."

289 Mundo.

290 Cf. John i. 11, and see the Greek.

291 Whether this be the sense I know not. The passage is a mass of confusion.

292 i.e., according to Marcion's view.

293 i.e., as spirits, like himself.

294 Mundum.

295 i.e., Marcionite.

296 See book ii. 3.

297 i.e., apparently on the day of Christ's resurrection.

298 Replesset, i.e., replevisset. If this be the right reading, the meaning would seem to be, "would have taken away all further desire for" them, as satiety or repletion takes away all appetite for food. One is almost inclined to hazard the suggestion "represset," i.e., repressisset, "he would have repressed," but that such a contraction would be irregular. Yet, with an author who takes such liberties as the present one, perhaps that might not be a decisive objection.

299 "Junctus," for the edd.'s "junctis," which, if retained, will mean "in the case of beings still joined with (or to) blood."

300 "Docetur," for the edd.'s "docentur." The sense seems to be, if there be any, exceedingly obscure; but for the idea of a half-salvation - the salvation of the "inner man" without the outer - being no salvation at all, and unworthy of "the Good Shepherd" and His work, we may compare the very difficult passage in the de Pudic., c. xiii. ad fin.

301 This sense, which I deduce from a transposition of one line and the supplying of the words "he did exhort," which are not expressed, but seem necessary, in the original, agrees well with 1 Cor. vii., which is plainly the passage referred to.

302 "Causa;" or perhaps "means." It is, of course, the French "chose."

303 i.e., you and your like, through whom sin, and in consequence death, is disseminated.

304 Here, again, for the sake of the sense, I have transposed a line.

305 i.e., "the other," the "inner man," or spirit.

306 i.e., through flesh.

307 i.e., in His own person.

308 I hope I have succeeded in giving some intelligible sense; but the passage as it stands in the Latin is nearly hopeless.

309 I read "legem" for "leges."

310 I read "valle" for "calle."

311 Alios.

312 Altera.

313 i.e., "the gifts of baptism."

314 This seems to give sense to a very obscure passage, in which I have been guided more by Migne's pointing than by Oehler's.

315 I read here "quid" for "quod."

316 i.e., to make men live by recognising that. Comp. the Psalmist's prayer: "Give me understanding and I shall live" (Ps. cxix. 144; in LXX., Ps. cxviii. 144).

317 The "furentes" of Pam. and Rig. is preferred to Oehler's "ferentes."

318 "Complexis," lit. "embracing."

319 i.e., both Jews and Gentile heretics, the "senseless frantic men" just referred to probably: or possibly the "ambo" may mean "both sects," viz., the Marcionites and Manichees, against whom the writer whom Oehler supposes to be the probable author of these "Five Books," Victorinus, a rhetorician of Marseilles, directed his efforts. But it may again be the acc. neut. pl., and mean "let them" - i.e., the "senseless frantic men" - "learn to believe as to both facts," i.e., the incarnation and the resurrection; (see vers. 179, 180;) "the testimony at least of human reason."

320 I would suggest here, for

" ... quia summa voluntas

In cujus manu regnantis cor legibus esset,"something like this,

" ... quia summa voluntas,

In cujus manu regnantis cor regis, egisset,"which would only add one more to our author's false quantities. "Regum egisset" would avoid even that, while it would give some sense. Comp. Prov. xxi. 1.

321 Maria cum conjuge feta. What follows seems to decide the meaning of "feta," as a child could hardly be included in a census before birth.

322 Again I have had to attempt to amend the text of the Latin in order to extract any sense, and am far from sure that I have extracted the right one.

323 "Fatentur," unless our author use it passively = "are confessed."

324 "Possunt," i.e., probably "have the hardihood."

325 Because Christ plainly, as they understood Him, "made Himself the Son of God;" and hence, if they confessed that He had said the truth, and yet that they hanged Him on a tree, they would be pronouncing their own condemnation.

326 "Vinctam" for "victam" I read here.

327 i.e., you and the Jews. See above on 185.

328 Quod qui praesumpsit mergentes spargitis ambo. What the meaning is I know not, unless it be this: if any one hints to you that you are in an error which is sinking you into perdition, you both join in trying to sink him (if "mergentes" be active; or "while you are sinking," if neuter), and in sprinkling him with your doctrine (or besprinkling him with abuse).

329 Mundus.

330 "Sum carnis membra requirit," i.e., seeking to regain for God all the limbs of the flesh as His instruments. Comp. Rom. vi. 13, 19.

331 Ligno.

332 "Scriblita," a curious word.

333 Fel miscetur aceto. The reading may have arisen - and it is not confined to our author - from confounding ocoj with oinoj. Comp. Matt. xxvii. 33 with Mark xv. 23.

334 This is an error, if the "coat" be meant.

335 Perhaps for "in illa" we should read "in allam" - "on it," for "in it."

336 The Jews.

337 For "ante diem quam cum pateretur" I have read "qua tum."

338 Or, "deed" - "factum."

339 Or, "is being poured" - "funditur."

340 Mundi.

341 I read with Migne, "Patris sub imagine virtus," in preference to the conjecture which Oehler follows, "Christi sub imagine virtus." The reference seems clearly to be to Heb. i. 3.

342 Aevo. Perhaps here = "eternity."

343 i.e., "The All-Holder."

344 Capit.

345 Cf. Jacob's words in Gen. xxxii. 30; Manoah's in Judg. xiii. 22; etc.

346 Mundi.

347 For "dimisit in umbris" I read here "demisit in imbris." If we retain the former reading, it will then mean, "dispersed during the shades of night," during which it was that the manna seems always to have fallen.

348 "Sitientis" in Oehler must be a misprint for "sitientes."

349 There ought to be a "se" in the Latin if this be the meaning.

350 For "Mundator carnis serae" = "the Cleanser of late flesh" (which would seem, if it mean anything, to mean that the flesh had to wait long for its cleansing), I have read "carnis nostrae."

351 Lignum.

352 I have followed the disjointed style of the Latin as closely as I could here.

353 Here we seem to see the idea of the "limbus patrum."

354 "Subiens" = "going beneath," i.e., apparently coming beneath the walls of heaven.

355 i.e., a figure of the future harvest.

356 I have hazarded the conjecture "minutus" here for the edd.'s "munitus." It add's one more, it is true, to our author's false quantities, but that is a minor difficulty, while it improves (to my mind) the sense vastly.

357 See p. 156, supra.

358 See De Praescrip., cap. xxxii. vol. iii. p. 258.

359 Cap. v. vol. iii. p. 525.

360 Christ in the Holy Sacrament, §xi. 6.

361 De Anima, cap. xvii.

362 Vol. i. p. 304.

363 Chap. xxi. verse 25.