Chapter 85

“If one by offering sacrifice, a crowdOf bulls or kids, O Pamphilus, by Zeus,Or such like things; by making works of art,Garments of gold or purple, imagesOf ivory or emerald, deems by theseGod can be made propitious, he does err,And has an empty mind. For the man must proveA man of worth, who neither maids deflowers,Nor an adulterer is, nor steals, nor killsFor love of worldly wealth, O Pamphilus.Nay, covet not a needle’s thread. For GodThee sees, being near beside thee.”...[871]

“If one by offering sacrifice, a crowd

Of bulls or kids, O Pamphilus, by Zeus,

Or such like things; by making works of art,

Garments of gold or purple, images

Of ivory or emerald, deems by these

God can be made propitious, he does err,

And has an empty mind. For the man must prove

A man of worth, who neither maids deflowers,

Nor an adulterer is, nor steals, nor kills

For love of worldly wealth, O Pamphilus.

Nay, covet not a needle’s thread. For God

Thee sees, being near beside thee.”...[871]

“I am a God at hand,” it is said by Jeremiah,[872]“and not a God afar off. Shall a man do aught in secret places, and I shall not see him?”

And again Menander, paraphrasing that scripture, “Sacrifice a sacrifice of righteousness, and trust in the Lord,”[873]thus writes:

“And not a needle even that isAnother’s ever covet, dearest friend;For God in righteous works delights, and soPermits him to increase his worldly wealth,Who toils, and ploughs the land both night and day.But sacrifice to God, and righteous be,Shining not in bright robes, but in thy heart;And when thou hear’st the thunder, do not flee,Being conscious to thyself of nought amiss,Good sir, for thee God ever present sees.”[874]

“And not a needle even that is

Another’s ever covet, dearest friend;

For God in righteous works delights, and so

Permits him to increase his worldly wealth,

Who toils, and ploughs the land both night and day.

But sacrifice to God, and righteous be,

Shining not in bright robes, but in thy heart;

And when thou hear’st the thunder, do not flee,

Being conscious to thyself of nought amiss,

Good sir, for thee God ever present sees.”[874]

“Whilst thou art yet speaking,” says the Scripture, “I will say, Lo, here I am.”[875]

Again Diphilus, the comic poet, discourses as follows on the judgment:

“Think’st thou, O Niceratus, that the dead,Who in all kinds of luxury in life have shared,Escape the Deity, as if forgot.There is an eye of justice, which sees all.For two ways, as we deem, to Hades lead—One for the good, the other for the bad.But if the earth hides both for ever, thenGo plunder, steal, rob, and be turbulent.But err not. For in Hades judgment is,Which God the Lord of all will execute,Whose name too dreadful is for me to name,Who gives to sinners length of earthly life.If any mortal thinks, that day by day,While doing ill, he eludes the gods’ keen sight,His thoughts are evil; and when justice hasThe leisure, he shall then detected beSo thinking. Look, whoe’er you be that sayThat there is not a God. There is, there is.If one, by nature evil, evil does,Let him redeem the time; for such as heShall by and by due punishment receive.”[876]

“Think’st thou, O Niceratus, that the dead,

Who in all kinds of luxury in life have shared,

Escape the Deity, as if forgot.

There is an eye of justice, which sees all.

For two ways, as we deem, to Hades lead—

One for the good, the other for the bad.

But if the earth hides both for ever, then

Go plunder, steal, rob, and be turbulent.

But err not. For in Hades judgment is,

Which God the Lord of all will execute,

Whose name too dreadful is for me to name,

Who gives to sinners length of earthly life.

If any mortal thinks, that day by day,

While doing ill, he eludes the gods’ keen sight,

His thoughts are evil; and when justice has

The leisure, he shall then detected be

So thinking. Look, whoe’er you be that say

That there is not a God. There is, there is.

If one, by nature evil, evil does,

Let him redeem the time; for such as he

Shall by and by due punishment receive.”[876]

And with this agrees the tragedy[877]in the following lines:

“For there shall come, shall come[878]that point of time,When Ether, golden-eyed, shall ope its storeOf treasured fire; and the devouring flame,Raging, shall burn all things on earth below,And all above.”...

“For there shall come, shall come[878]that point of time,

When Ether, golden-eyed, shall ope its store

Of treasured fire; and the devouring flame,

Raging, shall burn all things on earth below,

And all above.”...

And after a little he adds:

“And when the whole world fades,And vanished all the abyss of ocean’s waves,And earth of trees is bare; and wrapt in flames,The air no more begets the winged tribes;Then He who all destroyed, shall all restore.”

“And when the whole world fades,

And vanished all the abyss of ocean’s waves,

And earth of trees is bare; and wrapt in flames,

The air no more begets the winged tribes;

Then He who all destroyed, shall all restore.”

We shall find expressions similar to these also in the Orphic hymns, written as follows:

“For having hidden all, brought them againTo gladsome light, forth from his sacred heart,Solicitous.”

“For having hidden all, brought them again

To gladsome light, forth from his sacred heart,

Solicitous.”

And if we live throughout holily and righteously, we are happy here, and shall be happier after our departure hence; not possessing happiness for a time, but enabled to rest in eternity.

“At the same hearth and table as the restOf the immortal gods, we sit all freeOf human ills, unharmed,”

“At the same hearth and table as the rest

Of the immortal gods, we sit all free

Of human ills, unharmed,”

says the philosophic poetry of Empedocles. And so, according to the Greeks, none is so great as to be above judgment, none so insignificant as to escape its notice.

And the same Orpheus speaks thus:

“But to the word divine, looking, attend,Keeping aright the heart’s receptacleOf intellect, and tread the straight path well,And only to the world’s immortal KingDirect thy gaze.”[879]

“But to the word divine, looking, attend,

Keeping aright the heart’s receptacle

Of intellect, and tread the straight path well,

And only to the world’s immortal King

Direct thy gaze.”[879]

And again, respecting God, saying that He was invisible, and that He was known to but one, a Chaldean by race—meaning either by this Abraham or his son—he speaks as follows:

“But one a scion of Chaldean race;For he the sun’s path knew right well,And how the motion of the sphere aboutThe earth proceeds, in circle movingEqually around its axis, how the windsTheir chariot guide o’er air and sea.”

“But one a scion of Chaldean race;

For he the sun’s path knew right well,

And how the motion of the sphere about

The earth proceeds, in circle moving

Equally around its axis, how the winds

Their chariot guide o’er air and sea.”

Then, as if paraphrasing the expression, “Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool,”[880]he adds:

“But in great heaven, He is seated firmUpon a throne of gold, and ’neath His feetThe earth. His right hand round the ocean’s boundHe stretches; and the hills’ foundations shakeTo the centre at His wrath, nor can endureHis mighty strength. He all celestial is,And all things finishes upon the earth.He the Beginning, Middle is, and End.But Thee I dare not speak. In limbsAnd mind I tremble. He rules from on high.”

“But in great heaven, He is seated firm

Upon a throne of gold, and ’neath His feet

The earth. His right hand round the ocean’s bound

He stretches; and the hills’ foundations shake

To the centre at His wrath, nor can endure

His mighty strength. He all celestial is,

And all things finishes upon the earth.

He the Beginning, Middle is, and End.

But Thee I dare not speak. In limbs

And mind I tremble. He rules from on high.”

And so forth. For in these he indicates these prophetic utterances: “If Thou openest the heaven, trembling shall seize the mountains from Thy presence; and they shall melt, as wax melteth before the fire;”[881]and in Isaiah, “Who hath measured the heaven with a span, and the whole earth with His fist?”[882]Again, when it is said:

“Ruler of Ether, Hades, Sea, and Land,Who with Thy bolts Olympus’ strong-built homeDost shake. Whom demons dread, and whom the throngOf gods do fear. Whom, too, the Fates obey,Relentless though they be. O deathless One,Our mother’s Sire! whose wrath makes all things reel;Who mov’st the winds, and shroud’st in clouds the world,Broad Ether cleaving with Thy lightning gleams,—Thine is the order ’mongst the stars, which runAs Thine unchangeable behests direct.Before Thy burning throne the angels wait,Much-working, charged to do all things for men.Thy young Spring shines, all prank’d with purple flowers;Thy Winter with its chilling clouds assails;Thine Autumn noisy Bacchus distributes.”

“Ruler of Ether, Hades, Sea, and Land,

Who with Thy bolts Olympus’ strong-built home

Dost shake. Whom demons dread, and whom the throng

Of gods do fear. Whom, too, the Fates obey,

Relentless though they be. O deathless One,

Our mother’s Sire! whose wrath makes all things reel;

Who mov’st the winds, and shroud’st in clouds the world,

Broad Ether cleaving with Thy lightning gleams,—

Thine is the order ’mongst the stars, which run

As Thine unchangeable behests direct.

Before Thy burning throne the angels wait,

Much-working, charged to do all things for men.

Thy young Spring shines, all prank’d with purple flowers;

Thy Winter with its chilling clouds assails;

Thine Autumn noisy Bacchus distributes.”

Then he adds, naming expressly the Almighty God:

“Deathless Immortal, capable of beingTo the immortals only uttered! Come,Greatest of gods, with strong Necessity.Dread, invincible, great, deathless One,Whom Ether crowns.”...

“Deathless Immortal, capable of being

To the immortals only uttered! Come,

Greatest of gods, with strong Necessity.

Dread, invincible, great, deathless One,

Whom Ether crowns.”...

By the expression “Sire of our Mother” (μητροπάτωρ) he not only intimates creation out of nothing, but gives occasion to those who introduce emissions of imagining a consort of the Deity. And he paraphrases those prophetic Scriptures—that in Isaiah, “I am He that fixes the thunder, and creates thewind; whose hands have founded the host of heaven;”[883]and that in Moses, “Behold, behold that I am He, and there is no god beside me: I will kill, and I will make to live; I will smite, and I will heal: and there is none that shall deliver out of my hands.”[884]

“And He, from good, to mortals planteth ill,And cruel war, and tearful woes,”

“And He, from good, to mortals planteth ill,

And cruel war, and tearful woes,”

according to Orpheus.

Such also are the words of the Parian Archilochus:

“O Zeus, thine is the power of heaven, and thouInflict’st on men things violent and wrong.”[885]

“O Zeus, thine is the power of heaven, and thou

Inflict’st on men things violent and wrong.”[885]

Again let the Thracian Orpheus sing to us:

“His right hand all around to ocean’s boundHe stretches; and beneath His feet is earth.”

“His right hand all around to ocean’s bound

He stretches; and beneath His feet is earth.”

These are plainly derived from the following: “The Lord will save the inhabited cities, and grasp the whole land in His hand like a nest;”[886]“It is the Lord that made the earth by His power,” as saith Jeremiah, “and set up the earth by His wisdom.”[887]Further, in addition to these, Phocylides, who calls the angels demons, explains in the following words that some of them are good, and others bad (for we also have learned that some are apostate):

“Demons there are—some here, some there—set over men;Some, on man’s entrance [into life], to ward off ill.”

“Demons there are—some here, some there—set over men;

Some, on man’s entrance [into life], to ward off ill.”

Rightly, then, also Philemon, the comic poet, demolishes idolatry in these words:

“Fortune is no divinity to us:There’s no such god. But what befalls by chanceAnd of itself to each, is Fortune called.”

“Fortune is no divinity to us:

There’s no such god. But what befalls by chance

And of itself to each, is Fortune called.”

And Sophocles the tragedian says:

“Not even the gods have all things as they choose,Excepting Zeus; for he beginning is and end.”

“Not even the gods have all things as they choose,

Excepting Zeus; for he beginning is and end.”

And Orpheus:

“One Might, the great, the flaming heaven, wasOne Deity. All things one Being were; in whomAll these revolve fire, water, and the earth.”

“One Might, the great, the flaming heaven, was

One Deity. All things one Being were; in whom

All these revolve fire, water, and the earth.”

And so forth.

Pindar, the lyric poet, as if in Bacchic frenzy, plainly says:

“What is God? The All.”

And again:

“God, who makes all mortals.”

And when he says,

“How little, being a man, dost thou expectWisdom for man? ’Tis hard for mortal mindThe counsels of the gods to scan; and thouWast of a mortal mother born,”

“How little, being a man, dost thou expect

Wisdom for man? ’Tis hard for mortal mind

The counsels of the gods to scan; and thou

Wast of a mortal mother born,”

he drew the thought from the following: “Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who was His counsellor?”[888]Hesiod, too, agrees with what is said above, in what he writes:

“No prophet, sprung of men that dwell on earth,Can know the mind of Ægis-bearing Zeus.”

“No prophet, sprung of men that dwell on earth,

Can know the mind of Ægis-bearing Zeus.”

Similarly, then, Solon the Athenian, in theElegies, following Hesiod, writes:

“The Immortal’s mind to men is quite unknown.”

Again Moses, having prophesied that the woman would bring forth in trouble and pain, on account of transgression, a poet not undistinguished writes:

“Never by dayFrom toil and woe shall they have rest, nor yetBy night from groans. Sad cares the gods to menShall give.”

“Never by day

From toil and woe shall they have rest, nor yet

By night from groans. Sad cares the gods to men

Shall give.”

Further, when Homer says,

“The Sire himself the golden balance held,”[889]

he intimates that God is just.

And Menander, the comic poet, in exhibiting God, says:

“To each man, on his birth, there is assignedA tutelary Demon, as his life’s good guide.For that the Demon evil is, and harmsA good life, is not to be thought.”

“To each man, on his birth, there is assigned

A tutelary Demon, as his life’s good guide.

For that the Demon evil is, and harms

A good life, is not to be thought.”

Then he adds:

“Ἅπαντα δ’ ἀγαθὸν εἶναι τὸν Θεόν,”—

meaning either “that every one good is God,” or, what is preferable, “that God in all things is good.”

Again, Æschylus the tragedian, setting forth the power of God, does not shrink from calling Him the Highest in these words:

“Place God apart from mortals; and think notThat He is, like thyself, corporeal.Thou know’st Him not. Now He appears as fire,Dread force; as water now; and now as gloom;And in the beasts is dimly shadowed forth,In wind, and cloud, in lightning, thunder, rain;And minister to Him the seas and rocks,Each fountain and the water’s floods and streams.The mountains tremble, and the earth, the vastAbyss of sea, and towering height of hills,When on them looks the Sovereign’s awful eye:Almighty is the glory of the Most High God.”[890]

“Place God apart from mortals; and think not

That He is, like thyself, corporeal.

Thou know’st Him not. Now He appears as fire,

Dread force; as water now; and now as gloom;

And in the beasts is dimly shadowed forth,

In wind, and cloud, in lightning, thunder, rain;

And minister to Him the seas and rocks,

Each fountain and the water’s floods and streams.

The mountains tremble, and the earth, the vast

Abyss of sea, and towering height of hills,

When on them looks the Sovereign’s awful eye:

Almighty is the glory of the Most High God.”[890]

Does he not seem to you to paraphrase that text, “At the presence of the Lord the earth trembles?”[891]In addition to these, the most prophetic Apollo is compelled—thus testifying to the glory of God—to say of Athene, when the Medes made war against Greece, that she besought and supplicated Zeus for Attica. The oracle is as follows:

“Pallas cannot Olympian Zeus propitiate,Although with many words and sage advice she prays;But he will give to the devouring fire many temples of the immortals,Who now stand shaking with terror, and bathed in sweat;”[892]

“Pallas cannot Olympian Zeus propitiate,

Although with many words and sage advice she prays;

But he will give to the devouring fire many temples of the immortals,

Who now stand shaking with terror, and bathed in sweat;”[892]

and so forth.

Thearidas, in his bookOn Nature, writes: “There was thenone really true beginning [first principle] of all that exists—one. For that Being in the beginning is one and alone.”

“Nor is there any other except the Great King,”

says Orpheus. In accordance with whom, the comic poet Diphilus says very sententiously,[893]the

“Father of all,To Him alone incessant reverence pay,The inventor and the author of such blessings.”

“Father of all,

To Him alone incessant reverence pay,

The inventor and the author of such blessings.”

Rightly therefore Plato “accustoms the best natures to attain to that study which formerly we said was the highest, both to see the good and to accomplish that ascent. And this, as appears, is not the throwing of the potsherds;[894]but the turning round of the soul from a nocturnal day to that which is a true return to that which really is, which we shall assert to be the true philosophy.” Such as are partakers of this he judges[895]to belong to the golden race, when he says: “Ye are all brethren; and those who are of the golden race are most capable of judging most accurately in every respect.”[896]

The Father, then, and Maker of all things is apprehended by all things, agreeably to all, by innate power and without teaching,—things inanimate, sympathizing with the animate creation; and of living beings some are already immortal, working in the light of day. But of those that are still mortal, some are in fear, and carried still in their mother’s womb; and others regulate themselves by their own independent reason. And of men all are Greeks and Barbarians. But no race anywhere of tillers of the soil, or nomads, and not even of dwellers in cities, can live, without being imbued with the faith of a superior being. Wherefore every eastern nation, and every nation touching the western shores; or the north,and each one towards the south,[897]—all have one and the same preconception respecting Him who hath appointed government; since the most universal of His operations equally pervade all. Much more did the philosophers among the Greeks, devoted to investigation, starting from the Barbarian philosophy, attribute providence[898]to the “Invisible, and sole, and most powerful, and most skilful and supreme cause of all things most beautiful;”—not knowing the inferences from these truths, unless instructed by us, and not even how God is to be known naturally; but only, as we have already often said, by a true periphrasis.[899]Rightly therefore the apostle says, “Is He the God of the Jews only, and not also of the Greeks?”—not only saying prophetically that of the Greeks believing Greeks would know God; but also intimating that in power the Lord is the God of all, and truly Universal King. For they know neither what He is, nor how He is Lord, and Father, and Maker, nor the rest of the system of the truth, without being taught by it. Thus also the prophetic utterances have the same force as the apostolic word. For Isaiah says: “If ye say, We trust in the Lord our God: now make an alliance with my lord the king of the Assyrians.” And he adds: “And now, was it without the Lord that we came up to this land to make war against it?”[900]And Jonah, himself a prophet, intimates the same thing in what he says: “And the shipmaster came to him, and said to him, Why dost thou snore? Rise, call on thy God, that He may save us, and that we may not perish.”[901]For the expression “thy God” he makes as if to one who knew Him by way of knowledge; and the expression, “that God may save us,” revealed the consciousness in the minds of heathens who had applied their mind to the Ruler of all, but had not yetbelieved. And again the same: “And he said to them, I am the servant of the Lord; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven.” And again the same: “And he said, Let us by no means perish for the life of this man.” And Malachi the prophet plainly exhibits God saying, “I will not accept sacrifice at your hands. For from the rising of the sun to its going down, my name is glorified among the Gentiles; and in every place sacrifice is offered to me.”[902]And again: “Because I am a great King, saith the Lord omnipotent; and my name is manifest among the nations.” What name? The Son declaring the Father among the Greeks who have believed.

Plato in what follows gives an exhibition of free-will: “Virtue owns not a master; and in proportion as each one honours or dishonours it, in that proportion he will be a partaker of it. The blame lies in the exercise of free choice.” But God is blameless. For He is never the author of evil.

“O warlike Trojans,” says the lyric poet,[903]

“High ruling Zeus, who beholds all things,Is not the cause of great woes to mortals;But it is in the power of all men to findJustice, holy, pure,Companion of order,And of wise ThemisThe sons of the blessed are yeIn finding her as your associate.”

“High ruling Zeus, who beholds all things,

Is not the cause of great woes to mortals;

But it is in the power of all men to find

Justice, holy, pure,

Companion of order,

And of wise Themis

The sons of the blessed are ye

In finding her as your associate.”

And Pindar expressly introduces also Zeus Soter, the consort of Themis, proclaiming him King, Saviour, Just, in the following lines:

“First, prudent Themis, of celestial birth,On golden steeds, by Ocean’s rock,The Fates brought to the stair sublime,The shining entrance of Olympus,Of Saviour Zeus for aye[904]to be the spouse,And she, the Hours, gold-diademed, fair-fruited, good, brought forth.”[905]

“First, prudent Themis, of celestial birth,

On golden steeds, by Ocean’s rock,

The Fates brought to the stair sublime,

The shining entrance of Olympus,

Of Saviour Zeus for aye[904]to be the spouse,

And she, the Hours, gold-diademed, fair-fruited, good, brought forth.”[905]

He, then, who is not obedient to the truth, and is puffed upwith human teaching, is wretched and miserable, according to Euripides:

“Who these things seeing, yet apprehends not God,But mouthing lofty themes, casts farPerverse deceits; stubborn in which, the tongueIts shafts discharges, about things unseen,Devoid of sense.”

“Who these things seeing, yet apprehends not God,

But mouthing lofty themes, casts far

Perverse deceits; stubborn in which, the tongue

Its shafts discharges, about things unseen,

Devoid of sense.”

Let him who wishes, then, approaching to the true instruction, learn from Parmenides the Eleatic, who promises:

“Ethereal nature, then, and all the signsIn Ether thou shalt know, and the effects,All viewless, of the sacred Sun’s clear torch,And whence produced. The round-eyed Moon’sRevolving influences and nature thouShalt learn; and the ensphering heaven shalt know;Whence sprung; and how Necessity took itAnd chained so as to keep the starry bounds.”

“Ethereal nature, then, and all the signs

In Ether thou shalt know, and the effects,

All viewless, of the sacred Sun’s clear torch,

And whence produced. The round-eyed Moon’s

Revolving influences and nature thou

Shalt learn; and the ensphering heaven shalt know;

Whence sprung; and how Necessity took it

And chained so as to keep the starry bounds.”

And Metrodorus, though an Epicurean, spoke thus, divinely inspired: “Remember, O Menestratus, that, being a mortal endowed with a circumscribed life, thou hast in thy soul ascended, till thou hast seen endless time, and the infinity of things; and what is to be, and what has been;” when with the blessed choir, according to Plato, we shall gaze on the blessed sight and vision; we following with Zeus, and others with other deities, if we may be permitted so to say, to receive initiation into the most blessed mystery: which we shall celebrate, ourselves being perfect and untroubled by the ills which awaited us at the end of our time; and introduced to the knowledge of perfect and tranquil visions, and contemplating them in pure sunlight; we ourselves pure, and now no longer distinguished by that, which, when carrying it about, we call the body, being bound to it like an oyster to its shell.

The Pythagoreans call heaven the Antichthon [the opposite Earth]. And in this land, it is said by Jeremiah, “I will place thee among the children, and give thee the chosen land as inheritance of God Omnipotent;”[906]and they who inherit it shall reign over the earth. Myriads on myriads of examples rush on my mind which I might adduce. But for the sakeof symmetry the discourse must now stop, in order that we may not exemplify the saying of Agatho the tragedian:

“Treating our by-work as work,And doing our work as by-work.”

“Treating our by-work as work,

And doing our work as by-work.”

It having been, then, as I think, clearly shown in what way it is to be understood that the Greeks were called thieves by the Lord, I willingly leave the dogmas of the philosophers. For were we to go over their sayings, we should gather together directly such a quantity of notes, in showing that the whole of the Hellenic wisdom was derived from the Barbarian philosophy. But this speculation, we shall, nevertheless, again touch on, as necessity requires, when we collect the opinions current among the Greeks respecting first principles.

But from what has been said, it tacitly devolves on us to consider in what way the Hellenic books are to be perused by the man who is able to pass through the billows in them. Therefore

“Happy is he who possesses the wealth of the divine mind,”

as appears according to Empedocles:

“But wretched he, who cares for dark opinion about the gods.”

He divinely showed knowledge and ignorance to be the boundaries of happiness and misery. “For it behoves philosophers to be acquainted with very many things,” according to Heraclitus; and truly must

“He, who seeks to be good, err in many things.”

It is then now clear to us, from what has been said, that the beneficence of God is eternal, and that, from an unbeginning principle, equal natural righteousness reached all, according to the worth of each several race,—never having had a beginning. For God did not make a beginning of being Lord and Good, being always what He is. Nor will He ever cease to do good, although He bring all things to an end. And each one of us is a partaker of His beneficence, as far as He wills. For the difference of the elect is made by the intervention of a choice worthy of the soul, and by exercise.

Thus, then, let our fifth Miscellany of gnostic notes in accordance with the true philosophy be brought to a close.

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