5. IV. 46 Those who fast must not condemn those who cannot. LECT. you, fornication, adultery, and every form of incontinence; and let the body be kept for the Lord, that the Lord also may look upon the body. And let the body be nourished with meats, that it may live, and serve without hindrance; but not that it may be given up to indulgence. Meats. (17.) 27. And concerning food, let these be your doctrines; since many stumble concerning meats also. For some indifferently draw near to things sacrificed to idols; and others, while they are austere, condemn them who eat: and thus in different ways the soul of some is defiled in the matter of meats, while they are ignorant of the profitable reasons, for eating or abstaining. For we fast, abstaining from wine and flesh, not because we abhor them as abominations, but because we look for the reward; that scorning things sensible, Ps. 126, we may enjoy the spiritual and invisible table, and that sowing now in tears, we may reap in joy in the world to come. Despise not however those who eat, and partake because of their bodies' weakness; nor blame those who use a little wine, for their stomach's sake, and their often infirmities; nor condemn them as sinners. Nor abhor thou flesh as being an unchristian thing; for the Apostle knew 1 Tim. some such when he spake of those, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe'. In abstaining then from them, abstain not from them as abominable, otherwise thou hast no reward; but look down on them though good, for the sake of those nobler spiritual things which are set before thee. 1 Tim. 5, 23. 4, 3. 28. For thy soul's sake, at no time eat ought of the things offered to idols. For concerning these meats, not I only, but the Apostles also before now, and James, the Bishop of this Church, have taken thought: and the Apostles and Elders write to all the Gentiles a Catholic Epistle, bidding them y The various sects of Gnostics, and the Manichees, considered certain meats and drinks, as flesh and wine, to be polluting. Vid. Iren. Hær. 28. Clem. Pæd. ii. 2. p. 186. Epiph. Hær. xlvi. 2. xlvii. 1. &c. &c. August. Hær. 46. vid. Canon. Apost. 43. "If any Bishop &c. abstain from marriage, flesh, and wine, not for discipline (di' äonnow) but as abhorring them, forgetting that they are all very good, &c. and speaking blasphemy against the creation, let him amend or be deposed &c." The Resurrection as easy as making Moses' rod a serpent. 47 abstain, chiefly from things sacrificed to idols, and then from blood also and things strangled. For many men being of a savage nature, and living like dogs, both lap up blood, copying the way of the most savage wild beasts; and also eat greedily without scruple things strangled". But do thou, the servant of Christ, when eating, observe to eat with Thus much concerning meats. reverence. Apparel. 29. Be thou clad with plain apparel, not for vain orna- (18.) ment's sake, but for a necessary covering; nor to make a display, but that thou mayest be warm in winter, and mayest hide thine uncomeliness. Beware lest, under colour of hiding thine uncomeliness, by thy extravagant robes thou fall into uncomeliness of another sort. VIII. OF THE RESURRECTION. 30. Be tender, I beseech thee, of this body; and know (19.) that thou shalt arise from the dead, to be judged with this body. But if any thought of unbelief steal upon thee, as though the thing were impossible, consider from thine own case the things which appear not. For tell me; think where thou wert thyself, an hundred or more years ago? From what an element, from what a very small and mean substance, hast thou come to so great stature, and to such dignity of comeliness. Cannot then He who brought into being that which was not, raise up again that which has been and has decayed? He who year by year raises up the corn which we sow, when it is dead, shall He find difficulty in raising us up, for whose sakes He was raised Himself? Thou seest how the trees have stood now for so many months fruitless and leafless; but when the winter is passed, they revive in all their parts as it were from the dead. Shall not we then much rather, yea and much more easily, live again? The rod of Moses was by the counsel of God changed into the dissimilar nature of a serpent: and shall not man who has fallen into death be again restored to himself? z The prohibition of idol-sacrifices, blood, and things strangled, was long in force in the East; but in the West as regards blood, and things strangled, it LECT. 1s. 26, 48 The Canon of Scripture to be received from the Church. 31. Heed not them who say that this body is not raised: IV. for it is raised: and Esaias testifieth this, saying, The dead 19.Sept. shall arise, and they in the tombs shall be raised. So Daniel, Dan. 12, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall arise; 2. Sept. some to everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame. But though the resurrection is common to all men, it is not alike to all; for we all indeed receive everlasting bodies, but not all the same bodies. For the just receive them, that through eternity, they may join the Choirs of Angels; but the sinners, that they may undergo for everlasting the torment of their sins. (20.) 23. 24. IX. OF THE HOLY LAVER. 32. Wherefore, the Lord of His lovingkindness has been beforehand with us, giving us the repentance of the Laver, that having cast away the chief, yea rather the whole burden of our sins, and having received the seal of the Holy Ghost, we may become heirs of life eternal. But seeing that we have before spoken sufficiently of the Laver of Baptism, let us go on to what remains of our preparatory teaching. X. OF THE DIVINE SCRIPTures. 33. These things are taught us by the inspired Scriptures, both of the Old and of the New Testament. For the God of both Testaments is one, by whom Christ who appeared in the New Testament, was foretold in the Old; who through the Law and the Prophets brought us as a Schoolmaster to Gal. 3, Christ. For before faith came, we were kept under the Law: and, The Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. And if ever thou hear any of the heretics blaspheming the Law or the Prophets, utter against them the saving voice, Mat. 5, saying, Jesus came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfil. Learn, also, diligently, and from the Church, which are the books of the Old Testament, and which of the New: and ἀποκρύ ¿vozęú- read not, I pray, any of the uncertain books". For why φων. shouldest thou, who knowest not those which are acknowledged by all, take needless trouble about those which are 17. a Or apocryphal, a word which did not convey any reproach in the early Church, but merely signified that the book so named was not in the canon. Vid. Pearson, Vind. Ignat. i. 4. The name of ἀναγινωσκόμενοι or Ecclesiastical is given by some writers to certain works which were held in reverence, and so read in churches, but not inspired. Vid. Milles in loc. p. 65. The history of the Septuagint Version. 49 questioned? Read the Holy Scriptures, these two and twenty books of the Old Testament, which were interpreted by the seventy-two interpreters. b 34. For after the death of Alexander the king of the (21.) Macedonians, and the division of his kingdom into four principalities, into Babylonia, and Macedonia, and Asia, and Egypt, one of the kings of Egypt, Ptolemy Philadelphus, a king very fond of learning, when he was collecting the books which were in every place, heard from Demetrius of Phalerum, who was over the library, concerning the Divine Scriptures of the Law and the Prophets, and judging it far better to abstain from getting the books by force from unwilling persons, but rather to conciliate their possessors by presents and friendship, knowing moreover, that what is forced from men, being given against their choice, is oftentimes tampered with, whereas that which is given of free choice is presented with all sincerity, he sent exceeding many gifts to Eleazar the priest at that time, for the temple at Jerusalem, and caused to be sent to him six men out of each of the twelve tribes of Israel, for the work of interpretation. Then, to prove whether the books were divine or no, and to prevent them who had been sent from combining together among themselves, he assigned to each of the interpreters his several dwelling, in the place called Pharos, which adjoins Alexandria, and bade each translate all the Scriptures. And when they had accomplished the work in seventy-two days, he brought together the translations of all, which they had made in different cells b This account is also found in Euseb. Præp.Evang. viii. 1-5. Philon. vit. Mos. ii. 658. Joseph. Antiq. xii. 2. Justin.Apol. 1. §. 31. p. 62. Iren. Hist. iii. 25. Clem. Strom. p. 342. These, to which may be added Ĥilary, Austin, and Philastrius, are in addition to Aristeas, who is the original authority. Epiphanius makes the same general statement with some further particulars in detail. This concordant testimony of the Fathers does not prove the fact alleged, which seems to have come from the Jews, yet may prove the doctrine implied and involved in it, that there is something, more than ordinary, of the Divine Hand in the Translation in question, a doctrine which is confirmed by the deference and reliance which the E inspired writers of the New Testament evince towards it. e. g. Acts xiii. 34. xv. 17. We may believe this doctrine, and yet with entire consistency reject the particular story which symbolizes, and got currency by, the primitive belief in it. Prideaux (Connect. part ii. b. 1.) comes to the following conclusions:-that the book which goes under the name of Aristeas, nay of Aristobulus, is a forgery of some Hellenistic Jew, with a view to add honour to the Septuagint version; and that in reality that version was gradually made in successive ages, first as far as the Law, then the Prophets, &c. It should be observed, that S. Jerome rejects the history of the separate Cells with great contempt. Præf. ad Pentat. 50 Books that compose the Canon of Scripture. LECT. without approaching one another; and he found them agreeIV. ing not in sense only, but in words. For the matter was not one of witty invention, or a contrivance of man's cunning devices; but the interpretation of the Divine Scriptures, spoken by the Holy Ghost, was, of the Holy Ghost, accomplished. фа. Tas. vid. i. 65. (22.) 35. Read the two and twenty books of these Scriptures: aring and have nothing to do with the uncertain books. Those only study earnestly, which we read confidently even in church. Far wiser than thou, and more devout, were the Apostles, and or the ancient Bishops, the rulers of the Church, who have Justin. handed down these: thou, therefore, who art a child of the Apol. Church, trench not on their sanctions. And of the Old Testament, as hath been said, study the two and twenty books; and these, if thou art diligent, strive to remember by name, as I repeat them. Of the Law, are the first five books of Moses; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: then Joshua the son of Nun: and the book of Judges and of Ruth, which is numbered the seventh. Of the remaining Historical books, the first and second books of Kings are among the Hebrews one book, and so the third and fourth books; and likewise the first and second books of Chronicles make one book; and the first and second books of Esdras are one; and the twelfth is the book of Esther: these are the Historical books. The books which are written in verses are five; Job, and the book of Psalms, and Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, which is the seventeenth book. After these come the five Prophetic books: the one book of the Twelve Prophets; the book of Esaias; the book of Jeremias, which with Baruch, the Lamentations, and the Epistle makes one book; then Ezekiel; and the book of Daniel is the twenty-second book of the Old Testament. γραφα. 36. Of the New Testament, there are only the four Gospels: the rest are forged and mischievous. The Manichæans also reapa. wrote a Gospel according to Thomas, which made acceptable with the fragrance of the evangelic name, corrupts the souls of the simpler sort. And receive also the Acts of the Twelve Apostles: and in addition to these, the seven Catholic Epistles, of James and Peter and John and Jude: and the final seal of all, and the last work of the disciples, the fourteen Epistles |