from the statement, that when all who are saints have arrived at the summit of perfection, they are said to be made like, 3 Quam in aliis sanctis viris. ‘* Aliis” is found in the mss., but is wanting in many editions.
come ee eee ——a a en, a Crap. 1] ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIS. 345 FROM THE LATIN.
or equal to, the angels, agreeably to the declaration in the Gospels." Whence it is clear that Christ is in each individual in as great a degree as the amount of his deserts allows.’
30. Having, then, briefly restated these points regarding the nature of the Trinity, it follows that we notice shortly this statement also, that “by the Son” are said to be created “all things that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or prin- cipalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for THlim; and He is before all, and all things consist by Him, who is the head.”® In conformity with which John also in his Gospel says: “ All things were created by Him; and without Him was not anything made.’* And David, intimating that the mystery of the entire Trinity was [con- cerned] in the creation of all things, says: “ By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the Spirit of His mouth.” ° After these points we shall appropriately remind [the reader]. of the bodily advent and incarnation of the only- begotten Son of God, with respect to whom we are not to suppose that all the majesty of His divinity is confined within the limits of His slender body, so that all the “word” of God, and His “ wisdom,” and “essential truth,” and “life,” was either rent asunder from the Father, or restrained and confined within the narrowness of His bodily person, and is not to be considered to have operated anywhere besides; but the cautious acknowledgment of a religious man ought to be between the two, so that it ought neither to be believed that anything of divinity was wanting in Christ, nor that any separation at all was made from the essence of the Father, which is everywhere. For some such meaning scems to be indicated by John the Baptist, when he said to the multitude in the bodily absence of Jesus, “ There standeth one among 1 Cf. Matt. xxii. 30 and Luke xx. 36.
2 Unde constat in singulis quibusque tantum effici Christum, quantum ratio indulserit meritorum.
346 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. [Book rv. FROM THE LATIN.
you whom ye know not: He it is who cometh after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.”! For it certainly could not be said of Him, who was absent, so far as His bodily presence is concerned, that He was standing in the midst of those among whom the Son of God was not bodily present.
31. Let no one, however, suppose that by this we affirm that some portion of the divinity of the Son of God was in Christ, and that the remaining portion was elsewhere or everywhere, which may be the opinion of those who are igno- rant of the nature of an incorporeal and invisible essence. For it is impossible to speak of the parts of an incorporeal being, or to make any division of them; but He is in all things, and through all things, and above all things, in the manner in which we have spoken above, t.e. in the manner in which He is understood to be either “wisdom,” or the “word,” or the “life,” or the “truth,” by which method of understanding all confinement of a local kind is un- doubtedly excluded. The Son of God, then, desiring for the salvation of the human race to appear unto men, and to sojourn among them, assumed not only a human body, as some suppose, but also a soul resembling our souls indeed in nature, but in will and power? resembling Himself, and such as might unfailingly accomplish all the desires and arrange- ments of the “word” and “ wisdom.” Now, that He had a soul,? is most clearly shown by the Saviour in the Gospels, when He said, “No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again.’* And again, “ My soul is sorrowful even unto death.”® And again, “ Now is my soul troubled.”® For the “ Word” of God is not to be under- stood to be a “sorrowful and troubled” soul, because with the authority of divinity He says, “I have power to lay down my life.” Nor yet do we assert that the Son of God 1 Cf. John i. 26, 27. 3 Proposito vero et virtute similem sibi.
Ouar. 1.] ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. 347 FROM THE LATIN.
was in that soul as He was in the soul of Paul or Peter and the other saints, in whom Christ is believed to speak as He does in Paul. But regarding all these we are to hold, as Scripture declares, “ No one is clean from filthiness, not even if his life lasted but a single day.”’ But this soul which was in Jesus, before it knew the evil, selected the good; and because He loved righteousness, an? hated iniquity, there- fore God “anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows.”? He is anointed, then, with the oil of gladness when He is united to the “word” of God in a stainless union, and by this means alone of all souls was incapable of sin, because it was capable of [receiving] well and fully the Son of God; and therefore also it is one with Him, and is named by His titles, and is called Jesus Christ, by whom all things are said to be made. Of which soul, seeing it had received into itself the whole wisdom of God, and the truth, and the life, I think that the apostle also said this: “ Our life is hidden with Christ in God; but when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with Him in glory.”® For what other Christ can be here understood, who is said to be hidden in God, and who is afterwards to appear, except Him who is rélated to have been,anointed with the oil of gladness, z.e. to have been filled with God essentially,* in whom He is now said to be hidden? For on this account is Christ proposed as an example to all believers, because as He always, even before He knew evil at all, se- lected the good, and loved righteousness, and hated iniquity, and therefore God anointed Him with the oil of gladness; so also’ ought each one, after a lapse or sin, to cleanse himself from hie stains, making Him his example, and, taking Him as the guide of his journey, enter upon the steep way of virtue, that so perchance by this means, as far as possible we may, by imitating Him, be made partakers of the divine nature, according to the words of Scripture: “ He that saith that he believeth in Christ, ought so to walk, as He also walked.”* 1 Cf. Job xv. 14. 2 Ps. xlv. 7. 8 Cf. Col. iii. 3. ¢ Substantialiter. 5 Cf. 1 John ii. 6.
$48 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPITS. [Book rv.
FROM THE LATIN.
This “word,” then, and this “ wisdom,” by the imitation of which we are said to be either wise or rational [beings], becomes “all things to all men, that it may gain all;” and because it is made weak, it is therefore said of it, “ Though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God.”? Finally, to the Corinthians who were weak, Paul declares that he “knew nothing, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.”?
32. Some, indeed, would have the following language of the apostle applied to the soul itself, as soon as it had assumed flesh from Mary,° viz., “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but divested Himself [of His glory],* taking upon Himself the form of a servant;”° since He undoubtedly restored it to the form of God by means of better examples and training, and recalled it to that fulness of which He had divested Himself.
As now by participation in the Son of God one is adopted as a son,’ and by participating in that wisdom which is in God is rendered wise, so also by participation in the Holy Spirit is a man rendered holy and spiritual. For it is one and the same thing to have a share in the Holy Spirit, which is [the Spirit] of the Father and the Son, since the nature of the Trinity is one and incorporeal. And what we have said regarding the participation of the soul is to be understood of angels and heavenly powers in a similar way as of souls, because every rational creature needs a participation in the Trinity.
Respecting also the plan of this visible world—secing one of tle most important questions usually raised is as to the manner of its existence—we have spoken to the best of our ability in the preceding pages, for the sake of those who are accustomed to seek the grounds of their belief in our religion, and also for those who stir against us heretical questions, and who are accustomed to bandy about’ the word “matter,” which 12 Cor. xiii. 4. 7-1 Cor. ii. 2. 3 De Maria corpus assumsit.
4 Semet ipsum exinanivit. § Phil. ii. 6, 7. In filium adoptatur.? Ventilare.
Crap. 1. | ORIGEN DE PRINCTPIIS. 349 FROM THE LATIN.
they have not yet been able to understand; of which subject I now deem it necessary briefly to remind [the reader].
33. And, in the first place, it is to be noted that we have nowhere found in the canonical Scriptures,’ up to the present time, the word “matter” used for that substance which is said to underlie bodies. For in the expression of Isaiah, «¢ And he shall devour vAn,” i.e. matter, “like hay,”? when speaking of those who were appointed to undergo their punishments, the word “ matter” was used instead of “ sins.” And if this word “matter” should happen to occur in any other passage, it will never be found, in my opinion, to have the signification of which we are now in quest, unless perhaps in the book which is called the Wisdom of Solomon, a work which is certainly not esteemed authoritative by all. In that book, however, we find written as follows: “For Thy almighty hand, that made the world out of shapeless matter, wanted not means to send among them a multitude of bears and fierce lions.”* Very many, indeed, are of opinion that the matter of which things are made is itself signified in the language used by Moses in the beginning of Genesis: “In the beginning God made heaven and earth; and the earth was invisible, and not arranged:”* for by the words “ invisible and not arranged” Moses would seem to mean nothing else than shapeless matter. But if this be truly matter, it is clear then that the original elements of bodies® are not incapable of change. For those who posited “atoms ”— either those particles which are incapable of subdivision, or those which are subdivided into equal parts—or any one element, as the principles of bodily things, could not posit the word “matter” in the proper sense of the term among the first principles of things. For if they will have it that 1 In Scripturis canonicis.
2 Isa. x. 17, xal Qaysras aosl xcprov ty» van», Sept. The Vulgate follows the Masoretic text.
3 Wisd. xi. 17.
§ Tnitia corporum.
850 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. [Boox rv. FROM THE LATIN. ' matter underlies every body—a substance convertible or changeable, or divisible in all its parts—they will not, as is proper, assert that it exists without qualities. And with them we agree, for we altogether deny that matter ought to be spoken of as “unbegotten” or “ uncreated,” agreeably to our former statements, when we pointed out that from water, and earth, and air or heat, different kinds of fruits were pro- duced by different kinds of trees; or when we showed that fire, and air, and water, and earth were alternately converted into each other, and that one element was resolved into another by a kind of mutual consanguinity; and also when we proved that from the food either of men or animals the substance of the flesh was derived, or that the moisture of the natural seed was converted into solid flesh and bones; —all which go to prove that the substance of the body is changeable, and may pass from one quality into all others. 34. Nevertheless we must not forget that a substance never exists without a quality, and that it is by an act of the understanding alone that this [substance] which under- lies bodies, and which is capable of quality, is discovered to be matter. Some indeed, in their desire to investigate these subjects more profoundly, have ventured to assert that bodily nature’ is nothing else than qualities. For if hardness and softness, heat and cold, moisture and aridity, be qualities; and if, when these or other [qualities] of this sort be cut away, nothing else is understood to remain, then all things will appear to be “ qualities.’ And therefore also those persons who make these assertions have endeavoured to main- tain, that since all who say that matter was uncreated will admit that qualities were created by God, it may be in this way shown that even according to them matter was not uncreated; since qualities constitute everything, and these. are declared by all without contradiction to have been made by zod. Those, again, who would make out that qualities :.. Nuperimposed from without upon a certain underlying matter, make use of illustrations of this kind: e.g. Paul un- 7 1 Naturam corpoream.
Cuap. 1. ] ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. 351 FROM THE LATIN.
doubtedly is either silent, or speaks, or watches, or sleeps, or maintains a certain attitude of body; for he is either ina sitting, or standing, or recumbent position. For these are “accidents” belonging to men, without which they are almost never found. And yet our conception of man does not lay down any of these things as a definition of him; but we so understand and regard him by their means, that we do not at all take into account the reason of his [particular] condition either in watching, or in sleeping, or in speaking, or in keeping silence, or in any other action that must necessarily happen to men.’ If any one, then, can regard Paul as being without all these things which are capable of happening, he will in the same way also be able to understand this under- lying [substance] without qualities. When, then, our mind puts away all qualities from its conception, and gazes, so. to speak, upon the underlying element alone, and keeps its attention closely upon it, without any reference to the soft- ness or hardness, or heat or cold, or humidity or aridity of the substance, then by means of this somewhat simulated process of thought’ it will appear to behold matter clear from qualities of every kind.
35. But some one will perhaps inquire whether we can obtain out of Scripture any grounds for such an understand- ing of the subject. Now I think some such view is indi- cated in the Psalms, when the prophet says, “ Mine eyes have seen thine imperfection;”* by which the mind of the prophet, examining with keener glance the first principles of things, and separating in thought and imagination only be- 1 Nec tamen sensus noster manifeste de eo aliquid horum definit, sed ita eum per hec intelliginus, vel consideramus, ut non omninp rationem status cjus comprehendamus, vel in eo, quod vigilat, vel in eo, quod dormit, aut in quo loquitur, vel tacet, et si qua alia sunt, que accidere necesse est hominibus.
2 Tunc simulaté quodammodo cogitatione.
3 Pg. cxxxix. 16, ro dxatipyaoroy pov sfooras of C¢baAmol cov, Sept.; ‘‘ Imperfectum tuum viderunt oculi tui,” Vulg. (same as in the text.) PIP AN ‘ob3—"* Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect,” auth. vers. Cf. Gesenius and Fiirst, s.v. ndi.
352 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIS. [ Book. ry.
FROM THE LATIN.
tween matter and its qualities, perceived the imperfection of God, which certainly is understood to be perfected by the addition of qualities. Enoch also, in his book, speaks as follows: “I have walked on even to imperfection;”? which expression I consider may be understood in a similar manner, viz. that the mind of the prophet proceeded in its scrutiny and investigation of all visible things, until it arrived at that first beginning in which it beheld imperfect matter [existing] without “qualities.” or it is written in the same book of Enoch, “I beheld the whole of matter;”? which is so under- stood as if he had said: “I have clearly seen all the divisions of matter which are broken up from one into each individual species either of men, or animals, or of the sky, or of the sun, or of all other things in this world.” After these points, now, we proved to the best of our power in the preceding pages that all things which exist were made by God, and that there was nothing which was not made, save the nature of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and that God, who is by nature good, desiring to have those upon whom He might confer benefits, and who might rejoice in receiving His benefits, created creatures worthy [of this], te. who were capable of receiving Him in a worthy manner, who, He says, are also begotten by Him as his sons. He made all things, moreover, by number and measure. For there is nothing before God without either limit or measure. For by His power He comprehiends all things, and He Himself is com- prehended by the strength of no created thing, because that nature is known to itself alone. For the Father alone knoweth the Son, and the Son alone knoweth the Father, and the Holy Spirit alone searcheth even the deep things of God. All created things, therefore, ze. either the number of rational beings or the measure of bodily matter, are distinguished by Him as being within a certain number or measurement; since, as it was necessary for an intellectual nature to employ bodies, and this nature is shown to be 1 Ambulavi usque ad imperfectuin; cf. Book of Enoch, chap. xvii. ? Universas materias perspexi; cf. Book of Enoch, chap. xvii.
Coar.1jJ ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. 393 FROM THE LATIN.
changeable and convertible by the very condition of its being created (for what did not exist, but began to exist, is said by this very circumstance to be of mutable nature), it can have neither goodness nor wickedness as an essential, but only as an accidental attribute of its being. Seeing, then, as we have said, that rational nature was mutable and changeable, so that it made use of a different bodily covering of this or that sort of quality, according to its merits, it was necessary, as God foreknew there would be diversities in souls or spiritual powers, that He should create also a bodily nature the qualities of which might be changed at the will of the Creator into all that was required. And this bodily nature must last as long as those things which require it as a cover- ing: for there will be always rational natures which need a bodily covering; and there will therefore always be a bodily nature whose coverings must necessarily be used by rational creatures, unless some one be able to demonstrate by argu- ments that a rational nature can live without a body. But how difficult—nay, how almost impossible—this is for our understanding, we have shown in the preceding pages, in our discussion of the individual topics.
36. It will not, I consider, be opposed to the nature of our undertaking, if we restate with all possible brevity our opinions on the immortality of rational natures. Every one who participates in anything, is unquestionably of one essence and nature with him who is partaker of the same thing. For example, as all eyes participate in the light, so accordingly all eyes which partake of the light are of one nature; but although every eye partakes of the light, yet, inasmuch as one sees more clearly, and another more obscurely, every eye docs not equally share in the light. And again, all hearing reccives voice or sound, and therefore all hearing is of one nature; but each one hears more rapidly or more slowly, according as the quality of his hearing is clear and sound. Let us pass now from these sensuous illustrations to the consideration of intellectual things. Every mind which partakes of intellectual light ought undoubtedly to be of one nature with every mind ORIG., Z 354 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIS. [Book iv.
FROM THE LATIN, which partakes in a similar manner of intellectual light. If the heavenly virtues, then, partake of intellectual light, i.e. of divine nature, because they participate in wisdom and holiness, and if human souls have partaken of the same light and wisdom, and thus are mutually of one nature and of one essence,—then, since the heavenly virtues are incorruptible and immortal, the essence of the human soul will also be immortal and incorruptible. And not only so, but because the nature of Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, of whose intellectual light alone all created things have a share, is incorruptible and eternal, it is altogether consistent and necessary that every substance which partakes of that eternal nature should last for ever, and be incorruptible and eternal, so that the eternity of divine goodness may be understood also in this respect, that they who obtain its benefits are also eternal. But as, in the instances referred to, a diversity in the participation of the light was observed, when the glance of the beholder was described as being duller or more acute, . so also a diversity is to be noted in the participation of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, varying with the degree of zeal or capacity of mind. If such were not the case,’ we have to consider whether it would not seem to be an act of impiety to say that the mind which is capable of [receiving] God should admit of a destruction of its essence;” as if the very fact that it is able to feel and understand God could not suffice for its perpetual existence, especially since, if even throuch neglect the mind fall away from a pure and complete recep- tion of God, it nevertheless contains within it certain seeds of restoration and renewal to a better understanding, seeing the “inner,” which is also called the “ rational’? man, is renewed after “the image and likeness of God, who created him.” And therefore the prophet says, “ All the ends of the earth shall remember, and turn unto the Lord; and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before Thee.”* 37. If any one, indeed, venture to ascribe essential cor- ruption to him who was made after the image and likeness 1 Alioquin. * Substantialem interitum. $s, xxii. 27.
Cuap. 1. | ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIS. 355 FROM THE LATIN.
of God, then, in my opinion, this impious charge extends even to the Son of God Himself, for He is called in Scripture the image of God.’ Or he who holds this opinion would certainly impugn the authority of Scripture, which says that man was inade in the image of God; and in him are manifestly to be discovered traces of the divine image, not by any appear- ance of the bodily frame, which is corruptible, but by mental wisdom, by justice, moderation, virtue, wisdom, discipline; in fine, by the whole band of virtues, which are innate in the essence of God, and which may enter into man by diligence and imitation of God; as the Lord also intimates in the Gospel, when He says, ‘“ Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful;”? and, “ Be ye perfect, even as your Father also is perfect.’’ From which it is clearly shown that all these virtues are perpetually in God, and that they can never approach to or depart from Him, whereas by men they are acquired only slowly, and one by one. And hence ilso by these means they seem to have a kind of relationship with God; and since God knows all things, and none of things intellectual in themselves can elude His notice * (for God the Father alone, and His only-begotten Son, and the Holy Spirit, not only possess a knowledge of those things which they have created, but also of themselves), a rational understanding also, advancing from small things to great, and from things visible to things invisible, may attain to a more perfect knowledge. For it is placed in the body, and advances from sensible things themselves, which are corporeal, to things that are intellectual. But lest our statement that things intellectual are not cognisable by the senses should appear unbecoming, we shall employ the instance of Solomon, who says, * You will find also a divine sense;”° by which he shows that those things which are intellectual are to be 1 Cf. Col. i. 15 and 2 Cor. iv. 4. 2 Luke vi. 36.
4 Nilil eum rerum intellectualium ex se lateat.
5 Cf. Prov. ii. 5, txiyyaciy Ozod evpyoess, Sept. Scientiam Dei invenics, Vulg. Nyon YDS NYA, 396 ORIGEN DE PRINCIPIIS. [Book rv.
FROM THE LATIN.
sought out not by means of a bodily sense, but by a certain other which he calls “divine.” And with this sense must we look on each of those rational beings which we have enumerated above; and with this sense are to be understood those words which we speak, and those statements to be weighed which we commit to writing. For the divine nature knows even those thoughts which we revolve within us in silence. And on those matters of which we have spoken, or on the others which follow from them, according to the rule above laid down, are our opinions to be formed.
INDEXES, l.—INDEX OF SUBJECTS.
Acts of Paul, The, quoted, 20.
Aves, the, §o.
Angels, the doctrine of the church respecting, 7; how referred to by Paul, 45; inquiries respecting, 47; a particular oftice assigned to each, 65; diversities among, the results of merit, 66; capable of good or evil, 67, 69; the substance Annihilation of material substances not possible, 58.
Animal man, the, 120, 121.
"AvrixGoves, SU.
Apopompieus, 223. | Apostles, the, the subjects of their preaching, 3, etc.
Artaxerxes and Mordecai, 231.
Ascension of Moses, The, quoted, 222.
"Acaparey, 5. | Barnabas, The Epistle of, quoted, 231.
Llessedness, the future, ot the saints, not carnal, 145, 146; but spiritual, Body, the, can rational creatures live without, 80, 82; to be made incorruptible and immortal, resur- rection of the, 137; varieties in the resurrection body, 138; a word to weak believers about the resur- rection body, 139, etc.
Bodily nature, its perpetuity, 77-79.
Breath of the power of God, the, Brightness of the Father's glory, Christ the, 24.
Christ, the words of, 1; apostolical doctrine respecting, 3; the only- begotten Son of God, 18; the wisdom of God, 18, 19, 20; the eternal generation of, 19, 22; generated by the divine will, 23; the image of the invisible God, 23, 24; the brightness of the glory of God, 24, 25; the figure of God’s person or subsistence, 25; the breath of the power of (God, 26; the efflux of God’s glory, 28; the splendour of eternal light, 30; the stainless mirror of God's ivipyua, 31; the image of God’s goodness, 51, 32; the incarnation of, 105-112; the wonder of the incarnation of, 106, 107; His union with God, 108; His union with God the reward of His love, 109; possessed a human and rational soul, 110, 111; anointed with the oil of joy, 111, 112; and Moses as lawgivers, 275, etc.; predicted, 279, etc., 285, etc.; all the majesty of His divinity not confined within the limits of Christianity, the power of, 277, etc.
Clement of Rome, quoted, 86, $7.
Clothing, the, of the soul and of the body, 81.
Conflict, the, with the powers of evil, Consummation, the, 53-59.
Corporeal and incorporeal beings, Corporeity, will it ever be destroyed?
Corruptible, the, putting on incor- ruption, 80, 81.
Creation, the, of the world in time, 253, etc.; objection to the crea- tion of the world in time an- swered, 255; the peculiar term used in Scripture to express, 256- Creatures, the, subjected to vanity, Creatures made by God in the be- ginning, 126; changeable a ue able, 128; v arieties of, 129, 13¢ Darkness, outer, 1-44.
Darkness, the rulers and powers of, have obtained their degrees of evil through their own conduct, Death, the last enemy, destroyed, Defection, the, of men, 43.
Desire of knowledge to be satisfied in a future state, 146-151.
Devil, the, and his angels, the doc- trine of the church respecting, o; the titles of, 45; not incapable of goodness, 6S; the agency of, as set forth in the Old Testament, 222; ag revealed in the New Testa- ment, 224; not the prompter to all sins—man would vo astray if there were no devil, 227-229; how he and his allied powers tempt, 229; the contest against, 252, cte.
Doctrine of Petar, The, the apoury phal Work so named, quoted, 6.
Ebionite, meaning of the name, 329.
Ettlux of the glory of God, Christ the, 2S.
End, the, 53; when it will come, 54; and the beginning, 55; what shall be atter, 683; admonitory remarks respecting, 262-273.
Enemy, the last, destroyed, 208, 269.
Knoch, The Look of, quoted, 352, Eternal generation, the, of Christ,