How Christ Became a Fulfiller of the Law, and What Parts of It He Put a Period To, or Changed, or Transferred.
XXIII. For He did not take away the law of nature, but confirmed it. For He that said in the law, "The Lord thy God is one Lord;" [3291] the same says in the Gospel, "That they might know Thee, the only true God." [3292] And He that said, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself," [3293] says in the Gospel, renewing the same precept, "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." [3294] He who then forbade murder, does now forbid causeless anger. [3295] He that forbade adultery, does now forbid all unlawful lust. He that forbade stealing, now pronounces him most happy who supplies those that are in want out of his own labours. [3296] He that forbade hatred, now pronounces him blessed that loves his enemies. [3297] He that forbade revenge, now commands long-suffering; [3298] not as if just revenge were an unrighteous thing, but because long-suffering is more excellent. Nor did He make laws to root out our natural passions, but only to forbid the excess of them. [3299] He who had commanded to honour our parents, was Himself subject to them. [3300] He who had commanded to keep the Sabbath, by resting thereon for the sake of meditating on the laws, has now commanded us to consider of the law of creation, and of providence every day, and to return thanks to God. He abrogated circumcision when He had Himself fulfilled it. For He it was "to whom the inheritance was reserved, who was the expectation of the nations." [3301] He who made a law for swearing rightly, and forbade perjury, has now charged us not to swear at all. [3302] He has in several ways changed baptism, sacrifice, the priesthood, and the divine service, which was confined to one place: for instead of daily baptisms, He has given only one, which is that into His death. Instead of one tribe, He has appointed that out of every nation the best should be ordained for the priesthood; and that not their bodies should be examined for blemishes, but their religion and their lives. Instead of a bloody sacrifice, He has appointed that reasonable and unbloody mystical one of His body and blood, which is performed to represent the death of the Lord by symbols. Instead of the divine service confined to one place, He has commanded and appointed that He should be glorified from sunrising to sunsetting in every place of His dominion. [3303] He did not therefore take away the law from us, but the bonds. For concerning the law Moses says: "Thou shalt meditate on the word which I command thee, sitting in thine house, and rising up, and walking in the way." [3304] And David says: "His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law will he meditate day and night." [3305] For everywhere would he have us subject to His laws, but not transgressors of them. For says He: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are they that search out His testimonies; with their whole heart shall they seek Him." [3306] And again: "Blessed are we, O Israel, because those things that are pleasing to God are known to us." [3307] And the Lord says: "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them." [3308]
That It Pleased the Lord that the Law of Righteousness Should Be Demonstrated by the Romans.
XXIV. Nor does He desire that the law of righteousness should only be demonstrated by us; but He is pleased that it should appear and shine by means of the Romans. For these Romans, believing in the Lord, left off their polytheism and injustice, and entertain the good, and punish the bad. But they hold the Jews under tribute, and do not suffer them to make use of their own ordinances.
How God, on Account of Their Impiety Towards Christ, Made the Jews Captives, and Placed Them Under Tribute.
XXV. Because, indeed, they drew servitude upon themselves voluntarily, when they said, "We have no king but Cæsar;" [3309] and, "If we do not slay Christ, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and will take away both our place and nation." [3310] And so they prophesied unwittingly. For accordingly the nations believed on Him, and they themselves were deprived by the Romans of their power, and of their legal worship; and they have been forbidden to slay whom they please, and to sacrifice when they will. Wherefore they are accursed, as not able to perform the things they are commanded to do. For says He: "Cursed be he that does not continue in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them." [3311] Now it is impossible in their dispersion, while they are among the heathen, for them to perform all things in their law. For the divine Moses forbids both to rear an altar out of Jerusalem, and to read the law out of the bounds of Judea. [3312] Let us therefore follow Christ, that we may inherit His blessings. Let us walk after the law and the prophets by the Gospel. Let us eschew the worshippers of many gods, and the murderers of Christ, and the murderers of the prophets, and the wicked and atheistical heretics. Let us be obedient to Christ as to our King, as having authority to change several constitutions, and having, as a legislator, wisdom to make new constitutions in different circumstances; yet so that everywhere the laws of nature be immutably preserved.
[3257] 2 Cor. v. 17.
[3258] Isa. viii. 20, LXX.
[3259] Deut. xii. 5
[3260] Ps. xix. 7
[3261] Mal. iv. 4
[3262] Matt. viii. 4; Mark i. 44.
[3263] Luke xvii. 14.
[3264] Matt. v. 18, 17.
[3265] Luke ix. 30
[3266] Ex. xx
[3267] Ex. xxxii.
[3268] Ex. xx. 24
[3269] Ps. l. 12
[3270] Ex. xxxii. 4
[3271] Ex. iv., etc.
[3272] Num. xi. 31
[3273] Ex. xxxii. 1
[3274] Ex. xxxii. 4
[3275] Deut. vi. 4
[3276] Matt. xiii. 16.
[3277] One V. ms. reads: "Thus also said the Lord to us His disciples."
[3278] John xv. 15.
[3279] Ezek. xx. 25.
[3280] Matt. xvi. 24.
[3281] John vi. 67.
[3282] Jer. vi. 20.
[3283] Jer. vii. 21, 22.
[3284] Isa. i. 11, etc.
[3285] Amos v. 23
[3286] 1 Sam. xv. 22
[3287] Ps. l. 9, 12, etc.
[3288] Prov. xxi. 27
[3289] Hos. ix. 4
[3290] Ps. li. 10, 17
[3291] Deut. vi. 4
[3292] John xvii. 3.
[3293] Lev. xix. 18.
[3294] John xiii. 34.
[3295] Matt. v. 22.
[3296] Acts xx. 35.
[3297] Matt. v. 7.
[3298] Matt. v. 43.
[3299] Matt. v. 38.
[3300] Luke ii. 51.
[3301] Gen. xlix. 10.
[3302] Matt. v. 33.
[3303] Ps. cxiii. 3; Mal. i. 11
[3304] Deut. vi. 6
[3305] Ps. i. 2
[3306] Ps. cxix. 1, 2.
[3307] Bar. iv. 4.
[3308] John xiii. 17.
[3309] John xix. 15.
[3310] John xi. 48.
[3311] Deut. xxvii. 26; Gal. iii. 10
[3312] Deut. xii. [See on Liturgies, infra.]
Sec. V.--The Teaching of the Apostles in Opposition to Jewish and Gentile Superstitions, Especially in Regard to Marriage and Funerals.
That We Ought to Avoid the Heretics as the Corrupters of Souls.
XXVI. Do you therefore, O bishops, and ye of the laity, avoid all heretics who abuse the law and the prophets. For they are enemies to God Almighty, and disobey Him, and do not confess Christ to be the Son of God. For they also deny His generation according to the flesh; they are ashamed of the cross; they abuse His passion and His death; they know not His resurrection; they take away His generation before all ages. Nay, some of them are impious after another manner, imagining the Lord to be a mere man, supposing Him to consist of a soul and body. But others of them suppose that Jesus Himself is the God over all, and glorify Him as His own Father, and suppose Him to be both the Son and the Comforter; than which doctrines what can be more detestable? Others, again, of them do refuse certain meats, and say that marriage with the procreation of children is evil, and the contrivance of the devil; and being ungodly themselves, they are not willing to rise again from the dead on account of their wickedness. Wherefore also they ridicule the resurrection, and say, We are holy people, unwilling to eat and to drink; and they fancy that they shall rise again from the dead demons without flesh, who shall be condemned for ever in eternal fire. Fly therefore from them, lest ye perish with them in their impieties.
Of Some Jewish and Gentile Observances.
XXVII. Now if any persons keep to the Jewish customs and observances concerning the natural emission and nocturnal pollutions, and the lawful conjugal acts, [3313] let them tell us whether in those hours or days, when they undergo any such thing, they observe not to pray, or to touch a Bible, or to partake of the Eucharist? And if they own it to be so, it is plain they are void of the Holy Spirit, which always continues with the faithful. For concerning holy persons Solomon says: "That every one may prepare himself, that so when he sleeps it may keep him, and when he arises it may talk with him." [3314] For if thou thinkest, O woman, when thou art seven days in thy separation, that thou art void of the Holy Spirit, then if thou shouldest die suddenly thou wilt depart void of the Spirit, and without assured hope in God; or else thou must imagine that the Spirit always is inseparable from thee, as not being in a place. But thou standest in need of prayer and the Eucharist, and the coming of the Holy Ghost, as having been guilty of no fault in this matter. For neither lawful mixture, nor child-bearing, nor the menstrual purgation, nor nocturnal pollution, can defile the nature of a man, or separate the Holy Spirit from him. Nothing but impiety and unlawful practice can do that. For the Holy Spirit always abides with those that are possessed of it, so long as they are worthy; and those from whom it is departed, it leaves them desolate, and exposed to the wicked spirit. Now every man is filled either with the holy or with the unclean spirit; and it is not possible to avoid the one or the other, unless they can receive opposite spirits. For the Comforter hates every lie, and the devil hates all truth. But every one that is baptized agreeably to the truth is separated from the diabolical spirit, and is under the Holy Spirit; and the Holy Spirit remains with him so long as he is doing good, and fills him with wisdom and understanding, and suffers not the wicked spirit to approach him, but watches over his goings. Thou therefore, O woman, if, as thou sayest, in the days of thy separation thou art void of the Holy Spirit, thou art then filled with the unclean one; for by neglecting to pray and to read thou wilt invite him to thee, though he were unwilling. For this spirit, of all others, loves the ungrateful, the slothful, the careless, and the drowsy, since he himself by ingratitude was distempered with evil mind, and was thereby deprived by God his dignity; having rather chosen to be a devil than an archangel. Wherefore, O woman, eschew such vain words, and be ever mindful of God that created thee, and pray to Him. For He is thy Lord, and the Lord of the universe; and meditate in His laws without observing any such things, such as the natural purgation, lawful mixture, child-birth, a miscarriage, or a blemish of the body; since such observations are the vain inventions of foolish men, and such inventions as have no sense in them. Neither the burial of a man, nor a dead man's bone, nor a sepulchre, nor any particular sort of food, nor the nocturnal pollution, can defile the soul of man; but only impiety towards God, and transgression, and injustice towards one's neighbour; I mean rapine, violence, or if there be anything contrary to His righteousness, adultery or fornication. Wherefore, beloved, avoid and eschew such observations, for they are heathenish. For we do not abominate a dead man, as do they, seeing we hope that he will live again. Nor do we hate lawful mixture; for it is their practice to act impiously in such instances. For the conjunction of man and wife, if it be with righteousness, is agreeable to the mind of God. "For He that made them at the beginning made them male and female; and He blessed them, and said, Increase and multiply, and fill the earth." [3315] If, therefore, the difference of sexes was made by the will of God for the generation of multitudes, then must the conjunction of male and female be also acceptable to His mind.