30. By such and many other arguments the serpent was overthrown: thus did Archelaus wrestle with Manes and threw him. Again, he who had fled from prison flees from this place also: and having run away from his antagonist, he comes to a very poor village, like the serpent in Paradise when he left Adam and came to Eve. But the good shepherd Archelaus taking forethought for his sheep, when he heard of his flight, straightway hastened with all speed in search of the wolf. And when Manes suddenly saw his adversary, he rushed out and fled: it was however his last flight. For the officers of the King of Persia searched everywhere, and caught the fugitive: and the sentence, which he ought to have received in the presence of Archelaus, is passed upon him by the king's officers. This Manes, whom his own disciples worship, is arrested and brought before the king. The king reproached him with his falsehood and his flight: poured scorn upon his slavish condition, avenged the murder of his child, and condemned him also for the murder of the gaolers: he commands him to be flayed after the Persian fashion. And while the rest of his body was given over for food of wild beasts, his skin, the receptacle of his vile mind, was hung up before the gates like a sack [944] . He that called himself the Paraclete and professed to know the future, knew not his own flight and capture.
31. This man has had three disciples, Thomas, and Baddas, and Hermas. Let none read the Gospel according to Thomas [945] : for it is the work not of one of the twelve Apostles, but of one of the three wicked disciples of Manes. Let none associate with the soul-destroying Manicheans, who by decoctions of chaff counterfeit the sad look of fasting, who speak evil of the Creator of meats, and greedily devour the daintiest, who teach that the man who plucks up this or that herb is changed into it. For if he who crops herbs or any vegetable is changed into the same, into how many will husbandmen and the tribe of gardeners be changed [946] ? The gardener, as we see, has used his sickle against so many: into which then is he changed? Verily their doctrines are ridiculous, and fraught with their own condemnation and shame! The same man, being the shepherd of a flock, both sacrifices a sheep and kills a wolf. Into what then is he changed? Many men both net fishes and lime birds: into which then are they transformed?
32. Let those children of sloth, the Manicheans, make answer; who without labouring themselves eat up the labourers' fruits: who welcome with smiling faces those who bring them their food, and return curses instead of blessings. For when a simple person brings them anything, "Stand outside a while," saith he, "and I will bless thee." Then having taken the bread into his hands (as those who have repented and left them have confessed), "I did not make thee," says the Manichee to the bread: and sends up curses against the Most High; and curses him that made it, and so eats what was made [947] . If thou hatest the food, why didst thou look with smiling countenance on him that brought it to thee? If thou art thankful to the bringer, why dost thou utter thy blasphemy to God, who created and made it? So again he says, "I sowed thee not: may he be sown who sowed thee! I reaped thee not with a sickle: may he be reaped who reaped thee! I baked thee not with fire: may he be baked who baked thee!" A fine return for the kindness!
33. These are great faults, but still small in comparison with the rest. Their Baptism I dare not describe before men and women [948] . I dare not say what they distribute to their wretched communicants [949] ....Truly we pollute our mouth in speaking of these things. Are the heathen more detestable than these? Are the Samaritans more wretched? Are Jews more impious? Are fornicators more impure [950] ? But the Manichee sets these offerings in the midst of the altar as he considers it [951] . And dost thou, O man, receive instruction from such a mouth? On meeting this man dost thou greet him at all with a kiss? To say nothing of his other impiety, dost thou not flee from the defilement, and from men worse than profligates, more detestable than any prostitute?
34. Of these things the Church admonishes and teaches thee, and touches mire, that thou mayest not be bemired: she tells of the wounds, that thou mayest not be wounded. But for thee it is enough merely to know them: abstain from learning by experience. God thunders, and we all tremble; and they blaspheme. God lightens, and we all bow down to the earth; and they have their blasphemous sayings about the heavens [952] . These things are written in the books of the Manichees. These things we ourselves have read, because we could not believe those who told of them: yes, for the sake of your salvation we have closely inquired into their perdition.
35. But may the Lord deliver us from such delusion: and may there be given to you a hatred against the serpent, that as they lie in wait for the heel, so you may trample on their head. Remember ye what I say. What agreement can there be between our state and theirs? What communion hath light with darkness [953] ? What hath the majesty of the Church to do with the abomination of the Manichees? Here is order, here is discipline [954] , here is majesty, here is purity: here even to look upon a woman to lust after her [955] is condemnation. Here is marriage with sanctity [956] , here steadfast continence, here virginity in honour like unto the Angels: here partaking of food with thanksgiving, here gratitude to the Creator of the world. Here the Father of Christ is worshipped: here are taught fear and trembling before Him who sends the rain: here we ascribe glory to Him who makes the thunder and the lightning.
36. Make thou thy fold with the sheep: flee from the wolves: depart not from the Church. Hate those also who have ever been suspected in such matters: and unless in time thou perceive their repentance, do not rashly trust thyself among them. The truth of the Unity of God has been delivered to thee: learn to distinguish the pastures of doctrine. Be an approved banker [957] , holding fast that which is good, abstaining from every form of evil [958] . Or if thou hast ever been such as they, recognise and hate thy delusion. For there is a way of salvation, if thou reject the vomit, if thou from thy heart detest it, if thou depart from them, not with thy lips only, but with thy soul also: if thou worship the Father of Christ, the God of the Law and the Prophets, if thou acknowledge the Good and the Just to be one and the same God. [959] And may He preserve you all, guarding you from falling or stumbling, stablished in the Faith, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to Whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
[819] Peri Theou Monarchias. The word monarchia, as used by Plato (Polit. 291 C), Aristotle (Polit. III. xiv. 11. eidos monarchias basilikes), Philo Judæus (de Circumcisione, § 2; de Monarchia, Titul.), means "sole government." Compare Tertullian (adv. Praxean. c. iii.): "If I have gained any knowledge of either language, I am sure that Monarchia has no other meaning than single and individual rule.'" Athanasius (de Decretis Nicænæ Synodi, § 26) has preserved part of an Epistle of Dionysius, Bishop of Rome (259-269, a.d.), against the Sabellians: "It will be natural for me now to speak against those who divide, and cut into pieces, and destroy that most sacred doctrine of the Church of God, the Monarchia, making it, as it were, three powers and divided hypostases, and three Godheads;" (ibid.): "It is the doctrine of the presumptuous Marcion to sever and divide the Monarchia into three origins (archas)." We see here the sense which Monarchia had acquired in Christian Theology: it meant the "Unity of God," as the one principle and origin of all things. "By the Monarchy is meant the doctrine that the Second and Third Persons in the Ever-blessed Trinity are ever to be referred in our thoughts to the First, as the Fountain of Godhead" (Newman, Athanas. de Decretis Nic. Syn. § 26, note h). Justin Martyr (Euseb. H.E. IV. 18), and Irenæus (ibid. V. 20), had each written a treatise peri Monarchias. On the history of Monarchianism see, in this Series, Athanasius, Prolegomena, p. xxiii. sqq.
[820] 2 Cor. i. 3.
[821] This clause is omitted in some mss. Various forms of the Doxology were adopted in Cyril's time by various parties in the Church. Thus Theodoret (Hist. Eccles. II. c. 19) relates that Leontius, Bishop of Antioch, a.d. 348-357, observing that the Clergy and the Congregation were divided into two parties, the one using the form "and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," the other "through the Son, in the Holy Ghost," used to repeat the Doxology silently, so that those who were near could hear only "world without end." The form which was regarded as the most orthodox, and adopted in the Liturgies ran thus: "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, now and ever, and to the ages of the ages." See Suicer's Thesaurus, Doxologia.
[822] Irenæus II. xxviii. 4: "But since God is all mind, all reason, all active Spirit, all light, and always exists as one and the same, such conditions and divisions (of operation) cannot fittingly be ascribed to Him. For our tongue, as being made of flesh, is not able to minister to the rapidity of man's sense, because that is of a spiritual nature; for which reason our speech is restrained (suffocatur) within us, and is not at once expressed as it has been conceived in the mind but is uttered by successive efforts, just as the tongue is able to serve it."
[823] Tertullian, Apologeticus, § 17: "That which is infinite is known only to itself. This it is which gives some notion of God, while yet beyond all our conceptions--our very incapacity of fully grasping Him affords us the idea of what He really is. He is presented to our minds in His transcendent greatness, as at once known and unknown." Cf. Phil. Jud. de Monarch. i. 4: Hooker, Eccles. Pol. I. ii. 3: "Whom although to know be life, and joy to make mention of His name; yet our soundest knowledge is to know that we know Him not as He is, neither can know Him."
[824] Ps. xxxiv. 3.
[825] Gen. xviii. 27.
[826] The opinion of Aristarchus of Samos, as stated by Archimedes (Arenarius, p. 320, Oxon), was that the sphere of the fixed stars was so large, that it bore to the earth's orbit the same proportion as a sphere to its centre, or more correctly (as Archimedes explains) the same proportion as the earth's orbit round the sun to the earth itself. Compare Cat. xv. 24.
[827] Is. xl. 22.
[828] Ps. cxlvii. 4.
[829] Job xxxvi. 27: arithmetai de auto stagones huetou. R.V. For He draweth up the drops of water.
[830] Ecclus. iii. 21, 22.
[831] Ps. cl. 6.
[832] John i. 18. They are the Evangelist's own words.
[833] Matt. xviii. 10.
[834] John vi. 46.
[835] 1 Cor. ii. 10.
[836] Matt. xi. 27.
[837] The Benedictine and earlier printed texts read ho gennetheis [apathos pro ton chronon aionion]: but the words in brackets are not found in the best mss. The false grammar betrays a spurious insertion, which also interrupts the sense. On the meaning of the phrase ho gennetheis apathos, see note on vii. 5: ou pathei pater genomenos.
[838] Gr. onta, aei onta.
[839] Iren. II. xiii. 3: "He is altogether like and equal to Himself; since He is all sense, and all spirit, and all feeling, and all thought, and all reason, and all hearing, and all ear, and all eye, and all light, and all a fount of every good,--even as the religious and pious are wont to speak of God."
[840] monoeide. A Platonic word. Phædo, 80 B: to men theio kai athanato kai noeto kai monoeidei kai adialuto kai aei hosautos kata ta auta echonti heauto homoiotaton einai psuchen. See Index, "Hypostasis."
[841] Iren. II. xxxv. 3: "If any object that in the Hebrew language different expressions occur, such as Sabaoth, Elöe, Adonai, and all other such terms, striving to prove from these that there are different powers and Gods, let them learn that all expressions of this kind are titles and announcements of one and the same Being."
[842] See the passages of Irenæus quoted above, § 2 note 4, and § 7 note 3.