Miscellanies 3.4.25–3.5.44

Of those who are led by a heresy, we have mentioned Marcion of Pontus, who rejects the use of worldly things out of opposition to the Creator. For him the cause of his self-control, if one should call it self-control, is the Creator himself, against whom this giant who fights God, thinking to stand, is self-controlled against his will, running down both the creation and man's formation. Even if they use the Lord's saying to Philip, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you follow me,” let them consider that Philip too bears the same formation of flesh, but not a polluted corpse. How, then, did he have flesh and not have a corpse? Because he rose from the tomb when the Lord put his passions to death, and he lived to Christ. We also mentioned the lawless community of wives according to Carpocrates; and in discussing the saying of Nicolaus we left this out. He had a beautiful wife, they say, and after the Savior's ascension, being reproached by the apostles for jealousy, he brought his wife into the middle and allowed anyone who wished to marry her. For they say that this act was consistent with that saying of his, that one must “abuse the flesh.” And following both what was done and what was said, simply and without examination, those who follow his heresy commit sexual immorality without restraint.

But I learn that Nicolaus had relations with no woman other than the one he married, and that of his children the daughters grew old as virgins and the son remained uncorrupted. This being so, his bringing his wife, of whom he was jealous, into the midst of the apostles was a casting off of passion; and self-control over the pleasures eagerly pursued taught him to “abuse the flesh.” For he did not wish, I think, contrary to the Savior's command, to serve two masters, pleasure and God. They say, at any rate, that Matthias too taught thus: to fight the flesh and abuse it, giving it nothing for licentious pleasure, but to make the soul grow through faith and knowledge.

There are some who proclaim vulgar Aphrodite to be a mystical fellowship, insulting even the name. For doing something bad is called “working,” just as doing something good is called “working” by the same name; so too fellowship is good in the sharing of money, food, and clothing; but they have impiously called any kind of sexual coupling “fellowship.” They say, at any rate, that one of them approached a virgin of ours who was beautiful to look at and said, “It is written, ‘Give to everyone who asks you’”; and she, not understanding the man's licentiousness, answered very modestly, “But speak to my mother about marriage.” Oh, the godlessness! These partners in licentiousness, these brothers in lust, falsify even the Lord's words; a disgrace not only to philosophy but to all of life, counterfeiting the truth, or rather tearing it down as far as they can. For the thrice-wretched make a sacred mystery of carnal and sexual fellowship, and think that this leads them up to the kingdom of God.

Such fellowship leads into the brothels, and the pigs and goats would be their partners; and among them, in their greater hopes, the prostitutes who stand at the head of the house would be first, receiving without restraint all who wish. “But you did not so learn Christ, if indeed you heard him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Christ Jesus, to put off, according to your former way of life, the old man, which is corrupted according to the desires of deceit; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth,” according to likeness to the divine. “Be, then, imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved you and gave himself up for us, an offering and sacrifice to God for a fragrant aroma. But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints, nor shamefulness and foolish talk.” For, teaching us to practice purity even in speech, the apostle writes: “For know this well, that every sexually immoral person,” and so on, as far as “but rather even expose them.”

Their doctrine flowed from some apocryphal book, and I will set out the passage that is the mother of their licentiousness; whether they themselves are the authors of the book (see the madness, if they lie even about God because of their lack of self-control), or whether, coming upon others, they have understood this fine doctrine in a perverted way. The passage runs thus: “All things were one; but since it seemed good to its unity not to be alone, an Inspiration came out from it, and it had fellowship with her and made the Beloved. From this came out from him an Inspiration, with which he had fellowship and made powers that can be neither seen nor heard,” as far as “each by its own name.” For if these too, like the Valentinians, had posited spiritual fellowships, perhaps someone would have accepted their supposition; but to raise the fellowship of carnal outrage into a holy prophecy belongs to one who has despaired of salvation.

Such things too are taught by the followers of Prodicus, who call themselves, falsely, Gnostics, saying that they are by nature sons of the first God; and, abusing their noble birth and freedom, they live as they wish; and they wish to live for pleasure, thinking themselves ruled by no one, as lords of the Sabbath and royal children born above every race; and for a king, they say, there is no written law. In the first place, then, they do not do all they wish; for many things will hinder them, even when they desire and try. And what they do, they do not as kings but as slaves who deserve the whip; for they commit adultery in secret, afraid of being caught, avoiding condemnation, and fearing punishment. How can lack of self-control and shameful talk be free? “For everyone who sins,” it says, “is a slave,” says the apostle.

But how does one live as a citizen according to God who has given himself over to every desire, when the Lord said, “But I say, do not desire”? And does anyone wish to sin willingly and make a doctrine of committing adultery, living in luxury, and corrupting others' marriages, when we pity even others who sin unwillingly? Even if they have come into the world as into a foreign land, if they have not been faithful in what belongs to another, they will not have what is true. Does a foreigner insult and wrong the citizens, and not rather live as a sojourner, using what is necessary, without offense to the citizens? And how, doing the same things as those whom the Gentiles hate for not doing what the laws command, that is, the unjust, the intemperate, the covetous, and adulterers, do they say that they alone have known God? For they should have lived well even while present among what belongs to others, so as to show truly their royal nature.

And they have made themselves hateful both to human lawgivers and to the divine lawgiver, having chosen to live lawlessly. The one who pierced the fornicator is shown in Numbers, at any rate, being blessed by God. And “if we say,” says John in his letter, “that we have fellowship with him,” that is, with God, “and walk in darkness, we lie and do not do the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with him, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from sin.”

How, then, are those who do such things better than worldly people, when they are like the worst of the worldly? For those alike in their deeds are, I think, alike in their natures. Those whom they claim to surpass in noble birth they ought also to surpass in character, so as to escape being shut up in prison. For truly, as the Lord said, “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of God.” And self-control in food is shown in Daniel. To put it briefly, David, singing of obedience, says: “By what will a young man set his way straight?” and at once hears: “By keeping your word with his whole heart.” And Jeremiah says: “Thus says the Lord: Do not walk according to the ways of the Gentiles.”

Moved by this, certain others, vile and worthless, say that man was formed by different powers: the parts down to the navel are of a more godlike craft, the parts below of an inferior one, and that is why he longs for intercourse. But they fail to notice that the upper parts too crave food and lust for some things; and they contradict Christ, who said to the Pharisees that the same God made both our outer and our inner man. Besides, appetite is not of the body, even if it arises because of the body. Certain others, whom we also call Antitactae (“Opposers”), say that the God of the universe is our Father by nature, and all that he made is good; but one of those who came from him sowed the tares, begetting the nature of evils, in which he also wrapped us all, setting us against the Father. “That is why we too oppose him, to avenge the Father, acting against the will of the second. Since, then, he has said, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ let us,” they say, “commit adultery to destroy his commandment.”

To these too we would say that we have received the teaching that false prophets and all who feign the truth are known by their works. Your works are condemned; how will you still say that you hold fast to the truth? For either there is no evil, and the one you accuse as opposed to God is no longer worthy of blame, nor has he become the maker of any evil (for the tree is destroyed together with its fruit); or, if evil exists, let them tell us what they say the commandments given about justice, self-control, patience, forbearance, and the like are: bad or good. If the commandment that forbids doing most shameful things were bad, vice would legislate against itself for the destruction of its own form, which is impossible. But if it is good, then, opposing the good commandments, they confess that they oppose the good and do evil.

Indeed the Savior himself, whom alone they claim to obey, has forbidden hating and reviling, and says: “When you go with your adversary, try to be released from him as his friend.” Either, then, they will deny Christ's exhortation by opposing the Opposer, or, becoming friends with him, they will not contend against him. What then? Do you not know, noble sirs (for I would speak as to those present), that by fighting against the good commandments you resist your own salvation? For you overturn not what was usefully enjoined, but yourselves. And the Lord said, “Let your good works shine,” but you make your licentious acts shine forth. Besides, if you wish to destroy the lawgiver's commandments, why do you try to destroy “You shall not commit adultery” and “You shall not corrupt boys” and whatever contributes to self-control, because of your own lack of self-control, but do not destroy the winter made by him, so as to make summer in the middle of winter, nor make the land navigable and the sea walkable, as the historians say the barbarian Xerxes wished to do?

Why do you not oppose all the commandments? For when he said, “Increase and multiply,” you who oppose him ought not to use intercourse at all; and when he said, “I have given you all things for food and enjoyment,” you ought to enjoy nothing. And when he said, “Eye for eye,” you ought not to return opposition for opposition; and when he ordered the thief to repay fourfold, you ought also to give something more to the thief. Likewise, opposing the commandment “You shall love the Lord,” you ought not to love even the God of the universe; and again, when he said, “You shall not make a carved or molten image,” it would follow that you should worship carved images. How, then, are you not impious, opposing the Creator, as you say, while emulating prostitutes and adulterers? And how do you not see that you make him greater whom you consider weak, if what he wishes comes about, and not what the good God wished? Conversely your “father,” as you call him, is shown by you yourselves to be weak.

These too collect words culled from certain prophetic passages and stitched badly together, taking literally what was said allegorically. For they say it is written: “They opposed God and were saved.” Some also add “the shameless God,” and they take this saying as advice given them, and count opposing the Creator as their salvation. Now “the shameless God” is not written; but even if it were so, you fools, understand the one called the devil as shameless, either as slandering man, or as accuser of sinners, or as apostate. At any rate the people about whom the passage is spoken, being chastised for their sins, bearing it hard and groaning, muttered the words cited: that the other nations transgress the law and are not punished, while they alone are cut down at every turn; as Jeremiah too said, “Why does the way of the ungodly prosper?” Similar to this is what is in Malachi, cited above: “They opposed God and were saved.” For the prophets, receiving oracles, not only say that they hear something from God, but are also shown reporting, by way of objection, what was being muttered among the people, bringing up, as it were, questions raised by men; and the saying in question is one of these.

And is not the apostle aiming at these when he writes in the letter to the Romans: “And not, as we are slandered and as some say that we say, ‘Let us do evil that good may come’? Their condemnation is just.” These are the ones who, in reading, twist the Scriptures by the tone of voice toward their own pleasures, and by changing certain accents and punctuation force what was commanded wisely and usefully to their own self-indulgence. “You who have provoked God with your words,” says Malachi, “and you said, ‘How have we provoked him?’ In your saying, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he has taken pleasure in them’; and, ‘Where is the God of justice?’”

So that we may not, by picking over the subject further, mention more absurd heresies, nor again be compelled to speak against each one of them, be ashamed on their account, and prolong these notes to great length, come, let us divide all the heresies into two classes and answer them. Either they teach living indifferently, or, singing too high a note, they proclaim self-control out of impiety and love of quarreling. First we must discuss the first division. If it is permitted to choose any life, clearly the life of self-control is permitted too; and if every life is without danger for the elect, clearly the life with virtue and self-restraint is much more without danger. For if the lord of the Sabbath has been given authority to be unaccountable if he lives licentiously, much more will the one who has lived decently not be accountable. “For all things are lawful, but not all things are profitable,” says the apostle. And if all things are lawful, clearly being self-restrained is lawful too.

As, then, the one who has used his authority to live according to virtue is praiseworthy, so much more is the one who has given us authority, free and sovereign, and has allowed us to live as we wish, venerable and to be worshiped, since he did not allow our choices and avoidances to be slaves of necessity. And if each has freedom from fear, both the one who chose lack of self-control and the one who chose self-control, yet their dignity is not alike. For the one who has run aground on pleasures gratifies the body, but the self-restrained frees the soul, the mistress of the body, from the passions. Even if they say that we were called to freedom, only let us not give our freedom as an occasion to the flesh, according to the apostle. But if desire must be gratified and a shameful life considered indifferent, as they themselves say, then either we must obey the desires in everything, and, if so, do all the most licentious and unholy things, following what persuades us; or we will turn away from some desires, and then we must no longer live indifferently, nor be slaves without restraint to the most dishonorable parts of us, belly and genitals, which flatter our corpse because of desire. For desire is nourished and brought to life when it is served for enjoyment, just as, conversely, it withers when cut back.

And how is it possible for one overcome by the pleasures of the body to be made like the Lord or to have knowledge of God? For desire begins every pleasure; and desire is a kind of pain and anxiety longing for something through lack. So those who have chosen this way seem to me to suffer nothing other than what the saying describes, “to suffer disgrace in their vessels,” choosing for themselves an evil drawn on themselves now and hereafter. If, then, all things were permitted and there were no fear of failing to attain our hope through evil deeds, perhaps they would have some excuse for living badly and pitiably. But since a blessed life has been shown to us through commandments, which all must hold to, neither disregarding any of the things said nor neglecting what is fitting, even if it is very small, following wherever the Word leads; and since, if we should fail of it, we must fall into an immortal evil, while if we follow the divine Scripture, by which believers walk, we are made like the Lord as far as possible: we must not live indifferently, but must purify ourselves as far as possible from pleasures and desires and care for the soul, which must continue devoted to the divine alone. For the mind, being pure and freed from all vice, is somehow able to receive the power of God, the divine image being raised up in it. “And everyone who has this hope in the Lord purifies himself,” it says, “as he is pure.”

It is impossible for those still led by the passions to receive the knowledge of God; so neither can those who have acquired no knowledge of God attain the hope. And ignorance of God seems to accuse the one who fails of this goal; and the conduct of one's life shows ignorance of God. For it is altogether impossible to be at once a person of understanding and not to be ashamed of flattering the body; for that pleasure is the good can never agree with the view that only the noble is good, or that the Lord alone is noble and God alone good and alone worthy of love. “In Christ you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in putting off the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ. If, then, you were raised with Christ, seek the things above, set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God,” but not the sexual immorality that they practice. “Put to death, then, your members that are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, passion, desire, because of which the wrath comes.” Let them too, then, put away “anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, shameful talk from their mouth, having put off the old man with its desires, and having put on the new, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created him.”

For conduct clearly tests those who have known the commandments, since as the word is, so is the life. And the tree is known from its fruits, not from its flowers and leaves. Knowledge, then, comes from the fruit and from conduct, not from talk and flower. For we do not say that knowledge is bare talk, but a divine understanding and that light which arises in the soul from obedience to the commandments, making all things plain, both what is in creation and man himself, preparing one to know oneself and teaching one to become a partaker of God. For what the eye is in the body, knowledge is in the mind. And let them not call slavery to pleasure freedom, as though they called bile sweet. For we have learned that freedom is that with which the Lord alone frees us, releasing us from pleasures and desires and the other passions. “The one who says, ‘I have known the Lord,’ and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him,” says John.