Chapter X.

But as to those who think that not here, that is, not within this environment of earth, nor during this period of existence, nor before men possessing this nature shared by us all, has confession been appointed to be made, what a supposition is theirs, being at variance with the whole order of things of which we have experience in these lands, and in this life, and under human authorities! Doubtless, when the souls have departed from their bodies, and begun to be put upon trial in the several stories of the heavens, with reference to the engagement (under which they have come to Jesus), and to be questioned about those hidden mysteries of the heretics, they must then confess before the real powers and the real men,—the Teleti,59    The perfect. to wit, and the Abascanti,60    The spell-resisting. and the Acineti61    The steadfast. of Valentinus! For, say they, even the Demiurge himself did not uniformly approve of the men of our world, whom he counted as a drop of a bucket,62    Isa. xl. 15. and the dust of the threshing-floor, and spittle and locusts, and put on a level even with brute beasts. Clearly, it is so written. Yet not therefore must we understand that there is, besides us, another kind of man, which—for it is evidently thus (in the case proposed)—has been able to assume without invalidating a comparison between the two kinds, both the characteristics of the race and a unique property. For even if the life was tainted, so that condemned to contempt it might be likened to objects held in contempt, the nature was not forthwith taken away, so that there might be supposed to be another under its name.  Rather is the nature preserved, though the life blushes; nor does Christ know other men than those with reference to whom He says, “Whom do men say that I am?”63    Matt. xvi. 13. And, “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye likewise so to, them.”64    Matt. vii. 12 and Luke vi. 31. Consider whether He may not have preserved a race such that He is looking for a testimony to Himself from them, as well as consisting of those on whom He enjoins the interchange of righteous dealing. But if I should urgently demand that those heavenly men be described to me, Aratus will sketch more easily Perseus and Cepheus, and Erigone, and Ariadne, among the constellations. But who prevented the Lord from clearly prescribing that confession by men likewise has to be made where He plainly announced that His own would be; so that the statement might have run thus: ”Whosoever shall confess in me before men in heaven, I also will confess in him before my Father who is in heaven?” He ought to have saved me from this mistake about confession on earth, which He would not have wished me to take part in, if He had commanded one in heaven; for I knew no other men but the inhabitants of the earth, man himself even not having up to that time been observed in heaven. Besides, what is the credibility of the things (alleged), that, being after death raised to heavenly places, I should be put to the test there, whither I would not be translated without being already tested, that I should there be tried in reference to a command where I could not come, but to find admittance? Heaven lies open to the Christian before the way to it does; because there is no way to heaven, but to him to whom heaven lies open; and he who reaches it will enter.  What powers, keeping guard at the gate, do I hear you affirm to exist in accordance with Roman superstition, with a certain Carnus, Forculus, and Limentinus? What powers do you set in order at the railings? If you have ever read in David, “Lift up your gates, ye princes, and let the everlasting gates be lifted up; and the King of glory shall enter in;”65    Ps. xxiv. 7. if you have also heard from Amos, “Who buildeth up to the heavens his way of ascent, and is such as to pour forth his abundance (of waters) over the earth;”66    Amos ix. 6. know that both that way of ascent was thereafter levelled with the ground, by the footsteps of the Lord, and an entrance thereafter opened up by the might of Christ, and that no delay or inquest will meet Christians on the threshold, since they have there to be not discriminated from one another, but owned, and not put to the question, but received in.  For though you think heaven still shut, remember that the Lord left here to Peter and through him to the Church, the keys of it, which every one who has been here put to the question, and also made confession, will carry with him. But the devil stoutly affirms that we must confess there, to persuade us that we must deny here. I shall send before me fine documents, to be sure,67    In support of my cause. I shall carry with me excellent keys, the fear of them who kill the body only, but do nought against the soul: I shall be graced by the neglect of this command:  I shall stand with credit in heavenly places, who could not stand in earthly: I shall hold out against the greater powers, who yielded to the lesser:  I shall deserve to be at length let in, though now shut out. It readily occurs to one to remark further, “If it is in heaven that men must confess, it is here too that they must deny.” For where the one is, there both are. For contraries always go together. There will need to be carried on in heaven persecution even, which is the occasion of confession or denial. Why, then, do you refrain, O most presumptuous heretic, from transporting to the world above the whole series of means proper to the intimidation of Christians, and especially to put there the very hatred for the name, where Christ rules at the right hand of the Father? Will you plant there both synagogues of the Jews—fountains of persecution—before which the apostles endured the scourge, and heathen assemblages with their own circus, forsooth, where they readily join in the cry, Death to the third race?68    More literally, “How long shall we suffer the third race!”  The Christians are meant; the first race being the heathen, and the second the Jews.—Tr. But ye are bound to produce in the same place both our brothers, fathers, children, mothers-in-law, daughters-in-law and those of our household, through whose agency the betrayal has been appointed; likewise kings, governors, and armed authorities, before whom the matter at issue must be contested. Assuredly there will be in heaven a prison also, destitute of the sun’s rays or full of light unthankfully, and fetters of the zones perhaps, and, for a rack-horse, the axis itself which whirls the heavens round. Then, if a Christian is to be stoned, hail-storms will be near; if burned, thunderbolts are at hand; if butchered, the armed Orion will exercise his function; if put an end to by beasts, the north will send forth the bears, the Zodiac the bulls and the lions. He who will endure these assaults to the end, the same shall be saved. Will there be then, in heaven, both an end, and suffering, a killing, and the first confession? And where will be the flesh requisite for all this? Where the body which alone has to be killed by men?  Unerring reason has commanded us to set forth these things in even a playful manner; nor will any one thrust out the bar consisting in this objection (we have offered), so as not to be compelled to transfer the whole array of means proper to persecution, all the powerful instrumentality which has been provided for dealing with this matter, to the place where he has put the court before which confession should be made. Since confession is elicited by persecution, and persecution ended in confession, there cannot but be at the same time, in attendance upon these, the instrumentality which determines both the entrance and the exit, that is, the beginning and the end.  But both hatred for the name will be here, persecution breaks out here, betrayal brings men forth here, examination uses force here, torture rages here, and confession or denial completes this whole course of procedure on the earth. Therefore, if the other things are here, confession also is not elsewhere; if confession is elsewhere, the other things also are not here.  Certainly the other things are not elsewhere; therefore neither is confession in heaven. Or, if they will have it that the manner in which the heavenly examination and confession take place is different, it will certainly be also incumbent on them to devise a mode of procedure of their own of a very different kind, and opposed to that method which is indicated in the Scriptures.  And we may be able to say, Let them consider (whether what they imagine to exist does so), if so be that this course of procedure, proper to examination and confession on earth—a course which has persecution as the source in which it originates, and which pleads dissension in the state—is preserved to its own faith, if so be that we must believe just as is also written, and understand just as is spoken.  Here I endure the entire course (in question), the Lord Himself not appointing a different quarter of the world for my doing so. For what does He add after finishing with confession and denial?  “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth, but a sword,”—undoubtedly on the earth. “For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household.”69    Matt. x. 34. For so is it brought to pass, that the brother delivers up the brother to death, and the father the son: and the children rise up against the parents, and cause them to die. And he who endureth to the end let that man be saved.70    Matt. x. 21. So that this whole course of procedure characteristic of the Lord’s sword, which has been sent not to heaven, but to earth, makes confession also to be there, which by enduring to the end is to issue in the suffering of death.

CAPUT X.

Qui vero non hic, id est, non intra hunc ambitum terrae, nec per hunc commeatum vitae, nec apud homines hujus naturae communis confessionem putant constitutam, quanta praesumptio est adversus omnem ordinem rerum in terris istis, et in vita ista, et sub humanis potestatibus experiundarum? 0141B Nimirum cum animae de corporibus excesserint, et per singula tabulata coelorum de praecepto dispici coeperint, et interrogari arcana illa haereticorum sacramenta, tunc confitendum apud veras potestates et veros homines, Theletos scilicet et Abascantos et Acinetos Valentini. Nostrates enim, inquiunt, nec ipse Demiurgus constanter homines probabat veros esse , quos stillicidium situlae et pulverem areae et sputamen et locustas deputavit; etiam irrationalibus jumentis adaequavit. Plane ita scriptum. Non tamen idcirco aliud hominis genus intelligendum praeter nos: quos quia constat esse, et comparatione potuit induere, salva et proprietate generis, et singularitate. Neque enim si vita vitiata est, ut despectui judicata despectis compararetur, statim natura 0141C sublata est, ut alia in nomine ejus deputaretur. Atquin servatur natura, etsi suffunditur vita, nec alios novit Christus homines, quam de quibus dicit: Quem me aiunt esse homines? et: Quomodo vultis ut faciant vobis homines, et ita vos facite illis. Vide an servaverit genus, a quibus et testimonium sui exspectet, et in quos justitiae vicem mandat. Illos autem coelestes homines si expostulem mihi ostendi, facilius 0142A Aratus Persea, et Cephea, et Erigonam, et Ariadnam inter sidera deliniabit. Quis autem prohibuit Dominum illic etiam confessionem hominum faciendam manifeste determinare, ubi suam futuram aperte pronuntiavit? ut ita esset positum: «Qui in me confessus fuerit coram hominibus in coelis, et ego in illo confitebor coram Patre meo qui in coelis est?» Eripere me debuit ex isto terrenae confessionis errore, quam suscipi noluit , si coelestem praecepisset, quia nullos alios homines noveram praeter incolas terrae; ne ipso quidem adhuc tunc in coelis homine conspecto. Quae porro fides rerum, ut post excessum ad superna sublevatus , illic probarer , quo non nisi jam probatus imponerer? illic de praecepto examinarer, 0142B quo nisi admittendus pervenire non possem? Christiano coelum ante patet quam via; quia nulla via in coelum, nisi cui patet coelum; quod qui attigerit, intrabit. Quas mihi potestates janitrices affirmas juxta romanam superstitionem Janum quemdam et Forculum et Limentinum? quas a cancellis ordinas potestates? Si unquam legisti apud David (Ps. XXIV, 7), auferte portas principes vestras , et subleventur portae aeternae, et intrabit rex gloriae. Si item audisti apud Amos (IX, 6): Qui assensum illum suum aedificat in coelos, et profusionem suam fundat in terras; scito et ascensum illum exinde complanatum vestigiis Domini, et introitum exinde reseratum viribus Christi, nec ullam moram aut quaestionem in limine Christianis occursuram, 0142C qui non dignosci habeant illic, sed agnosci; nec interrogari, sed admitti. Nam et si adhuc clausum putas coelum, memento claves ejus hic Dominum Petro, et per eum, Ecclesiae reliquisse, quas hic unusquisque interrogatus atque confessus feret secum. Sed asseverat diabolus illic confitendum, ut suadeat hic negandum. Pulchra videlicet documenta praemittam, bonas mecum claves feram, timorem 0143A eorum, qui solum corpus occidunt, animae autem nihil faciunt: commendatus ero hujus praecepti desertione; honeste in coelestibus stabo, qui in terrenis stare non potui; sustinebo majores potestates, qui minoribus cessi; merebor denique admitti, jam exclusus. Suppetit adhuc dicere: si in coelestibus confitendum, et hic negandum est; nam ubi alterum, ibi utrumque; aemula enim quaeque concurrunt. Etiam persecutionem in coelis agitari oportebit, quae confessionis negationisve materia est. Quid itaque cessas, audacissime haeretice, totum ordinem christianae concussionis in superna transferre, et in primis, ipsum nominis odium illic collocare, ubi ad Patris dexteram praesidet Christus? Illic constitues et synagogas Judaeorum, fontes persecutionum, 0143B apud quas Apostoli flagella perpessi sunt, et populos nationum cum suo quidem circo, ubi facile conclamant, «Usquequo genus tertium?» Sed et fratres nostros et patres et filios et socrus et nurus et domesticos nostros ibidem exhibere debebis , per quos traditio disposita est: item reges et praesides et armatas potestates, apud quos caussa purganda est. Erit certe etiam carcer in coelo, carens sole, aut ingratis luminosus, et vincula fortasse de zonis, et equuleus axis ipse qui torquet: tum si lapidandus christianus, grandines aderunt; si urendus, fulmina prae manu sunt; si trucidandus, Orionis armati manus operabitur; si bestiis finiendus, ursas septemtrio emittet, zodiacus tauros et leones. Haec qui sustinuerit in finem, iste erit salvus. Ergone et finis 0143C in coelis, et passio, et occisio, et prima confessio? Et ubi caro, omnibus istis necessaria? ubi corpus? quod solum ab hominibus habet occidi. Haec nobis etiam ludicrum in modum certa ratio mandavit, nec ullus obicem praescriptionis istius extrudet, ut non omnem ordinem persecutionis, omnem ejus caussae firmam paraturam illuc transferre cogatur, ubi confessioni forum dederit. Siquidem confessio a persecutione deducitur, et persecutio in confessione finitur. Nec 0144A possunt non una sequi, quae et aditum et exitum , id est, initium finemque disponunt. Porro et odium nominis hic erit, et persecutio hic erumpit, et traditio hic producit, et interrogatio hic compellit, et carnificina hic desaevit, et totum hunc ordinem in terris confessio vel negatio expungit. Igitur si caetera hic, nec confessio alibi; si confessio alibi, nec caetera hic. Enimvero non alibi caetera; itaque nec confessio in coelo. Aut si aliam volunt esse rationem interrogationis et confessionis coelestis, utique et ordinem suum illi struere debebunt alium longe, et ab ista dispositione diversum, quae Scripturis notatur, et possumus dicere, Viderint, dum hic ordo terrenae interrogationis et confessionis, ex materia decurrens persecutionis et discordiae publicae in nomen, salvus sit suae fidei; ut 0144B ita credendum sit sicut et scribitur , ita intelligendum sit sicuti auditur. Hic omnem ordinem sustineo, ipso Domino non aliam regionem mundi destinante. Quid enim post confessionis et negationis terminum subjungit? Ne putaveritisvenisse me uti pacem mittam in terram; non veni, sed ut machaeram, certe in terram. Veni enim dividere hominem adversus patrem suum, et filiam adversus matrem suam, et socrum adversus nurum suam: et inimici homini domestici sui. Sic enim efficitur, ut tradat frater fratrem in mortem, et pater filium, et insurgant filii in parentes, et mori eos faciant. Et qui sustinuerit in finem, hic salvus erit (Matt., X, 34 et seq.). Adeo totus hic ordo dominicae machaerae, non in coelum missae, sed in terram, illic constituit etiam confessionem, quae in finem sustinendo 0144C passura est mortem.