Chapter XXIX.—The Three Natures Again Adverted to. They are All Exemplified Amongst Men. For Instance, by Cain, and Abel, and Seth.

I will now collect from different sources, by way of conclusion, what they affirm concerning the dispensation256    De dispositione. of the whole human race. Having at first stated their views as to man’s threefold nature—which was, however, united in one257    Inunitam. in the case of Adam—they then proceed after him to divide it (into three) with their especial characteristics, finding opportunity for such distinction in the posterity of Adam himself, in which occurs a threefold division as to moral differences. Cain and Abel, and Seth, who were in a certain sense the sources of the human race, become the fountain-heads of just as many qualities258    Argumenta. of nature and essential character.259    Essentiæ. The material nature,260    Choicum: “the clayey.”  Having the doubtful issues, which arise from freedom of the will (Oehler). which had become reprobate for salvation, they assign to Cain; the animal nature, which was poised between divergent hopes, they find261    Recondunt: or, “discover.” in Abel; the spiritual, preordained for certain salvation, they store up262    Recondunt: or, “discover.” in Seth. In this way also they make a twofold distinction among souls, as to their property of good and evil—according to the material condition derived from Cain, or the animal from Abel. Men’s spiritual state they derive over and above the other conditions,263    Superducunt. from Seth adventitiously,264    De obvenientia. not in the way of nature, but of grace,265    Indulgentiam. in such wise that Achamoth infuses it266    The “quos” here relates to “spiritalem statum,” but expressing the sense rather than the grammatical propriety, refers to the plural idea of “good souls” (Oehler). among superior beings like rain267    Depluat. into good souls, that is, those who are enrolled in the animal class. Whereas the material class—in other words, those which are bad souls—they say, never receive the blessings of salvation;268    Salutaria. for that nature they have pronounced to be incapable of any change or reform in its natural condition.269    We have tried to retain the emphatic repetition, “inreformabilem naturæ naturam.” This grain, then, of spiritual seed is modest and very small when cast from her hand, but under her instruction270    Eruditu hujus. increases and advances into full conviction, as we have already said;271    Above, in ch. xxv. p. 515. and the souls, on this very account, so much excelled all others, that the Demiurge, even then in his ignorance, held them in great esteem. For it was from their list that he had been accustomed to select men for kings and for priests; and these even now, if they have once attained to a full and complete knowledge of these foolish conceits of theirs,272    Istarum næniarum. since they are already naturalized in the fraternal bond of the spiritual state, will obtain a sure salvation, nay, one which is on all accounts their due.

CAPUT XXIX.

Colligam nunc ex disperso, ad concludendum, quae de totius generis humani dispositione disserant. Triformem naturam primordio professi, et tamen inunitatem in Adam inde jam dividunt per singulares generum proprietates, nacti occasionem distinctionis hujusmodi ex posteritate ipsius Adae, moralibus quoque differentiis tripartitae. Cain, Abel, et Seth, fontes quodammodo generis humani, in totidem derivant argumenta, naturae atque essentiae. Choicum, 0583B saluti degeneratum, ad Cain redigunt: Animale, mediae spei deliberatum , ad Abel componunt: Spiritale, certae saluti praejudicatum, in Seth recondunt, Sic et animas ipsas duplici proprietate discernunt, 0584A bonas et malas: secundum choicum statum ex Cain, et animalem ex Abel , spiritalem ex Seth. De obvenientia superducunt jam non naturam, sed indulgentiam, ut quos Achamoth in superioribus in animas bonas depluat, id est animali censui inscriptas. Choicum enim genus, id est malas animas nunquam capere salutaria. Immutabilem enim et irreformabilem naturam pronuntiaverunt. Id ergo granum seminis spiritalis modicum et parvulum jactu, sed eruditu hujus fides augetur atque provehitur, ceu supra diximus: animaeque hoc ipso ita caeteris praevertunt, ut Demiurgus tunc ignorans magni eas fecerit. Ex earum ergo laterculo, et in reges, et in sacerdotes allegere consueverat: quae nunc quoque si plenam atque perfectam 0584B notitiam apprehenderint istarum naeniarum , naturificatae jam spiritalis conditionis germanitate, certam obtinebunt salutem, imo omnimodo debitam .