Book I.—Of the Divine Unity, and the Resurrection of the Flesh.

Part I.—Of the Divine Unity.

After the Evil One's impiety Profound, and his life-grudging mind, entrapped Seducèd men with empty hope, it laid Them bare, by impious suasion to false trust 5 In him,—not with impunity, indeed; For he forthwith, as guilty of the deed, And author rash of such a wickedness, Received deserved maledictions. Thus, Thereafter, maddened, he, most desperate foe, 10 Did more assail and instigate men's minds In darkness sunk. He taught them to forget The Lord, and leave sure hope, and idols vain Follow, and shape themselves a crowd of gods, Lots, auguries, false names of stars, the show 15 Of being able to o'errule the births Of embryos by inspecting entrails, and Expecting things to come, by hardihood Of dreadful magic's renegadoes led, Wondering at a mass of feigned lore; 20 And he impelled them headlong to spurn life, Sunk in a criminal insanity; To joy in blood; to threaten murders fell; To love the wound, then, in their neighbour's flesh; Or, burning, and by pleasure's heat entrapped, 25 To transgress nature's covenants, and stain Pure bodies, manly sex, with an embrace Unnameable, and uses feminine Mingled in common contact lawlessly; Urging embraces chaste, and dedicate 30 To generative duties, to be held For intercourse obscene for passion's sake. Such in time past his deeds, assaulting men, Through the soul's lurking-places, with a flow Of scorpion-venom,—not that men would blame 35 Him, for they followed of their own accord: His suasion was in guile; in freedom man Performed it. Whileas the perfidious one Continuously through the centuries ^[1345] Is breathing such ill fumes, and into hearts 40 Seduced injecting his own counselling And hoping in his folly (alas!) to find Forgiveness of his wickedness, unware What sentence on his deed is waiting him; With words of wisdom's weaving, ^[1346] and a voice 45 Presaging from God's Spirit, speak a host Of prophets. Publicly he ^[1347] does not dare Nakedly to speak evil of the Lord, Hoping by secret ingenuity He possibly may lurk unseen. At length 50 The soul's Light ^[1348] as the thrall of flesh is held; The hope of the despairing, mightier Than foe, enters the lists; the Fashioner, The Renovator, of the body He; True Glory of the Father; Son of God; 55 Author unique; a Judge and Lord He came, The orb's renowned King; to the opprest Prompt to give pardon, and to loose the bound; Whose friendly aid and penal suffering Blend God and renewed man in one. With child 60 Is holy virgin: life's new gate opes; words Of prophets find their proof, fulfilled by facts; Priests ^[1349] leave their temples, and—a star their guide— Wonder the Lord so mean a birth should choose. Waters—sight memorable!—turn to wine; 65 Eyes are restored to blind; fiends trembling cry, Outdriven by His bidding, and own Christ! All limbs, already rotting, by a word Are healed; now walks the lame; the deaf forthwith Hears hope; the maimed extends his hand; the dumb 70 Speaks mighty words: sea at His bidding calms, Winds drop; and all things recognise the Lord: Confounded is the foe, and yields, though fierce, Now triumphed over, to unequal ^[1350] arms! When all his enterprises now revoked 75 He ^[1351] sees; the flesh, once into ruin sunk, Now rising; man—death vanquisht quite—to heavens Soaring; the peoples sealed with holy pledge Outpoured; ^[1352] the work and envied deeds of might Marvellous; ^[1353] and hears, too, of penalties 80 Extreme, and of perpetual dark, prepared For himself by the Lord by God's decree Irrevocable; naked and unarmed, Damned, vanquisht, doomed to perish in a death Perennial, guilty now, and sure that he 85 No pardon has, a last impiety Forthwith he dares,—to scatter everywhere A word for ears to shudder at, nor meet For voice to speak. Accosting men cast off From God's community, ^[1354] men wandering 90 Without the light, found mindless, following Things earthly, them he teaches to become Depraved teachers of depravity. By ^[1355] them he preaches that there are two Sires, And realms divided: ill's cause is the Lord ^[1356] 95 Who built the orb, fashioned breath-quickened flesh, And gave the law, and by the seers' voice spake. Him he affirms not good, but owns Him just; Hard, cruel, taking pleasure fell in war; In judgment dreadful, pliant to no prayers. 100 His suasion tells of other one, to none E'er known, who nowhere is, a deity False, nameless, constituting nought, and who Hath spoken precepts none. Him he calls good; Who judges none, but spares all equally, 105 And grudges life to none. No judgment waits The guilty; so he says, bearing about A gory poison with sweet honey mixt For wretched men. That flesh can rise—to which Himself was cause of ruin, which he spoiled 110 Iniquitously with contempt (whence, ^[1357] cursed, He hath grief without end), its ever-foe,— He doth deny; because with various wound Life to expel and the salvation whence He fell he strives: and therefore says that Christ 115 Came suddenly to earth, ^[1358] but was not made, By any compact, partner of the flesh; But Spirit-form, and body feigned beneath A shape imaginary, seeks to mock Men with a semblance that what is not is. 120 Does this, then, become God, to sport with men By darkness led? to act an impious lie? Or falsely call Himself a man? He walks, Is carried, clothed, takes due rest, handled is, Suffers, is hung and buried: man's are all 125 Deeds which, in holy body conversant, But sent by God the Father, who hath all Created, He did perfect properly, Reclaiming not another's but His own; Discernible to peoples who of old 130 Were hoping for Him by His very work, And through the prophets' voice to the round world ^[1359] Best known: and now they seek an unknown Lord, Wandering in death's threshold manifest, And leave behind the known. False is their faith, 135 False is their God, deceptive their reward, False is their resurrection, death's defeat False, vain their martyrdoms, and e'en Christ's name An empty sound: whom, teaching that He came Like magic mist, they (quite demented) own 140 To be the actor of a lie, and make His passion bootless, and the populace ^[1360] (A feigned one!) without crime! Is God thus true? Are such the honours rendered to the Lord? Ah! wretched men! gratuitously lost 145 In death ungrateful! Who, by blind guide led, Have headlong rushed into the ditch! ^[1361] and as In dreams the fancied rich man in his store Of treasure doth exult, and with his hands Grasps it, the sport of empty hope, so ye, so 150 Deceived, are hoping for a shadow vain Of guerdon! Ah! ye silent laughingstocks, Or doomed prey, of the dragon, do ye hope, Stern men, for death in room of gentle peace? ^[1362] Dare ye blame God, who hath works 155 So great? in whose earth, 'mid profuse displays Of His exceeding parent-care, His gifts (Unmindful of Himself!) ye largely praise, Rushing to ruin! do ye reprobate— Approving of the works—the Maker's self, 160 The world's ^[1363] Artificer, whose work withal Ye are yourselves? Who gave those little selves Great honours; sowed your crops; made all the brutes ^[1364] Your subjects; makes the seasons of the year Fruitful with stated months; grants sweetnesses, 165 Drinks various, rich odours, jocund flowers, And the groves' grateful bowers; to growing herbs Grants wondrous juices; founts and streams dispreads With sweet waves, and illumes with stars the sky And the whole orb: the infinite sole Lord, 170 Both Just and Good; known by His work; to none By aspect known; whom nations, flourishing In wealth, but foolish, wrapped in error's shroud, (Albeit 'tis beneath an alien name They praise Him, yet) their Maker knowing! dread 175 To blame: nor e'en one ^[1365] —save you, hell's new gate!— Thankless, ye choose to speak ill of your Lord! These cruel deadly gifts the Renegade Terrible has bestowed, through Marcion—thanks To Cerdo's mastership—on you; nor comes 180 The thought into your mind that, from Christ's name Seduced, Marcion's name has carried you To lowest depths. ^[1366] Say of His many acts What one displeases you? or what hath God Done which is not to be extolled with praise? 185 Is it that He permits you, all too long, (Unworthy of His patience large,) to see Sweet light? you, who read truths, ^[1367] and, docking them, Teach these your falsehoods, and approve as past Things which are yet to be? ^[1368] What hinders, else, 190 That we believe your God incredible? ^[1369] Nor marvel is't if, practiced as he ^[1370] is, He captived you unarmed, persuading you There are two Fathers (being damned by One), And all, whom he had erst seduced, are gods; 195 And after that dispread a pest, which ran With multiplying wound, and cureless crime, To many. Men unworthy to be named, Full of all magic's madness, he induced To call themselves "Virtue Supreme;" and feign 200 (With harlot comrade) fresh impiety; To roam, to fly. ^[1371] He is the insane god Of Valentine, and to his Æonage Assigned heavens thirty, and Profundity Their sire. ^[1372] He taught two baptisms, and led 205 The body through the flame. That there are gods So many as the year hath days, he bade A Basilides to believe, and worlds As many. Marcus, shrewdly arguing Through numbers, taught to violate chaste form 210 'Mid magic's arts; taught, too, that the Lord's cup Is an oblation, and by prayers is turned To blood. His ^[1373] suasion prompted Hebion To teach that Christ was born from human seed; He taught, too, circumcision, and that room 215 Is still left for the Law, and, though Law's founts Are lost, ^[1374] its elements must be resumed. Unwilling am I to protract in words His last atrocity, or to tell all The causes, or the names at length. Enough 220 It is to note his many cruelties Briefly, and the unmentionable men, The dragon's organs fell, through whom he now, Speaking so much profaneness, ever toils To blame the Maker of the world. ^[1375] But come; 225 Recall your foot from savage Bandit's cave, While space is granted, and to wretched men God, patient in perennial parent-love, Condones all deeds through error done! Believe Truly in the true Sire, who built the orb; 230 Who, on behalf of men incapable To bear the law, sunk in sin's whirlpool, sent The true Lord to repair the ruin wrought, And bring them the salvation promised Of old through seers. He who the mandates gave 235 Remits sins too. Somewhat, deservedly, Doth He exact, because He formerly Entrusted somewhat; or else bounteously, As Lord, condones as it were debts to slaves: Finally, peoples shut up 'neath the curse, 240 And meriting the penalty, Himself Deleting the indictment, bids be washed! Part II.—Of the Resurrection of the Flesh. The whole man, then, believes; the whole is washed; Abstains from sin, or truly suffers wounds For Christ's name's sake: he rises a true ^[1376] man, 245 Death, truly vanquish, shall be mute. But not Part of the man,—his soul,—her own part ^[1377] left Behind, will win the palm which, labouring And wrestling in the course, combinedly And simultaneously with flesh, she earns. 250 Great crime it were for two in chains to bear A weight, of whom the one were affluent The other needy, and the wretched one Be spurned, and guerdons to the happy one Rendered. Not so the Just—fair Renderer 255 Of wages—deals, both good and just, whom we Believe Almighty: to the thankless kind Full is His will of pity. Nay, whate'er He who hath greater mortal need ^[1378] doth need ^[1379] That, by advancement, to his comrade he 260 May equalled be, that will the affluent Bestow the rather unsolicited: So are we bidden to believe, and not Be willing to cast blame unlawfully On the Lord in our teaching, as if He 265 Were one to raise the soul, as having met With ruin, and to set her free from death So that the granted faculty of life Upon the ground of sole desert (because She bravely acted), should abide with her; ^[1380] 270 While she who ever shared the common lot Of toil, the flesh, should to the earth be left, The prey of a perennial death. Has, then, The soul pleased God by acts of fortitude? By no means could she Him have pleased alone 275 Without the flesh. Hath she borne penal bonds? ^[1381] The flesh sustained upon her limbs the bonds. Contemned she death? But she hath left the flesh Behind in death. Groaned she in pain? The flesh is slain and vanquisht by the wound. Repose 280 Seeks she? The flesh, spilt by the sword in dust, Is left behind to fishes, birds, decay, And ashes; torn she is, unhappy one! And broken; scattered, she melts away. Hath she not earned to rise? for what could she 285 Have e'er committed, lifeless and alone? What so life-grudging ^[1382] cause impedes, or else Forbids, the flesh to take God's gifts, and live Ever, conjoined with her comrade soul, And see what she hath been, when formerly 290 Converted into dust? ^[1383] After, renewed, Bear she to God deserved meeds of praise, Not ignorant of herself, frail, mortal, sick. ^[1384] Contend ye as to what the living might ^[1385] Of the great God can do; who, good alike 295 And potent, grudges life to none? Was this Death's captive? ^[1386] shall this perish vanquished Which the Lord hath with wondrous wisdom made, And art? This by His virtue wonderful Himself upraises; this our Leader's self 300 Recalls, and this with His own glory clothes God's art and wisdom, then, our body shaped What can by these be made, how faileth it To be by virtue reproduced? ^[1387] No cause Can holy parent-love withstand; (lest else 305 Ill's cause ^[1388] should mightier prove than Power Supreme;) That man even now saved by God's gift, may learn ^[1389] (Mortal before, now robed in light immense Inviolable, wholly quickened, ^[1390] soul And body) God, in virtue infinite, 310 In parent-love perennial, through His King Christ, through whom opened is light's way; and now, Standing in new light, filled now with each gift, ^[1391] Glad with fair fruits of living Paradise, May praise and laud Him to eternity, ^[1392] 315 Rich in the wealth of the celestial hall.