36. None of your
party,18191819 O Manes, will
you make a Galatian; neither will you in this fashion divert
us18201820 from the faith
of Christ. Yea, even although you were to work signs and wonders,
although you were to raise the dead, although you were to present to us
the very image of Paul 210himself, you would remain accursed
still.18211821 For we
have been instructed beforehand with regard to you: we have been
both warned and armed against you by the Holy Scriptures. You are
a vessel of Antichrist; and no vessel of honour, in sooth, but a mean
and base one, used by him as any barbarian or tyrant may do, who, in
attempting to make an inroad on a people living under the righteousness
of the laws,18221822 sends some
select vessel on beforehand, as it were destined to death, with the
view of finding out the exact magnitude and character of the strength
possessed by the legitimate king and his nation: for the man is
too much afraid to make the inroad himself wholly at unawares, and he
also lacks the daring to despatch any person belonging to his own
immediate circle on such a task, through fear that he may sustain some
harm. And so it is that your king, Antichrist, has despatched you
in a similar character, and as it were destined to death, to us who are
a people placed under the administration of the good and holy
King. And this I do not say inconsiderately or without due
inquiry; but from the fact that I see you perform no miracle, I hold
myself entitled to entertain such sentiments concerning you. For
we are given to understand beforehand that the devil himself is to be
transformed into an angel of light, and that his servants are to make
their appearance in similar guise, and that they are to work signs and
wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, the very elect should be
deceived.18231823 But
who, pray, are you then, to whose lot no such position of kinship has
been assigned by your father Satan?18241824 For whom have you raised from the
dead? What issue of blood do you ever staunch?
What18251825 eyes of the
blind do you ever anoint with clay, and thus cause them to have
vision? When do you ever refresh a hungering multitude with a few
loaves? Where do you ever walk upon the water, or who of those
who dwell in Jerusalem has ever seen you? O Persian barbarian,
you have never been able to have a knowledge of the language of the
Greeks, or of the Egyptians, or of the Romans, or of any other nation;
but the Chaldean tongue alone has been known to you, which verily is
not a language prevalent among any great number of people,18261826 and you are
not capable of understanding any one of another nationality when he
speaks. Not thus is it with the Holy Spirit: God forbid;
but He divides to all, and knows all kinds of tongues, and has
understanding of all things, and is made all things to all men, so that
the very thoughts of the heart cannot escape His cognizance. For
what says the Scripture? “That every man heard the apostles
speak in his own language through the Spirit, the
Paraclete.”18271827 But
why should I say more on this subject?18281828 Barbarian18291829 priest and crafty coadjutor of Mithras,
you will only be a worshipper of the sun-god Mithras, who is the
illuminator of places of mystic import, as you opine, and the
self-conscious deity;18301830 that is, you will sport as his
worshippers do, and you will celebrate, though with less elegance as it
were, his mysteries.18311831 But why should I take all this so
indignantly? Is it not accordant with all that is fitting, that
you should multiply yourself like the tares, until that same mighty
father of yours comes, raising the dead, as he will profess to
do, and persecuting almost to hell itself all those who refuse to
yield to his bidding, keeping multitudes in check by that terror of
arrogance in which he entrenches himself, and employing threatenings
against others, and making sport of them by the changing of his
countenance and his deceitful dealing?18321832 And yet beyond that he shall
proceed no further; for his folly shall be made manifest to all men, as
was the case with Jamnes and Mambres.18331833 The judges said:
As we have heard now from you, as Paul himself also seems to tell us,
and, further, as we have learned likewise from the earlier account
given in the Gospel, an introduction to preaching, or teaching, or
evangelizing, or prophesying, is not, in this life at least, held out
on the same terms to any person in times subsequent to the
apostle’s:18341834 and if the opposite appears ever
to be the case, the person can only be held to be a false prophet or a
false Christ. Now, since you have alleged that the Paraclete was
in Paul, and that He attested all things in him, how is it that Paul
himself said, “We know in part, and we prophesy
211in part; but when that which
is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done
away?”18351835 What
other one did he look for, when he uttered these words? For if he
professes himself to be looking for some perfect one, and if some one
must needs come, show us who it is of whom he speaks; lest that word of
his perchance appear to carry us back to this man, Manes, or to
him who has sent him, that is to say, Satan, according to your
affirmation. But if you admit that that which is perfect is yet
to come, then this excludes Satan; and if you look for the coming of
Satan, then that excludes the perfect.