Page:Suppressed Gospels and Epistles.djvu/125

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

and shall receive the promises; [1]Which neither eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man.

15 ¶ Wherefore let us every hour expect the kingdom of God in love and righteousness; because we know not the day of God's appearing.

CHAP. V.

A Fragment.

Man's immortal nature a type of the Lord's kingdom.

1 * * * For the Lord himself, being asked by a certain person, When his kingdom should come? answered, When two shall be one, and that which is without as that which is within; and the male with the female, neither male nor female.

2 Now two are one, when we speak the truth to each other, and there is (without hypocrisy) one seal in two bodies:

3 And that which is without as that which, is within;—He means this; he calls the soul that which is within, and the body that which is without. As therefore thy body appears, so let thy soul be seen by its good works.

4 And the male with, the female, neither male nor female;—He means this; he calls our anger the male, our concupiscence the female.

5 When therefore a man is come to such a pass that he is subject neither to the one nor the other of these (both of which, through the prevalence of custom, and an evil education, cloud and darken the reason,)

6 But rather, having dispelled the mist arising from them, and being full of shame, shall by repentance have united both his soul and spirit in the obedience of reason; then, as Paul says, there is in us neither male nor female.


REFERENCE TO THE SECOND EPISTLE OF CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS.

[Archbishop Wake is the translator of this Second Epistle, which he says was not of so great reputation among the primitive Fathers as the first. He defends it notwithstanding; and in answer to those who objected to Clement's First Epistle, that it did not duly honour the Trinity; the Archbishop refers to this as containing proof of the writer's fulness of belief on that point.]




THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF BARNABAS.

CHAP. I.

Preface to the Epistle.

ALL happiness to you my sons and daughters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who loved us, in peace.

2 Having perceived abundance of knowledge of the great and excellent laws of God to be in you, I exceedingly rejoice in your blessed and admirable souls, because ye have so worthily received the grace which was grafted in you.

3 For which cause I am full of joy, hoping the rather to be saved; inasmuch as I truly see a spirit infused into you, from the pure fountain of God:

4 Having this persuasion, and being fully convinced thereof, because that since I have begun to speak unto you, I have had a more than ordinary good success in the

  1. 1 Cor. ii. 9.