is the prophetical character. And the Word of God Himself used to converse with the ante-
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Mosaic patriarchs, in accordance with His divinity and glory; but for those under the law
he instituted a sacerdotal and liturgical service.810 Afterwards, being made man for us, He
sent the gift of the celestial Spirit over all the earth, protecting us with His wings. Such, then,
as was the course followed by the Son of God, so was also the form of the living creatures;
and such as was the form of the living creatures, so was also the character of the Gospel.811
For the living creatures are quadriform, and the Gospel is quadriform, as is also the course
followed by the Lord. For this reason were four principal (καθολικαί) covenants given to
the human race:812 one, prior to the deluge, under Adam; the second, that after the deluge,
under Noah; the third, the giving of the law, under Moses; the fourth, that which renovates
man, and sums up all things in itself by means of the Gospel, raising and bearing men upon
its wings into the heavenly kingdom.
9. These things being so, all who destroy the form of the Gospel are vain, unlearned,
and also audacious; those, [I mean,] who represent the aspects of the Gospel as being either
more in number than as aforesaid, or, on the other hand, fewer. The former class [do so],
that they may seem to have discovered more than is of the truth; the latter, that they may
set the dispensations of God aside. For Marcion, rejecting the entire Gospel, yea rather,
cutting himself off from the Gospel, boasts that he has part in the [blessings of] the Gospel.813
Others, again (the Montanists), that they may set at nought the gift of the Spirit, which in
the latter times has been, by the good pleasure of the Father, poured out upon the human
race, do not admit that aspect [of the evangelical dispensation] presented by John’s Gospel,
in which the Lord promised that He would send the Paraclete;814 but set aside at once both
810 Or, “a sacerdotal and liturgical order,” following the fragment of the Greek text recovered here. Harvey
thinks that the old Latin “actum” indicates the true reading of the original πρᾶξιν, and that τάξιν is an error.
The earlier editors, however, are of a contrary opinion.
811 That is, the appearance of the Gospel taken as a whole; it being presented under a fourfold aspect.
812 A portion of the Greek has been preserved here, but it differs materially from the old Latin version, which
seems to represent the original with greater exactness, and has therefore been followed. The Greek represents
the first covenant as having been given to Noah, at the deluge, under the sign of the rainbow; the second as that
given to Abraham, under the sign of circumcision; the third, as being the giving of the law, under Moses; and
the fourth, as that of the Gospel, through our Lord Jesus Christ. [Paradise with the tree of life, Adam with
Shechinah (Gen. iii. 24, Gen. iv. 16), Noah with the rainbow, Abraham with circumcision, Moses with the ark,
Messiah with the sacraments, and heaven with the river of life, seem the complete system.]
813 The old Latin reads, “partem gloriatur se habere Evangelii.” Massuet changed partem into pariter,
thinking that partem gave a sense inconsistent with the Marcionite curtailment of St. Luke. Harvey, however,
observes: “But the Gospel, here means the blessings of the Gospel, in which Marcion certainly claimed a share.”
814 John xiv. 16, etc.
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Chapter XI—Proofs in continuation, extracted from St. John’s Gospel. The…