himself to Him. They maintain that he is the centurion mentioned in the Gospel, who ad-
dressed the Saviour in these words: “For I also am one having soldiers and servants under
my authority; and whatsoever I command they do.”100 They further hold that he will con-
tinue administering the affairs of the world as long as that is fitting and needful, and specially
that he may exercise a care over the Church; while at the same time he is influenced by the
knowledge of the reward prepared for him, namely, that he may attain to the habitation of
his mother.
5. They conceive, then, of three kinds of men, spiritual, material, and animal, represented
by Cain, Abel, and Seth. These three natures are no longer found in one person,101 but
constitute various kinds [of men]. The material goes, as a matter of course, into corruption.
The animal, if it make choice of the better part, finds repose in the intermediate place; but
if the worse, it too shall pass into destruction. But they assert that the spiritual principles
which have been sown by Achamoth, being disciplined and nourished here from that time
until now in righteous souls (because when given forth by her they were yet but weak), at
last attaining to perfection, shall be given as brides to the angels of the Saviour, while their
animal souls of necessity rest for ever with the Demiurge in the intermediate place. And
again subdividing the animal souls themselves, they say that some are by nature good, and
others by nature evil. The good are those who become capable of receiving the [spiritual]
seed; the evil by nature are those who are never able to receive that seed.
100 Matt. viii. 9; Luke vii. 8.
101 As was the case at first, in Adam.
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Chapter VII.—The mother Achamoth, when all her seed are perfected, shall…