88. And that after His ascension He will be exalted above all, and that no one can compare with Him, Isaiah says: "Who is he who is judged? Let him get started! And who is justified? Let him draw near to the Son of God. Woe to you, for all of you are as a garment that is worn out, and moths will eat you, and all flesh will be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted among all the exalted" (Isa. L, 8 and II, 11:17). And that in the end those who serve God will be saved in His name, Isaiah says: "And by them. who serve Me will be given a new name, which is blessed on earth; and they will glorify the true God" (Isa. LXV, 15 ff.). And that He Himself will perform this blessing and save us with His blood, Isaiah announced in the following words: "Not an intercessor, nor an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them; out of His love for them and condescension He redeemed them" (Isa. LXIII, 9).

89. That he does not want to bring the redeemed back to the law of Moses, for the law is fulfilled by Christ, but that he must live by faith and love from (?) the Son of God according to the new essence of the word, Isaiah declares as follows: "Do not remember the past, nor think about what once happened. Truly I am doing something new that is already appearing, and you will know it. And I will make rivers in the wilderness and in the waterless wilderness, to give water to my chosen people, a people whom I have won for myself, that they may proclaim my glory" (Isa. XLIIІ, 19-21). And the calling of the Gentiles was formerly a wilderness and a wall, for neither did the Word pass through it, nor did the Holy Spirit give it water, Who paved a new way of godliness and righteousness, and poured forth abundant streams, that is, spread the Holy Spirit on earth, as He had promised through the prophets in the last days to pour out the Spirit upon all the earth.

90. Thus our calling is through the renewing of the spirit, and not in our old (being), as Jeremiah prophesied: "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will fulfill for the house of Israel and for the house of Judah the covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt; for they did not abide firmly in the covenant, and I despised them, saith the Lord. But the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those days will be this: I will put my law in their minds, and I will write it in their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. From now on they will not teach one another, or brother to brother, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will forgive them their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more" (Jeremiah XXXI, 31-34).

91. And that these promises must be inherited by the calling of the Gentiles, among whom the new covenant was revealed, Isaiah thus says: "Thus saith the God of Israel: In that day man shall turn his eyes to the Maker, and his eyes shall be fixed on the Holy One of Israel; and they will not look upon the temple of idols, nor upon the work of their hands, which their fingers have made" (Isa. XVII, 7:8). These words are evidently spoken of those who have left idols and through the Holy One of Israel have come to believe in God, our Lord. But the Holy One of Israel is Christ, and to Him, Who has become visible to men, and not to the temples of idols or to the work of our hands, we turn our eyes.

92. And that He will become visible among us, since the Son of God was made the Son of Man, and will be known by us who had no knowledge (of Him) before, the very Word in Isaiah says: "I have revealed myself not to those who inquire about Me. Those who did not seek Me found Me. I said, 'Here am I, to a people who have not called on my name' (Isa. LXV, 1).

93. And that this people will be holy, it is read in the Book of the Prophets of the Days thus: "And I will say not to my people, 'You are my people, and she who is not beloved will be loved.' And in the place where they said of them, 'You are not my people,' there they will be called sons of the living God" (Hos. II, 23; I, 10). The same is said by John the Baptist: "God is able to raise up children for Abraham out of these stones" (Matt. II, 9). For after our hearts have been plucked out and freed from the service of stone, we behold God by faith and become children of Abraham, who is justified by faith. And so God says through the prophet Ezekiel: "And I will give them another heart, and I will put a new spirit in them; and I will pluck out of their flesh a heart of stone, and will take it away, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my commandments, and keep my justifications, and do them. And thus they will be my people, and I will be their God" (Ezek. XІ, 19:20).

94. Thus was accomplished the change of hearts among the nations by a new calling through the Word of God, when He became flesh and dwelt among men, as His disciple John also says: "And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us" (John I, 14). That is why the church is so fruitful in the saved. For neither Moses nor the prophet Elijah are any longer intercessors, but the Lord Himself has saved us, having given many children of the church, to the assembly of the firstborn, as Isaiah proclaimed in these words: "Rejoice, barren, who does not give birth." And the barren church is the church, which never in former times allowed the children of God to be revealed. "Cry out and cry out to her who is not in childbirth, for she who is forsaken has more sons than she who has a husband" (Isa. LIV, 1). The first assembly (i.e., the church) had the law as its husband.

95. Likewise, Moses says in Deuteronomy that the Gentiles will be first, and the disobedient people last, and again he says, "You have not provoked Me with God, and you have grieved Me with your vain idols; and I will not provoke you to anger with a people, but with a foolish nation I will grieve you" (Deuteronomy XXII, 21). For they forsook the God who is, and served gods who were not, and slew the prophets of God, and prophesied for Baal, which was the idol of the Canaanites. They also despised the Son of God, who exists, chose the robber Barabbas, who was taken in murder (cf. Mark XV, 7), they renounced the eternal king and confessed the temporal Caesar as their king (John 15). Thus it pleased God to bestow His inheritance upon the foolish Gentiles, and upon those who did not walk in the ways of God, and did not know what God was. After life has been given to us by this calling, and after God has brought Abraham's faith in Him back to perfection in us, I think we should no longer go back to the first legislation. For we have received the Lord of the law, the Son of God. And through faith in Him we learn to love God with all our heart and our neighbors as ourselves. But love for God is far from all sin, and love for one's neighbor does no harm to one's neighbor (cf. Rom. XII, 10).

96. Therefore we have no need of any law as educator; behold, we speak with the Father, and stand before Him face to face, having become babes in malice, and strengthened in righteousness and propriety. For the law will no longer say, "Thou shalt not commit adultery" to him who never again has lustful desires for another man's wife; and the law will no longer say, "Thou shalt not kill" him who has removed from himself all anger and all enmity; He will not say, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house, nor his ox, nor his ass," to those who do not care at all about earthly things, but gather heavenly fruits; and he will not say: "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" (Exodus XXI, 24) to him who considers no one to be his enemy, but all to be his neighbors; therefore he can never stretch out his hands for vengeance. It is impossible to demand tithes from one who brings all his possessions to God and leaves his father, mother and all his relatives and follows the Word of God. And it is not commanded to spend the day in rest and leisure for one who keeps the Sabbath every day. that is, in the temple of God, which is the body of man, he performs worthy service to God and does righteousness every hour. For I "desire mercy, and not sacrifice," He says, "and knowledge of God, and not burnt offerings" (Hos. VI, 6). "But if the wicked kill an ox to me, it is as if he had killed a dog; and he who sacrifices bread is the same as he who offers swine's blood" (Isa. LXVI, 3). But whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Joel. II, 32; cf. Rom. X, 13). "Nor is there any other name of the Lord under heaven, by which men have been saved" (Diary IV, 12), except the name of God, i.e. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to Whom also demons and evil spirits and all rebellious powers are subjected.

97. When the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate, was invoked, there was a division in humanity. And where those who believe in Him will always call upon Him and do His will, there He is near and present and fulfills the petitions of those who call on Him from a pure heart. Thus receiving redemption, let us constantly give thanks to God, who saves us by His unsearchable and incomprehensible wisdom, and who proclaims to us salvation from heaven, that is, the visible coming of our Lord, that is, human life, which we alone could not attain. For what is not possible with men is possible with God (Lk. XVIIІ, 27). That is why Jeremiah also says of Him: "Who went up into heaven and took it (wisdom) and brought it down from the clouds? Who crossed the sea. he found it and brought it, the most precious of gold. There is no one who has found the way to it and who knows the paths to it. But He Who knows all things and knows it with His mind; He Who created the earth for ever, and filled it with four-footed beasts; Who sends light, and if He calls him again, he must obey Him. The stars shone in their order with joy, and when He calls them, they answer, "Here we are," and we have shone with joy for the sake of Him who created them. This is our God, no one can compare to Him. He found all the ways of wisdom and gave it to His servant Jacob and His beloved Israel. After that, He appeared on earth and spoke among people. This is the book of commandments and the law, which is eternal. All who hold on to it will live, but those who leave it will die" (Bar. III, 29 – IV, 1). But Jacob and Israel he calls the Son of God, Who received from the Father dominion over our lives; and after He had received it, He brought it to us, far from Him, when He appeared on earth and spoke among men. In this way, He mixes and unites the Spirit of God the Father with God's creation, so that man may be in the image and likeness of God.

98. This is the precious preaching of the truth, and it is the image of our salvation, and this is the way of life which the prophets foretold, and Christ fulfilled, and the apostles handed down, and which the Church entrusted to her children throughout the world. It (i.e., the truth) must be preserved in its entirety with a firm will and pleasing to God, with good deeds and a sound direction of thought.

99. God the Father must not be represented as different from our Creator; they despise the God who is and make the bearer a god for themselves. They create for themselves a Father far superior to our Creator; They think that in this way they have found something more indifferent than the truth. All such are impious and blaspheme their Creator and Father, as we have shown in the refutation and denunciation of the falsely called gnosis.

Others do not attach any importance to the descent of the Son of God and the economy of His incarnation. which the apostles proclaimed and the prophets foretold that through this the perfection of our humanity should be realized, as we have shown you in a few points. And such should be numbered among those of little faith.

Others again do not accept the gifts of the Spirit and reject the prophetic gifts, through the reception of which a person makes his life fruitful in God. These are those to whom Isaiah indicated: "For they will be," says God, "like an oak whose leaf has fallen off, and like a garden in which there is no water" (I, 30). Such are completely unfit for God, because they cannot bear any fruit.