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The Prescription Against Heretics
Chapter VI.--Heretics are Self-Condemned. Heresy is Self-Will, Whilst Faith is Submission of Our Will to the Divine Authority. The Heresy of Apelles.
On this point, however, we dwell no longer, since it is the same Paul who, in his Epistle to the Galatians, counts "heresies" among "the sins of the flesh," 1 who also intimates to Titus, that "a man who is a heretic" must be "rejected after the first admonition," on the ground that "he that is such is perverted, and committeth sin, as a self-condemned man." 2 Indeed, in almost every epistle, when enjoining on us (the duty) of avoiding false doctrines, he sharply condemns 3 heresies. Of these the practical effects 4 are false doctrines, called in Greek heresies, 5 a word used in the sense of that choice which a man makes when he either teaches them (to others) 6 or takes up with them (for himself). 7 For this reason it is that he calls the heretic self-condemned, 8 because he has himself chosen that for which he is condemned. We, however, are not permitted to cherish any object 9 after our own will, nor yet to make choice of that which another has introduced of his private fancy. In the Lord's apostles we possess our authority; for even they did not of themselves choose to introduce anything, but faithfully delivered to the nations (of mankind) the doctrine 10 which they had received from Christ. If, therefore, even "an angel from heaven should preach any other gospel" (than theirs), he would be called accursed 11 by us. The Holy Ghost had even then foreseen that there would be in a certain virgin (called) Philumene 12 an angel of deceit, "transformed into an angel of light," 13 by whose miracles and illusions 14 Apelles was led (when) he introduced his new heresy.
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Gal. v. 20. ↩
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Tit. iii. 10, 11. ↩
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Taxat. ↩
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Opera. ↩
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Haireseis . ↩
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Instituendas. ↩
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Suscipiendas. ↩
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[A remarkable word is subjoined by the Apostle (exestraptai) which signifies turned inside out, and so self-condemned, as exhibiting his inward contentiousness and pravity. ↩
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Nihil, any doctrine. ↩
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Disciplinam, including both the principles and practice of the Christian religion. ↩
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Anathema. See Gal. i. 8. ↩
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Concerning Philumene, see below, chap. xxv.; Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. v. 13; Augustine, de Haeres, chap. xlii. ; Jerome, Epist. adv. Ctesiph. (Works, ed. Ben.) iv. 477, and in his Commentary on Galatians, ii. See also Tertullian, Against Marcion, p. 139, Edinb. Edition. ↩
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2 Cor. xi. 14. ↩
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Praestigiis. ↩
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Les prescriptions contre les Hérétiques
VI.
Ne nous arrêtons pas davantage sur ce sujet, puisque c'est le même Apôtre qui, dans l'Epître aux Galates, met l'hérésie au nombre des péchés de la chair et conseille à Tite de fuir tout hérétique après une première correction, parce qu'il est perverti et condamné par lui-même. Dans presque toutes ses Epîtres, Paul nous répète qu'il faut éviter les fausses doctrines: il désigne sous ce nom les hérésies, dont ces fausses doctrines sont le fruit. Hérésie vient d'un mot grec qui signifie choix, parce que l'hérétique choisit effectivement la doctrine qu'il invente ou qu'il adopte. C'est pourquoi l'Apôtre dit que l'hérétique est condamné par lui-même, car c'est de lui-même qu'il a choisi la doctrine qui le fait condamner. Pour nous, il ne nous est permis ni d'inventer, ni de choisir ce qu'un autre aurait inventé. Nous avons pour auteurs les Apôtres du Seigneur, qui eux-mêmes n'ont rien imaginé, ni choisi, mais qui ont transmis fidèlement à l'univers la doctrine qu'ils avaient reçue de Jésus-Christ. Aussi, quand un ange viendrait du ciel nous annoncer un autre Evangile, nous lui dirions anathème. Le Saint-Esprit nous avait prévenus que l'ange séducteur, transformé en ange de lumière, obséderait la vierge Philumène. C'est lui dont les prestiges ont engagé Apelles à inventer une nouvelle hérésie.