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Four Discourses against the Arians
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Chapter I .— Introduction .Reason for writing; certain persons indifferent about Arianism; Arians not Christians, because sectaries always take the name of their founder.
P. 306 Of all other heresies which have departed from the truth it is acknowledged that they have but devised 1 a madness, and their irreligiousness has long since become notorious to all men. For that 2 their authors went out from us, it plainly follows, as the blessed John has written, that they never thought nor now think with us. Wherefore, as saith the Saviour, in that they gather not with us, they scatter with the devil, and keep an eye on those who slumber, that, by this second sowing of their own mortal poison, they may have companions in death. But, whereas one heresy, and that the last, which has now risen as harbinger 3 of Antichrist, the Arian, as it is called, considering that other heresies, her elder sisters, have been openly proscribed, in her craft and cunning, affects to array herself in Scripture language 4, like her father the devil, and is forcing her way back into the Church’s paradise,—that with the pretence of Christianity, her smooth sophistry (for reason she has none) may deceive men into wrong thoughts of Christ,—nay, since she has already seduced certain of the foolish, not only to corrupt their ears, but even to take and eat with Eve, till in their ignorance which ensues they think bitter sweet, and admire this loathsome heresy, on this account I have thought it necessary, at your request, to unrip ‘the folds of its breast-plate 5,’ and to shew the ill savour of its folly. So while those who are far from it may continue to shun it, those whom it has deceived may repent; and, opening the eyes of their heart, may understand that darkness is not light, nor falsehood truth, nor Arianism good; nay, that those 6 who call these men Christians are in great and grievous error, as neither having studied Scripture, nor understanding Christianity at all, and the faith which it contains.
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ἐπινοήσασαι . This is almost a technical word, and has occurred again and again already, as descriptive of heretical teaching in opposition to the received traditionary doctrine. It is also foundpassimin other writers. Thus Socrates, speaking of the decree of the Council of Alexandria, 362, against Apollinaris; ‘for not originating, ἐπινοήσαντες , anynoveldevotion, did they introduce it into the Church, but what from the beginning theEcclesiastical Traditiondeclared.’Hist.iii. 7. The sense of the word ἐπίνοια which will come into consideration below, is akin to this, being the view taken by the mind of an object independent of (whether or not correspondent to) the object itself. [But see Bigg.B. L.p. 168,sq.] ↩
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τὸ γὰρ ἐξελθεῖν … δῆλον ἂν εἴη , i.e. τῷ and so infr. §43. τὸ δὲ καὶ προσκυνεῖσθαι … δῆλον ἂν εἴη . ↩
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de Syn.5. ↩
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Vid. infr. §4 fin. That heresies before the Arian appealed to Scripture we learn from Tertullian,de Præscr.42, who warns Catholics against indulging themselves in their own view of isolated texts against the voice of the Catholic Church. vid. also Vincentius, who specifiesobiterSabellius and Novation.Commonit.2. Still Arianism was contrasted with other heresies on this point, as in these two respects; (1.) they appealed to asecret tradition,unknown even to most of the Apostles, as the Gnostics, Iren.Hær.iii. 1 or they professed a gift of prophecy introducing freshrevelations,as Montanists,de Syn.4, and Manichees, Aug.contr. Faust.xxxii. 6. (2.) The Arians availed themselves of certain texts as objections, argued keenly and plausibly from them, and would not be driven from them.Orat.ii. §18. c. Epiph.Hær.69. 15. Or rather they took some words of Scripture, and made their own deductions from them; viz. ‘Son,’ ‘made,’ ‘exalted,’ &c. ‘Making their private irreligiousness as if a rule, they misinterpret all the divine oracles by it.’Orat.i. §52. vid. also Epiph.Hær.76. 5 fin. Hence we hear so much of their θρυλληταὶ φωναὶ, λέξεις, ἔπη, ῥητὰ , sayings in general circulation, which were commonly founded on some particular text. e.g. infr., §22, ‘amply providing themselves with words of craft, they used to go about,’ &c. Also ἄνω καὶ κάτω περιφέροντες ,de Decr.§13. τῷ ῥ& 208·τῳ τεθρυλλήκασι τὰ πανταχοῦ .Orat.2. §18. τὸ πολυθρύλλητον σόφισμα , Basil.contr. Eunom.ii. 14. τὴν πολυθρύλλητον διαλεκτικήν , Nyssen.contr. Eun.iii. p. 125. τὴν θρυλλουμένην ἀποῤ& 191·οήν , Cyril.Dial.iv. p. 505. τὴν πολυθρύλλητον φώνην , Socr. ii. 43. ↩
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Job xli. 13 (v. 4. LXX). ↩
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These Orations and Discourses seem written to shew the vital importance of the point in controversy, and the unchristian character of the heresy, without reference to the word ὁμοούσιον . He has [elsewhere] insisted that the enforcement of the symbol was but the rejection of the heresy, and accordingly he is here content to bring out the Catholic sense, as feeling that, if persons understood and embraced it, they would not scruple at the word. He seems to allude to what may be called the liberal or indifferent feeling as swaying the person for whom he writes, also infr. §7 fin. §9. §10 init. §15 fin. §17. §21. §23. He mentionsin Apollin.i. 6. one Rhetorius, who was an Egyptian, whose opinion, he says, it was ‘fearful to mention.’ S. Augustine tells us that this man taught that ‘all heresies were in the right path, and spoke truth,’ ‘which,’ he adds, ‘is so absurd as to seem to me incredible.’Hær72. vid. also Philastr.Hær.91. ↩
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Vier Reden gegen die Arianer (BKV)
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S. 17 Alle Häresien, die durch Abfall von der Wahrheit entstanden, haben offenbar ein Wahngebilde sich ausgesonnen, und ihre Gottlosigkeit ist längst allen offenkundig geworden. Daß ja die, die solches ausgeheckt haben, von uns geschieden sind, ist doch wohl klar, wie ja der selige Johannes geschrieben hat: Die Anschauung solcher Leute hätte mit der unsrigen nie harmoniert noch auch harmoniere sie heute1. Deshalb zerstreuen sie auch, wie der Heiland gesagt hat2, mit dem Teufel, sie, die nicht mit uns sammeln, und warten, bis die Leute schlafen, um dann ihr eigenes tödliches Gift auszusäen und so Genossen im Tode zu gewinnen.
Eine von den Irrlehren nun und zwar die jüngste, die eben erst als Vorläuferin des Antichrist ausgezogen ist, die sogenannte arianische, — listig und verschlagen — sieht, wie ihre älteren Schwestern, die andern Irrlehren, vor aller Welt gebrandmarkt wurden. Deshalb sucht sie sich heuchlerisch mit den Aussprüchen der Schrift zu decken wie schon ihr Vater, der Teufel, und will sich den Wiedereintritt in das Paradies der Kirche erzwingen, um unter der Maske des Christentums durch ihre verführerischen Fehlschlüsse — etwas Vernünftiges ist ja bei ihr nicht zu finden — den einen und andern zu einer falschen Vorstellung von Christus zu verleiten. Und sie hat ja wirklich schon einige Unbesonnene irregeführt und zwar so, daß deren Schädigung nicht auf das Anhören beschränkt blieb, sondern daß sie, der Eva gleich, auch nahmen und kosteten und nunmehr in ihrer Verblendung das Bittere süß wähnen und die abscheuliche Irrlehre schön nennen3.
Ich erachtete es daher, von euch dazu ermuntert4 , für nötig, den geschlossenen Panzer dieser häßlichen S. 18 Irrlehre zu öffnen und euch deren übelriechende Torheit nachzuweisen, damit die ihr ferne Stehenden sie noch mehr fliehen, die von ihr bereits Betrogenen aber zu besserer Einsicht kommen, die Augen ihres Herzens öffnen und erkennen, daß, wie die Finsternis nicht Licht und die Lüge nicht Wahrheit ist, so auch die arianische Irrlehre nicht schön ist, daß aber auch die, welche diese Leute noch Christen nennen, in gar schwerer Täuschung befangen sind, da sie weder die Schrift verstehen noch überhaupt das Christentum und seinen Glauben kennen.
