3. Confidence against heretics.

Behold, the proposed questions of errors are like the arranged battle lines of enemies. Against these pestiferous lines, most holy brothers, take up the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day and stand perfect in all things. Gird your loins with truth: let no one tremble, let no one fear. There is the breastplate of righteousness, there is the shield of faith, in which the fiery darts of the wicked are caught and extinguished. There is the helmet of salvation, there is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God ¹. He does not accept the holy Scriptures. Let us therefore seek the stone by which he may be struck, so that struck he may be shattered, shattered he may be ground to dust, turned to dust he may be watered, watered he may be sown, sown he may bear fruit, not to be consumed by fire, but to be stored in the barn. Hermes, who is called Mercury in Latin, wrote a book called Λόγος τέλειος, that is, the Perfect Word: the great name of this book, because great is he about whom it is written. For what is more perfect than the Word, who alone is free among the dead ²? Let us hear what Mercury says about the Perfect Word: The Lord, he says, and maker of all gods, made the second Lord. And shortly after, to show what he said, he repeated and said: Therefore, since he made this one first, and alone and unique: he seemed good to him and full of all good things. How full the evangelist John says: Of his fullness we have all received, grace for grace ³. He seemed good to him, and full of all good things. And it follows: He rejoiced. With whom, or with whom did he rejoice? Let the Wisdom of God, the Son of God, say: I was the one with whom he rejoiced ⁴. Therefore, he rejoiced, and greatly loved him as his only begotten [P. 1103]. Whom he first said was made, he later called only begotten. Again, in another place, he said: The Son of the blessed God and of good will, whose name cannot be narrated by human mouth. Were you looking for, pagan, the wife of God? Hear Mercury: prepare your forehead, and receive the stone: fall, that you may rise; be broken, that you may be strengthened; be destroyed, that you may be built up: let the blow of the stone not divide the skin of the forehead, not burst a vein of blood, not open a pit of a wound; but let it make the sign of the cross. Are you looking for the wife of God? Let impure depravity be cast out of your heart, I beg, the wife of God is good will. How God is the Father and the Son is God, yet not two gods, but one God, I should not dispute with you; because unless you believe, you will by no means be able to understand. And yet Mercury confesses the Son of God to be God. Let him, struck by this stone, cease to be a sacrilegious stone. Let us hear what even the Sibyl, their prophetess, says about the same: Another, she says, God gave to the sons of men to be worshipped. As it appears, in these sentences of Mercury and the Sibyl, Sabellius is also judged. Mercury says both the Father is God and the Son: and the Sibyl says another God. Sabellius says not another, because he asserts the Father to be the same as the Son. It is very good, if now not only one, but also as many adversaries as possible, we may strike with one blow. Again, the Sibyl says: Know your Lord to be the Son of God. This verse rebukes both the Pagan and the Jew. In another place, she calls the Son of God σύμβουλον, that is, counsel, or counselor, And the prophet says, His name will be called, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty and Powerful God ⁵. Here the Arian is rebuked, who when he says the Son of God is lesser, says that at some time God did not have a son. And if he was without a son, he was without counsel. Behold to what great dangers we are provoked. But because God was never without counsel, even with the Arian contradicting, the Father could never be without the Son. What are you doing, pagan? Open your ears, do not be like the deaf asp, which stops its ear so as not to hear the voice of the charmer ⁶. I do not bring my authors to you; Mercury is yours, to whom among the gods such honor and worship was given by you, that you named a day after him. Listen to him, let him convict you, let him conquer you; so that when he has conquered you, you may yield to him, and believe me. Mercury said: God loved his Only Begotten. He said: The Son of the blessed God and of good will. And lest he endure the tedium of inquiry about his name, he added and said: Whose name cannot be narrated by human mouth. What do you say, Mercury, that the name of the Son of God cannot be narrated by men? Let it be narrated by you, who are not considered a man, but a god by men. But he speaks to his Son saying: It is. Who? The word of wisdom of the inexpressible Son is Holy holy. Is this not, In the beginning was the Word ⁷? Say, Hermes, does this word of wisdom have a mother? It follows: It is from God alone the Lord, God ruling over all mortals. And because it cannot be investigated by men, he adds and says: It is above men. Therefore, because it is above men, I cannot narrate the name of the Son of God, because I am not a god: let men say as men what I am not, I acknowledge what I am. The word of wisdom is from God alone. Therefore, pagan, do not suspect or imagine there to have been a human marriage: it is from God alone, and it is above men. The Sibyl rebukes you saying, Know your Lord to be the Son of God: him, not another, not Mars, not Jupiter, not Mercury; but whom Mercury confesses. Why do you marvel, Christian, that such things are said by them about the Father and the Son? Even demons believe, and tremble ⁸. Indeed, in the Gospel, as the Lord was passing by, they say, We know who you are, the Son of God, you have come to torment us before the time ⁹. Would that men recognized the savior as demons judge!