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| Heretics are Self-Condemned. Heresy is Self-Will, Whilst Faith is Submission of Our Will to the Divine Authority. The Heresy of Apelles.
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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,”1897
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.”1898
Indeed, in almost
every epistle, when enjoining on us (the duty) of avoiding false
doctrines, he sharply condemns1899
heresies. Of these
the practical effects1900
are false
doctrines, called in Greek heresies,1901
a
word used in the sense of that choice which a man makes when he
either teaches them (to others)1902
or takes up
with them (for himself).1903
For this reason it
is that he calls the heretic self-condemned,1904
| 1904 [A remarkable word is
subjoined by the Apostle (ἐξέστραπται) which signifies turned inside out, and so self-condemned, as
exhibiting his inward contentiousness and pravity. | because he has himself chosen that
for which he is condemned.
We, however, are not permitted to cherish any object1905
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 doctrine1906
which they had received from Christ. If, therefore, even “an
angel from heaven should preach any other gospel” (than theirs),
he would be called accursed1907
by us. The Holy
Ghost had even then foreseen that there would be in a certain virgin
(called) Philumene1908
| 1908 Concerning
Philumene, see below, chap. xxv.; Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. v. 13;
Augustine, de Hæres, 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. | an angel of deceit,
“transformed into an angel of light,”1909
by whose miracles and illusions1910
Apelles was led (when) he introduced his new
heresy.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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