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| Preface.
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Preface.
1. By
transmitting to thee, my very dear friend, this fourth book of the work
which is [entitled] The Detection and Refutation of False
Knowledge, I shall, as I have promised, add weight, by means of the
words of the Lord, to what I have already advanced; so that thou also, as
thou hast requested, mayest obtain from me the means of confuting all the
heretics everywhere, and not permit them, beaten back at all points, to
launch out further into the deep of error, nor to be drowned in the sea
of ignorance; but that thou, turning them into the haven of the truth,
mayest cause them to attain their salvation.
2. The man, however, who would undertake their
conversion, must possess an accurate knowledge of their systems or
schemes of doctrine. For it is impossible for any one to heal the sick,
if he has no knowledge of the disease of the patients. This was the
reason that my predecessors—much superior men to myself, too
—were unable, notwithstanding, to refute the Valentinians
satisfactorily, because they were ignorant of these men’s
system;3798
| 3798 [The reader who
marvels at the tedious recitals must note this (1) as proof of the
author’s practical wisdom, and (2) as evidence of his fidelity in
what he exhibits.] | which I have with all care delivered to
thee in the first book in which I have also shown that their doctrine is
a recapitulation of all the heretics. For which reason also, in the
second, we have had, as in a mirror, a sight of their entire
discomfiture. For they who oppose these men (the Valentinians) by the
right method, do [thereby] oppose all who are of an evil mind; and they
who overthrow them, do in fact overthrow every kind of heresy.
3. For their system is blasphemous above all [others],
since they represent that the Maker and Framer, who is one God, as I have
shown, was produced from a defect or apostasy. They utter blasphemy,
also, against our Lord, by cutting off and dividing Jesus from Christ,
and Christ from the Saviour, and again the Saviour from the Word, and the
Word from the Only-begotten. And since they allege that the Creator
originated from a defect or apostasy, so have they also taught that
Christ and the Holy Spirit were emitted on account of this defect, and
that the Saviour was a product of those Æons who were produced from a
defect; so that there is nothing but blasphemy to be found among them. In
the preceding book, then, the ideas of the apostles as to all these
points have been set forth, [to the effect] that not only did they,
“who from the beginning were eye-witnesses and ministers of the
word”3799
of truth, hold no such opinions, but that
they did also preach to us to shun these doctrines,3800
foreseeing by the Spirit those weak-minded persons who should be
led astray.3801
| 3801 [The solemnity
of the apostolic testimonies against the crop of tares that was to spring
up receives great illustration from Irenæus. 1 John ii.
18.] |
4. For as the serpent beguiled Eve, by promising her
what he had not himself,3802
so also do these men,
by pretending [to possess] superior knowledge, and [to be acquainted
with] ineffable mysteries; and, by promising that admittance which they
speak of as taking place within the Pleroma, plunge those that believe
them into death, rendering them apostates from Him who made them. And at
that time, indeed, the apostate angel, having effected the disobedience
of mankind by means of the serpent, imagined that he escaped the notice
of the Lord; wherefore God assigned him the form3803
| 3803 [Rev. xii. 9. A little
essay, Messias and Anti-Messias, by the Rev. C. I. Black, London
(Masters, 1847), is commended to those who need light on this very
mysterious subject.] | and name [of a serpent]. But now, since
the last times are [come upon us], evil is spread abroad among men, which
not only renders them apostates, but by many machinations does [the
devil] raise up blasphemers against the
Creator, namely, by
means of all the heretics already mentioned. For all these, although they
issue forth from diverse regions, and promulgate different [opinions], do
nevertheless concur in the same blasphemous design, wounding [men] unto
death, by teaching blasphemy against God our Maker and Supporter, and
derogating from the salvation of man. Now man is a mixed organization of
soul and flesh, who was formed after the likeness of God, and moulded by
His hands, that is, by the Son and Holy Spirit, to whom also He said,
“Let Us make man.”3804
This, then,
is the aim of him who envies our life, to render men disbelievers in
their own salvation, and blasphemous against God the Creator. For
whatsoever all the heretics may have advanced with the utmost solemnity,
they come to this at last, that they blaspheme the Creator, and disallow
the salvation of God’s workmanship, which the flesh truly is; on
behalf of which I have proved, in a variety of ways, that the Son of God
accomplished the whole dispensation [of mercy], and have shown that there
is none other called God by the Scriptures except the Father of all, and
the Son, and those who possess the adoption.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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