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| The Opinions of Hermogenes, by the Prescriptive Rule of Antiquity Shown to Be Heretical. Not Derived from Christianity, But from Heathen Philosophy. Some of the Tenets Mentioned.
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III.
Against Hermogenes.
Containing an Argument Against His
Opinion that Matter is Eternal.
[Translated by Dr. Holmes.]
————————————
Chapter I.—The Opinions of
Hermogenes, by the Prescriptive Rule of Antiquity Shown to Be
Heretical. Not Derived from Christianity, But from Heathen Philosophy.
Some of the Tenets Mentioned.
We are accustomed, for the
purpose of shortening argument,6129
| 6129 Compendii gratia. [The
reference here to the De Præscript. forbids us to
date this tract earlier than 207 a.d. Of this
Hermogenes, we only know that he was probably a Carthaginian, a
painter, and of a versatile and clever mind.] | to lay down
the rule against heretics of the lateness of their
date.6130
| 6130 This is the criterion
prescribed in the Præscript. Hæret.xxxi. xxxiv.,
and often applied by Tertullian. See our Anti-Marcion, pp.
272, 345, 470, and passim. | For in as far as by our rule,
priority is given to the truth, which also foretold that there would be
heresies, in so far must all later opinions be prejudged as
heresies, being such as were, by the more ancient rule of truth,
predicted as (one day) to happen. Now, the doctrine of Hermogenes has
this6131
| 6131 The tam novella
is a relative phrase, referring to the fore-mentioned
rule. | taint of novelty. He is, in short,6132
a man living in the world at the
present time; by his very nature a heretic, and turbulent withal, who
mistakes loquacity for eloquence, and supposes impudence to be
firmness, and judges it to be the duty of a good conscience to speak
ill of individuals.6133
Moreover, he
despises God’s law in his painting,6134
| 6134 Probably by painting
idols (Rigalt.; and so Neander). |
maintaining repeated marriages,6135
| 6135 It is uncertain
whether Tertullian means to charge Hermogenes with defending
polygamy, or only second marriages, in the phrase
nubit assidue. Probably the latter, which was offensive to the
rigorous Tertullian; and so Neander puts it. | alleges the
law of God in defence of lust,6136
and yet
despises it in respect of his art.6137
| 6137 Disregarding the law
when it forbids the representation of idols. (Rigalt.). | He falsifies
by a twofold process—with his cautery and his pen.6138
| 6138 Et cauterio et
stilo. The former instrument was used by the encaustic painters
for burning in the wax colours into the ground of their pictures
(Westropp’s Handbook of Archæology, p. 219).
Tertullian charges Hermogenes with using his encaustic art to the
injury of the scriptures, by practically violating their precepts in
his artistic works; and with using his pen (stilus) in
corrupting the doctrine thereof by his heresy. | He is a thorough adulterer, both doctrinally
and carnally, since he is rank indeed with the contagion of your
marriage-hacks,6139
| 6139 By the nubentium
contagium, Tertullian, in his Montanist rigour, censures those who
married more than once. | and has also failed
in cleaving to the rule of faith as much as the apostle’s own
Hermogenes.6140
However, never mind
the man, when it is his doctrine which I question. He does not appear
to acknowledge any other Christ as Lord,6141
| 6141 Thus differing from
Marcion. |
though he holds Him in a different way; but by this difference in his
faith he really makes Him another being,—nay, he takes from Him
everything which is God, since he will not have it that He made all
things of nothing. For, turning away from Christians to the
philosophers, from the Church to the Academy and the Porch, he learned
there from the Stoics how to place Matter (on the same level) with the
Lord, just as if it too had existed ever both unborn and unmade, having
no beginning at all nor end, out of which, according to him,6142
| 6142 The force of the
subjunctive, ex qua fecerit. | the Lord afterwards created all
things.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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