I
therefore, yet not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, implore you that you use
Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a different kind; I
mean heresy. For those [that are given to this] mix up Jesus Christ with their
own poison, speaking things which are unworthy of credit, like those who
administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, which he who is ignorant of greedily
takes with a fatal pleasure leading to his own death.
I
therefore, yet not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, “implore you that you all
speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that you be
perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment.” For
there are some vain talkers and deceivers, not Christians, but
Christ-betrayers, bearing about the name of Christ in deceit, and “corrupting
the word” of the Gospel; while they intermix the poison of their deceit with
their persuasive talk, as if they mingled poison with sweet wine, that so he
who drinks, being deceived in his taste by the very great sweetness of the
draught, may incautiously meet with his death. One of the ancients gives us
this advice, “Let no man be called good who mixes good with evil.”
For they speak
of Christ, not that they may preach Christ, but that they may reject Christ;
and they speak of the law, not that they may establish the law, but that they
may proclaim things contrary to it. For they alienate Christ from the Father,
and the law from Christ. They also calumniate His being born of the Virgin;
they are ashamed of His cross; they deny His passion; and they do not believe
His resurrection. They introduce God as a Being unknown; they suppose Christ to
be unbegotten; and as to the Spirit, they do not admit that He exists. Some of
them say that the Son is a mere man, and that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are but the same person, and that the creation is the work of God, not by
Christ, but by some other strange power. Be on your guard, therefore, against
such persons. And this will be the case with you if you are not puffed up,
and continue in intimate union with Jesus Christ our God.
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