4. For this mad heresy does deny; it denies the mystery of the true faith by means of statements borrowed from our confession, which it employs for its own godless ends. The confession of their misbelief, which I have already cited in an earlier book, begins thus:—”We confess one God, alone unmade, alone eternal, alone unoriginate, alone true, alone possessing immortality, alone good, alone mighty.” Thus they parade the opening words of our own confession, which runs, “One God, alone unmade and alone un-originate,” that this semblance of truth may serve as introduction to their blasphemous additions. For, after a multitude of words in which an equally insincere devotion to the Son is expressed, their confession continues, “God’s perfect creature, but not as one of His other creatures, His Handiwork, but not as His other works.” And again, after an interval in which true statements are occasionally interspersed in order to veil their impious purpose of alleging, as by sophistry they try to prove, that He came into existence out of nothing, they add, “He, created and established before the worlds, did not exist before He was born.” And lastly, as though every point of their false doctrine, that He is to be regarded neither as Son nor as God, were guarded impregnably against assault, they continue:—“As to such phrases as from Him, and from the womb, and I went out from the Father and am come, if they be understood to denote that the Father extends a part and, as it were, a development of that one substance, then the Father will be of a compound nature and divisible and changeable and corporeal, according to them; and thus, as far as their words go, the incorporeal God will be subjected to the properties of matter.” But, as we are now about to cover the whole ground once more, employing this time the language of the Gospels as our weapon against this most godless heresy, it has seemed best to repeat here, in the sixth book, the whole heretical document, though we have already given a full copy of it in the fourth268    Reading quarto instead of primo; but cf. v. § 3., in order that our opponents may read it again, and compare it, point by point, with our reply, and so be forced, however reluctant and argumentative, by the clear teaching of the Evangelists and Apostles, to recognise the truth. The heretical confession is as follows:—

4. Quam subdole virus suum effundat.---Negat enim, negat furens haeresis sacramentum verae fidei, ad impietatis suae doctrinam religionis usa principiis, cum infidelitatis suae expositionem, ut superioribus libris continetur, ita coepit: «Novimus unum Deum solum infectum, solum sempiternum, solum sine initio, solum verum, solum immortalitatem habentem, solum optimum, solum potentem.» Ad id enim usurpatum proficit piae confessionis exordium, quo ait: «Unum Deum, et solum infectum, et solum sine initio:» ut per haec, quae religiose verbis ostentarentur, caetera impie subderentur. Nam post multa alia, quae de Filio pari quoque simulatae religionis 134 professione protulerat, subjecit: «Creaturam 0159C Dei perfectam, sed non sicuti unum de creaturis; facturam, sed non sicuti caeterae facturae.» Et post multa alia, quibus, veritatis interjectis confessionibus, haereticae impietatis obumbraretur intentio, ut subsistere eum de non exstantibus argutae interpretationis subtilitate defenderet, ait: «Et ante saecula creatus et fundatus, non erat ante quam nasceretur.» Postremo quasi rebus jam omnibus validissime ad impietatis defensionem communitis, ne vel filius vel Deus intelligeretur, adjecit, «Si enim quod ex ipso, et quod ex utero, et quod ex Patre exivi et veni, velut partem ejus unius substantiae, et quasi prolationem extendens intelligitur; compositus erit 0160A Pater, et divisibilis, et convertibilis, et corpus secundum illos, et quantum in ipsis est, consequentia corporis sustinens sine corpore Deus.» Et quia nobis ex integro adversum hanc impiissimae doctrinae expositionem evangelicus nunc erit sermo; consequens existimavimus omnem jam in primo licet libro editionem hujus haereseos conscriptam, nunc quoque huic sexto inserere: ut recens lectio, et responsionis ad singula subjecta collatio, per evangelicas atque apostolicas institutiones invitis licet et contradicentibus sensum veritatis eliciat. Dicunt ergo.

Exemplum blasphemiae.