10. Now the contradiction of fools always serves to prove their folly, because with regard to the faults which they contrive by the devices of an unwise or crooked understanding against the truth, while the latter remains unshaken and immovable the things which are opposed to it must needs be regarded as false and foolish. For heretics in their attempt to deceive others by the words, I and the Father are one390    St. John x. 30., that there might not be acknowledged in them the unity and like essence of deity, but only a oneness arising from mutual love and an agreement of wills—these heretics, I say, have brought forward an instance of that unity, as we have shewn above, even from the words of our Lord, That they all may be one, as Thou Father art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us391    Ib. xvii. 21.. Every man is outside the promises of the Gospel who is outside the faith in them, and by the guilt of an evil understanding has lost all simple hope. For to know not what thou believest demands not so much excuse as a reward, for the greatest service of faith is to hope for that which thou knowest not. But it is the madness of most consummate wickedness either not to believe things which are understood or to have corrupted the sense in which one believes.

10. Stultitia se ipsa prodit, dum adversatur veritati. Fidei perversae spes nulla. Simplicis meritum.---Proficit autem semper contradictio stultorum ad stultitiae demonstrationem: quia quae ingenio insipientis aut perversae intelligentiae adversus veritatem coaptantur, 0242C dum et inconcussa et immobilis est, necesse est ut quae e diverso sunt, et falsa intelligantur et stulta. Laborantes enim haeretici fallere per id quod dictum est: Ego et pater uuum sumus (Joan. X, 30), ne naturae in his unitas et indifferens divinitatis substantia crederetur, sed ex dilectione mutua et ex voluntatum concordia unum essent, exemplum unitatis istius, ut superius demonstravimus, etiam ex dictis dominicis protulerunt: Ut omnes unum sint, sicut tu Pater in me, et ego in te, ut et ipsi sint in nobis (Joan. XVII, 21). Extra evangelica promissa est, quisquis extra fidem eorum est: et impiae intelligentiae crimen spem simplicem perdidit. Habet enim non 0243A tam veniam, quam praemium, ignorare quod credas: quia maximum stipendium fidei est, sperare quae nescias. At vero ultimae impietatis 220 furor est, aut intellecta non credere, aut intelligentiam corrupisse credendi.