Chapter XXXIV.—No Early Controversy Respecting the Divine Creator; No Second God Introduced at First. Heresies Condemned Alike by the Sentence and the Silence of Holy Scripture.

These are, as I suppose, the different kinds of spurious doctrines, which (as we are informed by the apostles themselves) existed in their own day.  And yet we find amongst so many various perversions of truth, not one school363    Institutionem. which raised any controversy concerning God as the Creator of all things. No man was bold enough to surmise a second god. More readily was doubt felt about the Son than about the Father, until Marcion introduced, in addition to the Creator, another god of goodness only.  Apelles made the Creator of some nondescript364    Nescio quem. glorious angel, who belonged to the superior God, the god (according to him,) of the law and of Israel, affirming that he was fire.365    Igneum, “consisted of fire.” Valentinus disseminated his Æons, and traced the sin of one Æon366    “The ectroma, or fall of Sophia from the Pleroma, from whom the Creator was fabled to be descended” (Dodgson). to the production of God the Creator. To none, forsooth, except these, nor prior to these, was revealed the truth of the Divine Nature; and they obtained this especial honour and fuller favour from the devil, we cannot doubt,367    Scilicet. because he wished even in this respect to rival God, that he might succeed, by the poison of his doctrines, in doing himself what the Lord said could not be done—making “the disciples above their Master.”368    Luke vi. 40. Let the entire mass369    Universæ. of heresies choose, therefore, for themselves the times when they should appear, provided that the when be an unimportant point; allowing, too, that they be not of the truth, and (as a matter of course370    Utique.) that such as had no existence in the time of the apostles could not possibly have had any connection with the apostles. If indeed they had then existed, their names would be extant,371    Nominarentur et ipsæ. with a view to their own repression likewise.  Those (heresies) indeed which did exist in the days of the apostles, are condemned in their very mention.372    Nominatione, i.e. by the apostles. If it be true, then, that those heresies, which in the apostolic times were in a rude form, are now found to be the same, only in a much more polished shape, they derive their condemnation from this very circumstance. Or if they were not the same, but arose afterwards in a different form, and merely assumed from them certain tenets, then, by sharing with them an agreement in their teaching,373    Prædicationis. they must needs partake in their condemnation, by reason of the above-mentioned definition,374    Fine. of lateness of date, which meets us on the very threshold.375    Præcedente. Even if they were free from any participation in condemned doctrine, they would stand already judged376    Præjudicarentur. [i.e. by Præscription.] on the mere ground of time, being all the more spurious because they were not even named by the apostles. Whence we have the firmer assurance, that these were (the heresies) which even then,377    i.e., in the days of the apostles, and by their mouth. were announced as about to arise.

CAPUT XXXIV.

Atque adeo cum habeant cum illis consortium suae praedicationis, 0047A habere etiam damnationis consortium, maxime cum ab Apostolis praenuntiatae fuerint.

Haec sunt, ut arbitror, genera doctrinarum adulterinarum, quae sub Apostolis fuisse ab ipsis Apostolis discimus; et tamen nullam invenimus institutionem, inter tot diversitates perversitatum, quae de Deo creatore universorum controversiam moverit. Nemo alterum Deum ausus est suspicari. Facilius de Filio quam de Patre haesitabatur, donec Marcion praeter Creatorem alium Deum solius bonitatis induceret; Apelles creatorem angelorum nescio quem gloriosum superioris Dei, faceret Deum legis et Israelis, illum igneum affirmans; Valentinus aeonas suos spargeret, et unius aeonis vitium in originem 0047B deduceret Dei creatoris. His solis, et his primis revelata est veritas Divinitatis, majorem scilicet dignationem et pleniorem gratiam a diabolo consecutis, qui Deum sic quoque voluerit aemulari, ut de doctrinis venenorum, quod Dominus negavit, ipse faceret discipulos super magistrum. Eligant igitur sibi tempora universae haereses, quae quando fuerint, dummodo intersit quae quando, dum de veritate non sint. Utique quae ab Apostolis nominatae non fuerunt, sub Apostolis fuisse non possunt: si enim fuissent, nominarentur et ipsae, ut et ipsae coercendae. Quae vero sub Apostolis fuerunt, in sua nominatione damnantur . Sive ergo eaedem nunc sunt aliquanto expolitiores, quae sub Apostolis rudes, habent suam exinde damnationem; sive aliae quidem fuerunt, 0047C aliae autem postea obortae , quidam ex illis usurpaverunt, habendo cum eis consortium praedicationis, habeant necesse est etiam consortium 0048A damnationis; praecedente illo fine supradicto posteritatis, quo, etsi nihil de damnatitiis participarent , de aetate sola praejudicarentur; tanto magis adulterae, quanto nec ab Apostolis nominatae. Unde firmius constat, has esse, quae adhuc tunc nuntiabantur futurae.