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Prologus 8 (de fide)

OF THE SAME CONCERNING FAITH.

By the grace of the good God, having understood the command of your piety to be worthy of the love in Christ toward God, in which you have sought from us a written confession of the pious faith, at first, being sensible of my own lowliness and weakness, I hesitated to reply; but when I remembered the Apostle saying, Bearing with one another in love; and again, For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation; I did not consider it without risk to contradict you, and to be silent about the saving confession, having confidence through Christ toward God, as it is written: Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God, 31.677 who then made them, and now also us, and this for your sake, sufficient to be ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the spirit. And you yourselves surely know that it is the characteristic of a faithful minister, whatever things he has been entrusted by the good Master to dispense to his fellow servants, to deliver these to them unadulterated and uncorrupted.

So I too am a debtor to set before you, according to what is pleasing to God, for our common benefit, those things which I have learned from the divinely inspired Scripture. For if the Lord himself, in whom the Father was well pleased, In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, who received all authority and all judgment from the Father, says, He gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak; and again: What I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak; and the Holy Spirit does not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear from him, that shall he speak; how much more is it both pious and safe for us to think and do this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ? So long, then, as it was necessary to contend against the heresies that arise from time to time, following those who have gone before, I thought it consistent with the difference of the impiety sown by the devil, to hinder with opposing words, or even to overthrow the ensuing blasphemies, sometimes with one and sometimes with others, as the need of the sick compelled, and these often unwritten, yet nevertheless not foreign to the pious meaning according to the Scripture; since the Apostle often did not refrain from using even Greek words for his own purpose. But now, for our common purpose, both ours and yours, I have considered it fitting in the simplicity of sound faith to fulfill the command of your love in Christ, saying what I have been taught by the divinely inspired Scripture; sparing even those names and words which, though not found in the divine Scripture in their exact terms, yet preserve the meaning contained in the Scripture; but whatever, in addition to the strangeness of the word, also introduces to us a strange meaning, and whatever cannot be found proclaimed by the saints, these things, as strange and foreign to the pious faith, I utterly reject.

Faith, then, is an undoubting assent to the things heard 31.680 in the full assurance of the truth of the things proclaimed by the grace of God, which Abraham, being testified of, demonstrated, in that He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. But if the Lord is faithful in all his words, and all his commandments are faithful, established for ever and ever, made in truth and uprightness, it is a manifest falling away from faith and an accusation of arrogance, either to reject any of the things which are

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Prologus 8 (de fide)

ΤΟΥ ΑΥΤΟΥ ΠΕΡΙ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ.

Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ χάριτι τὸ ἐπίταγμα τῆς ὑμε τέρας εὐλαβείας καταμαθὼν ἄξιον τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν ἀγάπης, ἐν ᾧ τῆς εὐσεβοῦς πίστεως ἔγγραφον ἐπεζητήσατε παρ' ἡμῶν ὁμολογίαν, τὰ μὲν πρῶτα ἐπαισθανόμενος τῆς ἑαυτοῦ ταπεινώσεως καὶ ἀσθενείας, ὤκνουν πρὸς τὴν ἀπόκρισιν· ὡς δὲ ἐμνημόνευσα τοῦ Ἀποστόλου εἰπόντος, Ἀνεχόμενοι ἀλλήλων ἐν ἀγάπῃ· καὶ πάλιν, Καρδίᾳ γὰρ πι στεύεται εἰς δικαιοσύνην, στόματι δὲ ὁμολο γεῖται εἰς σωτηρίαν· οὐκ ἀκίνδυνον ἡγησάμην τὸ ἀντειπεῖν μὲν ὑμῖν, σιωπῆσαι δὲ τὴν σωτήριον ὁμολογίαν, πεποίθησιν ἔχων διὰ τοῦ Χριστοῦ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν, ὡς γέγραπται· Οὐχ ὅτι ἱκανοί ἐσμεν ἀφ' 31.677 ἑαυτῶν λογίσασθαί τι, ὡς ἐξ ἑαυτῶν· ἀλλ' ἡ ἱκανότης ἡμῶν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ, τοῦ τότε μὲν ἐκείνους, νῦν δὲ καὶ ἡμᾶς, καὶ τοῦτο δι' ὑμᾶς, ἱκα νώσαντος γενέσθαι διακόνους Καινῆς ∆ιαθήκης, οὐ γράμματος, ἀλλὰ πνεύματος. ∆ιακόνου δὲ πιστοῦ ἴδιον ἴστε πάντως καὶ αὐτοὶ τὸ, ἅπερ ἂν εἰς τοὺς συνδούλους οἰκονομῆσαι παρὰ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ∆ε σπότου πιστευθῇ, ταῦτα διασῶσαι τούτοις ἀνοθεύ τως καὶ ἀκαπηλεύτως.

Ὥστε κἀγὼ, ἅπερ ἔμαθον ἐκ τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς, ταῦτα ὑμῖν παραθέσθαι κατὰ τὸ ἀρέσκον Θεῷ, πρὸς τὸ κοινῇ συμφέρον ὀφειλέτης εἰμί. Εἰ γὰρ αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος, ἐν ᾧ εὐδό κησεν ὁ Πατὴρ, Ἐν ᾧ εἰσι πάντες οἱ θησαυροὶ τῆς σοφίας καὶ τῆς γνώσεως ἀπόκρυφοι, ὁ πᾶσαν μὲν τὴν ἐξουσίαν, πᾶσαν δὲ τὴν κρίσιν λα βὼν παρὰ τοῦ Πατρὸς, Ἐντολὴν ἔδωκέ μοι, φησὶ, τί εἴπω, καὶ τί λαλήσω· καὶ πάλιν· Ἃ οὖν ἐγὼ λαλῶ, καθὼς εἴρηκέ μοι ὁ Πατὴρ, οὕτω λαλῶ· καὶ τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον ἀφ' ἑαυτοῦ οὐ λαλεῖ, ἀλλ' ὅσα ἂν ἀκούσῃ παρ' αὐτοῦ, ταῦτα λαλεῖ· πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἡμῖν εὐσεβές τε ὁμοῦ καὶ ἀσφα λὲς τοῦτο φρονεῖν καὶ ποιεῖν ἐν ὀνόματι τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ; Ἕως μὲν οὖν ἀγωνίζεσθαι πρὸς τὰς ἐπανισταμένας κατὰ καιρὸν αἱρέ σεις ἐχρῆν, ἑπόμενος τοῖς προειληφόσιν, ἀκόλουθον ἡγούμην τῇ διαφορᾷ τῆς ἐπισπειρομένης ὑπὸ τοῦ διαβόλου ἀσεβείας, ταῖς ἀντιθέτοις φωναῖς κω λύειν, ἢ καὶ ἀνατρέπειν τὰς ἐπαγομένας βλασφημίας, καὶ ἄλλοτε ἄλλαις, ὡς ἂν ἡ χρεία τῶν νοσούντων κατ ηνάγκασε, καὶ ταύταις πολλάκις ἀγράφοις μὲν, ὅμως δ' οὖν οὐκ ἀπεξενωμέναις τῆς κατὰ τὴν Γραφὴν εὐσε βοῦς διανοίας· τοῦ Ἀποστόλου πολλάκις καὶ Ἑλληνικοῖς ῥήμασι χρήσασθαι μὴ παραιτησαμένου πρὸς τὸν ἴδιον σκοπόν. Νῦν δὲ πρὸς τὸν κοινὸν ἡμῶν τε καὶ ὑμῶν σκοπὸν ἁρμόζον ἐλογισάμην ἐν ἁπλότητι τῆς ὑγιαινούσης πίστεως τὸ ἐπίταγμα τῆς ὑμετέρας ἐν Χριστῷ ἀγάπης πληρῶσαι, εἰπὼν ἃ ἐδιδάχθην παρὰ τῆς θεοπνεύστου Γραφῆς· φειδόμενος μὲν καὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων, καὶ ῥημάτων ἐκείνων, ἃ λέξεσι μὲν αὐταῖς οὐκ ἐμφέρεται τῇ θείᾳ Γραφῇ, διάνοιάν γε μὴν τὴν ἐκείνην ἐγκειμένην τῇ Γραφῇ διασώζει· ὅσα δὲ πρὸς τῷ ξένῳ τῆς λέξεως ἔτι καὶ τὸν νοῦν ξένον ἡμῖν ἐπεισάγει, καὶ ἃ οὐκ ἔστιν ὑπὸ τῶν ἁγίων κηρ υσσόμενα εὑρεῖν, ταῦτα ὡς ξένα καὶ ἀλλότρια τῆς εὐσεβοῦς πίστεως παντάπασι παραιτούμενος.

Πίστις μὲν οὖν ἐστι συγκατάθεσις ἀδιάκριτος τῶν ἀκουσθέν 31.680 των ἐν πληροφορίᾳ τῆς ἀληθείας τῶν κηρυχθέντων Θεοῦ χάριτι, ἥντινα ἐπεδείξατο μαρτυρηθεὶς Ἀβραὰμ, ὅτι Οὐ διεκρίθη τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ, ἀλλ' ἐνεδυναμώθη τῇ πίστει, δοὺς δόξαν τῷ Θεῷ, καὶ πληροφορη θεὶς ὅτι, ὃ ἐπήγγελται, δυνατός ἐστι καὶ ποιῆ σαι. Εἰ δὲ Πιστὸς μὲν ὁ Κύριος ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς λόγοις αὐτοῦ, Πισταὶ δὲ πᾶσαι αἱ ἐντολαὶ αὐτοῦ, ἐστηρι γμέναι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τοῦ αἰῶνος, πεποιημέναι ἐν ἀληθείᾳ καὶ εὐθύτητι, φανερὰ ἔκπτωσις πίστεως καὶ ὑπερηφανίας κατηγορία, ἢ ἀθετεῖν τι τῶν γε