Compendium of Heretical Fables 1 part 9/10

And this the divine Apostle taught expressly in what he wrote to the Thessalonians.

Wherefore he forbade deception not only by word and by letter, but also by what is supposed to be prophetic prediction.

“Neither by spirit.” Then he adds:

“Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come except there come the apostasy first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sits in the temple of God as God, showing himself that he is God.” He calls the coming of the Antichrist itself “the apostasy.”

For many, being deceived by the wonders that shall then take place, shall fall away from the truth and embrace the falsehood.

He called him “man of sin” and “son of perdition,” at once displaying his visible nature and disclosing the manifold operation of sin.

And he made clear also his tyranny, his conceit, and his arrogance, calling him “one who opposes and exalts himself,” and showing that he will not only proclaim himself superior to the falsely-named gods, but will also sit enthroned in the divine temple as God.

By “divine temple” he means the churches.

Then, reminding them of what he had often taught:

“Remember ye not,” he says, “that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know that which restrains, so that he may be revealed in his own time.” He would already have appeared, it is said, had not the divine grace restrained him, and allotted his coming to its fitting time.

“Only he who now restrains will do so, until he be taken out of the way.”

The divine decree, it is said, restrains him from appearing.

For he will not ensnare all unto destruction, but only those who possess a fickle and easily-deceived mind.

And he taught that this one shall also receive the working of Satan the devil.

For just as the only-begotten Son of God distributed to the holy prophets, and to the sacred apostles, and indeed to the other saints, the gifts of the all-holy Spirit, but when he became man he gave to the nature that was assumed not some partial grace, but, according to the Apostle, “all the fullness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell in him”;

— in his becoming an instrument of wickedness, he did not implant in him all the forms of evil;

but having joined himself wholly to this one, he will display through him his manifold devices of wickedness.

Then he states also the cause of this permission:

“Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”

“And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:”

...that all who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness, might be judged. These things too we have been taught concerning the Antichrist by the divine Scripture.

These doctrines the Church has received from God-bearing men — prophets, I mean, and apostles, and those who succeeded them — not fashioning impious myths, nor following human reasonings, but believing the divine words.

But since these utterly polluted men have also corrupted moral teaching, and have devised paths contrary to one another —

for some called marriage fornication, while others embraced every lawless and unlawful licentiousness —

come, let us also set forth the mind of the Church concerning matters of morals.

Mani called marriage a helper of matter, and for this reason bade his followers remain virgins.

Saturninus and Tatian openly called marriage a work of the devil;

for he knows this matter to lie beyond nature;

and by praises of it he urged forward those who were willing toward the contest.

For when the apostles had said:

"If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry," the Lord, taking up the matter, said:

"Not all can receive this saying, but those to whom it is given."

"For there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men;"

"and there are eunuchs who made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of God." This he said not concerning the cutting off of bodily members, but concerning the cutting off of improper thoughts.

"He who is able to receive it, let him receive it." For this reason the divine Apostle also, in introducing his teaching concerning virginity, says:

"for concerning virginity the Lord has laid down no law;"

"but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy." "I counsel," he says, "I do not legislate," and this not out of boldness, but because he had received the ministry of proclamation by divine decree.

"I think then that this is good, that a man remain as he is." He set down "I think" not because he was in doubt about what he was counselling, but restraining his word, so that it might not become a law.

For the law also entails transgression, and transgression brings punishment as well.

For this reason he added "I think," to show that his word was counsel, and not law.

Then he shows what he had called good:

"Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a wife." For foreseeing the poisonous drugs of the heretics, he prepares the preventive remedy.

For lest anyone suppose that in condemning marriage he was legislating chastity, he necessarily confirmed the law of marriage, saying:

"Do not seek to be loosed." And having laid down this same principle also concerning chastity, and having said:

"But if you marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned." "For I am not counselling flight from marriage as though it were a transgression of law, but as one exhorting to a better life."

And he also shows the gain of virginity.

For concerning those who marry he said:

"Such will have trouble in the flesh." For the married man is drawn about into many cares, being concerned not only for his wife, but also for his children, and his manservants, and his maidservants;

"Such will have trouble in the flesh." And he also lays bare his own tender affection:

"But I would spare you." And a little further:

"I want you to be free from care." Then he makes a comparison and a side-by-side examination of the married man and of one who embraces the unmarried state.

"The unmarried man is concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord;"

"but he who has married is concerned about the things of the world, how he may please his wife."

"The wife and the virgin are distinguished from one another."

"The unmarried woman is concerned about the things of the Lord, how she may please the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit."

For he does not bid one flee marriage as though it were unlawful, but bids one pursue virginity as being free from cares.

For the mind of the married, being divided among many things, is hindered from attaining an exact and perfect life;

but those who have chosen the solitary life devote their whole care to divine things.

He continues, both demonstrating its advantage and casting legal compulsion out of his teaching:

"And this I say for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon you." For I do not drag one who is unwilling by compulsion, but I demonstrate the benefit that arises.

"but for what is seemly, and that you may attend upon the Lord without distraction." For he who is free from the yoke of marriage draws this other yoke with ease, since nothing else pulls him away from good attendance upon the Lord.

And he continues, refuting the legislation of the ill-named heretics:

"But if any man thinks he behaves unbecomingly toward his virgin daughter, if she is past the flower of her age, and it ought to be so, let him do what he wishes; he does not sin; let them marry." He says this concerning those who have not yet made agreements concerning virginity.

"But he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity, but has authority over his own will, and has determined this in his heart, to keep his own virgin daughter, does well." "Having no necessity" means, instead, not being under another's authority.

for masters forbid their servants to do what they wish.

Thus, having granted authority both to him who wishes to betroth his daughter and to him who is eager to keep his daughter chaste, he added:

"So that he who gives her in marriage does well, but he who does not give her in marriage does better." Such are the limits concerning virginity that we have received from the theologian men, who did not condemn marriage, but exhorted those who were willing toward the life free from care.

But I think it useful also to go through the laws concerning marriage, and to refute the audacity of those who condemn it. The difference of the sexes alone suffices to show the reason for its creation.

For this very reason the Maker of all things fashioned woman, and for this reason he also called her a helper.

And many years later, when he brought upon the earth the utter destruction of the flood, he commanded not men only, but also women equal in number to the men, to enter the ark; and after the cessation of the punishment, he renewed the former blessing:

"Increase, and multiply, and fill the earth." And having led the patriarch Abraham out from his ancestral land, he bade him look at the stars of heaven, and promised to make mankind equal to them in number:

For this reason, the God-beloved men also were joined to two, and three, and more wives, desiring to become fathers of more children.

That they endured association with several wives not as slaves to sensual pleasure, the patriarch Abraham bears witness: only after Sarah's many entreaties did he have relations with Hagar, and then, after the birth, he no longer approached her.

The all-wise Jacob also bears witness: he took Leah against his own intention, and, on account of the jealousy of his wives, endured union also with the maidservants.

And they too, not as slaves to pleasure, but desiring to become mothers of more children, had rivalry with one another.

Thus the Old Scripture teaches the nurslings of the faith the purpose of marriage as well.

But let those who do not accept the old laws be taught the same things from the New Testament.

For assuredly here too marriage is among the things that are praised.

For the first of the apostles was called from the company of the married.

And the Lord himself not only did not forbid marriage, but was even a guest at a wedding, and offered as a gift to the marriage the wine that had not been grown by cultivation.

And he confirmed the law of marriage to such a degree that by another law he even forbids one who wishes to dissolve marriage apart from the cause of fornication.

"For everyone," he says, "who divorces his wife, except for the cause of fornication, makes her commit adultery." Then, when the Pharisees said that the old law had commanded the giving of a certificate of divorce, he explained to them the purpose of the law:

"Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment;"

"but from the beginning of creation God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." Having thus first read the law which he himself had given, he added:

"What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate." All these things show the lawfulness of marriage.

And the great Peter did not separate Ananias and Sapphira, who were joined together in marriage, but rebuked them most sharply for their theft.

For the one was lawful, but the other utterly unlawful.

And the divine apostle Paul wrote a complete epistle to Philemon and Apphia, who were joined together by the law of marriage.

And to the Corinthians, who wished to learn whether those who have believed in the Lord ought to prefer chastity to marriage, he declared the following:

"Now concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman;"

"But because of fornications, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband." Having thus legislated these things, he enjoins them to maintain firm goodwill toward one another:

for when this does not come about by mutual agreement, it happens that the one unable to endure falls into fornication; therefore he forbids continence apart from agreement, and says:

"The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and the husband likewise does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." "You are," he says, "under one another's authority."

You cannot do what you wish, apart from the one who shares the yoke with you.

And confirming the law, he added:

"Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by mutual agreement for a time, that you may devote yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again." By "deprivation" he means the cessation of intercourse that comes about against one's will.

For when the one practices continence, he considers the other party to be deprived of the conjugal union.

"Lest Satan tempt you." And showing that it is from us that he takes the occasions for that warfare, he necessarily added:

Then, exhorting them to the better course,

"But this I say by way of concession, not of command."

"For I would that all men were as I myself am, in continence; but each has his own gift from God, one in this way, and another in that." But if the thrice-blessed Paul called marriage practiced with chastity a gift of God, then the lawless laws of the ill-named heretics stand exposed.

And what follows holds to the same purport:

"But to those who are married," he says, "I command—not I, but the Lord—that the wife should not separate from her husband;"

"but if she does separate, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband;"

"and that the husband should not send away his wife." So far is he from forbidding marriage that he even holds together, by the Lord's own laws, that which has been torn apart.

Indeed, to the women who have unbelieving husbands, and to the men joined to unbelieving wives, he also commands that they not dissolve the marriage.

"For if any brother," he says, "has an unbelieving wife, and she consents to live with him, let him not send her away;"

"and a woman, if she has an unbelieving husband, and he consents to live with her, let her not send him away." But if he did not dissolve a marriage even where there was no concord of faith, it is clear that he regards marriage as lawful, not unlawful.

And why do I speak only of the first marriage? He legislated also for a second union.

"For I say," he said, "to the unmarried and to the widows:"

"it is good for them if they remain as I am;"

"but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry;"

"for it is better to marry than to burn." By "burning" he meant not the disturbance of desire, but defeat by it.

And a little further on he confirms the law:

"A wife is bound by law for as long a time as her husband lives;"

"but if her husband should fall asleep, she is free to marry whom she wishes, only in the Lord;"

that is, in chastity and lawfully, to a pious and faithful man. And concerning continence he counsels:

"But she is more blessed if she remains as she is, according to my judgment." And by this addition he shows the trustworthiness of the law:

It must be noted that he called the one who practices continence not "blessed" but "more blessed," thereby teaching that even the woman who embraces a second marriage is not altogether devoid of blessedness, provided she takes up that yoke in accordance with the established law.

In teaching this distinction, he set forth the example of the second marriage:

"Or do you not know, brethren," he says (for I speak to those who know the law),

"that the law has dominion over a man for as long as he lives?" Then the example:

"For the married woman is bound by law to her living husband;"

"but if the husband dies, she is released from the law of the husband."

"So then, while the husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress if she is joined to another man;"

"but if the husband dies, she is free from the law, so that she is not an adulteress though she be joined to another man." Here too, then, in establishing another point, he showed that a second marriage is not to be cast aside.

And writing also to the blessed Timothy, legislating concerning the ranks of the church, after discoursing at length about the roll of widows, he added:

"But refuse younger widows." And having stated the reasons, he adds:

"I desire, therefore, that the younger women marry, bear children, manage their households, giving the adversary no occasion for reproach." But whereas Paul says, "I desire," Novatus dares to say, "I do not desire."

But let us follow the laws of Paul, and leave Novatus's arrogance to howl in vain.

But fornication, and all licentiousness, we forbid as unlawful practices.

For we hear the most divine Paul crying out:

"But fornication, and all impurity, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints." And again:

"Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, like Esau." And:

"Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled;"

"but fornicators and adulterers God will judge." And in the Epistle to the Corinthians:

"If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him;"

"for the temple of God is holy, and that temple you are." For this reason he also bids them flee headlong from licentiousness:

"Do you not know," he says, "that he who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For the two," he says, "shall become one flesh."

"But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him."

"Every sin that a man commits is outside the body;"

"but he who commits fornication sins against his own body." And to the Galatians he brought the same teaching:

"For the works of the flesh are manifest, which are: adultery, fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wraths, factious ambitions, dissensions, heresies, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and things like these;"

"of which I forewarn you, even as I also told you before, that those who practice such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Now Basilides, and Carpocrates, and Epiphanes, and Prodicus, and the rest of the teachers of licentiousness and lawlessness, read these very words, yet introduced a contrary legislation, openly setting themselves in array against the laws of the Spirit.

In harmony with this he wrote also to the Ephesians:

"For I say," he said, "and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart;"

"who, having become callous, gave themselves up to licentiousness, for the practice of every impurity with greediness."

"But you did not so learn Christ, if indeed you heard him and were taught in him, even as truth is in Jesus: that you put away, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the desires of deceit." And what follows accords with this—

"...in the kingdom of Christ and God." These same things he also wrote to the Philippians:

"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are honorable, whatever things are good, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is any praise, think on these things, which you have both learned and received and seen in me." Likewise he also writes to the Colossians:

"Put to death, therefore, your members which are upon the earth: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greediness, which is idolatry; on account of which things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience." And the Old Scripture, too, has legislated in harmony with the New.

For God himself says:

"Be holy, as I also am holy." And:

"Pay no heed to a wicked woman;"

"for honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, who for a season sweetens your throat, but afterward you will find her more bitter than gall." And countless other passages besides may be found accusing this very licentiousness.

But these utterly abominable and ill-named men even gave the name "mystical communion" to their licentiousness.

But the divine Scripture not only forbids lawless deeds, but also heals those who have received wounds from them.

For it abhors the savagery of Novatus, and accuses those shepherds—as many as did not exercise this care for the sheep:

"O shepherds, the weak you have not strengthened, and the sick you have not healed, and the ailing you have not restored to soundness, and that which went astray you have not turned back, and that which was lost you have not sought." Now he who accuses those who did not exercise this forethought clearly wishes the weak among the sheep to be deemed worthy of healing;

for this very reason he said to the same prophet:

I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; you shall hear a word from my mouth, and you shall warn them on my behalf.

When I say to the sinner, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you do not warn the sinner, to caution the ungodly, to turn him from his wicked way, that he may live — that lawless man shall die in his lawlessness, but I will require his blood at your hand. And after a little:

As I live, says the Lord GOD, I do not desire the death of the sinner, so much as that he turn from his evil way, and live. Then, exhorting:

Turn back, turn back from your evil way; for why will you die, O house of Israel? Then he commands the prophet to convey this word also to them:

And you, son of man, say to the sons of your people:

the lawlessness of the lawless man shall by no means destroy him, on whatever day he turns from his lawlessness, and does judgment and righteousness, and restores the pledge belonging to the debtor, and repays what he has plundered.

For now, O king, he says, let my counsel please you:

and wash away your iniquities by almsgiving, and your unrighteous deeds by acts of mercy to the poor. And the prophecy of the divine Jeremiah is likewise full of this same teaching.

Return, O backsliding sons, and I will turn again to you, says the Lord God. But now:

Wash your heart from wickedness, O Israel, that you may be saved, lest the thoughts of your troubles be found in you. And again:

Does not he who falls arise again? Or he who turns away, does he not turn back? And one may find very many other such admonitions in him.

When you turn back and groan, then you shall be saved, and you shall know where you were when you trusted in vain things. And in the very preface, having gone through the exceedingly many transgressions of the people, and having shown how hard the disease was to cure, ‘For there is,’ he said, ‘no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages.’ After a little, he brought forward for them the remedy of repentance, concerning which he said:

Wash yourselves, become clean, remove your wickedness from your souls, from before my eyes.

Cease from your wicked deeds, learn to do good, seek out justice, rescue him who is wronged from the hand of him who wrongs him. Then he promises to render them like white wool and snow, even though they have a scarlet and crimson hue:

But this is possible for God alone:

for dyers can change white into other colors, but they have no power to change any other color into white:

But indeed we should extend our discourse beyond due measure, were we to gather together all the exhortations of the prophets:

for the prophetic song is full of these things, and so too are the oracles of the other prophets.

But those who inherited the delusion of Novatus say that, after baptism, one ought not to offer therapy to those who sin.

But they ought to have understood that even the ancients possessed, in the sprinklings and the divine sacrifices, a type of the sacred mysteries.

But that we may refute this folly with overwhelming abundance of proof, let us bring Aaron forward into our midst.

For this man, having been anointed, and having been ordained the first high priest, and having received the grace of the divine Spirit, yielded to the impious demands of the lawless people, and fashioned the image of the calf, and offered sacrifices along with the rest of the Levites:

but nevertheless he obtained forgiveness, and continued in the high priesthood until his death.

What would they say concerning the man in Corinth who had committed fornication — who was deemed worthy not only of the divine mysteries, but had even obtained the gift of teaching? On whose account those under him, being greatly puffed up as over a wise and learned man, the divine Apostle accused, saying:

And you are puffed up, and did not rather mourn, that he who did this deed might be removed from your midst. Yet nevertheless, though this man was a teacher and had dared the greatest transgression, having delivered him to Satan, he snatched him back again from that one's hands, and restored him to the body of the Church.

And he writes thus in the second Epistle:

But to whom you forgive anything, I also forgive.

For indeed if I have forgiven anything, to him whom I have forgiven it, I have done so for your sake. And lest anyone should suppose that he did this to gratify men, he added:

So that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan:

for we are not ignorant of his devices. — So that you should rather forgive him, and comfort him, lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive sorrow. Such was the compassion that the teachers of the Church possessed:

for they were spiritual physicians, guarding the health of those who were sound, and driving out the diseases of those who were in bad condition.

Attending to this task, he also inserted the following into his letters on this subject:

those who had embraced the observance of legal ordinances he leads back to salvation, and applies to them the medicines of repentance, and utters the voice of an affectionate mother:

For indeed the lost sheep, and the fallen drachma, teach us to take care of those who have sinned.

And the prodigal son manifestly signifies the transgression that occurred after baptism.

For having received the portion of the paternal substance that fell to him, and having squandered it prodigally, he returned:

but nevertheless he was deemed worthy of the first robe, and through the ring received back the divine image, and enjoyed the fatted calf, and improvised the greatest feast for his father.

And all the teaching and practice of the Lord teach the healing of sinners: the tax collectors who were called, and the harlot who approached him, and the thief who believed, and the words of his loving-kindness:

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.

It is not those who are strong who have need of a physician, but those who are sick. But if they say that these things happened before baptism, let them learn well that the first foundation of the Church was shaken, and confirmed by divine grace.

For the great Peter, having denied him three times, remained first among the apostles, having been healed by his own tears.

This same grace was given to him, and to the brothers also:

For you also, he says, when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers. And having given the disciples a form of prayer, he commanded them to say:

Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And this prayer we teach not to the uninitiated, but to those being led into the mysteries.

For none of the uninitiated dares to say:

‘Our Father who art in the heavens,’ not yet having received the gift of adoption.

But he who has obtained the gift of baptism calls God Father, as one who has been perfected into the sons of grace.

These, then, were commanded to say:

‘Forgive us our debts.’ Therefore the wounds that occur even after baptism are curable:

curable, yet not in the way that of old, when forgiveness was granted through faith alone:

but through many tears, and through lamentations, and weeping, and fasting, and prayer, and labor:

measured in proportion to the quantity of the sin that has occurred.

For we were taught neither to forbid those who are so disposed, nor to give them a share of the divine mysteries too readily.

‘Do not give what is holy to the dogs,’ he says, ‘nor cast your pearls before swine.’ Such are the laws the Church holds also concerning repentance.

But as for abstinence from wine and the eating of meat, and other forms of self-restraint, the Church does not embrace them in the same manner as the heretics do.

For they legislate abstinence from these as though they were abominable: