But if they should wish to weave falsehood together with truth, and to befuddle the minds of those who are devoted to precision, heaping up for themselves arguments by which they disguise their own error, claiming that certain things are similar, in order to establish their case from the fact that holy Scripture says that God cast an ecstasy upon Adam and he slept — yet this would be in no way similar to that case.
For not even in this case was God about to fashion a body from him upon whom he brought that ecstasy, so as to bring about something similar through the abundance of his love for mankind.
'Ecstasy' is used for astonishment due to the excess of wonder, and 'ecstasy' is also used for madness, because of one's being displaced from what lies before one.
But that ecstasy of sleep was spoken of in another sense, according to natural function, especially because it was brought upon the holy Adam most deeply, upon him who had been fashioned by the hand of God.
For when a person sleeps, all the senses are displaced, having turned toward rest, so that, so to speak, the faculty of sight, though present, does not see;
Though there be bitter, salty, or sweet flavors in the mouth, the sense of taste does not perceive them, since it lies in the ecstasy of rest, not being active — whereas when awake it would have been active.
And often, when some are speaking in the house, unless the person is roused from sleep, he does not hear what is said by them, because the faculty's activity has withdrawn for that time.
When certain small creatures pass over our body, we do not perceive their touch upon our body, unless they press upon us heavily — since the whole organ has, on account of the rest of sleep, been displaced from its activity.
For the organ, being of earthly nature and pertaining to the soul, since it has thus been made useful for us by God, is given its due time, which removes it from the most vivid perception into a state of rest;
For often it forms images and sees itself as though awake, and walks, and works, and voyages over the sea, and makes public speeches, beholding itself in dreams engaged in these and even greater things than these;
yet not in the manner of the deranged and ecstatic person who is in a state of ecstasy, one who, being awake in both body and soul, handles terrible things, and often does terrible harm both to himself and to those near him;
And we have explained for what reason the Lord's word there calls the participation in sleep an 'ecstasy': it is because of God's sparing kindness and love for mankind, which he has granted to all men alike, so that man might be transferred from anxious care to the rest of sleep and from the necessary affairs of life;
but there, in that particular case, he called it 'ecstasy' in a still more special sense, because he caused Adam, for that hour, not to feel the pain that would come from taking a rib from him and fashioning it into a woman for him.
And he prophesied concerning the things to come, that 'for this cause a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.'
But if it is also necessary to speak concerning the verse, 'I said in my amazement, Every man is a liar,' its meaning is again different — not, God forbid, in the manner of some foolish and deranged man, but of one who marvels exceedingly and reasons beyond his customary train of thought concerning things seen and done that are out of the ordinary.
For Peter too came to be in ecstasy, not failing to follow the sense of things, but seeing, instead of the daily course of things, other matters beyond what is ordinarily seen by men.
So then he himself was not lying, but being astonished and marveling at God's love for mankind, and marveling exceedingly at the things proclaimed to him by the Lord, and seeing that every man stands in need of God's mercy, he assigned truthfulness to the Lord alone, and knew that every man is under condemnation, so that he might show forth the true Spirit, which spoke in the prophets and revealed to them the depths of the exact knowledge of God.
For he saw a furnace and torches around the setting of the sun; and other prophets too, seeing visions with a sound mind, spoke — as Moses says — 'I am afraid and trembling.'
1:4850
ἔγνωδὲἈβραὰμτὰὑπὸτοῦκυρίουλεγόμενα·
亞伯拉罕明白了主所說的話。
And Abraham understood the things spoken by the Lord.
And you see how it is possible to see that all the things spoken by the prophets were spoken in truth, with a sound mind and sober reasoning, and not in madness.
First, then, when the Savior was ascending into heaven, those who saw the two men in white garments did not see them in a state of madness, but heard with a sound mind, 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way' — and so on.
For Agabus, prophesying and signifying by a marvelous gesture, took Paul's belt and, binding his own feet, said, 'The man to whom this belt belongs — they will bind him and carry him away to Jerusalem.'
And Paul, the most holy apostle, prophesying, said, 'But the Spirit expressly says, In the last days perilous times will come' — and so on; and again elsewhere, that 'some will depart from sound doctrine, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by us who believe.'
For most of these heresies forbid marriage and command abstinence from foods, not urging this for the sake of a stricter way of life, nor for the sake of greater virtue and prizes and crowns, but considering these very things, which were made by the Lord, to be abominable.
But the holy Church both glorifies virginity and praises singleness of life and chastity and widowhood, and honors and accepts honorable marriage, but forbids fornication and adultery and licentiousness; whence one may see the character of the holy catholic Church and the counterfeit ways of the others, so that whoever puts it to the test may flee from every error and crooked way, and from the arduous path that lies before them.
For I said above, as it was previously said by the most holy apostle, and I will say again, that in safeguarding us and distinguishing the character of the holy Church from the error of the heresies, he said how boldly they legislate, forbidding the things well ordained by God — speaking of those who forbid marriage and command abstinence from foods.
For indeed, with a certain measure, God the Word, saying in the Gospel, 'Do you wish to become perfect?', being indulgent to the frailty and weakness of men, rejoices on the one hand over those who are able to demonstrate the proofs of piety and who choose to practice virginity and chastity and self-control, but on the other hand he honors monogamy.
Even though he especially prefigured beforehand for the world the graces of the priesthood through those who practice continence after a single marriage and those who continue in virginity, just as his own apostles too orderly and piously established the ecclesiastical rule of the priesthood.
But if anyone, on account of weakness, should need, after the death of his own wife, to be joined in a second marriage, the canon of truth does not forbid this — that is, for one who is not a priest.
1:4868
οὗτοιδὲκωλύουσικατὰτὸεἰρημένονκωλυόντωνγαμεῖν·
但這些人卻按著經上所說的「禁止嫁娶」那樣加以禁止。
But these forbid it, according to what was said, 'forbidding to marry.'
But we do not impose compulsion; rather we admonish, urging with good counsel the one who is able; we impose no compulsion on the one who is not able, nor do we cast him out from life.
For the holy word everywhere proclaimed that we should bear the weakness of the weak, as the holy apostle too will immediately be found saying, reproving such men for not possessing the same gift, [saying]: 'Refuse younger widows;'
For those who made a vow and then broke it have condemnation, but those who did not make a vow, but were joined in marriage on account of weakness, will not have condemnation.
Every one, then, who prophesies is found to be coherent of mind, whether in the Old Testament or in the New, just as the holy John also said in the Revelation, 'These things the Lord revealed to his servants through his servant John,' and 'Thus says the Lord.'
But this Montanus, who boasts himself to be a prophet and has deceived those deceived by him, relates things incoherent and contrary to the divine Scripture.
For he says in his so-called prophecy: 'What do you say of the one who is saved beyond the measure of man? For the righteous,' he says, 'shall shine a hundredfold brighter than the sun, and the little ones among you who are saved shall shine a hundredfold brighter than the moon.'
But the Lord refutes such a one — he who has the authority to grant that the faces of the saints shine, and who made the face of Moses radiant, and who will transform his saints in the coming resurrection of bodies, the bodies sown in dishonor and raised in glory, not other bodies besides the ones that exist, but those very bodies raised whole, receiving glory from him after the resurrection, from him who bestows glory ungrudgingly upon his own saints, since he, as God and Lord, has the authority to give and to grant.
If, then, he who has the authority and is truly our Master and Lord Jesus Christ says that the faces of the righteous will shine like the sun, how does Montanus promise something more, a hundredfold? Unless indeed he is like that one who promised those around Adam, saying, 'You shall be as gods,' and who, from the glory and delight of paradise that they possessed, brought about their expulsion and their being cast down into the corruption of death.
Rightly, then, the divine Scripture safeguards us, and the order of the Holy Spirit's teaching admonishes us, so that we may know what are the imitations of the alien spirit, and what things are opposed to the truth.
If, then, he is discordant, he himself is a stranger to the holy catholic Church, and so is the heresy that boasts, following him, of having prophets and gifts which it has not received, but from which it has actually departed.
Who, then, thinking coherently, would dare to call these men prophets, and would not rather say that such men are deceivers? For Christ taught us, saying, 'I send you the Paraclete Spirit,' and giving the sign by which to know him, said, 'That one will glorify me' — and it is true to see that the holy apostles, having received the Paraclete Spirit, glorified the Lord; but this Montanus glorifies himself —
through that Spirit which dwelt in them — so that it might be shown in every way that he is not that One himself, nor sent by him, nor receiving anything from him.
For in the Lord it was well pleasing that all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily; and, according to the word of the holy John, 'of his fullness all the prophets have received.'
And observe how all the ancients proclaimed Christ, and those who came after glorified Christ and confessed him, but Montanus has smuggled himself in, calling himself someone great, so that it might be shown that he neither is that One, nor has been sent by him, nor has received anything from him.
But in saying these things he will be exposed as being a stranger, not glorifying Christ, whom every ecclesiastical gift given in the holy Church has truly glorified.
For he will be found to be outside the body of the Church and outside the Head of the whole, not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, being joined together, grows, according to what is written.
How then, O Phrygians, who have again risen up against us as enemies, disguised under a Christian name, yet having taken up the warfare of barbarians and imitating the belligerence of the Trojans and the Phrygians — how should we be persuaded by you when you say you have departed from the Church for the sake of spiritual gifts? For those could no longer be gifts which are alien to true gifts and contrary to the character promised by the Lord, as even your own so-called prophets say.
For if she were of Christ, she would have spoken according to the holy apostles, as each of them speaks: Peter first of all saying, 'We have heard from him,' and the Lord himself saying, 'He who hears you hears me,' and Paul saying, 'Be imitators of me, as I also am of Christ.'
1:4904
αὕτηδὲἀληθεύειψευδομένη, καὶμὴβουλομένη
但她卻是在說謊之中說出了真話,而且是違背自己意願的。
But she speaks the truth while lying, and against her own will.
1:4905
καλῶςγὰρλέγειφάσκουσαμὴαὐτῆςἀκούειν, ἀλλὰΧριστοῦ
因為她說「不要聽我的,卻要聽基督的」,這話說得對。
For she says well in declaring that one should not listen to her, but to Christ.
For often the unclean spirits are compelled to bring themselves low, as not being of the truth, and, whether willing or not, to reveal their lord by necessity.
Just as the slave-girl who had a spirit of Python said, 'These men are servants of the Most High God,' and, 'Why have you come to torment us before the time? We know who you are, the Holy One of God' — so also this woman, being compelled, said that one should not listen to her, but to Christ.
How then do those who have heard this from her and believed her still wish to listen to her, having learned from her herself not to listen to her but to the Lord? For indeed, since what she truly utters is earthly, if they had understanding, she ought not to be listened to.
For if she says altogether, 'Do not listen to me,' what sort of spirit was it that spoke in her? For if she herself was speaking as a mere human being, then she was not in the Holy Spirit.
But if she was not from above, in the Holy Spirit, but was of a human mind, she knew nothing, and therefore was not a prophetess, since she did not have the Holy Spirit, but spoke and uttered things by human reasoning.
The word which in every way makes us wise, so that we may know which things have been spoken by the Holy Spirit — at one time in the person of the Father, at another in the person of the Son, and at another in the person of the Holy Spirit himself.
But if it has the authority to distribute as it wills, and is called the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of piety, and is said to be the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of the Father, proceeding from the Father and receiving from the Son, not being alien to the Father and the Son, then it would not have said, 'Do not listen to me.'
For the Spirit speaks the things of Christ, and Christ sends the Spirit, and casts out demons by the Holy Spirit; and the Son speaks the things of the Father, and the Father sanctified the Son and sent him into the world, that they might know him and glorify him, even as they glorify the Father.
This same Maximilla — the 'knowledge and teaching of exact tradition,' if I may say so mockingly — again declares: 'The Lord sent me as a chooser, announcer, and interpreter of this labor and covenant and promise, compelled, whether willing or unwilling, to come to know the knowledge of God.'
Let us therefore consider, beloved, the firm foundation of our life and the way of light, and let us not be led astray by the words of the adversary and the pasture of the alien spirit.
But our Lord did not come into the world unwillingly, nor was he sent by the Father under compulsion, but together with the Father he possessed the will, and together with the Holy Spirit the giving.
And just as he himself, together with the Father, possesses the will, and gives grace to all not under compulsion but through the abundance of his love for mankind, so also he has called those whom he called by their own free choice, imposing no necessity, placing no yoke upon them.
For he says, 'You who thirst, come to me'; and again, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and follow me'; and, speaking the same thing through Isaiah, he said, 'If you are willing and obey me...'; and afterward, that the prophet might show who it is that speaks, he said, 'for the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things.'
And do you see in every way the disagreement of these oracles with the divine Scripture, and their different suspicion and supposition, contrary to the faith and order of God? For indeed Maximilla too said that he compels both the willing and the unwilling — so that by this very statement such a woman is shown to be lying.
Such people also honor a certain deserted place in Phrygia, once called the city of Pepuza, but now razed to the ground, and they say that the Jerusalem from above comes down there.
But that we may leave out nothing of what has already been declared by us concerning the name of each heresy, we shall speak once more about the name of the Tascodrugitae.
By placing their own finger — the so-called forefinger — against the nose while praying, ostensibly for the sake of a downcast composure and a self-devised righteousness, they were called by some Tascodrugitae, that is, 'peg-nosed ones.'
In this heresy, or in its sister sect called that of the Quintillianists, or else the Priscillianists and Pepuzians, they say a terrible and unlawful deed takes place.
For at a certain feast, taking a small infant child, they prick its whole body with bronze needles and thereby procure its blood for themselves, ostensibly for the practice of a sacrifice.
1:4941
Ἀρκεῖδὲἡμῖνἃκαὶπερὶταύτηςεἰρήκαμεν, ὦἐπιπόθητοι
至此,我們論及這個異端所說的話,對我們而言已經足夠了,我所渴慕的弟兄啊。
What we have said concerning this sect is sufficient for us, O beloved ones.
For we have promised not to withhold anything out of envy concerning each heresy that we know, but to disclose what we have grasped through hearsay, through writings, through documents, and through what certain people have truly confirmed to our understanding, so that, by leaving out nothing of what we know, we might not seem in our own conscience to be inventing things not upright and speaking against men, but rather falling into the very passion into which they themselves have fallen — not telling the truth, but proclaiming what they have neither seen nor heard, nor received from the true teaching of the Holy Spirit.
But going through all things accurately, as I have said, concerning each heresy, disclosing the terrible things for the correction of those who chance upon them, and by the refutation drawn from the divine words and from right reasoning producing, so to speak, a healing remedy, preparing it in the Lord in two ways — for those who have already passed through it, so that they may recover from the disease and from so great a pain; and for those who have never yet fallen into it, as a kind of preventive aid, so to speak — imparting the medicine of truth to the discerning, may we ourselves also be called disciples of the disciples of the Lord and of the Savior himself, who is the helper of bodies and souls.
So, considering our work here concerning this heresy to be sufficient, let us give ourselves, by the power of Christ, to proceed to what follows, having crushed the venom and the hook-shaped poisons of her teeth upon the wood of the truth of the cross — she being like the hemorrhage-causing viper, whose venom drains the blood of the whole body of those bitten, and thus brings on death.
1:4945
αὕτηγὰρκαὶἡτῶνΚυϊντιλλιανῶναἵρεσιςτοῦτοἐπιτελεῖ
因為這個昆提良派的異端也正是做這種事。
For this Quintillianist heresy too does this very thing.
For it pierces the body of an uncorrupted child, and carries off its blood for consumption, ostensibly as an initiation rite in the name of Christ, having deceived those who have been led astray.
But let us, proceeding to what follows in the power of Christ, call upon his truth, so that, having tracked down the force of each error, and having exposed and refuted it, we may, as is our custom, give thanks to God in all things.
Now the Quintillianists, again, also called Pepuzians, and termed Artotyritae and Priscillianists, are the same people as those 'according to the Phrygians' and originate from them, but they have been divided in a certain manner.
For these Quintillianists, or rather Priscillianists, say that in Pepuza — either Quintilla or Priscilla, for I cannot say precisely which — one of them, as I said before, slept in Pepuza, and Christ came to her and slept with her in this manner, as she, being deceived, used to say:
'Christ came to me,' she says, 'in the form of a woman, clothed in a bright robe, and put wisdom into me, and revealed to me that this place is holy, and that here the Jerusalem from heaven comes down.'
And by displaying a certain manner of ecstatic frenzy, they work deception upon the people present, and make everyone weep, as though leading them to a compassionate repentance, shedding tears and lamenting, in a certain fashion, over the life of mankind.
Now every mockery among men consists in departing from the right faith and turning to helplessness and to the varieties of ecstasies and orgiastic rites.
For the minds of those who do not hold fast the anchor of truth, but give themselves over to whatever carries them along, for any reason whatsoever, are always driven into a Bacchic frenzy.