98. This is the precious preaching of the truth, and this is the image of our salvation, and this is the way of life which the prophets foretold and Christ fulfilled and the apostles handed down, and the Church entrusted to her children throughout the world. It (i.e., the truth) must be preserved in its entirety with a firm will and pleasing to God, with good deeds and a sound direction of thought.

99. God the Father must not be represented as different from our Creator; they despise the God who is and make the bearer a god for themselves. They create for themselves a Father far superior to our Creator; They think that in this way they have found something more indifferent than the truth. All such are impious and blaspheme their Creator and Father, as we have shown in the refutation and denunciation of the falsely called gnosis.

Others do not attach any importance to the descent of the Son of God and the economy of His incarnation. which the apostles proclaimed and the prophets foretold that through this the perfection of our humanity should be realized, as we have shown you in a few points. And such should be numbered among those of little faith.

Others again do not accept the gifts of the Spirit and reject the prophetic gifts, through the reception of which a person makes his life fruitful in God. These are those to whom Isaiah indicated: "For they will be," says God, "like an oak whose leaf has fallen off, and like a garden in which there is no water" (I, 30). Such are completely unfit for God, because they cannot bear any fruit.

100. Such are the false teachings concerning the three propositions of our seal (the confession of faith at baptism, cf. Chapter 7), which have deviated far from the truth. For they (false teachers) either blaspheme the Father, or reject the Son, because they teach against the economy of His incarnation, or do not receive the Spirit, that is, blaspheme prophecy.

We must beware of all such and avoid their morals, if we really wish to be pleasing to God and receive salvation from Him.

AGAINST HERESIES. Book One

Preface

1. Some, rejecting the truth, introduce false teachings and "vain genealogies," which, as the Apostle says, "produce more controversy than God's edification in the faith" (1 Tim. 1:4); by cunningly falsified plausibility they deceive the minds of the inexperienced and captivate them, distorting the sayings of the Lord and misinterpreting what is well said; and under the pretext of knowledge, they deceive many and turn them away from the Creator and Adorner of the universe, as if they could show something more exalted and greater than God, who created the heavens and the earth and all that is in them. At the same time, they deliberately draw ordinary people to inquisitiveness by skillful turns of phrase, and meanwhile they destroy these unfortunate people, who cannot distinguish between falsehood and truth, arousing in them blasphemous and impious thoughts against the Creator.

2. For error does not show itself by itself, so that when it appears in its nakedness, it does not expose itself, but, cunningly dressed in alluring clothes, it achieves what in its outward appearance seems to the inexperienced to be truer than the truth itself. Of such people, someone better than I have said that among them glass skillfully forged to look like an emerald is preferred to the emerald itself, which is expensive and highly valued by others, when there is no one to test and find the counterfeit in any way; or when it is mixed, there will be copper with silver, who among the common can easily recognize this? Therefore, lest through our fault some like sheep should be snatched away by wolves, which they cannot recognize by their outward garments in sheep's skin, and whom the Lord commanded us to beware of, since they speak like us, but think differently, I thought it necessary to read the writings of the disciples of Valentinus, as they call themselves, and having learned their way of thinking from private conversation with some of them, to show you, beloved, their deep and monstrous mysteries, which not everyone understands, because not everyone has thrown away his brain – for the purpose that you yourself may know and reveal them to those close to you and convince them to beware of the abyss of senselessness and blasphemy against Christ. To this end, as far as I can, I will briefly and clearly state the opinions of those who are at present spreading the perverse teaching, that is, the followers of Ptolemy, who are the offspring of the Valentinian school, and at the same time, to the best of my ability, I will present the means for refuting them, and I will expose the absurdity of their words and inconsistency with the truth. Not that I have the skill of writing or the art of words, but love impels me to reveal to you and to all your relatives those teachings which until now have been hidden in secret, and now, by the mercy of God, have become manifest. For "there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, and nothing hidden that will not be known" (Matt. 10:26).

3. You will not demand of me, who live among the Celts, and for the most part deal with a barbarous language, either the art of speech, which I have not studied, or the ability to write, which I have not endeavoured to acquire, or the beauty of expression and fascination, which are foreign to me. What I write to you simply, truly, and in ordinary language, but with love, you will also receive with love, and yourself, as the most capable of me, you will multiply in yourself the seeds and firstfruits that you have received from me: what I have said briefly will grow abundantly in the breadth of your mind, and what I have preached will hardly appear in force before those with whom you deal. And just as I, out of your long-standing desire to know the opinions of those false teachers, have tried not only to reveal them to you, but also to give you the means to expose their falsehood, so you also diligently serve others according to the grace given to you from the Lord, so that people may not be carried away by their flattering speeches. Here are their speeches: