Chapter V.—Many Eminent Christian Writers Have Carefully and Fully Refuted the Heresy.  These the Author Makes His Own Guides.

My own path, however, lies along the original tenets55    Archetypis. of their chief teachers, not with the self-appointed leaders of their promiscuous56    Passivorum. followers. Nor shall we hear it said of us from any quarter, that we have of our own mind fashioned our own materials, since these have been already produced, both in respect of the opinions and their refutations, in carefully written volumes, by so many eminently holy and excellent men, not only those who have lived before us, but those also who were contemporary with the heresiarchs themselves: for instance Justin, philosopher and martyr;57    [See Vol. I. pp. 171, 182, this series]. Miltiades, the sophist58    In a good sense, from the elegance of his style. of the churches; Irenæus, that very exact inquirer into all doctrines;59    [See Vol. I. p. 326, of this series. Tertullian appropriates the work of Irenæus, (B. i.) against the Gnostics without further ceremony: translation excepted.] our own Proculus, the model60    Dignitas. [Of this Proculus see Kaye, p. 55.] of chaste old age and Christian eloquence.  All these it would be my desire closely to follow in every work of faith, even as in this particular one.  Now if there are no heresies at all but what those who refute them are supposed to have fabricated, then the apostle who predicted them61    1 Cor. xi. 19. must have been guilty of falsehood. If, however, there are heresies, they can be no other than those which are the subject of discussion. No writer can be supposed to have so much time on his hands62    Otiosus. as to fabricate materials which are already in his possession.

CAPUT V.

Mihi autem cum archetypis erit limes principalium magistrorum , non cum affectatis ducibus passivorum discipulorum . Nec undique dicemur ipsi nobis finxisse materias, quas tot jam viri sanctitate et praestantia insignes, nec solum nostri antecessores, sed ipsorum haeresiarcharum contemporales, instructissimis voluminibus, et prodiderunt, et retuderunt: ut Justinus philosophus et martyr , ut Miltiades Ecclesiarum sophista , ut Irenaeus omnium doctrinarum curiosissimus explorator , ut 0549A Proculus noster , virginis senectae, et christianae eloquentiae dignitas: quos in omni opere fidei, quemadmodum in isto, optaverim assequi. Aut si in totum haereses non sunt, ut qui eas pellunt, finxisse credantur, mentietur Apostolus praedicator illarum (I Cor., II, 19). Porro si sunt, non aliae erunt quam quae retractantur. Nemo tam otiosus fertur stylo, ut materias habens, fingat.