“I wonder how some dare to call themselves ‘perfect’ and ‘Gnostics.’ They are inflated and boastful, viewing themselves above the apostle. For Paul himself acknowledged about himself: ‘Not that I have already attained or am already perfect.’”
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“How much more will this be the case with anyone who by wicked doctrine corrupts the faith of God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a one becomes defiled. He will go away into everlasting fire, and so will everyone that listens to him.”
“Where diversity of doctrine is found, there, then, must be corruption both of the Scriptures and the explanations of them. . . . One man perverts the Scriptures with his hand, another their meaning by his exposition. For although Valentinus seems to use the entire volume [of Scripture], he has nonetheless laid violent hands on
“The teachings of both the Old and the New Testaments are unnecessary if a person is saved by nature (as Valentinus [a Gnostic heretic] would have it) and is a believer and an elect man by nature (as Basilides thinks).”
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“The Holy Spirit always abides with those who are possessed of Him, so long as they are worthy. . . . The Holy Spirit remains with a person so long as he is doing good, and He fills him with wisdom and understanding.”
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“We believe that our children have been corrected when we see that they repent of their errors. And though we may have disinherited them and cast them off, we again receive, cherish, and embrace them. Why, then, should we despair as if the mercy of God our Father might not be appeased by repentance? He
“A son . . . who deserts his father in order not to pay him obedience is considered deserving of being disinherited and of having his name removed forever from his family. How much more so does a person [deserve to be disinherited] who forsakes God? . . . Of what punishments, therefore, is he
“We ought indeed to walk so holily, and with so entire substantiality of faith, as to be confident and secure in regard of our own conscience, desiring that it may abide in us to the end. Yet, we should not presume [that it will]. For he who presumes, feels less apprehension. He who feels less
“He who hopes for everlasting rest knows also that the entrance to it is toilsome and narrow. So let him who has once received the Gospel not turn back, like Lot’s wife, as is said – even in the very hour in which he has come to the knowledge of salvation. And let him not
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“But self-control and modesty do not consist only in purity of the flesh, but also in seemliness and in modesty of dress and adornment.”