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Page:Ante-Nicene Fathers volume 1.djvu/167

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TO THE EPHESIANS.
153

faith."[1] Since also "there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all."[2] Such, then, are ye, having been taught by such instructors, Paul the Christ-bearer, and Timothy the most faithful.


Chap. vii.Beware of false teachers.

For some are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practise things unworthy of God, whom ye must flee as ye would wild beasts. For they are ravening dogs, who bite secretly, against whom ye must be on your guard, inasmuch as they are men who can scarely be cured. There is one Physician who is possessed both of flesh and spirit; both made and not made; God existing in flesh; true life in death; both of Mary and of God; first passible and then impassible,—[3]even Jesus Christ our Lord.

But some most worthless persons are in the habit of carrying about the name [of Jesus Christ] in wicked guile, while yet they practise things unworthy of God, and hold opinions contrary to the doctrine of Christ, to their own destruction, and that of those who give credit to them, whom you must avoid as ye would wild beasts. For "the righteous man who avoids them is saved for ever; but the destruction of the ungodly is sudden, and a subject of rejoicing."[4] For "they are dumb dogs, that cannot bark,"[5] raving mad, and biting secretly, against whom ye must be on your guard, since they labour under an incurable disease. But our Physician is the only true God, the unbegotten and unapproachable, the Lord of all, the Father and Begetter of the only-begotten Son. We have also as a Physician the Lord our God, Jesus the Christ,

  1. Eph. iv. 4.
  2. Eph. iv. 5, 6.
  3. This clause is wanting in the Greek, and has been supplied from the ancient Latin version.
  4. Prov. x. 25, xi. 3.
  5. Isa. lvi. 10.