CENT. III.
ORIGEN, G. C. “He, who, reading the Gospel, applies to it his own interpretation, not understanding it as the Lord spoke it, truly he is a false prophet, uttering words from his own mind. These words may fairly be understood of heretics, for they apply their own fables to the Gospels, and the writings of the Apostles; expounding by their own judgment, and not according to the sense of the Holy Spirit.” Hom. 11. in Ezech. T. iii. p. 362.
St. CYPRIAN, L. C. “ And let not some men deceive themselves by an idle interpretation of the words of Christ, when he said: Where there are two or three gathered together in my name, there I am with them. (Matt. xviii. 20.) Corrupting the Gospel and interpreting falsely, they take the last words, and omit what goes before; retaining one part, and craftily suppressing the other. As they are cut off from the Church, so do they cut off the words of the Scripture. For, recommending to his disciples unanimity and peace, the Lord said to them: If two of you shall agree upon earth, concerning any thing whatsoever they shall ask, it shall be done for them by my Father ; for where there are two or three gathered, &c. shewing, that much is granted, not to the number, but to the unanimity of the supplicants. If two of you, he says, shall agree upon earth: he gives the first place to unanimity, to peaceful concord: on this he insists. But how shall he agree with another, who has dissented from the body of the Church and from the whole fraternity? Can two or three be gathered together in the name of Christ, who, it is plain, are separated from him and his Gospel? For we did not leave them, but they us. Choosing for themselves separate conventicles, they quitted the head and the fountain of truth.” De Unit. Eccles. p. 198.
