Perfection And Knowledge

Ut ultra non simus parvuli fluctantes... Cum enim non sumus perfecti, parvuli sumus: et cum parvuli eramus, fluctuabamus: cum autem fide confirmamur, non fluctamus. Cum cognoscimus Christum, viri efficimur. Et jam non parvuli circumferamur, omni vento doctrinae, in nequitia hominum, in astutia, ad remedium erroris. Cum enim perfecti non sumus, et in fide labimur et vacillamus et multa nos perturbant; cum per doctrinas plurimas discurrentes, vento intelligendi vario agitamur. Quae doctrina, nequitia est hominum et calliditas et astutia, et quasi quaedam remedia erroris; ut quod sentis, quasi quorumdam sapientium sensu et intelligentia sentire credas; et sit erroris tui remedium intellectus alienus. Quae omnia dimittenda sunt, ut his duabus rebus refecti simus, et virum compleamus, fide scilicet et agnitione Christi. Denique haec veluti duo scilicet fides Christi, id est in Christum, et agnitio Christi, beatum faciunt: qui vir beatus non fluctuat, non circumfertur doctrina, in nequitia hominum. Haec ita tetigit beatus propheta Davd in eodem primo psalmo: nam beatus, inquit, vir: quem nos dicimus fieri fide et Christi cognitione; qui nescit doctrinas, nescit nequitiam et errores: quos errores doctrinasque sic enumerat David dicendo: qui non abiit in consilio impiorum, et in via peccatorum non stetit, et in cathedra pestilentiae non sedit. In cathedra pestilentiae sedere, est docere haereticas disciplinas: abire in consilium impiorum, est in nequitia hominum versari: stare in via peccatorum, est in astutia versari ad remedium erroris. Victorinus Afrus, In Epistolam Pauli ad Ephesios, Liber Secundus, Cap IV Source: Migne PL 8.1276b-1277a

So that we are no longer children, thrown about...' 1 We are children when we are not perfect, and when we were children we were thrown about here and there, but when we are confirmed in the faith we are not thrown about. We are made men when we know Christ, and now not children 'carried away by every wind of teaching in the wickedness of men, in cleverness,' 1 it is the cure for error. For when we are not perfect, we stumble and and we waver even in the faith and many things trouble us, and rushing about among many teachings we are disturbed by the shifting winds of understanding, which teachings are from the wickedness of men and their cleverness and cunning, as if they were a sure cure of error, so that you think you know through the sense and understanding of such wise fellows, and that such estranged minds are a cure for confusion. Which must be utterly dismissed so that we may be renewed and attain maturity by these two things, faith and the knowledge of Christ. Finally, the faith of Christ is as if twofold, that is, what makes one blessed is to be in Christ and to have knowledge of Christ. He who is a blessed man is not thrown about, nor is he whirled about by teachings amid the wickedness of men. The prophet David has touched on this in the first Psalm. 'Blessed is the man,' he says, the man whom we say has the faith and knowledge of Christ, who does not know the mentioned teachings, nor wickedness and error. Which errors and teachings David enumerates, saying, 'He who has not gone off into the counsel of the wicked, and has not stood in the way of sinners, and has not sat in the chair of pestilence.' 2 To sit in the chair of pestilence is to teach heresy. To go off into the counsel of the impious is to be embroiled in the wickedness of men. To stand in the way of sinners is to be striving amid cleverness as a cure for error. Victorinus Afrus, On the Letter of Saint Paul to the Ephesians, Book Two, Chapter Four 1 Ephes 4.14 2 Ps 1.1