The False Piety of the Samaritan

Bearing the terror of the mystery, they withdraw. And the heretics blaspheme this in various ways; but since no one has been found near them in the churches of the inhabited world even until now—neither a priest of God ministering with the sacrificial rite, nor one living ecclesiastically having renounced wealth and spending time in fasts and vigils, nor a virgin thinking with virginity guarding also the oil, which is the chrism of baptism—but they think those captured by them by the devil are near them.

Learn, even if they guard this, so that from the facts we may inform them, that the devil does not hold restraint, he does not guard nor spare his own disciples, but in many ways and many parts he divides them. For he does this only so that he may turn some away from the church of Christ; just as a wolf, having snatched sheep from the fold, tears them apart with a bleat and does not spare, for he has no bowels; in this way, the devil, when he separates some from the church, divides them without mercy, ensuring they never return to the fold of Christ.

For indeed it is possible to see those called Encratites dividing and separating from one another, understanding the Gospel to mean that every house divided against itself will not stand (Mark 3:25). Those dividing the church so much leave a remnant of love in us, where it was saying: Known is God in Judah, great is his name in Israel, and his habitation is in Zion (Ps 68:35). And Zion is that very mountain in which the city was built; for the Lord will bless you from Zion, and you shall see the good of Jerusalem (Ps 122:6). However, even if Moses many times wrote the same things elsewhere not to offer a sacrifice, but Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the illegitimate, the one not fearing God, the one seizing upon the law and the prophets, separates the people from Jerusalem and, having taught apostasy, established law in it.

He does not ascend to Jerusalem, nor does he offer there the worships which the law commanded, nor does he listen to the scriptures, nor does he look at all to the house of God, reasoning this: that if the people comes to Jerusalem and obeys the commandments of God, there will be an addition to the house of God and he will honor the lawful king and leave him. What then does he do for the sake of leadership and empty deception? In order that it might seem glorious to rule the people, he sets up two golden calves on the mountains, saying: 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt' (Exodus 32:4); to these worship, do not ascend to Jerusalem. And having legislated these things to the people, he turned them away from God and from Jerusalem.

Do you see what emptiness does, what arrogance and pride work? He rose up against the lawful king, and was consequently compelled by the passion of self-love and to sin against God impiously. And what is added to this? He calls himself and the people Samaritan; but a Samaritan is a guardian of the law in the Hebrew voice. Did he therefore subsequently lay the name Samaritan upon himself, or did he lie? If you were a guardian of the law, you would have guarded the law, you would have ascended to the temple of God, there you would have offered the firstfruits and the tithes and all the prayers, as God commanded through Moses, and you would be truly a guardian of the law.

But on the contrary, you turned the people away from God, you set up idols, and you call yourself a guardian of the law. Certainly, those remaining at Jerusalem and guarding the commandments of the law and of the prophets are guardians of the law. But it was not enough for him only to put a false name upon himself, but he also calls the people of God remaining at Jerusalem unclean, and he abhors this one, being himself abhorred and unclean. For he does not touch anything of what the people of God touches, nor does he use any vessel with which the people of God used before. And what do I say, if he abhorred the Jews? But also...