Letter 274

To Cornelius. "I will visit punishment," says the prophecy, "upon those who wear strange garments" [Zephaniah 1:8]. For he who has not acquired virtue, but plays the part and fashions an outward show of possessing virtue, this man clearly clothes himself in another's robe. And the heterodox too, who pretend to teach wholesome things, are convicted through their base doctrines of having been estranged from the divine truth and from righteousness; for they have wrapped themselves in another's garment, like wolves in the fleeces of sheep.

« 'Επισκέψομαι, φησὶν ἡ προφητεία, ἐπὶ τοὺς φοροῦντας ἱμάτια ἀλλότρια ». 'Ο γὰρ μὴ κεκτημένος τὴν ἀρετήν, ὑποκρινόμενος δέ, καὶ σχηματιζόμενος ἀρετὴν ἔχειν, οὗτος εὐδηλὸν ἀλλοτρίαν στολὴν περι- βάλλεται. Καὶ οἱ ἑτερόδοξοι δὲ προσποιούμενοι χρη- στὰ διδάσκειν, ἐλέγχονται διὰ τῶν φαύλων δογμά- των, ἠλλοτρίωσθαι τῆς θείας ἀληθείας, καὶ τῆς δι- καιοσύνης· περιέθαλόντο γὰρ ἀλλότριον φόρεμα, ὥσ- περ λύκοι τὰ τῶν προβάτων κώδια.