3. We have clearly fallen on the evil times
prophesied by the Apostle; for nowadays teachers are sought after who
preach not God but a creature i.e. the
Arians, who maintained that Jesus was created (creatura) and not
God.. And men
are more zealous for what they themselves desire, than for what the
sound faith teaches. So far have their itching ears stirred them
to listen to what they desire, that for the moment that
preaching alone rules among
their crowd of doctors which estranges the Only-begotten God from the
power and nature of God the Father, and makes Him in our faith either a
God of the second order, or not a God at all; in either case a damning
profession of impiety, whether one profess two Gods by making different
grades of divinity; or else deny divinity altogether to Him Who drew
His nature by birth from God. Such doctrines please those whose
ears are estranged from the hearing of the truth and turned to fables,
while the hearing of this our sound faith is not endured, and is driven
bodily into exile with its preachers.