Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
He will judge also those who cause schisms, hollow men lacking God's love, who weigh their own advantage above the Church's unity; and who, over slight causes, whatever they may be, rend apart and sunder the vast and radiant body of Christ, and, so far as lies in their power, deal it death — talking of peace even as they wage war, indeed filtering out the gnat while gulping down the camel. For no remedy they can offer matches the destruction schism brings about. He will judge as well every one standing apart from the truth — that is to say, apart from the Church; yet he himself answers to no one's judgment. For all things hold together for him: both an integral faith in one almighty God, from whom are all things — [and, to complete the sense, one may add:] the Son of God, Christ Jesus our Lord, through whom are all things, and his dispositions, through which he became man, the Son of God — a firm judgment, which is in the Spirit of God, who supplies the knowledge of truth, who has set forth the dispositions of the Father and the Son, according to which he was present with the human race, as the Father wills.
True knowledge is the teaching of the Apostles, and the ancient constitution of the Church throughout the whole world, and the distinctive stamp of the body of Christ preserved through the successions of the bishops, to whom the Apostles handed over the Church that exists in each place, which has come down even to us, guarded and handed on without falsification, admitting neither addition nor subtraction; and the reading of the Scriptures unaltered, along with a rightful and careful setting-forth of them consistent with what the Scriptures themselves say, free of peril and free of blasphemy; and above every other thing, the surpassing gift of love, worth more than mere knowledge, more splendid than prophecy, and higher than all the remaining charisms.