In Cassian (Conferences 1, ch. 20), Abbot Moses: “Whatever,” he says, “has crept into our hearts,
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has crept into our hearts, or whatever dogma has been let in to us — let us most diligently scrutinize whether it be purged by that divine and heavenly fire of the Holy Spirit, or whether — pertaining to Jewish superstition, or descending from the swelling of secular Philosophy — it [merely] displays piety on the surface only. Which we shall be able so to fulfill, if we do that Apostolic [precept]: ‘Do not believe every spirit, but prove the spirits whether they be of God.’ Of which kind are those too [who are] deceived, who, after the profession of a Monk, [are] enticed by the elegance of speech, and by certain dogmas of the Philosophers, which at first face — sounding [consonant] with certain pious senses and consonant to religion — deceive as [it were] by the glitter of gold, [and] those whom they had once enticed by the surface (deceived, as [it were], by bronze coins and false [ones]) they have rendered perpetually naked and wretched, either recalling them to the din of the world, or drawing [them] over to heretical errors and swollen presumptions.” Which [thing] we read that Achan too, in the book of Jesus [Joshua] son of Nun, suffered — who, coveting and stealing a golden bar from the camp of the Aliens [Philistines], deserved to be struck by the anathema, and to be condemned to eternal death. Origen (homily 7): “Let us see,” he says, “of what kind Achan’s sin is: ‘he stole,’ it says, ‘a golden tongue [wedge], and placed it in his tent.’ I do not think [that], in that theft of a little gold, there was so great a force of sin, that it should stain so numerous a Church of the Lord. But let us see, whether perhaps the interior understanding of that sin be [so] great, and its bitterness [so] grave: There is much beauty in words, and much in the discourses of the Philosophers or Rhetoricians — who are all of the city Jericho, that is, men of this world. If, therefore, thou findest among the Philosophers perverse dogmas adorned with the assertions of a brilliant discourse, that is the golden tongue. But see, lest the glitter of the work deceive thee, lest the beauty of the golden discourse snatch thee away: remember that Jesus [Joshua] commanded all the gold which should be found in Jericho to be anathema. If thou readest a Poet, weaving gods and goddesses in measured verses and in resplendent song, be not delighted by the sweetness of eloquence. It is a golden tongue: if thou takest it up, and placest it in thy tent — if thou introducest into thy heart those [things] which are asserted by them — thou wilt pollute the whole Church of the Lord. This the unhappy Valentinus did, and Basilides, this the heretics Marcion too did: those stole golden tongues from Jericho, and tried to introduce into the Churches the not-right sects of the Philosophers, and to pollute the whole Church of the Lord. But let us follow the preceding example of the fathers, [and] examine more diligently, lest anyone have a Jericho tongue hidden in his tent, and let us cast the evil out from our own selves; because, even if we cease [neglect], God will reprove, so that [the culprit] himself of his own accord confesses and says: I stole a golden tongue, and pure bracelets [dextralia]. Seest thou of what kind [of] theft he stole? he steals a tongue and pure bracelets. And ‘pure bracelets’ are works in which nothing divine is mixed, but the whole is conducted according to man. Finally, in our disputations too, it is the custom to say that we do not call Christ a mere [purum] man, but confess [him] God and man. But that [which] Jericho steals is said to be ‘a little’ [parum], that is, ‘without God’ [sine Deo] — which surely was, to the thief, the cause of [his] sin. And therefore let us feel nothing merely human about Christ, but let us confess [him] God equally and man — because the wisdom of God too is called ‘manifold,’ so that through these [things] we may deserve to take a share of the wisdom of God, which is Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom is glory and dominion unto the ages of ages, Amen.”