15. We should however observe the moral effect produced in the soul
of those who listen to the speeches of these men who teach scorn of
the world and its contents. About the destiny of man there are two
principal doctrines. The one assigns as our end the pleasures of the
body, the other suggests honesty and virtue, the love of which comes
from the divinity, and leads back to the Divinity, as we have shown
elsewhere.[375] Epicurus, who denies divine Providence, advises us to
seek the only thing that remains, the enjoyments of pleasure. Well, the
(Gnostics) hold a still more pernicious doctrine; they blame the manner
in which divine Providence operates, and they accuse Providence itself;
they refuse respect to laws established here below, and the virtue
which has been honored by all centuries. To destroy the last vestiges
of honor, they destroy temperance by joking at it; they attack justice,
whether natural, or acquired by reason or exercise; in one word, they
annihilate everything that could lead to virtue. Nothing remains
but to seek out pleasure, to profess selfishness, to renounce all
social relations with men, to think only of one's personal interest,
unless indeed one's own innate disposition be good enough to resist
their pernicious doctrines. Nothing that we regard as good is by them
esteemed, for they seek entirely different objects.