Oration of Gregorio de Valencia,

unless one is able to penetrate with reason and intelligence to the very marrow of the doctrine, one might easily mistake the error of the heretics, disguised as it is by the characters and figures of divine meaning, for the divine meaning itself. And therefore the Lord warns us seriously and gravely through Jeremiah, lest we be deceived by such false teachers by the appearance of the divine word being presented to us: "Do not," he says, "listen to the words of the Prophets who prophesy to you and deceive you; they speak visions of their own heart, not from the mouth of the Lord." Jeremiah 23. To this also pertains that sentiment of Christ the Lord himself, our Teacher, which is no less divine and salutary than it is familiar: "Beware," he says, "of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves." Matthew 7. For just as the greatest attention and circumspection would be needed to distinguish those wolves from the sheep when they were hidden within a flock of sheep, covered in sheepskin and wool, so too must we distinguish false teachers from true ones if they have cloaked themselves and their own depraved opinions with the words of the Scriptures (which are like the coverings of divine meaning) as if they were sheep's wool. For what are these sheep's clothes, says the elegant Vincent of