A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

518 A Source Book for Ancient Church Historysolicitude?Passage referring especially to Augustine.Ch. 26 [69]. But what do they say? “If thou be the Son of God,cast thyself down”; that is, “If thou wouldest be a son of God,and wouldest receive the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven,cast thyself down; that is, cast thyself down from the doctrineand tradition of that sublime Church, which is imagined to benothing less than the very temple of God.” And if one shouldask one of the heretics who gives this advice: How do you proveit? What ground have you for saying that I ought to cast awaythe universal and ancient faith of the Catholic Church? he hasonly the answer ready: “For it is written”; and forthwith he producesa thousand testimonies, a thousand examples, a thousandauthorities from the Law, from the Psalms, from the Apostles,from the prophets, by means of which, interpreted on a new andwrong principle, the unhappy soul is precipitated from the heightof Catholic truth to the lowest abyss of heresy. Then with theaccompanying promises, the heretics are wont marvellously tobeguile the incautious. For they dare to teach and promise thatin their church, that is, in the conventicle of their communion,there is a certain great and special and altogether personal graceof God, so that whosoever pertain to their number, without anylabor, without any effort, without any industry, even though theyneither ask, nor seek, nor knock, 180 have such a dispensationfrom God, that borne up of angel hands, that is, preserved by theprotection of angels, it is impossible they should ever dash theirfeet against a stone, that is, that they should ever be offended.(c) Council of Orange, A. D. 529, Canons. Bruns II, 176. Cf.Denziger, n. 174.