{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/211/2110263.htm","path":"chr/ecf/211/2110263.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/211/2110263.htm","text":"Exposition of St. Paul\u2019s Words.\u20141 Tim. vi. 20.\n[51.] Such being the case, when I think over these things, and revolve them in my mind again and again, I cannot sufficiently wonder at the madness of certain men, at the impiety of their blinded understanding, at their lust of error, such that, not content with the rule of faith delivered once for all, and received from the times of old, they are every day seeking one novelty after another, and are constantly longing to add, change, take away, in religion, as though the doctrine, \u201cLet what has once for all been revealed suffice,\u201d were not a heavenly but an earthly rule,\u2014a rule which could not be complied with except by continual emendation, nay, rather by continual fault-finding; whereas the divine Oracles cry aloud, \u201cRemove not the landmarks, which thy fathers have set,\u201d 495 and \u201cGo not to law with a Judge,\u201d 496 and \u201cWhoso breaketh through a fence a serpent shall bite him,\u201d 497 and that saying of the Apostle wherewith, p. 147 as with a spiritual sword, all the wicked novelties of all heresies often have been, and will always have to be, decapitated, \u201cO Timothy, keep the deposit, shunning profane novelties of words and oppositions of the knowledge falsely so called, which some professing have erred concerning the faith.\u201d 498\n[52.] After words such as these, is there any one of so hardened a front, such anvil-like impudence, such adamantine pertinacity, as not to succumb to so huge a mass, not to be crushed by so ponderous a weight, not to be shaken in pieces by such heavy blows, not to be annihilated by such dreadful thunderbolts of divine eloquence? \u201cShun profane novelties,\u201d he says. He does not say shun \u201cantiquity.\u201d But he plainly points to what ought to follow by the rule of contrary. For if novelty is to be shunned, antiquity is to be held fast; if novelty is profane, antiquity is sacred. He adds, \u201cAnd oppositions of science falsely so called.\u201d \u201cFalsely called\u201d indeed, as applied to the doctrines of heretics, where ignorance is disguised under the name of knowledge, fog of sunshine, darkness of light. \u201cWhich some professing have erred concerning the faith.\u201d Professing what? What but some (I know not what) new and unheard-of doctrine. For thou mayest hear some of these same doctors say, \u201cCome, O silly wretches, who go by the name of Catholics, come and learn the true faith, which no one but ourselves is acquainted with, which same has lain hid these many ages, but has recently been revealed and made manifest. But learn it by stealth and in secret, for you will be delighted with it. Moreover, when you have learnt it, teach it furtively, that the world may not hear, that the Church may not know. For there are but few to whom it is granted to receive the secret of so great a mystery.\u201d Are not these the words of that harlot who, in the proverbs of Solomon, calls to the passengers who go right on their ways, \u201cWhoso is simple let him turn in hither.\u201d And as for them that are void of understanding, she exhorts them saying: \u201cDrink stolen waters, for they are sweet, and eat bread in secret for it is pleasant.\u201d What next? \u201cBut he knoweth not that the sons of earth perish in her house.\u201d 499 Who are those \u201csons of earth\u201d? Let the apostle explain: \u201cThose who have erred concerning the faith.\u201d","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XI: The Commonitory of Vincent of L\u00e9rins, For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All Heresies.: Chapter XXI. Exposition of St. Paul's Words.--1 Tim. vi. 20.","type":"page"}