Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

270 THE SECOND AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.that they may not be taught. So estranged fromthe truth they deservedly wallow in every error,tossed about by it, having different opinions onthe same subjects at different times, and neverholding one firm mind, choosing rather to besophists of words than disciples of the truth; forthey are not founded upon the one rock, but onthe sand, which has in it a multitude of pebbles."31And he elsewhere contrasts the certaintywithin, and the uncertainty without, this teachingpower :"The said heretics, then, being blind to thetruth, cannot help walking out of the track intoone path after another, and hence it is that thevestiges of their doctrine are scattered about withoutany rule or sequence. Whereas the road ofthose who are of the Church goes round the wholeworld, because it possesses a firm tradition fromthe Apostles, and gives us to see that all have oneand the same faith, where all enjoin one and thesame God the Father, believe one disposition ofthe Son of God's incarnation, know the same giftof the Spirit, meditate on the same precepts, guardthe same regimen of ecclesiastical rule, await thesame advent of the Lord, and support the samesalvation of the whole man, body and soul alike.Now the Church's preaching is true and firm, inwhom one and the same way of salvation is shownsi Lib, iii. c. 24.