Million Book Collection - The Fishers of Men Ministries

280 THE SECOND AGE OF THE MARTYR CHURCH.surpassing all other things, and having nothingsimilar or equal to itself."43One other writer remains, the larger part ofwhose life falls within this period, greater in renownthan either of the foregoing ; and into whateverparticular errors Origen may have fallen, hedid not swerve from their doctrine as to the modeof meeting error itself. " Since," says he, " thereare many who think that they hold the tenets ofChrist, while some of them hold different tenetsfrom those who went before them, let the ecclesiasticalpreaching as handed down by the orderof succession from the Apostles, and maintainedeven to the present time in the churches, be pre-served : that alone is to be believed as truth whichin nothing is discordant from the ecclesiastical andapostolical tradition."44 And the ground for sucha principle he has given elsewhere :" The divine words assert that the wholeChurch of God is the Body of Christ, animatedby the Son of God, while the limbs of this Bodyas a whole are particular believers: since as thesoul quickens and moves the body, whose natureit is not to have the movement of life from itself,so the Word moving CD to what is fitting, O / and workingin, the whole body, the Church, moves likewise« Clem. Alex. Strom, vii. 16, p. 890-894 ; 17, p. 897-900. The sections15-17, p. 886-900, treat of the spirit and conduct of heresy.« De Principiis, pref. p. 47. See also on Matt, torn, iii. 864, apassag equally decisive.