Chapter 20. Only the Shepherds to Whom the Apostles Committed the Church Have the True Doctrine.
Chapter 20
1. In point of fact, all these [heretics] are of later date than the bishops to whom the apostles have handed on the Churches. This we have shown with all care in the Third Book. So these [heretics], since they are blind to the Truth, are constrained to go astray by different roads; and for this reason the traces of their doctrines are scattered about without harmony or order. But the path of those who belong to the Church encircles the whole world, since it possesses the secure tradition from the apostles, and grants us the privilege of seeing that the faith of all is one and the same, since all receive one and the same God the Father and believe in the same economy of the incarnation of God’s Son, and all acknowledge the same gift of the Spirit and practice the same commandments. All safeguard the same structure resulting from order in the Church. All await the same coming of the Lord, and all hold the same salvation of the entire man, namely, of soul and body. The preaching of the Church is therefore true and secure. Within her, one and the same way of salvation is manifested in the whole world. For to her was committed God’s Light; and so also God’s Wisdom, by which he saves all men, cries aloud in the streets; in the market places she raises her voice; on top of the walls she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks firmly. Really, the Church preaches the Truth everywhere, and she is the seven-branched lamp, bearing the light of Christ.
2. Now, those who forsake the preaching of the Church accuse the holy presbyters with lack of intelligence. But they do not consider how much more valuable an unlettered pious person is than a blasphemous and bold sophist. Such are all the heretics and those who think they discover something more than the Truth when they follow the things we have already mentioned. They travel the path in varied and different and foolish manners. They do not always hold the same doctrines about the same things, and so they are like blind men who are led about by the blind; deservedly they fall into the ditch of ignorance that lies open before them. They are always in search of truth but never find it.
It is, therefore, necessary to avoid their doctrines and be on guard more intently, lest we be injured by them anywhere. With all diligence we must take refuge in the Church and be reared in her bosom and nourished by the Lord’s Scriptures. Really, the Church, as a garden, is planted in this world. So says God’s Spirit, from every tree of the garden you shall eat the food; that is, you shall eat of every Scripture of the Lord. But you shall not eat with a haughty mind, and you shall not touch any faction of the heretics. These men profess that they themselves possess the knowledge of good and evil, and they boastfully raise their impious thoughts above the God who made them. So, their thoughts are not kept within the bounds of reason. To this the Apostle says, Let no one think of himself more highly than he ought, but let him think with sober judgment, so that we may not eat their knowledge and be wiser than it behooves and be thrown out of the garden of life. The Lord leads those who obey his preaching into this garden, recapitulating in himself all things, both those in the heavens and those on the earth. Now, the things in the heavens are the spiritual; those, however, on the earth are the human economy. These things, therefore, he recapitulated in himself; by uniting man to the Spirit and placing the Spirit in man, he himself was made the Head of the Spirit, and makes the Spirit the head of man; for through the Spirit we see and hear and speak.