# Tracts for the Times/Record XXIV

Publication dated July 25 & October 18, 1835.
TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
RECORDS OF THE CHURCH.
No. XXIV.
THE HOLY CHURCH THROUGHOUT ALL THE WORLD DOTH ACKNOWLEDGE THEE.
Vincentius of Lerins on the Tests of Heresy and Error.
Vincentius was a member of the Monastery of Lerins, a small island off the south coast of France. He is famous for the treatise, parts of which it is here proposed to translate for the English reader, as a fit companion to the extracts from Tertullian's account of the Rule of Faith, which formed the xvii. and xviii. Numbers of the Records. Vincentius wrote in the year 434.
1. (c. 1. 2.)
I have made frequent and earnest inquiries of a great number of holy and learned men, how I might discriminate, that is, what certain and universal rule there was for discriminating, between Catholic truth and heretical pravity; and I have ever received something like the following answer, that whether I myself, or any other private person, wished to detect the corruptions, and avoid the snares of heretics who were springing up, and to remain sound and whole in the sound faith, there were two ways, by God's blessing, of preserving himself,—first, by the authority of Scripture, next by the teaching of the Church Catholic.
Here some one perhaps will demand, why I need make mention of the Church's understanding of Scripture at all, considering that the Canon of the Scriptures is perfect and self-sufficient, nay more than sufficient for all things? To which I answer, that the very depth of Holy Scripture prevents its being taken by all men in one and the same sensC; one man interpreting it in one way, one in another; so that it seems almost possible to draw from it as many opinions as there are readers. Novatian, ​Photinus, Sabellius, Donatus, Arius, Eunomius, and Macedonius, Apollinaris, and Priscillian, Jovianus, Pelagius, and Celestiiis, lastly Nestorius, each of these heretics has his own distinct interpretation of it. This is why it is so necessary, viz. in order to avoid the serious labyrinths of such various errors, to direct the line of interpretation, both as to Prophets and Apostles, according to the sense of the Church, and Catholic world.
2. (c. 3. 4.)
Again, much attention is to be paid in the Church Catholic itself, to maintain what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. This is true and genuine Catholicism, as the very word means, comprehending all truths every where, and truly; and this will be ours, if we follow in our inquiries Universality, Antiquity, and Consent. We shall follow Universality, if we confess that to be the one true faith, which is held by the Church all over the world; Antiquity, if we in no respect recede from the tenets which were in use among our Holy Elders and Fathers; and Consent, if, in consulting antiquity itself, we attach ourselves to such decisions and opinions as were held by all, or at least by almost all, the ancient Bishops and Doctors.
What then will the Catholic Christian do, in a case where any branch of the Church has cut itself off from the communion of the universal faith? What can he do but prefer the general body which is sound, to the diseased and infected member of it?
What if some novel contagion attempt with its plague-spots, not only a portion, but even the whole Church? Then he will be careful to keep close to antiquity, which is secure from the possibility of being corrupted by new errors.
​What if even in antiquity itself there be two or three men, nay one community, or even province, discovered in error? Then he will be careful to prefer to the rashness or ignorance of the few (if so be) the ancient decrees (i.e. in Council) of the Universal Church. What if a case arises when no such acts of the Church are found? then he will do his best to compare and search out the opinions of the ancients; of those, that is, who in various times and places, remaining in the faith and communion of the one Catholic Church, are the most trustworthy authorities; and, whatever, not one or two, but all alike, with one consent, held, wrote, and taught, and that openly and perseveringly, that he will understand is to be believed without any hesitation.
3. (c. 12. 14. 15. 39.)
Let us seriously dread to incur the guilt of altering the faith and violating religious truth, which we are warned against by the judgment of Apostolic authority as well as by the received rule of the Church. All know how seriously, how sternly, how forcibly the blessed Apostle Paul inveighs against certain light-minded men, who had passed with strange rapidity from him who called them to the grace of Christ, into another Gospel which was not another, who had heaped to themselves masters at their own pleasure, turning away the ear from the truth and converted to fables, having damnation, because they had made void their first faith. When, then, such men went about provinces and cities, offering their lying doctrines for sale, and at length came to the Galatians, and the Galatians seized somehow with a nausea of Divine truth, and putting away the manna of the Apostolic and Catholic doctrine, refreshed themselves with the filth of ​heretical novelty, then the authority of an Apostle was roused in him, and he settled the matter with an unmixed severity. "Though we," he says, "or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be anathema, an accursed thing." What is the meaning of his saying, "Though we?" why not rather, "Though I?" This, viz. though Peter, though Andrew, though John, though in a word the whole company of the Apostles preached as the Gospel other doctrines than we have already preached, let, him be anathema. Tremendous ban! that he may maintain the supremacy of the original faith, he spares neither himself nor his fellow-Apostles;—yet even this is not all. He adds, "Though an angel from heaven, let him too be anathema." Not as if the holy and heavenly angels can sin; but he says. If that were possible, which is impossible; whoever he be, who would tamper with the faith once delivered, let him be anathema.
But perhaps it will be said that this injunction was intended for the particular time when it was given, and is not in force now. If so, why should his other commandments be in force at this day, such as "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." But if the latter supposition is at once profane and pernicious, it follows of necessity that, as the command to be spiritual is for all ages, so the sanction given to the immutability of the faith is for all ages also. Therefore, to preach any doctrine to Catholic Christians, besides what they have received, was never lawful, is no where lawful, never shall be lawful; and to anathematize those who do preach a doctrine besides that which was once given and received, was never but a duty, is no where but a duty, never shall be but a duty. If this be so, is there a person to be found so venturesome as to preach, or so light of mind as to receive, doctrines in addition to those which the Church has received and the Church preaches! Let him cry aloud, let him cry out again and again, to all, and in all times, and in all places, by means of his Epistles, that elect vessel, that teacher of the Gentiles, that clarion among the Apostles, that herald on the earth, that guest of the third heaven. If any one bring in any new doctrine, let him be anathema! And ​on the other side let them raise their counter-voice, as the frogs or flies of Egypt, or insects of a day, I mean such as the Pelagians. Let them say, Take us for your authority, for your guides, for your expositors, in condemning what you used to hold, in holding what you used to condemn, in rejecting the ancient faith, your fathers' usages, the trust committed to you by your ancestors, and in receiving—what? I tremble to say what; so proud are their words, that to pronounce them, nay even to refute them, seems to involve some sort of pollution.
But it may be said, why then does Providence so often allow distinguished persons in the Church to preach novelties to Catholics? A fair and profitable question, which I shall answer, not by any attempted explanation of my own, but by the authority of the Divine law, and the example of an inspired teacher of the Church. Holy Moses teaches us, why learned men, men who by reason of their gift of knowledge are even called Prophets by the Apostle, are sometimes permitted to preach their new doctrines, or as they are called in the figurative style of the Old Testament, "other gods." "If there arise among you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams," that is a teacher constituted in the Church, whom his followers or hearers consider to speak as from revelation. What then? he continues, "and he giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder come to pass." It is plain some great teacher or other is spoken of, one of surpassing knowledge, so as to seem to his partizans to have the gift even of foreknowledge, such as is attributed by their disciples to Valentinus, Donatus, Photinus, Apollinaris, and the like. What follows? "And shall say to thee, "Let us go after other gods, which thou hast not known, and let us serve them;" "Other gods," that is, errors external to the Church … "serve them," that is, believe them, follow them. "Thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams." Now, why is it that God allows to be taught, what He does not allow to be received? Moses continues, "for the Lord your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul." And doubtless the temptation is great, when he whom you consider ​to be a prophet, one of the sons of the prophets, a doctor and champion of truth, and hold in highest veneration and love, when he suddenly and secretly is the author of mischievous errors, which the strain of teaching he has made familiar to you, incapacitates you from quickly detecting, and affection for himself seems to make it undutiful in you to condemn.
I say, whoever he be, how holy and learned soever, whether Bishop, whether Confessor and Martyr, if he teaches aught beyond or contrary to the doctrine of all the Fathers, let it be set apart from the common, public, and general doctrine, which has authority, and numbered among his peculiar, hidden, and private surmises, lest, at the extreme risk of eternal ruin, we fall into the ways of heretics and schismatics, giving up the universally received truth, and following the novel error of an individual.
As to cases of actual error, such as that of the false prophet introduced by Vincentius, there has been since his time a most deplorable and astounding instance of this in the corruptions of the Latin Church, whether they be called heresy or not. Considering the high gifts and the strong claims of the Church of Rome and its dependencies on our admiration, reverence, love, and gratitude, how could we withstand it as we do; how could we refrain from being melted into tenderness and rushing into communion with it, but for the words of Truth itself, which bid us prefer It to the whole world? "He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me;" How could we learn to be severe, and execute judgment, but for the warning of Moses against even a divinely gifted teacher, who should preach new gods; and the anathema of St. Paul even against Angels and Apostles, who should bring in a new doctrine?
Oxford, The Feast of St. James.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.
1835.
TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.
RECORDS OF THE CHURCH.
No. XXV.
THE HOLY CHURCH THROUGHOUT ALL THE WORLD DOTH ACKNOWLEDGE THEE.
Vincentius of Lerins on the Tests of Heresy and Error.
(Concluded.)
4. (c. 25.)
It follows, that he is the real and genuine Catholic, who loves God's truth, and the Church, and the body of Christ, who makes all things second to divine religion and the Catholic faith, whether the authority of private men, or their amiable qualities, or their talent, or eloquence, or philosophy; but not regarding any of these, and remaining fixed and stedfast in the faith, deliberately maintains that, and that only, which the Church Catholic is known to have held every where from the beginning; and considers as a temptation, not as a religious truth, whatever novelty has been secretly introduced by some private hand, beside, or even contrary to, the body of Saints. And, above all, as being taught by St. Paul, he receives that heresies must be, in order that the approved may become manifest among us, as if this were the reason why heresiarchs are not at once taken away by divine Providence; that the ​constancy of each of us, and fidelity, and steady love of Catholic truth may be ascertained. And, in fact, on the bursting forth of each novelty in its turn, then forthwith is discerned the weight of the corn, and the emptiness of the chaff; and so, without much trouble, the threshing-floor is cleared of whatever rubbish was contained in it. Some fly off at the instant; others are driven a certain way, but are afraid of perdition while they are ashamed to recant; and so they continue wounded, half dead, half alive, with just so much of the poison within them as is neither fatal nor yet is thrown off; neither kills nor suffers to live. Ah, miserable state of feverish and agitating anxiety! At one time they are hurried aside as the wind drives them; at another they fall back again like ebbihg waves: now with rash presumption they assent to doctrines which are but doubtful, now again they have a superstitious dread of what is unquestionable; uncertain whither to go, whither to return; what to seek, to avoid, to maintain, to give up. Surely, this trouble of an unsettled heart is a medicine, if they are wise, sent to them by divine mercy. They are tossed, and beaten, and almost overwhelmed by the discordant currents of their own reasonings, while they remain out of the safe haven of the Catholic faith, in order that they may learn to gather in the sails of their pride, which are filled with the evil gales of novelty, and to betake themselves again to the secure station of their serene and loving mother, and to rid themselves of the bitter errors which they have swallowed, and so to drink, in future, the streams of living water. Let them unlearn worthily what they unworthily learned, mastering the Church's doctrine as far as it is level to the reason, submitting where it is above it.
5. (c. 27. 33. 34.)
"O Timothy," the Apostle says, "guard the deposit, shunning profane novelties of words!" … Who is Timothy in this day, but the Church universal, or, in particular, the whole body of its rulers, who ought both themselves to have and to teach others the sound inviolate knowledge of religious duty? What means "guard the deposit?" Guard it, he says, because of thieves, of enemies, lest, while men sleep, they sow tares upon that good seed of wheat, which the Son of man has sown in His field. "Guard the deposit." What is the deposit? That which is committed to thee, not discovered by thee; what thou hast received, not struck out; a subject not of talent, but of instruction; not of private judgment, but of public tradition; that has come to thee, not from thee; in which thou shouldest display not originality, but safe custody, not as a master, but as a scholar, not as a leader, but a follower. "Guard the deposit." Preserve the talent of Catholic faith inviolate, entire. As thou hast received it, so let it remain with thee, so let it pass from thee. Gold thou hast received, be it gold that thou payest back. I will have no base coin palmed upon me, no shameless lead, no fraudulent brass, no outward seeming without the reality. O Timothy, priest, expositor, doctor, if a divine gift has made thee sufficient for these things, in ability, in practice, in learning, be thou the Bezeleel of the spiritual tabernacle, polish the precious stones of the divine word, set them with fidelity, embellish them with skill, add brilliancy, elegance, beauty; what was before ​believed obscurely, be it illustrated by thy exposition; what antiquity but darkly venerated, let posterity learn from thee to apprehend, ever remembering so to teach what thou hast learned, that the teacher be new, not the teaching. "Shunning profane novelties of words." "Shun," he says, "as if a viper, or scorpion, or basilisk, whose very sight and breath—not touch only—may blast thee." Shun, in what way? "With such a one, no, not to eat." "If any one come to you, and bringeth not this doctrine;"—What doctrine, but the Catholic and universal, that one and the same doctrine remaining age after age by an incorrupt tradition of the truth, and ever so to remain on into everlasting ages? To proceed: "receive him not into your home, nor give him greeting; for he who gives him greeting, shares in his evil works." "Profane novelties of words;" that is, such as have nothing sacred or religious in them; such as are altogether outside the Church's shrine, which is the temple of God. "Novelties of words;" that is, of doctrines, subjects, statements, contrary to antiquity. If these be admitted, the creed of the Sainted Fathers must necessarily be violated, in whole or part; all believers of all ages, all the saints, all the religious brethren, and virgin sisters, all the clergy, Levites, and priests, so many thousand of Confessors, so many armies of martyrs, so many populous cities and countries, so many islands, provinces, kings, nations, kingdoms, families, nay almost the whole compass of the world, incorporated, as it is, through the Catholic faith, into Christ the head, in so long a series of years, must necessarily be judged to have been ignorant, to have erred, to have blasphemed.
"Profane novelties;" such namely, as were never followed or admitted by Catholics, but by heretics ever. For in good sooth, when was there ever an heresy, which did not spring up under a certain designation, at a certain place, at a certain time? Who ever established a heresy, except he first separated himself from the accordant voice of Catholic universality and antiquity? The fact is clearer than day, as instances show. Who, before the ​profane Pelagius, ever claimed such power for the will, as to deny that the grace of God was necessary to aid it in the particular acts of obedience? Who, before his marvellous disciple Celestius, ever denied that the whole human race was brought under the guilt of Adam's sin? Who, before the blasphemer Arius, dared to divide in his creed the Unity of the Trinity? Who, before the wretched Sabellius, to confuse the Trinity of the Unity? Who, before that cruel Novatian, ever taught that cruelty belonged to Him, who willeth not the death of him that dieth, but his turning and living? … Numberless other instances might be added, did space allow it; all of which plainly and clearly prove this one thing, as the peculiar and genuine mark of heresy, that it is novel, dislikes antiquity, and is wrecked by the captiousness of a pretended knowledge. On the other hand, it is almost the distinctive mark of a Catholic, that he keeps the trust and commission of the Holy Fathers, and condemns profane novelties, in accordance with the Apostle's repeated declarations, "If any one preach to you, what you have not already received, let him be anathema."
However, there is a true and sufficient sense in which Vincent's doctrine has been and ever will be fulfilled. In truth, he does not speak of all doctrine, but of the "foundations" (as he terms them, c. 41,) of Christian doctrine. ​That the Church ever will teach these faithfully, is promised in Scripture (Isa. lix. 21.), and in matter of fact, it has taught them up to this day, has taught them over the whole world, whatever may be the quarrels and schisms of its branches. These fundamentals are contained in the creed, and have been expanded at various times by the Catholic Church acting together; such are the doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, and the like; they have been held from the beginning, and to this day are taught in the east and west, north and south. Such too are many ordinances and usages of the Church. Accordingly, in spite of our unhappy differences with Greece and Rome, we may say to the Socinian, after Vincent's manner, "We know when your doctrine first appeared, and it was protested against on its first appearance;" to the Baptist, "We can point to the very date when Infant Baptism was first denied;" to the Presbyterian, "We can prove the rejection of Episcopacy to be a novelty;" to the Zuinglian or Hoadleian, "We can trace the history of the denial of Sacramental grace; we know its rise, its course, its outbreaks, and its defeats;" and so with the rest.
6. (c. 35. 37.)
Here perhaps some one may ask, whether the heretics also do not make use of testimonies from Holy Scripture? Yes, indeed, they do use them, and lay great stress on them, for you may see them ready quoters of each book of God's Sacred Law,—the Books of Moses, of Kings, the Psalms, the Apostles, the Evangelists, the Prophets. Whether indeed they are among their own people, or among strangers, in private or in public, discoursing or writing, at convivial meetings or in the open ways, they never at all advance any of their peculiar positions, without attempting ​to express it in Scripture language. Look at the treatises of Paul of Samosata, of Priscillian, of Eunomius, of Jovinian, and those other scourges of the Church; you will find an infinite heap of instances, so that scarcely a page occurs, which is not coloured by some perverted passages of Scripture, the Old or the New. But so much more are they to be avoided and dreaded, the more they skulk behind the cover of the Divine Law. For they know that the ill savour of heresy would scarce commend itself to any one, if exhaled in its own simplicity; so they sprinkle it with the fragrance of a heavenly voice, that men who would be quick in rejecting human error, may be slow in despising Divine oracles.
Such were they whom the Apostle has stricken in his Second Epistle to the Corinthians, saying, "Of this sort are false Apostles, deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ." What is "transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ?" This is meant by it. The Apostles adduced texts from the Divine Law, so did they; the Apostles brought authorities from the Psalms, so did they; the Apostles appealed to the Prophets, so did they quite as much. But when, what both parties had agreed in adducing, they differed in interpreting, then was the distinction seen between the innocent and the deceitful, the honest and the counterfeit, the true-hearted and the perverse, in a word, the true Apostles, and the false Apostles. "And no wonder," he continues, "for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light; so that it is not a great thing that his ministers are transformed into ministers of righteousness." According then to St. Paul's teaching, as often as false apostles, or false prophets, or false doctors, pervert texts of Scripture into authorities for their errors, they are evidently following the crafty device of their father, who, we may be sure, would never adopt it, did he not well know that the pretence of Scripture texts is the most successful mode of insinuating impious doctrine.
Does any one ask, how we know that the devil is accustomed ​to quote Scripture? let him read the Gospels, in which it is written,—"Then the devil took Him up," that is, the Lord and Saviour, "and placed Him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and said to Him, "If Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written, He hath given His angels charge of Thee, to keep Thee in all Thy ways." … We must especially heed and remember the doctrine contained in this passage, that, when we meet with men citing the words of Apostles or Prophets against the Catholic Faith, we may take it as a Gospel sanction for being quite certain, that the devil speaks by their mouth.… If any one of the heretics be asked, how he proves that we ought to abandon the universal and ancient faith of the Church Catholic, he will promptly reply, "It is written;" and on the spot is ready with a thousand texts and proofs, some from the Law, some from the Psalms, some from the Apostles, some from the Prophets; with the view of precipitating the unhappy soul, by a new and perverse interpretation of them, from the secure pinnacle of Catholicism into the gulf of heresy. Moreover, they add promises which wonderfully deceive incautious men. They dare to engage and to proclaim that in their Church, that is, in their own meeting, there is a certain great and special grace of God, belonging to each of them personally, so that without labour, or endeavour, or pains, without seeking, or asking, or knocking, all who belong to their number, are so divinely ordered, that carried up aloft by the hands of angels, they can never "strike their foot against a stone," that is, stumble in their Christian course.
7, (c. 28, 29, 30, 31.)
If it be asked, whether in saying that the Christian doctrine is immutable, I maintain that Divine doctrine can make no advance in the Church, let me answer at once that I maintain just the reverse. Who indeed is so niggardly towards mankind, so abandoned by God, as to try to forbid it? However, it must be such an advance as is truly an increase of the faith, not a change. That is, it is the property of an increase, that each particular part has its own development; but of a change, that some part or other becomes what it was not before. Doubtless, then, there should be in successive ages an increase, a great and effective improvement, in the understanding, the knowledge, the wisdom of all Christians, and of each of them, of the individuals and of the whole Church, but only in the same form, that is, in the same doctrine, the same meaning, the same expression.
The soul should observe the same rule which obtains in the case of the body, which, in the course of years, unfolds itself into its perfect proportions, yet remains the same as before. Great as is the diiference between the flower of boyhood and the maturity of old age, yet the very same individual who was a boy becomes aged, the change in state and habit of that one and the same being in no respect affecting the identity of his nature and his person. Children at the breast have small limbs, youths have large, yet the very same ones. Their number is the same, even though they might before be in part undeveloped. This, then, evidently is the legitimate and right rule of growth, the natural and beautiful order of advancing, if years bring out into shape those elements which Creative Wisdom had already implanted. If, however, a change were made in course of time into some type ​of a different species, or the number of the limbs increased or diminished, the whole body would necessarily fall to pieces, or become monstrous, or, at least, be enfeebled. So, in like manner, let the one message of Christianity follow the laws of growth; consolidated indeed by years, expanded, elucidated, but incorrupt for ever, and inviolate, and full and perfect in the entireness of its parts, of its members, (as it were,) and its senses, but with no alteration, no loss of its characteristic marks, no variety in its definition.
For instance: our ancestors sowed of old in this corn-field of the Church the seeds of true faith as of wheat. It were very wrong and unseemly that we their children should choose, instead of the genuine crop, the intrusive deceit of the tares. Rather, it is right and fitting that the first and the last should not differ from each other, but that the seed being wheat, the crop should be wheat also … God forbid that, in that Spiritual garden, the shoots of cinnamon and balsam should suddenly bear nettles or aconite. Whatever, then, divine husbandry and ancient faith have sown in our Church, must be cultivated and cherished by the diligence of posterity; must flourish and grow to ripeness; must advance and be perfected. It is pious to make accurate, to refine, to polish those primitive doctrines of heavenly philosophy; it is impious to change them for others. Let them be made intelligible, luminous, distinct; but they ought ever to retain their completeness, their entireness, their characteristic nature.
For, should this license of impious deceit once be allowed, I shudder to think of the risk, which will follow, of the excision and destruction of religion. If but one portion of the Catholic doctrine be renounced, another, and then another, and then again others will be renounced also, as if by right and custom. Moreover, if the separate parts be repudiated, what is to hinder the whole being at length repudiated equally? On the other hand, if new and old, foreign and native, profane and sacred, are once mingled together in any degree, this evil must necessarily extend ​to the whole, till nothing is left in the Church inviolate, nothing undefiled, the shrine of holy truth becoming the impure dwelling of impious and base errors. But, may God's pity avert this curse from the hearts of His people; rather be it the recompense of the wicked!
Oxford, The Feast of St. Luke.
LONDON: PRINTED FOR J. G. & F. RIVINGTON, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD, AND WATERLOO PLACE.
1835.