Chapter XI.--After We Have Believed, Search Should Cease; Otherwise It Must End in a Denial of What We Have Believed. No Other Object Proposed for Our Faith.
There is impunity in erring, if there is no delinquency; although indeed to err it is itself an act of delinquency. [1981] With impunity, I repeat, does a man ramble, [1982] when he (purposely) deserts nothing. But yet, if I have believed what I was bound to believe, and then afterwards think that there is something new to be sought after, I of course expect that there is something else to be found, although I should by no means entertain such expectation, unless it were because I either had not believed, although I apparently had become a believer, or else have ceased to believe. If I thus desert my faith, I am found to be a denier thereof. Once for all I would say, No man seeks, except him who either never possessed, or else has lost (what he sought). The old woman (in the Gospel) [1983] had lost one of her ten pieces of silver, and therefore she sought it; [1984] when, however, she found it, she ceased to look for it. The neighbour was without bread, and therefore he knocked; but as soon as the door was opened to him, and he received the bread, he discontinued knocking. [1985] The widow kept asking to be heard by the judge, because she was not admitted; but when her suit was heard, thenceforth she was silent. [1986] So that there is a limit both to seeking, and to knocking, and to asking. "For to every one that asketh," says He, "it shall be given, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened, and by him that seeketh it shall be found." [1987] Away with the man [1988] who is ever seeking because he never finds; for he seeks there where nothing can be found. Away with him who is always knocking because it will never be opened to him; for he knocks where there is none (to open). Away with him who is always asking because he will never be heard; for he asks of one who does not hear.
[1981] Quamvis et errare delinquere est.
[1982] Vagatur.
[1983] Anus illa.
[1984] Luke xv. 8.
[1985] Luke xi. 5.
[1986] Luke xviii. 2, 3.
[1987] Luke xi. 9.
[1988] Viderit.
Chapter XII.--A Proper Seeking After Divine Knowledge, Which Will Never Be Out of Place or Excessive, is Always Within the Rule of Faith.
As for us, although we must still seek, and that always, yet where ought our search to be made? Amongst the heretics, where all things are foreign [1989] and opposed to our own verity, and to whom we are forbidden to draw near? What slave looks for food from a stranger, not to say an enemy of his master? What soldier expects to get bounty and pay from kings who are unallied, I might almost say hostile--unless forsooth he be a deserter, and a runaway, and a rebel? Even that old woman [1990] searched for the piece of silver within her own house. It was also at his neighbour's door that the persevering assailant kept knocking. Nor was it to a hostile judge, although a severe one, that the widow made her appeal. No man gets instruction [1991] from that which tends to destruction. [1992] No man receives illumination from a quarter where all is darkness. Let our "seeking," therefore be in that which is our own, and from those who are our own: and concerning that which is our own,--that, and only that, [1993] which can become an object of inquiry without impairing the rule of faith.
[1989] Extranea.
[1990] Although Tertullian calls her "anus," St. Luke's word is gune not graus.
[1991] Instrui potest.
[1992] Unde destruitur.
[1993] Idque dumtaxat.
Chapter XIII.--Summary of the Creed, or Rule of Faith. No Questions Ever Raised About It by Believers. Heretics Encourage and Perpetuate Thought Independent of Christ's Teaching.
Now, with regard to this rule of faith--that we may from this point [1994] acknowledge what it is which we defend--it is, you must know, that which prescribes the belief that there is one only God, and that He is none other than the Creator of the world, who produced all things out of nothing through His own Word, first of all sent forth; [1995] that this Word is called His Son, and, under the name of God, was seen "in diverse manners" by the patriarchs, heard at all times in the prophets, at last brought down by the Spirit and Power of the Father into the Virgin Mary, was made flesh in her womb, and, being born of her, went forth as Jesus Christ; thenceforth He preached the new law and the new promise of the kingdom of heaven, worked miracles; having been crucified, He rose again the third day; (then) having ascended [1996] into the heavens, He sat at the right hand of the Father; sent instead of Himself [1997] the Power of the Holy Ghost to lead such as believe; will come with glory to take the saints to the enjoyment of everlasting life and of the heavenly promises, and to condemn the wicked to everlasting fire, after the resurrection of both these classes shall have happened, together with the restoration of their flesh. This rule, as it will be proved, was taught by Christ, and raises amongst ourselves no other questions than those which heresies introduce, and which make men heretics. [1998]
[1994] Jam hinc.
[1995] Primo omnium demissum. Literally, "sent down." See on this procession of the Son of God to create the world, Bishop Bull's Defence of the Nicene Creed, etc., by the translator of this work, pp. 445 and following.
[1996] Ereptum, having been taken away.
[1997] Vicariam. [Scott's Christian Life, Vol. III. p. 64.]
[1998] [See Bunsen (Hippol. III. Notes, etc., p. 129.) for a castigated form of the Latin Creed, as used in Rome. Observe it lacks the word Catholic. But a much better study of these formulas may be found in Dupin's comparative Table. First Cent. pp. 9-12.]