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| General Conclusion.
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Chapter
XXIV.—General Conclusion.
Amid these reefs and inlets, amid these shallows
and straits of idolatry, Faith, her sails filled by the Spirit of God,
navigates; safe if cautious, secure if intently watchful. But to such
as are washed overboard is a deep whence is no out-swimming; to such as
are run aground is inextricable shipwreck; to such as are engulphed is
a whirlpool, where there is no breathing—even in idolatry. All
waves thereof whatsoever suffocate; every eddy thereof sucks down unto
Hades. Let no one say, “Who will so safely foreguard himself? We
shall have to go out of the world!”342
As if
it were not as well worth while to go out, as to stand in the world as
an idolater! Nothing can be easier than caution against idolatry,
if the fear of it be our leading fear; any “necessity”
whatever is too
trifling compared to such a peril. The reason why the Holy Spirit did,
when the apostles at that time were consulting, relax the bond and yoke
for us,343
was that we might be free to devote ourselves
to the shunning of idolatry. This shall be our Law, the more fully to
be administered the more ready it is to hand; (a Law) peculiar to
Christians, by means whereof we are recognised and examined by
heathens. This Law must be set before such as approach unto the Faith,
and inculcated on such as are entering it; that, in approaching, they
may deliberate; observing it, may persevere; not observing it, may
renounce their name.344
| 344 i.e., cease to be
Christians (Rigalt., referred to by Oehler). | We will see to it,
if, after the type of the Ark, there shall be in the Church raven,
kite, dog, and serpent. At all events, an idolater is not found in the
type of the Ark: no animal has been fashioned to represent an idolater.
Let not that be in the Church which was not in the Ark.345
| 345 [General references to
Kaye (3d edition), which will be useful to those consulting that
author’s Tertullian, for Elucidations of the De
Idololatria, are as follows: Preface, p. xxiii. Then,
pp. 56, 141, 206, 231, 300, 360, 343, 360 and 362.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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