succeed to them, he that heareth you, heareth me, and he that despiseth you, despiseth me. (Luke x. 16.) And thence have schisms and heresies arisen, when the bishop, who is one, and who presides over the Church, is proudly despised.' Ep. lxix. p. 122. Ed. Ben.—In his treatise, On the Unity of the Church, he says, that men are exposed to error, “because they turn not their eyes to the fountain of truth; nor is the head sought for, nor the doctrine of the heavenly Father upheld. Which things would any one seriously ponder, no long enquiry would be necessary. The proof is easy. Christ addresses Peter: I say to thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it....He that does not hold this Unity of the Church, can he think that he holds the faith? He that opposes and withstands the Church, can he trust that he is in the Church ?" De Unit. Eccl. p. 194, 195.
CENT. IV.
LACTANTIUS,[1] L. C.-“ The Catholic Church alone retains the true worship. This is the source of truth: this is the dwelling of faith: this is the temple of God, into which he that enters not, and from which he that goes out, forfeits the hope of life, and of eternal salvation.” — Inst. L. iv. c. 30. T. 1. p. 354. Edit. Parisiis, 1748.
- ↑ He was converted in his youth to the Christian religion, and became the most accomplished and elegant scholar of the age. The emperor Constantine chose him to be tutor to his son, Crispus. In what year he died, is uncertain. Of his works, that remain, the principal are, Divine Institutions, in seven books, and, The Deaths of the Persecutors. From the classical purity of his language, he has acquired the name of the Christian Cicero.
