On Idolatry 24

Among these rocks and bays, among these shallows and straits of idolatry, faith sails with the Spirit of God filling her sails, safe if cautious, secure if watchful. But for those thrown overboard there is a deep that cannot be swum out of; for those driven aground, a shipwreck from which there is no escape; for those swallowed up, a drowning in idolatry where no breath can be drawn. Whatever waves of it choke, every whirlpool of it sucks down to the underworld. Let no one say, “Who will guard himself so safely? We shall have to go out of the world.” As if it were not as well worth going out of it as standing in the world as an idolater! Nothing can be easier than caution against idolatry, if the fear of it comes first. Any necessity whatever is less than so great a danger. For this reason, when the apostles were then taking counsel, the Holy Spirit loosened the bond and the yoke for us, so that we might be free to avoid idolatry. This will be our law, all the more fully to be kept because it is so unencumbered, the proper law of Christians, by which we are recognized and tested by the heathen. It must be set before those approaching the faith and impressed on those entering the faith, so that those approaching may deliberate, those observing it may persevere, and those not observing it may renounce their claim to be Christians. For we shall see whether, according to the type of the ark, the raven, the kite, the wolf, the dog, and the serpent will be in the church. Certainly no idolater is found in the type of the ark. No animal was made a figure of the idolater. What was not in the ark, let it not be in the church.