759. It is as a result of this that every church, which is established out of people who see by proving things to themselves, seems to be the one and only church possessing light, and that all the others which disagree are in darkness. For those who see by proving things to themselves resemble owls, which can see light in the shades of night, and in daytime find the sun and its rays thick darkness. Such too was, and still is, every church possessing false doctrines, when once founded by leaders who thought themselves exceptionally clearsighted, making the light of morning from their own intelligence, and that of evening from the Word. Did not the Jewish church, when totally laid waste, which was its state when our Lord came into the world, cry aloud in the persons of its scribes and lawyers, that, because it had the Word, it was the only one to have heavenly illumination? Yet it was the Jews who crucified the Messiah, that is, Christ, who was the Word itself and its all in all. What else does the church meant by Babylon in the Prophets and Revelation cry, than that it is the queen and mother of all churches, and that the others which part from it are bastard offspring to be excommunicated? And this it does despite having pulled the Lord and Saviour down from His throne and altar, and put itself on them instead. [2] Surely every church, including the utterly heretical, once it has been accepted, fills provinces and towns with the cry that it alone is orthodox and world-wide, and possesses the Gospel which the angel flying in the midst of heaven proclaimed (Rev. 14:6). Does not everyone hear an echo of their voice coming from the common people, agreeing with this statement? Did not the whole Synod of Dort look on predestination as a star falling from heaven upon their heads, and embrace that dogma, as the Philistines embraced the statue of Dagon in the shrine of Eben-Ezer at Ashdod, and as the Greeks embraced the Palladium in the temple of Athena*. For they hailed that dogma as the palladium of their religion, being unaware that a falling star is a meteor with deceptive light; and if this light strikes the brain, it can prove every falsity, using fallacies to do so, until it is taken for the true light and judged to be a fixed star, and finally sworn to be the leading constellation.
[3] Is anyone a more persuasive speaker about the certainty of what he imagines than a godless worshipper of nature? Confronted with all that is Divine in God, all that is heavenly in heaven, and all that is spiritual in the church, he bursts into hearty laughter. Is there any lunatic who does not believe his folly is wisdom and wisdom folly? Can anyone by visual inspection tell apart the deceptive light given off by rotting wood from moonlight? Does not anyone who has an aversion for fragrant substances, a common symptom of women with disease of the womb, thrust these away from the nostrils and prefer foul-smelling ones to them? These instances are mentioned as illustrations to enable it to be known, that natural light by itself will not allow it to be recognised that a church has reached its end, that is to say, has nothing but false doctrines, at least until truth sheds its light from heaven. Falsity cannot see truth, but truth can see falsity; and everyone is so made that he can see and grasp truth on hearing it. But if he has convinced himself of false doctrines, he cannot bring truth into his understanding so as to lodge there, since it finds no room; and if by chance it does get in, the crowd of falsities gathered together there throw it out as not belonging.
* Or: Minerva.