CHAPTER XX DEVELOPMENT OF DEVOTION TO MARY
And by my power I have trodden under my feet the hearts of all the high and low: and in all these I sought rest, and I shall abide in the inheritance of the Lord. [12] Then the creator of all things commanded, and said to me: and he that made me, rested in my tabernacle, [13] And he said to me: Let thy dwelling be in Jacob, and thy inheritance in Israel, and take root in my elect. [14] From the beginning, and before the world, was I created, and unto the world to come I shall not cease to be, and in the holy dwelling place I have ministered before him. [15] And so was I established in Sion, and in the holy city likewise I rested, and my power was in Jerusalem. [16] And I took root in an honourable people, and in the portion of my God his inheritance, and my abode is in the full assembly of saints. — ECCLUS. xxiv. 11-16.
ST. PAUL writing to Timothy compares the Christian Revelation to a deposit. "O Timothy, keep that which has been committed to thy trust, avoiding the profane novelty of words." (1 Tim. vi. 20.)
On this exhortation St. Vincent, monk of Lerins, commented thus in the fifth century :
"Who at this day is Timothy, but either generally the Catholic Church, or especially the whole body of Prelates? . . . Keep the Deposit. What is the deposit committed to the trust of Timothy ? It is that which has been entrusted to thee, not that which has been found out by thee; what thou hast received, not what thou hast thought out — a matter not of ingenuity, but of having been taught — not of private adoption, but of public tradition ; something brought to thee, not brought out by thee, wherein thou must be not an author, but a keeper, not an originator, but a pursuer, not leading but following. Keep,' he says, ' the deposit'; preserve the Talent of the Catholic Faith inviolate and pure. Let that which has been entrusted to thee remain with thee, be delivered by thee. Thou hast received gold, give back gold—I will not that thou offer me one thing for another, and have the face to present me with lead instead of gold or to cheat me with brass. I want not the appearance of gold, but its reality."
In these words we find expressed without com promise the fundamental principle of the inviolability and immutability of the Faith. That which the Apostles deposited with the Church, that which the Fathers have taught, Catholics will believe without change or variation until the end of time.
