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Churches? It is this ordinance of tradition which many nations of barbarians, believing in Christ, follow, without the use of letters or ink.' (1)

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Tertullian, who flourished 200 years after the Christian Æra, has left us, amongst his other works, one of the same nature, and almost the same title with that last cited. In this, speaking of the contemporary heretics, he says,: They meddle with the Scriptures, and adduce arguments from them: for, in treating of faith, they pretend that they ought not to argue upon any other ground than the written documents of faith: thus they weary the firm, catch the weak, and fill the middle sort with doubt. We begin, therefore, with laying it down as a maxim, that these men ought not to be allowed to argue at all from Scripture. In fact, these disputes about the sense of Scripture have generally no other effect than to disorder either the stomach or the brain. It is, therefore, the wrong method to appeal to the Scriptures, since these afford either no decision, or, at most, only a doubtful one. And even, if this were not the case, still, in appealing to Scripture, the natural order of things requires that we should first inquire to whom the Scriptures belong? From whom, and by whom, and on what occasion, and to whom that Tradition was delivered by which we became Christians? For where the truth of Christian discipline and faith is found, there is the truth of Scripture, and of the interpretation of it, and of all Christian traditions.' (2) He elsewhere says: "That doctrine is evidently true which was first delivered: on

(1) Advers. Hæres. 1. iv. c. 64.

(2) Præscrip. Advers. Hæres, edit. Rhenan, pp. 36, 57.

the contrary, that is false which is of a later date.— This maxim stands immoveable against the attempts of all late heresies.-Let such then produce the origin of their Churches: let them show the succession of their Bishops from the Apostles, or their disciples. If you live near Italy, you see before your eyes the Roman Church: happy Church! to which the Apostles have left the inheritance of their doctrine with their blood! Where Peter was crucified, like his Master; where Paul was beheaded, like the Baptist!-If this be so, it is plain, as we have said, that heretics are not to be allowed to appeal to Scripture, since they have no claim to it.— Hence it is proper to address them as follows :— Who are you? Whence do you come?

What business have you strangers with my property? By what right are you, Marcion, felling my trees? By what authority are you, Valentine, turning the course of my streams? Under what pretence are you, Appelles, removing my land-marks? The estate is mine: I have the ancient, the prior possession of it. I have the title-deeds delivered to me by the original proprietors. I am the heir of the Apostles; they have made their will in my favour; while they disinherited and cast you off, as strangers and enemies.' (1) In another of his works (2) this eloquent Father proves, at great length, the absolute necessity of admitting Tradition no less than Scripture as the Rule of Faith, in as much as many important points, which he mentions, cannot be proved without it.

(1) Præscrip. Advers. Hæres. edit. Rhenan, pp. 36, 37. (2) De Corona Milit.

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I pass by other shining lights of the third century, such as St. Clement of Alexandria, St. Cyprian, Origen, &c., all of whom place Apostolical Tradition on a level with Scripture, and describe the Church as the expounder of them both: I must however give the following words from the last-named great biblical scholar. He says: We are not to credit those, who, by citing real canonical Scripture, seem to say, Behold the word is in your houses; for we are not to desert our first ecclesiastical Tradition, nor to believe otherwise than as the Churches of God have, in their perpetual succession, delivered to us.'

Among the numerous and illustrious witnesses of the fourth age, I shall be content with citing St. Basil and St. Epiphanius. The former says: There are many doctrines preserved and preached in the Church, derived partly from written documents, partly from Apostolical Tradition, which have equally the same force in Religion, and which no one contradicts who has the least knowledge of the Christian laws.' (1) The last quoted Father says, with equal brevity and force: We must make use of Tradition: for all things are not to be found in Scripture.' (2)

St. John Chrysostom flourished at the beginning of the fifth century; and, though he strongly recommends the reading of the Holy Scriptures, yet expounding the text, 2 Thess. ii. 14. he says: Hence it is plain that the Apostles did not deliver to us every thing by their Epistles, but many things without writing. These are equally worthy of belief.

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(1) In Lib. de Spir. Sanc.

(2) De Hæres. N. 61.

Hence let us regard the Tradition of the Church, as the subject of our belief. Such and such a thing is a tradition: seek no farther.' (1) It would fill a large volume to transcribe all the passages which occur in the works of the great St. Augustin, in proof of the Catholic Rule, and the authority of the Church in making use of it: let therefore two or three of them speak for the rest. To attain to the truth of the Scriptures,' he says, 'we must follow the sense of them entertained by the Universal Church, to which the Scriptures themselves bear testimony. True it is, the Scriptures themselves cannot deceive us; nevertheless, to prevent our being deceived in the question we examine by them, it is necessary we should advise with that Church, which these certainly and evidently point out to us. (2)-This (the unlawfulness of rebaptizing heretics) is not evidently read either by you or by me; nevertheless, if there were any wise man, to whom Christ had borne testimony, and whom he had appointed to be consulted on the question, we could not fail to do so: now Christ bears this testimony to his Church.— Whoever, therefore refuses to follow the practice of the Church, resists Christ himself, who by his testimony recommends this Church.' (3) Treating elsewhere the same subject, he says: The Apostles, indeed, have prescribed nothing about this; but the custom must be considered as derived from their Tradition, since there are many things observed by the universal Church, which are justly held to have been appointed by the Apostles, though they are not

(1) Παραδοςις ἐστι, μηδὲν πλέον ζήτει. (2) L. i. contra Crescon.

(3) De Util. Credend.

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written.' (1) It seems doing an injury to St. Vincent of Lerins, who lived at the end of the fifth century, to quote a part of his celebrated Commonitorium, when the whole of it is so admirably calculated to refute the false Rule of heretics, condemned in the foregoing testimonies, and to prove the Catholic Rule, here laid down: still I cannot refrain from transcribing a small portion of it. It is asked,' says this Father, as the Scripture is perfect, what need is there of the authority of the Church doctrine ? The reason is, because the Scripture, being so profoundedly deep, is not understood by all persons in the same sense, but different persons explain it different ways; so that there are almost as many meanings as there are readers of it. Novatian

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interprets it in one sense, Photinus in another, Arius, &c. in another. Therefore it is requisite that the true road of expounding the Prophets and Apostles must be marked out, according to the ecclesiastical Catholic line.

'It never was, cr is, or will be lawful for Catholic Christians to teach any doctrine, except that which they once received; and it ever was, and is, and will be their duty to condemn those who do so.-Do the heretics then appeal to the Scriptures? Certainly they do, and this with the utmost confidence. You will see them running hastily through the different books of Holy Writ, those of Moses, Kings, the Psalms, the Gospels, &c. At home and abroad, in their discourses and in their writings, they hardly produce a sentence which is not larded with the words of Scripture, &c.; but they are so much

(1) De Bapt. contra Donat. l. v.

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