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II. So much for the private method of teaching in the three first centuries; it was conducted on precisely the same principle as I explained in my last discourse. The next inquiry is, on what grounds the Christians of these centuries received the word of God. Did they consider the Scripture as the sole ground-work of faith, or consider it, with us, a book to be received and explained on the authority of the Church? You shall judge from the very few passages which I will read to you from their works; because it would be detaining you a great deal too long, if I entered fully into this portion of the argument. There is a remarkable saying of the great St. Augustine, when speaking regarding the method in which he was brought to the knowledge of Christianity; when, disputing with a Manichee, one of a class of heretics with whom, in early life, he had associated himself, he says expressly, as it should be rendered, from the peculiarity of the style, "I should not have believed the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church had not led or moved me. This little sentence contains at once the principle on which he believed. This greatest light of the century in which he lived, declares that he could not have received the Scripture, except on the authority of the Catholic Church!

See the way in which St. Irenæus, the same father whom I before quoted, speaks of this point,-" To him that believeth that there is one God, and holds to the head, which is Christ, to this man all things will be plain, if he read diligently the Scripture, with the aid of those who are the priests in the Church, and in whose hands, as we have shown, rests the doctrine of the Apostles."+ That is to say, the Scripture may be read, and will be simple and easy to him who reads it, with

*Contra epist. Fundamenti op. to. vi. p. 46, ed. Par. 1614, "Evangelio non crederem, nisi me Catholicæ ecclesiæ commoveret auctoritas." Heraldus observes, that an Africanism here exists in the text, and crederem is for credidissem.-See Desiderii Heraldi animadv. ad Arnobium. Lib. 4, p. 54. or "Two Letters," as above, p. 66.

Ibid. l. iv. c. 52, p. 355.

the assistance of those to whom the Apostles delivered the unwritten code, as the key to its true explanation.

Still clearer are the words of another writer of the same century: but I will first premise a few words regarding the peculiar nature of his work. I allude to Tertullian, the first writer in the Latin language on the subject of Christianity; and the father, consequently, who gives us the very earliest account of the methods pursued, in matters of faith and discipline, in the Western Church. He has written a very instructive work, when considered at the present time, entitled "On the prescription of Heretics," that is, on the method whereby those are to be judged and convicted, who depart from the Universal Church. The whole drift of his argument is to show, that they have no right whatever to appeal to Scripture, because this has no authority as an inspired book, save that which it receives from the sanction of the infallible Church; and that, consequently, they are to be checked in this first step, and not allowed to proceed any farther in the argument. They have no claim to the word; it is not their's; they have no right to appeal to its authority, if they reject that of the Church, on which alone it can be proved; and if they admit the authority of the Church, they must at once believe whatsoever else she teaches. Go, he tells them, and consult the Apostolic Churches at Corinth, or Ephesus; or, if you are in the west, Rome is very near, an authority to which we can readily appeal," and receive from them the knowledge of that which you are to believe.

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I will quote to you one passage, and I might satisfactorily read it entire, and you would not find one doctrine differing from that which I have laid down in this respect. "What will you gain," he asks, " by recurring to Scripture, when one denies what the other asserts? Learn rather who it is that possesses the faith of Christ; to whom the Scriptures belong; from whom, by whom, and when, that faith was delivered by which we are made Christians. For where shall be found the true faith, there will be the genuine Scriptures;

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there the true interpretations of them; and there all Christian traditions. Christ chose his apostles, whom he sent to preach to all nations. They delivered his doctrines and founded Churches, from which Churches others drew the seeds of the same doctrine, as new ones daily continue to do. Thus these, as the offspring of the Apostolic Churches, are themselves deemed apostolical. Now, to know what the apostles taught, that is, what Christ revealed to them, recourse must be had to the Churches which they founded, and which they instructed by word of mouth, and by their epistles. For it is plain that all doctrine which is conformable to the faith of these Mother Churches, is true; being that which they received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God; and that all other opinions must be novel and false."*

Is not this, my brethren, precisely the very rule which the doctrine of the Catholic Church proposes at the present day? Does it not comprise every one of those principles, which I have been striving, for several successive evenings, to explain and demonstrate? The doctrine of Tertullian is nowise at variance with that of other fathers; for, subsequently to him, we have plenty of writers, both in the Latin and Greek Churches, who show that the grounds on which they proceeded were precisely the same; I will content myself with quoting two passages, one from each of these Churches.

The first is from Origen, one of the most learned men who existed in the early ages of Christianity, -a man of the most philosophical mind, and fully able to detect any flaw of reasoning, had it existed, in the train of argument proposed as necessary to arrive at the knowledge of Christianity. "As there are many," he writes, "who think they believe what Christ taught, and some of these differ from others, it becomes necessary that all should profess that doctrine which came down from the apostles, and now continues in the Church. That alone is truth, which in nothing differs from

* De præscrip. hæretic. p. 334. ed. 1662.

ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition."* Again: "Let him look to it, who, arrogantly puffed up, contemns the apostolic words. To me it is good, to adhere to apostolic men, as to God, and his Christ, and to draw intelligence from the Scriptures, according to the sense that has been delivered by them. If we follow the mere letter of the Scriptures, and take the interpretation of the law, as the Jews commonly explain it, I shall blush to confess, that the Lord should have given such laws. But if the law of God be understood as the Church teaches, then truly does it transcend all human laws, and is worthy of him that gave it."+

And in another place; "As often as heretics produce the canonical Scriptures, in which every Christian agrees, and believes, they seem to say, Lo! with us is the word of truth. But to them (the heretics) we cannot give credit, nor depart from the first and ecclesiastical tradition: we can believe only, as the succeeding Churches of God have delivered."

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One short passage more, from St. Cyprian, and I will close this portion of my argument. In his treatise on the unity of the Church-a treatise entirely directed to prove that unity, or oneness of faith, is the essential characteristic of the Church, and, that unity of faith, unity of government, and unity of communion, are to be preserved by unity of rulehe thus writes: "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 inquiry 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

* Præf. Lib. 1. Periarchon, T. 1. p. 47, Edit. PP. S. Mauri, Paris, 1733.

+ Hom. vii. in Levit. T. 11. pp. 224-226.

Tract. xxix. in Mat. T. iii. p. 864.

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withstands the Church, can he trust that he is in the Church?”* The Church here alluded to is that which is in communion with St. Peter, that is, as appears from many passages in his writings, that Church which is in communion with the See of Rome.

So far, therefore, the principle followed both in private instruction, and in the more universal teaching through the Church, at least when she discussed or explained the grounds on which belief in Scripture is based, was, evidently, the same which we receive, that is, the infallible authority of the Church, assisted by God.

III. There is another point, closely connected with the foregoing, and more directly belonging to the public teaching of the Church: and that is the method pursued by it when united together, to define any doctrine of faith. Now, nothing can be more certain than that, when opinions, deemed erroneous, arose in the Church, the only method followed was, to collect the authorities of preceding centuries, and ground thereon a definition or decree of faith; and that, the adversaries of the dogma, without being allowed to define, to argue, or to defend their opinions, were called on to subscribe some formula of faith, contradictory of their errors.-The first and most signal example of this was, the first general council after the apostles, that which was convened against the doctrines of Arius. It is extremely remarkable, that when the council is enacting canons or rules of discipline, it prefaces them by saying, "it has appeared to us proper to decree as follows." But, the moment they come to state the decree or doctrines of faith, they say," The Church of God teaches this" -not the word of God, not the Scriptures, but the Church of God teaches this doctrine; and because the Church of God teaches it, all who are present, and all the bishops over the world, must subscribe to it.

No one, I should conceive, could possibly persuade himself, that this council of the entire Church met with any other idea,

* De Unit. Eccl. pp. 194-195.

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