NO APPEAL TO THE POPE IN CONTROVERSIES. ] 53 true faith, he should guard and strengthen his faith, God helping him, by these two means,namely, first, by the authority of the divine law, and then by the tradition of the catholic church."1 And again, " We have before said, that this has always been, and is still, the custom of catholics, that they prove their faith by these two ways,--first, by authority of the divine canon, then by the tradition of the universal church."' Is it not strange that he, especiallybeing a western man, living in those parts where the pope had got much sway, and who expresses great reverence to the apostolic see, should omit that way of deter- mining points which of all, according to the modern conceits about the pope, is most ready and most sure? 24. In like manner, Tertullian professes the catholics in his time to use such compendious methods of confuting heretics. " We," says he, " when we would use despatch against heretics for the faith of the gospel, do commonly employ this compendious method, main- taining both the order of time, which anticipates the lateness of im- postors, and the authority of the churches, which patronizes apostoli- cal tradition."' But why did he skip over a more compendious way than any of these, namely, standing to the judgment of the Roman bishop ?' 25. It is true that both he and St Irenæus before him, disput- ing against the heretics of their times, who had introduced pernicious novelties of their own devising, when they allege the general con- sent of churches planted by the apostles, and propagated by conti- nual successions of bishops from those whom the apostles ordained, in doctrines and practices opposite to those devices, as a good argu- ment (and so, indeed, it then was, next to a demonstration) against them, produce the Roman church as a principal one among them, upon several obvious accounts ;5 and this, indeed, argues the Roman church to have been then one competent witness, or credible retainer of tradition, as also were the other apostolical churches, to whose testimony they likewise appeal. But what is this to the Roman I Hujusmodi semperresponsum ab omnibus fere retuli, quod sive ego, sive quia alius vellet exurgentium hæreticorum fraudes deprehendere, laqueosque vitare, et in fide sana sanus atque integer permanere, duplici modo munirefidem suam Dominoadjuvante deberet; primo scilicet divine legis auctoritate, turn deinde ecclesire catholica3 tradi- tione.P. 317. 2 Diximus in superioribus haue fuisse semper et esse hodie catholicorum consuetudi- nemut fidem veram duobus his modis adprobent; primum divini canonis auctoritate, deinde ecclesise catholicee traditione. P. 364. 3 His fere compendiis utimur, quum de evangelii fide adversus hsereticos expedimur, defendentibus et temporum ordinem posteritati falsariorum prsescribentem, et auctori- tatem ecclesiarum traditioni apostolorum patrocinantem.-7ertull. in Marc. iv. 5. + Solemus hareticis compendia gratin de posteritate proescribere.-7ertull. contra Hermog., cap. i. 5 The like discourse [argument] against heretics Clemens Alexandrinus uses. Strom. vii. p. 549.
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