words of salvation written on their hearts; and carefully guard the doctrine which has been delivered.” Ibid. c. iv. p. 178.
TERTULLIAN, L.C. “We are not allowed to indulge our own humour, nor to choose what another has invented. We have the Apostles of our Lord for Founders, who were not themselves the inventors nor authors of what they have left us; but they have faithfully taught the world the doctrine which they received from Christ. Therefore, if an Angel from heaven should preach another gospel, we would say anathema to him. Heresies have arisen from philosophy and from human wisdom, which is different from the spirit of Christianity. What is there common between Athens and Jerusalem? Between the academic groves and the Church? Our lessons come from the porch of Solomon, which teach us to seek the Lord in simplicity of heart. Having learned Christ and his Gospel, we must indulge no curiosity, no farther enquiry. We believe: that suffices. Our first maxim is, that nothing more is necessary.” De Præscriptione, c. vi. vii. viii. p. 331.—“What will you gain 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; 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 doctrine 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
