Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

SCRIPTURE AND THE FATHERS. 263
But, what must appear no less extraordinary
to the R., and must convince him equally
of the im perfection of the scriptures, and
the necessity of oral tradition, there is the same
silence about praying for the devil. Did it
never occur to him that neither of these were
duties of religion But the discussion of this
subject must be reserved till
hereafter.
But the R. is not satisfied with this enumeration
of traditionary articles. " On oral tradi-
" tion," says he, " the divinity of J. Christ
*'
*'
was always believed and publicly professed in
the Church, on this principle the Arian here-
*'
sy was "condemned in the great Council of
" Nice : there is no text in Scripture, hovvever
'*
expressive of the divinity of J. Christ, v.'hich.
*'
the Arians did not elude by ingenious and
*'
artful explications ; but the public faith of
" the Church, founded on the oral tradition of
" the Apostles, was not to be evaded *."
It is a pretty curious logical deduction to sav,
because the Arians were ingenious and artful,
therefore the divinity of Christ is not plainly
taught in the scriptures. He might say, witli.
equal propriety, that truth is a nonentity, because
ingenious quibblers can
invent paradoxes.
These absurdities, by Vvlnch he endeavours to
establish the doctrines of the Romish creed, discover
the most palpable ignorance of the ancient
L (j
sta.te
* P- 57-
.