Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

SCRIPTURE AND THE FATHERS. 53
" places, in which Church the tradition, which
**
is from the apostles, is always preserved by
*'
thcsj who are every where faithful *."
A littk' attention to the scope of Ireneus' reasoning
will help us to ascertain the meaning of
these words.
The Vaientinians, at this time, pestered the
church with many absurd opinions.
These they
did not pretend to derive from scripture, but,
like the Romish Church in many other cases,
deciuced them from w^hat they affirmed to be a-
postoiic tradition. The design of Ireneus is,
therefore,
to show, that the pretensions of these
heretics were entirely without foundation, as
no such traditions had been left by the apostles.
In confirmation of this,
he appeals to the belief
of the Church of Rome, founded by apostles ;
to w^hich, on account of its being at the seat of
government, Christians from all the surrounding
quarters were daily resorting ;
so that, had such
traditions ever existed, they must have been
known there. The " more pov/eriul principa-
'' lity," then, is not of the Church, but of the
State ;
and the necessity under which Christians
were of resorting to Rome, was not to learn a-
postolic tradition, but to transact their own business.
Of this the last part of the R.'s quotation
is a sufficient proof. Ireneus, instead of saying,
that the faithful must come to Rome to learn
* P. 196.
the