Irenaeus of Lyons:
As I have already observed, the
Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered
throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully
preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had
but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches
them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one
mouth. For, although the languages of the world are dissimilar, yet the import
of the tradition is one and the same. For the Churches which have been planted
in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in
Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East, nor those in Egypt, nor those
in Libya, nor those which have been established in the central regions of the
world. But as the sun, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the
whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shineth everywhere, and
enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth. Nor
will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in
point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater
than the Master); nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of
expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith being ever one and
the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding
it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it.
(Against Heresies 1.10.2 [ANF 1:331])
True knowledge is [that which
consists in] the doctrine of the apostles, and the ancient constitution of the
Church throughout all the world, and the distinctive manifestation of the body
of Christ according to the successions of the bishops, by which they have
handed down that Church which exists in every place, and has come even unto us,
being guarded and preserved without any forging of Scriptures, by a very
complete system of doctrine, and neither receiving addition nor [suffering]
curtailment [in the truths which she believes]; and [it consists in] reading
[the word of God] without falsification, and a lawful and diligent exposition
in harmony with the Scriptures, both without danger and without blasphemy; and
[above all, it consists in] the pre-eminent gift of love, which is more
precious than knowledge, more glorious than prophecy, and which excels all the
other gifts [of God]. (Against Heresies 4.33.8 [ANF 1:508])
Tertullian of Carthage:
But if there be any (heresies)
which are bold enough to plant themselves in the midst of the apostolic age,
that they may thereby seem to have been handed down by the apostles, because
they existed in the time of the apostles, we can say: Let them produce the
original records5 of their churches; let them unfold the roll of their bishops,
running down in due succession from the beginning in such a manner that [that
first bishop of theirs] bishop shall be able to show for his ordainer and
predecessor some one of the apostles or of apostolic men,—a man, moreover, who
continued stedfast with the apostles. For this is the manner in which the
apostolic churches transmit their registers: as the church of Smyrna, which
records that Polycarp was placed therein by John; as also the church of Rome,
which makes Clement to have been ordained in like manner by Peter. In exactly
the same way the other churches likewise exhibit (their several worthies),
whom, as having been appointed to their episcopal places by apostles, they
regard as transmitters of the apostolic seed. Let the heretics contrive something
of the same kind. For after their blasphemy, what is there that is unlawful for
them (to attempt)? But should they even effect the contrivance, they will not
advance a step. For their very doctrine, after comparison with that of the
apostles, will declare, by its own diversity and contrariety, that it had for
its author neither an apostle nor an apostolic man; because, as the apostles
would never have taught things which were self-contradictory, so the apostolic
men would not have inculcated teaching different from the apostles, unless they
who received their instruction from the apostles went and preached in a
contrary manner. To this test, therefore will they be submitted for proof by
those churches, who, although they derive not their founder from apostles or
apostolic men (as being of much later date, for they are in fact being founded
daily), yet, since they agree in the same faith, they are accounted as not less
apostolic because they are akin in doctrine. Then let all the heresies, when challenged
to these two tests by our apostolic church, offer their proof of how they deem
themselves to be apostolic. But in truth they neither are so, nor are they able
to prove themselves to be what they are not. Nor are they admitted to peaceful
relations and communion by such churches as are in any way connected with
apostles, inasmuch as they are in no sense themselves apostolic because of
their diversity as to the mysteries of the faith. (Prescription Against the
Heretics 32 [ANF 3:258])
Creator6 was still to continue,
and His law alone was to come to an end? —just as the Psalmist had declared:
“Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. Why do
the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth
stand up, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, and against
His Anointed.” And, indeed, if another god were preached by Paul, there could
be no doubt about the law, whether it were to be kept or not, because of course
it would not belong to the new lord, the enemy of the law. The very newness and
difference of the god would take away not only all question about the old and
alien law, but even all mention of it.
But the whole question, as it then stood, was this, that although the
God of the law was the same as was preached in Christ, yet there was a
disparagement of His law. Permanent still, therefore, stood faith in the
Creator and in His Christ; manner of life and discipline alone fluctuated. Some
disputed about eating idol sacrifices, others about the veiled dress of women,
others again about marriage and divorce, and some even about the hope of the
resurrection; but about God no one disputed. Now, if this question also had
entered into dispute, surely it would be found in the apostle, and that too as
a great and vital point. No doubt, after the time of the apostles, the truth
respecting the belief of God suffered corruption, but it is equally certain
that during the life of the apostles their teaching on this great article did
not suffer at all; so that no other teaching will have the right of being
received as apostolic than that which is at the present day proclaimed in the
churches of apostolic foundation. You will, however, find no church of
apostolic origin but such as reposes its Christian faith in the Creator. But if
the churches shall prove to have been corrupt from the beginning, where shall
the pure ones be found? Will it be amongst the adversaries of the Creator? Show
us, then, one of your churches, tracing its descent from an apostle, and you
will have gained the day. Forasmuch then as it is on all accounts evident that
there was from Christ down to Marcion’s time no other God in the rule of sacred
truth than the Creator, the proof of our argument is sufficiently established,
in which we have shown that the god of our heretic first became known by his
separation of the gospel and the law.
Our previous position is accordingly made good, that no god is to be
believed whom any man has devised out of his own conceits; except indeed the
man be a prophet, and then his own conceits would not be concerned in the
matter. If Marcion, however, shall be able to lay claim to this inspired
character, it will be necessary for it to be shown. There must be no doubt or
paltering. For all heresy is thrust out by this wedge of the truth, that Christ
is proved to be the revealer of no God else but the Creator. (Against Marcion,
Book 1, ch. 21 [ANF 3:286])