III. We may now, in the way of historical testimony, go on profitably to hear the ancient Fathers: those identical old orthodox Fathers to wit; whom, in respect to the present question, the doctors of the Council of Trent, as the reader may peradventure recollect, claim as being clearly and indisputably quite their own.
1. Let us first attend to Irenèus in the second century.
(1.) The disposition of our salvation we know not through any other persons, than those by whom the Gospel has come to us: which then, indeed, they themselves orally preached; but which afterward, according to the will of God, they traditionally handed down to us IN THE WRITTEN WORD, as the future basis and column of our faith. [34]
(2.) When the Gnostics are confuted from SCRIPTURE, their answer is: that, By those who are ignorant of UNWRITTEN TRADITION, truth cannot be discovered from THE WRITTEN WORD; for truth was delivered, not (merely) through letters, but through the living voice. [35a]
2. Let us next hear Tertullian in the second and third centuries.
As for Hermogenes, let his shop produce THE WRITTEN WORD. If he be unable to produce THE WRITTEN WORD in substantiation of his tenets; let him dread that scriptural Woe, which is destined to those who either add to it or detract from it. [35b]
3. Let us next hear Hippolytus in the third century.
There is one God, whom we know from no other authority, than THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.—Whatsoever matters, then, THE DIVINE SCRIPTURES declare; these let us learn: and, whatsoever matters they teach; these let us recognise:—not according to our own humour or according to our own mind, neither with any wresting of the things delivered from God; but, even as he himself wished THROUGH THE HOLY SCRIPTURES to shew us, thus let us learn. [35c]
4. Let us next hear Cyprian in the third century.
Whence is that pretended TRADITION? Does it descend from the authority of the Lord and the Gospels: or does it come down from the mandates and letters of the Apostles? God testifies, that those things are to be done, which are WRITTEN.—If, then, any such precept can be found, EITHER IN THE GOSPEL OR IN THE EPISTLES AND ACTS OF THE APOSTLES:—let this divine and holy (written) tradition be observed. [35d]