declares,” says Cyprian, “ye reject the commandment of God that ye may keep your own tradition. [450:1] ....  Custom should, not be an obstacle that the truth prevail not and overcome, for a custom without truth is error inveterate.” [450:2] “What obstinacy is that, or what presumption, to prefer human tradition to divine ordinances, and not to perceive that God is displeased and provoked, as often as human tradition relaxes and sets aside the divine command.” [450:3] During this period—­the uncertainty of any other guide than the inspired record was repeatedly demonstrated; for, though Christians were removed at so short a distance from apostolic times, the traditions of one Church sometimes diametrically contradicted those of another. [450:4]

There is certainly nothing like uniformity in the language employed by the Christian writers of this era when treating of doctrinal subjects; and yet their theology seems to have been essentially the same.  All apparently admit the corruption of human nature.  Justin Martyr speaks of a “concupiscence in every man, evil in all its tendencies, and various in its nature,” [450:5] whilst Tertullian mentions original sin under the designation of “the vice of our origin.” [450:6] Our first parent, says he, “having been seduced into disobedience by Satan was delivered over to death, and transmitted his condemnation to the whole human race which was infected from his seed.” [450:7] Though the ancient fathers occasionally describe free will in terms which apparently ignore the existence of indwelling depravity, [451:1] their language should not be too strictly interpreted, as it only implies a strong protest against the heathen doctrine of fate, and a recognition of the principle that man is a voluntary agent.  Thus it is that Clemens Alexandrinus, one of the writers who asserts most decidedly the freedom of the will, admits the necessity of a new birth unto righteousness.  “The Father,” says he, “regenerates by the Spirit unto adoption all who flee to Him.” [451:2] “Since the soul is moved of itself, the grace of God demands from it that which it has, namely, a ready temper as its contribution to salvation.  For the Lord wishes that the good which He confers on the soul should be its own, since it is not without sensation, so that it should be impelled like a body.” [451:3]

No fact is more satisfactorily attested than that the early disciples rendered divine honours to our Saviour.  In the very beginning of the second century, a heathen magistrate, who deemed it his duty to make minute inquiries respecting them, reported to the Roman Emperor that, in their religious assemblies, they sang “hymns to Christ as to a God.” [451:4] They were reproached by the Gentiles, as well as by the Jews, for worshipping a man who had been crucified. [451:5] When the accusation was brought against them, they at once admitted its truth, and they undertook to shew that the procedure for which