There was, however, another aid which he looked upon as of the most certain and most important utility, so far as it extended, and that was the baptismal creed, which he regarded as infallible for leading to the right sense of Scripture upon fundamental points, and according to which he thought all Scripture ought to be interpreted(335). It is evident, therefore, that he regarded the tradition of the Church, _to that extent_, as divine and infallible. A third aid was to be found in the assistance of the elders of the Church, who preserve the doctrine of the Apostles(336), and, with the order of the priesthood, keep sound discourse and an inoffensive life(337), who have the succession from the Apostles, and, together with the episcopal succession, have received the sure gift of truth(338). He who in this way studies the Scriptures will judge (or condemn) all who are in error(339). It is obvious that he means the bishops of the Churches, who were the chief preachers of those times. And it is observable that he does not think the succession a perfect guarantee of the truth being preserved, otherwise he would not have added the qualifications of sound discourse and a holy life. He does not therefore support the idea that the truth is necessarily preserved in any one Church by the succession, or that any one bishop of any particular Church (the Bishop of Rome, for instance,) is capable of deciding the sense of Scripture authoritatively. And, in point of fact, it is only upon _fundamentals_ that he recommends an appeal to the bishops, as sure to guide the inquirer into truth. It is obvious, moreover, that, although no doubt God will aid and bless his ordinance of the ministry at all times to the faithful soul, yet that the aid of one’s own particular pastor or bishop must be much less capable of settling the mind now that Christ’s true pastors are opposed to each other, than in the time of Irenæus, when they held all together. In his time no such thing had occurred as a bishop of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, or Constantinople, acknowledged by general consent to have fallen into great and important error. In short, we have no approach in Irenæus to the idea of an interpreter so infallible as shall take away from the private Christian all responsibility but that of ascertaining him and following his decisions. He points out means of arriving at truth; but he does not speak of them as unfailing, except in the case of those foundation truths which are now acknowledged by the body of every ancient Church under heaven. CHAPTER IX. ON THE NATURE AND USE OF PRIMITIVE TRADITION.