That the Church is the interpreter of the Scriptures:
“To him that believes, all will be plain, if he read diligently the Scripture with the aid of those who are the priests in the Church, and in whose hands, as we have shown rests the doctrine of the Apostles.” – St Irenaeus, Adv. Heres. 1.iv.c.52
“Those who are out of the Church cannot have any understanding of the Divine Word…they all quote Scripture, but without the sense of Scripture.” Hilary of Poitier, In Matthaum xiii.1
“To attain to the truth of the Scriptures, we must follow the sense of them as entertained by the Universal Church, to which the Scriptures themselves bear testimony.” St Augustine of Hippo, Contra Crescon, 1.i.c.33
Fr. L., FYI, the following are reactions by my Calvinist friend to your 4 posts of quotes from the Church Fathers. They reflect his rather frozen attachment to “sola,” but at least he does read your citations.”Well of course the rub is “who” is the universal church?” “Since the period in history in which these statements were made, there has been one major East-West split, plus a major (Western) Reformation.” “In addition, knowledge (of Scripture) has been greatly increased, worldwide.”
I do agree with you, but I do take comfort in the words of our Lord Jesus Christ who said,"The Holy Spirit will teach you all things and He will guide you into all truth…and He will tell you what is yet to come." Saint John 14 & 16.
To this I may respond then lets look at what else the church fathers have said. “But since it would be too long to enumerate in such a volume as this the successions of all the churches, we shall confound all those who, in whatever manner, whether through self-satisfaction or vainglory, or through blindness and wicked opinion, assemble other than where it is proper, by pointing out here the successions of the bishops of the greatest and most ancient church known to all, founded and organized at Rome by the two most glorious apostles, Peter and Paul—that church which has the tradition and the faith with which comes down to us after having been announced to men by the apostles. For with this Church, because of its superior origin, all churches must agree, that is, all the faithful in the whole world. And it is in her that the faithful everywhere have maintained the apostolic tradition” (Against Heresies, 3:3:2) 189 AD. there are many others as well. catholic.com has a ton in their archives. The faith of the early fathers by William A Jurgens is also a good reference. Maybe Fr Longnecker has a few other suggestions?
3 great quotes…I just posted this on my Catholic news website. Most Protestants have never heard this view – it’s essentially censored from being taught. Why does the Protestant view of history, or at least serious attention to it, seem to stop at 100AD and pick up with the selling on indulgences?