to go up every year to Jerusalem, to pay your homage and worship to God.". In like manner our opponents, (having (having once made the Law of God of none effect by their Traditions, lest the eyes of the people should afterwards be opened, and abandoning them they should seek in some other quarter a surer method of Salvation;) "Oh!" how often have they exclaimed, "this is the worship with which God is delighted! this the worship he exacts from you! this the worship by which his anger may be appeased! in these acts the Unity of the Church consists! by these acts all sin may be expiated! by these acts every conscience may be tranquillized for ever bereft of hope of eternal salvation is he who departs from them!! But to have recourse to Christ, the Apostles, and the Ancient Fathers, to be perpetually harassed with their Ordinances and Commands, is too much to impose upon

Mankind!!"

Is this a proper way to entice the people of God from the weak Elements of the World, from the Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees, from Human Traditions. Are the Commandments of Christ and his Apostles, to be displaced, that these may

succeed? O! most righteous cause, most forcible argument for antiquating those sound Doctrines approved and established for so many ages, and introducing into the Church of God a new form of Religion!!!

Be its character however what it may, they still protest against any change. It is the Decree of the Unerring Church of Rome, and Men must acquiesce. For what says Sylvester Prierias?

The Roman Church is the rule and the model of truth: upon its sanction the Holy Scriptures depend for their influence and credit: its doctrines constitute an infallible guide to purity of faith : and are the source from which Holy Writ draws all its strength. It is not, he adds, upon the

* For that yee doubte the truthe of our allegations, reade Sylvester Prierias, Maister of the Pope's palace, in his Booke entituled Contra præsumptuosas Martini Lutheri Conclusiones de potestate Papæ. His wordes there amongst others be these Quicumque non innititur Doctrinæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ, ac Romani Pontificis, tanquam Regulæ Dei infallibili, a qua etiam Sacra Scriptura robur trahit, et authoritatem, Hæreticus est. Whosoever leaneth not to the doctrine of the Romaine Churche, and of the Bishop of Rome, as unto the infallible rule of God, of whiche doctrine the Holy Scriptures taketh force and authoritie, he is an Heretique."

The Defence of the Apologie, p. 557.

authority of Scripture that indulgences are granted, it is upon the weightier authority of the Church and Pontiffs of Rome. And Pighius * hesitates not to affirm, that without the sanction of the Popish Church, the plainest matters of Scripture are not to be believed. † It is a parallel case

*The words of Pighius are: "Nullius Scripturæ authoritate, quantum libet claræ, nostro quidem judicio et evidentis, adversus claram, consonantemque Othodoxorum patrum sententiam, et adversus communem Ecclesiæ definitionem aliquid credere cuiquam licere." No one can lawfully believe any thing by the authority of Scripture, however plain and evident it may appear to our judgment, against the clear and unanimous opinion of the Catholic Fathers, and the general determination of the Church.

Albertus Pighius in locis vommunibus de Eccles. Nor are these sentiments confined to one or two Papists, but are common to the great body of their writers. Consult for instance Cardinal Cusanus, de Authoritate Ecclesiæ et Concilii supra et contra Scripturas, and a work of John Maria Verractus, published on the same subject. A. D. 1561.

+ Let the advocates for the antiquity and power of the Papal See attentively peruse these short extracts from the writings of St. Augustine whom the Papists are very anxious on all occasions to cite as authority for their proceedings, and they will not fail to see that the position assumed by Pighius, Prierias and others is wholly untenable. "Ecclesiam quærere debemus in Verbis Christi, qui est veritas, et optime novit corpus suum.-Ecclesiam sine ulla ambiguitate Sancta Scriptura demonstrat.-In Scripturis Sacris Ecclesia manifceste cognoscitur.-Ecclesiam sicut ipsum caput, in Scripturis

with that of a person who, incapable of speaking correct and pure Latinity, yet able from his forensic pursuits to run over a few Latin words, should insist upon the propriety of generally adopting that unclassical dialect, in which Mammetrectus and Catholicon many years preceded him, and which still prevails in the Law Courts, and should argue, that as it was sufficiently intelligible, and answered all practical purposes, it would be folly to disturb the world by the introduction of a new system of oratory, and the restoration of that old but pure eloquence which

sanctis canonicis debemus agnoscere. We must seek the Church in the words of Christ, who is the Truth, and best knows his own Body.-The Holy Scriptures point out the Church in the most indisputable manner.-In the Holy Scriptures the Church is plainly known. - We must discover the Church as we do (Christ) the Head in the Holy Canonical Scriptures." I would therefore address the Papist in the words of this great man: Cum non Evangelicæ Authoritati, tam fundatæ, tam stabilitæ, tanta gloria diffamatæ, atque ab apostolorum temporibus, usque ad nostra tempora, per successiones certissimas commendatæ te non subdis ?-Why do you not rather submit yourself to the authority of the Gospel, being so well grounded, so firmly established, published abroad with such glory, and commended and delivered to us by uninterrupted succession and undoubted authority, from the times of the Apostles even unto this day? †

cap. ii. xvi.

*

Augustin Contra Cresconi Grammat. Lib. i. cap. 33. and De Unitate Ecclesia. + Contra Faustum. lib. xxxii. cap. 19.

flowed from the tongues and pens of a Cicero and a Cæsar.

So much indeed are they indebted to the ignorance and darkness of former ages, that according to a certain * Author; Many things are held in the greatest estimation merely because they were once consecrated in the Temple of the Gods:" and we at this day know that much is approved and highly valued by our adversaries, not for its intrinsic worth, but because it has received the stamp of custom, and by some means or other been dedicated to the service of the Church.

But our Church is infallible they say. In the same sense, I suppose, as the Lacædemonians of old were accustomed to affirm that no instance of adultery could be detected in their Republic; whereas the truth rather was, that all were adulterers. Their marriages were inveloped in uncertainty, and they had a community of wives.

Or perhaps they speak in the same sense as

*Caius Plinius.

N