* We invite the people to read and hear the word; they drive them away: We are desirous that every person should comprehend the cause of our Controversy; they shrink from all inquiry: We rely upon the power of Knowledge; they of Ignorance: We trust to Light; they to Darkness: We venerate, as we ought, the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets; they burn them: In a word, we in the cause of God are willing to

* Bishop Jewell in his reply to Harding, says, "Wee teache not the people to presume of Knowledge, as you teache them to presume of Ignorance: But onely wee exhorte them for the better satisfaction of their consciences, to reade the Scriptures, and therein to learne the good wil of God. And notwithstandinge yee may not allowe them to be judges, that is to saie, to discerne betweene the Light of God and your Darknesse, yet yee might suffer them to pike up somme smal crommes, that fal from the Lord's Table.

The Defence of the Apologie, p. 589.

Socrates, one of the Ancient Fathers of the Church, maintains as an undoubted fact, that simple unlearned persons in cases of Truth often decide more justly and uprightly than the most profound Philosophers. Apolog. Socratis.

Let us also consider the words of our Saviour himself. " I thank thee, oh Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight." Matthew xi. 25, 26.

stand or fall by God's Judgment; they allow no judge in their cause but themselves.

Notwithstanding all this, we feel convinced that, if they would give the subject due consideration and weigh the matter dispassionately, they would not only approve our determination in leaving their errors, and following Christ and his Apostles; but would themselves also, as it were, depart from themselves, and voluntarily unite themselves with our Church.

CHAP. VI.

THE HIGH ESTIMATION IN WHICH THE GENERAL COUNCILS AND DECREES OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH ARE HELD BY PROTESTANTS, CONTRASTED WITH THE TOTAL INDIFFERENCE WHICH THE PAPISTS SHEW, NOT ONLY TO THEM, BUT EVEN TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

THE Papists consider it a crime of the deepest dye to attempt any improvement without the sanction of a general Council: because in that reposes all Ecclesiastical Authority; and Christ himself hath promised that there he will always be present. Without however waiting the authority of any such Sacred Council, they, as I have before remarked, have not scrupled to violate the Commandments of God, the Decrees of the Apostles, and almost all the Institutions and Doctrines of the Primitive Church.

Again, with respect to their assertion that it is unlawful to effect any Change in the Church

unless first proposed and ratified in a Council: who, allow us to ask, imposed these Laws upon us? Or whence do they derive this authority?

That *Monarch acted very ridiculously, who, when he was informed by an Oracle of the Will and determination of Jupiter, the Chief Deity of the Heathens, afterwards referred the entire matter to Apollo; being anxious to discover whether the opinion of the latter agreed with that of his Father: but we should justly be charged with still greater folly, if, when we hear God himself openly addressing us in the Holy Scriptures, and are well acquainted with his will and pleasure, we should afterwards (paying no regard whatever to him) be desirous of referring the whole subject to the wisdom of a Council:†

* Agesilaus.

† Tertullian thus upbraideth the Heathens: "Apud vos de Humano arbitratu Divinitas pensitatur." With you the Divine power of God is weighed by the Judgment of men.

Tertull. in Apologetico.

Clemens Alexandrinus says, " Quoniam ipsum verbum ad nos venit de cœlo, non est nobis amplius eundum ad Humanam Doctrinam." Since the Word itself (that is Christ) has come to us from Heaven, we must no more have recourse to the Doctrine of Man. Clemens. Alex. In oratione ad Gentes. In like manner St. Chrysostom, "Fuisset extremæ absurdi

which in effect is nothing more than asking, whether Man entertains the same sentiments as GOD, and condescends to approve and enforce by his authority the Decrees of the ALMIGHTY. For what! Shall Truth be no longer Truth; God no longer God; unless the Council please to command and sanction it?

If our Saviour from the beginning had pursued such a system, and neither taught nor uttered a word without the consent of the Chief Priests, and referred all his Doctrine to Annas and Caiaphas; what would have been the fate of the Christian Religion? Or who would

tatis, eum, qui edoctus fuerat a Deo, postea cum hominibus communicare." It would have been great folly in St. Paul, who received his Doctrine from God himself, to have conferred thereupon with men, that is, St. Peter, St. James, or any others. Chrysost. in Epist. ad Galat. cap. i.

And he afterwards adds, "Paulus uihil opus habebat Petro; nec illius egebat voce, sed honore par erat illi;” Paul had no need of Peter; nor wanted his voice; for in worth and honour he was his equal: and St. Jerome declares that "Perrexit Hierusalem, non tam ut disceret aliquid ex Apostolis, quàm cum iis Evangelium quod docuerat, collaturus;" Paul went up to Jerusalem, not so much to acquire any thing of the Apostles, as to confer with them concerning the Gospel that he had preached. Hieronym. in Epist. ad Galat. cap. i.