each other. The man who himself cares nothing for truth as such, and warmly maintains the religious faith in which he has been educated, without examining into its foundations, may be most earnest in his efforts for the acquisition of power over the minds of others. And he who claims for his own opinions a sure infallibility, and requires all others to submit their judgment to his own, may be so utterly careless as to the real truth of his sentiments, as to have taken them up on the authority of others without the slightest examination. Indeed, so weak and self-ignorant is human nature, that we usually find that where one of these passions prevails to a great extent, the other also exercises a powerful influence over the mind and conduct. Those persons who have the least reason for their belief, are usually the most positive and overbearing in asserting the irrefragable truth of their views. Just as we see that the man who submits with a slavish and fawning subservience to those who are his superiors in life, is usually arrogant and tyrannical in the extreme to those who are below him; so we observe that they who are often the most ready to embrace an opinion on the mere authority of another, are at other times the most eager in exacting submission to themselves, and

in anathematizing all who venture to dissent from them. And thus we are enabled to account for the earnestness with which the authority of the Church is maintained, and the readiness with which such assertions have been admitted. We see the clergy tempted to invent and support the system; the laity ever ready to trust their consciences to others; and a large portion of the Christian world thus led to submit themselves to a theory, whose existence and influence depend entirely upon the weakness of the human mind, and the ambition of the human heart.

At the same time, it would be most unjust and untrue to charge this sinful ambition upon every man who seeks to promote the authority of which we are speaking. We must not only be blind to the real nature of man as it in general shows itself in the world, but must shut our eyes to the personal character of many most holy men, who at different periods have upheld the theory here argued against, if we lay the faults of the system upon its friends and supporters. The slightest acquaintance with times past and present convinces us, that an undoubted authority in the Church has been upheld by men of the greatest humility before God, and the most fervent desire for the real welfare of men. We find among the

earlier writers of the Church, among the members of the Church of Rome, and those of our own communion, many, pre-eminent for piety and holiness, who have been most forward in supporting this view of the question. And at the present day there are those among us of similar sentiments, whom it would be presumptuous in the writer of these pages to attempt to praise. Though we see that the grasping mind of fallen man would naturally lead him to invent and propagate the fascinating fiction; and that his uneasy, doubting, but indolent temper would tempt him to receive with joy such a system when it was boldly laid before him; we dare not condemn its supporters as guilty either of arrogance or weakness. Rather would we thank God, for that in this case, as in so many others, he has at times made the perversity of men subservient to their real interests; and has so guided them in their honest, though misguided, search after truth, that their very error has been instrumental in preserving them from more fatal delusion.

G

CHAP. V.

SCRIPTURE TESTIMONIES TO THE RIGHTS OF THE CHURCH AND OF INDIVIDUALS, AND TO THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION.

In the preceding chapter it has been shown, that the laws by which God directs the present course of the world, furnish us with presumptions against the supposition that he would allow us to shift the responsibility of learning the truths of his revelation in Christ, from our own judgment to any other guide. It will be for us, in the next place, to examine into the intimations which Scripture itself may give us concerning the existence and qualifications of such leader, and our own duties on the subject.

At the same time we must carefully bear in mind the exact amount of religious information to which we suppose ourselves to have attained, lest in prosecuting our inquiry we assume in ourselves that very knowledge for which, by our hypothesis, we are still seeking. It must be remembered, that as yet we are supposed to be in no way acquainted with the actual truths re

vealed in the sacred writings; that we are on our search for some interpreter and teacher of the truth; and that the very utmost that can be allowed to us, is that we investigate only such passages of the Bible as appear on the face of them to be clearly intelligible, without any knowledge of the truths strictly doctrinal and revealed. If, for instance, any text which we may be considering, conveys a promise made to believers in Christ's revelation, such promise must involve no article of mysterious faith, but must be simple in its declarations, and within the comprehension of a mind ignorant on all matters directly revealed.

I. The passages of Scripture from which the existence of a supreme authority in some Church is commonly deduced, shall be first mentioned. They are the following.

"And the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob, saith the Lord. As for me, this is my covenant with them, saith the Lord; My spirit that is upon thee, and my words which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and for ever." (Isa. lix. 20, 21.)