INTO THE USE OF

CHURCH AUTHORITY, TRADITION,

AND

PRIVATE JUDGMENT,

IN THE

INVESTIGATION OF REVEALED TRUTH.

WITH A

CATENA PATRUM

FROM THE WRITINGS OF ANGLICAN DIVINES WHO HAVE REGARDED

SCRIPTURE AS THE ONLY TEST OF THE DIVINE WILL.

BY THE REV.

JOHN MOORE CAPES, B.A.

OF BALLIOL COLLEGE, OXFORD.

Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good
way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. Jeremiah vi. 16.

My son, fear thou the Lord and the king : and meddle not with them that are
given to change. Puoverbs xxiv. 21.

LONDON :
HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY.

MDCCCXXXVIII.

.ارکا

PREFACE.

It is in doubt and fear that I finally decide upon making public the following pages. I cannot but be sensible, that the views I have attempted to disprove are maintained by many of those, who for their learning, their abilities, and more than all for their piety, are entitled to our highest respect and reverence. Nor ought it to be forgotten by any man, that however irrefragable the grounds upon which he holds his opinions may appear to himself; there is yet in every humble intellect a liability to error and self-deception, which may lead him to regard as founded in immutable truth, sentiments utterly mistaken and visionary. The very