likely to creep in unobserved, through the alteration of a clause of a sentence, or even of a solitary word.

When once, indeed, any article of faith had been much canvassed, and studied and defined with especial reference to a contradictory heresy, it would then be far less probable that a sincere believer could misconceive the view which was actually maintained by the catholic body. But in uncontroverted points, there must necessarily have prevailed great ignorance with respect to the nature of the true orthodox faith. The Christians were so liable to be deceived, that the testimony of the few writers who remain to us, cannot, according to the common laws of evidence, be received as decisive concerning the actual sentiments of the Church of their own day.

Nor can we suppose that a sufficient safeguard against the encroachments of error would be supplied by the earnest, single-minded love of the first Christians. All the zeal, and all the ability and caution in the world, will not prevent a man from occasionally conveying to his hearers, sentiments utterly foreign to those which he really desires to lay before them. Such is the case even in simple and clear matters; while in the

announcement of truths like those of the Gospel, the liability to error would be increased tenfold. Nor have we any reason to believe that the primitive Fathers were so wholly free from the sins and infirmities of our nature, as to be never tempted to exaggeration, to a fondness for doctrines simply because they were their own, or to haste and carelessness, even when, on the whole, love for Christ's unspotted Gospel was the ruling desire of their souls. There was nothing to prevent a gradual and unseen alteration in one or more of the doctrines of the first believers; and writers of the age of Justin or Tertullian might most conscientiously believe that an article of faith could be traced in a direct line to the apostles, while the real apostolic truth had been fundamentally subverted by a course of alterations altogether forgotten.

The experience of our own day satisfactorily shows, that it is far more difficult than is commonly supposed, to form a true conception of the real doctrines of the Church to which we may chance (so to speak) to belong. Before we can look upon Irenæus as a competent witness to the doctrines of the Catholic Church of the first two centuries, we must overlook the fact, that to this hour the exact nature of some of the

sentiments inculcated by the Church of England, is a debated point among the most devoted of her followers. We continually hear disputes as to the real sentiments of the divines who framed our Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies, and the real genius and spirit which pervades our formularies. Not merely are the views recognized by our Church looked upon by some theologians in a light wholly different from that in which they are regarded by others; but the various contending parties frequently imagine it to be almost impossible that any reasonable and good man should suppose her to uphold a theory and doctrines dissimilar to those which they themselves attribute to her. For example; the real sentiments of the Articles and Liturgy on the subject of Baptism and the Lord's Supper are matters of interminable debate; men who entertain opposite views on the question, almost universally agree in representing the notions of their opponents as utterly contradictory to the manifest teaching of the Church. We have incessant quotations from our formularies, and from the writings of the framers of them, brought forward to prove the most contradictory statements ; while each party speaks as though it were literally impossible to draw from those sources con

clusions different from its own. Again; how dissimilar are the explanations which are brought forward with respect to the Article on predestination and election, and how various the statements of the real intentions of the Reformers in framing it. What discussions there are concerning the doctrine of the Church on the subject of the necessity of episcopal ordination, of the authority of the Church and of tradition, of the sufficiency of Holy Scripture, and of the rights and capabilities of the private judgment of individuals. On one important question, respecting the imputation of the righteousness of Christ to believers, the Church of England is wholly silent; and her ministers might believe and teach, or utterly reject, the doctrine; they might represent it either as necessarily harmonizing with, or as alien from, her doctrinal views; without a possibility of knowing her real sentiments. I do not mention the controversies which occasionally take place with regard to her views on original sin, on human nature, on justification, on the influence of the Holy Ghost; because on these matters there is little, if any, disagreement among those who have any pretensions to think consistently with her authorized formularies. It is enough for us to see, that the most learned, the

most pious, the most devoted to her interests, entertain opposite views concerning the true character of some of her important doctrines; that with all the study, the labour, and the ingenuity which have been brought to bear on the question, there is still room for the most sincerely disposed among us altogether to differ concerning it; and that as far as man can foresee the events that are yet unborn, the same contrariety of opinion will exist among her members, so long as she herself shall be preserved from destruction.

And all this takes place with written, unchanging formularies before us: we are not debating concerning a mere report, or wasting our energies in discussing the true meaning of a tradition which exists only in the memories of erring men. But we have to encounter all these difficulties in the face of a body of Articles and a Liturgy, unparalleled in the annals of Christianity for accuracy of statement, for caution of expression, and for a tone and spirit in harmony with the Scriptures. There is not a shadow of a doubt with respect to the genuineness of the documents which we possess; not even a verbal alteration has alloyed their original excellence; they were compiled by a body of divines of unusual piety, holiness, and prudence, and of