And wherefore this deviation from our old Protestant doctrine and language; why this false principle; why this new school, as it were, of divinity? Ancient testimony in its proper place, who had undervalued? The dignity and grace of the sacraments, who had denied? The study of primitive antiquity, who had renounced? The witness of the early fathers, who had disparaged? Wherefore weaken, then, by pushing beyond its due bearing, the argument which all writers of credit in our church had delighted to acknowledge?

The testimony of the apostolical and primitive ages, for example, to the genuineness, authenticity, and divine inspiration of the canonical books of the New Testament, as of the Jewish church to those of the Old, who had called in question? Or who had doubted the incalculable importance of the witness of the universal ancient church at the council of Nice, to the broad fact of the faith of the whole Christian world, from the days of the apostles to that hour, in the mysteries of the adorable Trinity and of the Incarnation, as there rehearsed and recognised? Or who had called in question the other matters of fact which are strengthened by Christian antiquity, as the divine authority and perpetual obligation of the Lord's-day; the institution and perpetuity of the two, and only two Christian sacraments; the right of the infants of the faithful to the blessings of holy baptism; the apostolical usage of confirmation; the permanent separation of a body of men for sacred services; the duty of willing reverence from the people for them; the threefold rank of ministers in Christ's church; the use of liturgies; the observation of the festivals of our Lord's birth,

resurrection, ascension, and gift of the Holy Ghost; with similar points: to which may be added, their important negative testimony to the non-existence of any one of the peculiar doctrines and claims of the modern court and church of Rome. These and similar facts we rejoice to acknowledge, as fortified by pure and uncorrupted primitive tradition or testimony.

We rejoice also to receive, with our own Protestant reformed church, the universal witness of the Catholic fathers and ancient bishops, expressed in the three creeds, as a most important method of guarding the words of Revelation from the artful ambiguities of heretics, and as rules and terms of communion; just as we acknowledge our modern Articles, Liturgy, and Homilies for the same purpose. We rejoice again in tracing back almost the whole of our most sublime and scriptural Liturgy to a far higher period than the rise of Popery-to the primitive ages of the church in our own and every other Christian country. We thus admit, in its fullest sense, for its proper ends, the rule of Vincentius Lirinensis-Quod semper, quod ab omnibus, quod ubique traditum est. 1

And we receive such tradition for this one reason -because it deserves the name of JUST AND PROPER EVIDENCE. It is authentic testimony. It is a part of the materials from which even the external evidences of Christianity itself are derived. It furnishes the most powerful historical arguments in support of our faith. It is amongst the proofs of our holy religion.

But evidence is one thing; the rule of belief another. Not for one moment do we, on any or all

these grounds, confound the history and evidences of the divinely-inspired rule of faith, with that rule itself. Not for one moment do we place tradition on the same level with the all-perfect word of God. Not for one moment do we allow it any share in the standard of revealed truth. Scripture and tradition taken together are NOT, we venture to assert, "the joint rule of faith; but "Holy Scripture containeth all - things necessary to salvation; so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of faith." And tradition is so far from being of co-ordinate authority, that even the ecclesiastical writers who approach the nearest to them, and are read in our churches, which not one of the fathers is, for example of life, and instruction of manners; are still, as being uninspired, not to be applied to establish any one doctrine of our religion.

Against this whole system, then, as proceeding upon A MOST FALSE AND DANGEROUS PRINCIPLE, and differing from the generally received Protestant doctrine, I beg, reverend brethren, most respectfully to caution you. I enter my solemn protest against the testimony of the fathers to any number of facts, being constituted a "joint rule of faith." I protest against their witness to the meaning of certain capital series of texts on the fundamental truths of the gospel being entitled to the reverence only due to the authoritative revelation itself. I protest against the salutary use made of the testimony of primitive writers by our church, as a safeguard against heresy and an expression of her view of the sense of the holy scriptures, being placed on a level with the blessed scriptures themselves-that is, I PROTEST AGAINST A

MERE RULE OF COMMUNION BEING MADE A RULE OF FAITH.

Stand fast," therefore, reverend brethren, "in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free," if I may adapt to such a subject the admonition of the great apostle of the Gentiles, "and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage." Keep close, I affectionately entreat you, to the holy scriptures, according to your ordination vows. Venerate, study, magnify, consult, preach the revealed will of God, "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth." Remember you have in the holy scriptures, as I venture to believe, the entire depositum fidei—τὴν καλὴν παρακαταθήκην that same good and noble deposit of the faith which was committed to Timothy, to guard yourselves, and to hand down to the next age. Remember that the piety of a new way scarcely survives its first inventors, however able, devout, or well-intentioned they may be; but loses most of its redeeming qualities, and acquires dangerous ones at each remove. Remember that what is tradition impregnated with willworship to-day, is superstition and spiritual death to-morrow. Remember how easy it is, through the corruption of the human heart, to rear on the same foundation of Christ Jesus, "wood, hay, stubble;" as well as "gold, silver, and precious stones." Remember that this is amongst the very class of evils against which St. Paul so earnestly warns his young and pious bishops, Timothy and Titus-fables, genealogies, oppositions of false named science, logomachies, and other human inventions, which "minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith." Remember how insidiously, but surely, the OCTOBER, 1839.

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traditions of men, if once laid as a foundation, or part-foundation of faith, "make void the word of God"—as the evils which were produced by the oral law of the Jews, by the commandments of men brought in by the Pharisees at the time of our Lord, and by that mass of traditions in the church of Rome under which the gospel has been buried and almost lost for twelve centuries, sufficiently prove. Remember, above all, that unauthorized, or over-urged human observances and traditions are always found to sap the foundation of a penitent sinner's hope in the alone satisfaction and atonement of Christ.

Yes; you may rely upon it, reverend brethren, that this "joint rule of faith" will never long consist with the simplicity of the gospel. I speak with fear and apprehension, lest I should in the least degree overstate the case. I suspect not—I repeat, I suspect not-the reverend and learned leaders of the least intention or idea of forwarding the process which I think is in fact going on. But the plague is begun. A FALSE PRINCIPLE IS ADMITTED IN THE RULE OF FAITH, AND IS ALREADY AT WORK.

Already an amplitude is given, as we have seen, to the word tradition, which may include anything and everything, and therefore justly awakens our increased alarm. Already texts of inspired scripture are weakened or contracted to the narrowest and most doubtful sense. Already are expressions dropped on the subject of the holy Eucharist to which our ears are unaccustomed. Already are the idolatries and abominations of the church of Rome spoken of in these very books and tracts of controversy, with far too much tenderness. Already are tradition and the church too prominently brought