appeal, said he)" to the pure word of God, whereof ye think yourselves true interpreters. Agree then amongst yourselves about its meaning, before ye pretend to give law to the world." "It is of importance," said Calvin, in a letter to his friend Melancthon," that no suspicion of the divisions which are amongst us descend to future ages; for it is ridiculous beyond imagination, that, after having broken with all the world, we should, from the beginning of our reformation, agree so ill amongst ourselves." Indeed, this bad agreement, as it was a great stumbling-block in the way of those who inclined to examine the matter to the bottom, so it proved a greater check to the cause of the reformers than any which open or the secret assaults of their enemies had yet, either by spiritual weapons or by carnal, been able to give it. the But unfortunately, (for the truth ought, without respect of persons, to be spoken), they had not sufficiently purged their own minds from the old leaven; they still retained too much of the spirit of that corrupt church which they had left. As they were men, we ought to form a judgment of them not only with candour, but with all the lenity to which their education, the circumstances of the times, the difficulties they had to surmount, and the adversaries they had to encounter, so justly entitle them. But, as they were teachers of religion, we ought to be at least as careful not to allow an excessive veneration for their great and good qualities, to mislead us into a respect for their errors, or to adopt implicitly the system of any one of them; for we must learn not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of us be puffed up for one against another. The spirit of the church, especially that nourished in the cloisters, was a spirit of wrangling and altercation. Never could any thing better suit the unimportant and undeterminable questions there canvassed by the recluses, than the words of the apostle, vain janglings and oppositions of science falsely so called. As therefore they had not avoided these, nor taken the apostolical warning, not to dote about questions and strifes of words, they soon experienced in themselves, and in their followers, the truth of the apostolical prediction, that envy, contention, railings, evil surmisings, and perverse disputings, would come of them; but that they would never minister to the edifying of themselves in love; that, so far would their disputations be from answering the end, and terminating their differences, that they would incessantly give birth to new questions, and would increase unto more ungodliness. This contentious spirit, derived from the schoolmen, and commonly accompanied with spiritual pride and a vitiated understanding, did not fail of producing its usual consequences uncharitableness in judging of others on account of difference of opinion, and intolerance in the manner of treating them. Of the first of these, the evidences are coeval with the questions, and perfectly unequivocal; and of the last, that is, of the intolerant spirit they had retained of the church they had deserted, it must not be dissembled that they gave but too manifest proofs as soon as they had power. Ye will do me the justice to believe me when I add, that it proceeds not from any pleasure in depreciating, that I have taken so much of the invidious task of exposing the blemishes in those truly meritorious characters. But of men so much exposed to public view, and so highly distinguishable, as were our Reformers from Popery, there is a considerable danger on either side in forming a wrong judgment. One is, indeed, that a prejudice against the instruments may endanger our contracting a prejudice against the cause. Of this extreme, in this protestant country, I imagine we are in little danger. To prevent it, however, their faults ought not to be mentioned without doing justice to their virtues. The other is, lest a prepossession in favour of the cause prove the source of a blind devotion to the instruments. Of this extreme, the danger here is, I think, very great. Nay, though different men's attention, according to their various circumstances, has been fixed on different instruments in the hand of Providence in effecting the wonderful revolution then brought about, yet an immoderate attachment to one or other has been, since the beginning, the rock on which the far greater part of Protestants have split. INDEX. A ABBOTS, Page 324 Acacius, patriarch of Constantinople, cited, judged, and 236 Acholius, the first who had the title of the Pope's vicar, 308 of the most heinous crimes, Apocalypse, epistles to the Asian churches in the, 90, 126 265 90, 96 Athanasius condemned as a heretic, Augustine, his sentiments respecting episcopal jurisdiction, 246 38 anecdote of him, 148 his expressions concerning the Trinity, 242 the monk, converts the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, 307 Authority, just, supported by knowledge, B 372 Babylon, mentioned by Peter, what city, 214 Barnabas, his admission to the apostleship, 85 168, 398 Basnage quoted, 167 Beatific vision, the, Becket, Thomas, Bible, its frequent and attentive perusal recommended, account of it, remarks on the English translation of it, ing Christianity, Bingham, criticism on, Page 248 190 8 9 14 185 2 ib. 97, 124 272, 336 both for illustrating and confirm- Bishop, universal, opinion of Gregory I. on the title, Bishops, their juridical authority established by Constan- 280 nature of their office in the second and third cen- turies, 99 Blasphemy, what? 403 Bona, cardinal, quoted, 167, 175, 380, 384 Boniface III. obtains the title of universal bishop, 280 VIII. his decrees, 358 see Winfrid. Books, too many, detrimental to a student, Celedonius, consequence of his appeal from a synod to the Christianity, study of the biblical records necessary for its confirmation and illustration, its promulgation, evidence, moral precepts, essence, 2 ib. 4 24 50 alteration in its use, controversies in the early ages in, Romanus, may subsist in different forms, may undergo alterations with propriety, form of, first instituted by Christ and his apostles, apostolic, constitution of, use of the word in the early ages, schism between the eastern and western, Clemens Alexandrinus, Clement VIII., his act for altering books, Clerc, Le, quoted, 53 53, 148 66 99 111, 117 154, 183 237 241 115 77, 173, 219 396 259 |