of the primitive Christians, who went out of the Jewish church? In truth, the argument has been used by the Jews against the Christians almost in every age; and it were better if left with those whom it may best become to use it-the Pagans.

From the history of Revelation, it seems to be a just inference, that the great Author of all has intended that there should be a regular progress of religious as well as physical discovery; and that in the former, no less than in the latter, there should be new circumstances brought to light, which should, as it were, mark epochs of new acquisitions of knowledge, and necessarily abolish the use of much that had previously been held of importance. Thus Judaism superseded Paganism, and Christianity Judaism, and the Reformation the errors that crept in Christianity; and possibly another Revelation may yet improve on what we hitherto know from the Gospel. But to all discoveries there will be opposition from interest, from prejudice, and from ignorance. The Ptolemaists opposed the Copernicans, the advocates of Descartes the Newtonians, and the Aristotelians the Dialectics of Locke. It is an evil scarcely separable from an adherence to system, on any other motive than the truth, and sometimes conscientiously increased by the apprehensions of those who cannot judge for themselves, lest they should fall into error.

But however this be, the Apostles and their im mediate successors, who innovated upon all the preceding religious systems, paid no respect to the antiquity of any of them. Might not the Jew have

said, "Where was your religion before Christ, or where was it the other day? Ours is two thousand years old:" and the Greek have added, "Ours is a thousand years older than either. It is to our religion that the sciences and the arts owe their greatest improvements, and we are they who have taught the world the system of political liberty, given to society the first example of a free state, with all its advantages to profit by." What the answers of the Apostles would have been may be easily collected from the addresses of St. Paul to Jew and Gentile. But it may not be amiss to give the sentiments of Arnobius and Lactantius, fathers of the church of Rome itself, in the third century, upon the respect due to a religion because of its antiquity; who thus answer the Heathens, who preferred the same argument in his time. Arnobius speaks thus :

*"When you object against us, that we forsake the religion of our forefathers, you ought to consider not the fact, but the cause of the fact that which authorizes us to adhere to a religion is not the date, but the Deity. The point to be inquired into is, not when it began, but what it was that began. And Lactantius in like manner :

"They pertinaciously adhere to the religious

* Itaque cum nobis intenditis aversionem a religione priorum, causam convenit ut inspiciatis, non factum-Religionis autem auctoritas non est tempore æstimandum sed numine; nec colere quá die, sed quid oportet intueri.-Arnobius adv. Gentes, lib. 2.

+ Hæ sunt religiones, quas sibi a majoribus suis traditas, pertinacissimé tueri ac defendere perseverant; nec considerant quales

principles which they have received from their forefathers. What they are, they do not consider; but rely upon them as demonstrated truths, because they received them from their forefathers. And so great is their veneration for antiquity, that to examine it is considered as criminal, and it therefore has, on every occasion, the same credit as known truth."

From these extracts it is evident, that these primitive fathers trod in the steps of their predecessors, the Apostles; and proceeded upon the only proper ground of inquiry, viz. what, and where, was the truth? The latter part of the quotation from Lactantius is very important in another respect, as giving a clue to the real origin of the practice of the church of Rome in after-ages, of withholding the Scriptures from the laity, and the submission of the laity to the deprivation, which, without this clue, appears so astonishing.

The injunction of the Mosaic law was, that the Scriptures should be read in the synagogue every sabbath-day, and be studied by all classes at every possible opportunity. This injunction our blessed Saviour confirms by his command, to search the Scriptures, and in the primitive church they were constantly read. If heresies arose, it was not by shutting, but by opening of the Scriptures, they were repressed, and by an honest reference to the word of

sint; sed ex hoc probatas atque veras esse confidunt, quod eas veteres tradiderunt ; tantaque est auctoritas vetustatis, ut inquirere in eam scelus esse ducatur. Itaque creditur ei passim tanquam cognitæ veritati.-Lactantius de Origine Erroris, lib. 2. cap. 6.

God. It is true, that those who are not permitted to see with their own eyes, may be guided more easily than those who are; but it does not necessarily follow, that they will be guided safely. But the object of the primitive church was, that men should see and examine for themselves, and hence Lactantius thus reproaches the Heathens for not doing so. Every one, therefore, ought, in that especially upon which the principle of conduct depends, to rely each upon himself, to exert his own judgment, and his own senses; to investigate, and accurately sift out the truth, and not, as if devoid of reason, to be deceived by a reliance on the errors of others. God has apportioned to all men, as an attribute of humanity, a faculty of discernment of truth, that they may discover that, of which they have not been informed; and justly estimate that, of which they have been informed. Therefore as this discernment, that is, the means of the acquisition of truth, is innate, those men will divest themselves of it, who, without any exercise of their judgment, approve the inventions of their forefathers, and are led away, like a herd, by them."

Such were the doctrines of the church of Rome,

* Quare oportet, in ea re maximé, in quâ vitæ ratio versatur, sibi quemque confidere, suoque judicio ac propriis sensibus niti ad investigandam et perpendendam veritatem (potius) quam credentem alienis erroribus, decipi tanquam ipsum rationis expertem. Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam, ut et inaudita investigare possint et audita expendere-Quare cum sapere, id est, veritatem quærere, omnibus sit innatum, sapientiam sibi adimunt, qui sine ullo judicio inventa majorum probant, et ab aliis, pecudum more ducunter.-Ibid. cap. 7. Lactantuis de Origine Erroris, lib. 2.

in the days of Arnobius and Lactantius; that is, in the reigns of Dioclesian and Constantine the Great. And according to these it must be meritorious to go out of a church, when it cannot be conscientiously. adhered to.

If every one was to examine the grounds of his faith, the Scriptures must have been, as in truth they were, open to every one. It is evident that the venerable Lactantius was a stranger to the idea of any infallible judge, as such an idea is totally inconsistent with his rule of judgment. In this he, and the whole body of Christians of that day, followed the example of our Saviour and his Apostles. The evidences of Christianity were offered by them to the consideration of every one, and the penalty of resisting conviction referred to the decision of the only competent Judge of the human heart. The Apostles did not address the Gospels or epistles to any individual class, though some of the epistles are addressed to individuals. The rest were addressed to the Christians without distinction, with two very remarkable warnings.

1. That there should arise persons in the church who would corrupt the doctrines, and introduce errors common to the Heathens into it.

2. That they should beware of wresting the sense of Scripture.

The last is given by St. Peter himself, from which it is certain that this Apostle had no conception of any infallible interpreter of Scripture to be left * upon earth for, if he had, the warning would have

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