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 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 LONDON: HATCHARD AND SON, 187, PICCADILLY. MDCCCXXXVIII. 611. 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 momentous character of the question here discussed, is an additional cause for selfdistrust and hesitation. We cannot speak or write on such a subject, without remembering that our words affect the very foundations of men's religious belief, that a false view must in this case influence the whole tenor of the Christian's hope and practice. And therefore I would say in all honesty, that it is in trembling that I venture to speak thus decidedly on these solemn things. My grounds for my confidence and boldness are these; that the sentiments which I have endeavoured to advocate are regarded by multitudes of the wise and good of the present and past ages as the very corner-stone of the Protestant faith; that I am encouraged to make this attempt by men of far greater age and experience than myself, for whose judgment I cannot but feel great deference; that having been called by the circumstances of God's Providence to the repeated examination of the question, I have experienced a daily increasing conviction, that the views here V maintained are sanctioned not only by the great body of the reformers and martyrs of our Church, and by many other most holy men, but by God Himself; and lastly, that no connected view of the arguments here adduced has been put forward by any man more entitled through his years and station to undertake the task at the present juncture. Whoever we are, too, our spirits must burn within us, when we behold a theory rapidly spreading in the Church of Christ, which we humbly, but firmly, believe to be in no slight degree injurious to the progress of the Gospel of God. If I have spoken presumptuously or dogmatically; or have misrepresented the views of any other person; or have in any way violated that Christian charity which we are bound to practise, even when combatting sentiments against which we feel ourselves compelled earnestly to struggle; I do most sincerely grieve that I have been betrayed into such evil doing. And I earnestly desire to be enabled to pray, in all singleness of heart, that I may not be |