them-graces which carry us out of ourselves in brotherly regard to others, and make us dependent upon each other

for knowledge and intellectual attainments, as well as in love and charity and as we learn to love God by loving our brethren, so learning to know Him by knowledge of them. T

Yet advance in knowledge is not without danger, and must be accompanied with discrimination to be safe, even though we should acquire that increase of knowledge from the Church. For it should be remembered that many of the most pernicious heresies have arisen unexpectedly in the bosom of the Church, through men who had been deemed faithful, and did not appear to be actuated by enmity or sinister motives. And pestilent error has often been promulgated, not by ignorant and obscure individuals, but by men of eminent station, and distinguished by learning and talent; most of whom were not only regarded by all as faithful followers of Christ before they became heresiarchs, but even after their fall called themselves, and were esteemed by their followers, the only true believers. Nestorius, Apollinarius, and Photinus professed to believe in Christ, and to take the Scriptures for their rule of faith; and it was to detect and refute errors such as those which were held by these self-deluded men-errors springing up in the Church, bin' and appearing to be compatible with holding the Scriptures, and believing in Christ, after their own way, and in a certain sense that the "Commonitorium" was written. And such kind of errors are perpetually arising, not in precisely the same form, but similar in their principle, as errors of private judg ment; and this can only be met effectually in the way proposed by Vincentius for meeting the heresies of his day-namely, by ascertaining the true doctrines which have been held at all times by the one Catholic Church, and insisting upon this truth as the rule and standard by which the doctrines held by particular Churches or single individuals must be tried and adjusted. For Vincent's rule is not for the discovery of unknown truths, but for testing whether that which is proposed to us be the truth. He assumes that truth comes from God comes by revelation; he assumes that it is a sacred deposit committed to the guar dianship of the Church; he assumes that the propositions which need to be tested are made by men in the Church, and that those who apply the test are also of the Church; for if it were not so, there would be little difficulty, and in most cases no question would arise. Those who are in the Church are not troubled by questions which may very much interest or perplex men who are unacquainted with Christianity; the difficulty arises when there is on both sides an equal profession

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of the Christian faith, and each appears to be as sincere in his profession, and as correct in his practice, as the other. such cases, where both cannot be right, a test is required to determine between truth and falsehood; and it may perchance be found that there are forms or semblances of truth on both sides; and the test may convince both of their opposite errors, and lead both to that peace and safety which must result from the removal of error, and the finding an end of their doubts, and repose for their troubled spirits, in the common mother of all-in the bosom of the one Catholic Church. Personal salvation is not the question-is not the point in hand. It is assumed that those who entertain such questions are believers; and it is in order that they may know more of revelation, and keep the analogy of faith while they advance in knowledge, and know things exactly, that they are referred to the collective mind of the Church. Therein the united knowledge of all true believers, of all varieties of character, and of every grade of intellect, is concentrated: and being purified through the grace of God, which abides with the Church, of that alloy which necessarily cleaves to the several portions which each fallible individual has contributed to the common stock, all these several contributions become harmonized and balanced as one whole. And thus all the members of the one body, the Church, have their faults corrected and their knowledge enlarged by the labours of each, and each by the combined experience of all: the sphere of truth is continually enlarged yet it is one truth-it is Catholic; and God is glorified thereby.

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'To the fifth century (writes Bishop Jebb) we are indebted for a writer, who, above all other writers, has settled the rule of Catholic interpretation-Vincent of Lirins. No preceding father has thrown equal light, and from no subsequent theologian has the subject received much additional clearness." is surely something in favour of Vincent's rule that it has been received, extolled, and acted upon, by such men as Ridley, Jewel, Grotius, Overall, Hammond, Beveridge, Bull, Hickes, Bramhall, Grabe, Cave, and Archbishop King; that it has been admitted expressly even by Chillingworth; and that it has been unreservedly acknowledged as a just and true guide by Bishop Taylor, in his last works. "The second question (says Archbishop Usher), so rife in the mouths of our adversaries, is-Where was your Church before Luther? Whereunto an answer may be returned from the grounds of the solution of the former question that our Church was even there where it now is. In all places of the world where the ancient foun

dations were retained, and those common principles of faith, upon the profession of which men have ever been wont to be admitted by baptism into the Church of Christ, there we doubt not but our Lord had his subjects and we our fellow-servants; for we bring in no new faith, nor new Church, That which, in the time of the ancient fathers, was accounted to be truly and properly Catholic-viz.: that which was believed every where, always, and by all (Vin, Lir. cont. hær.)-that, in the succeeding ages, hath evermore been preserved, and is at this day entirely professed in our Church. We preach no new faith, but the same Catholic faith that ever hath been preached: neither was it our meaning to begin a new Church in these latter days, but to reform the old." "In that the Church is in doubt (says Bishop Ridley), I use herein the wise counsel of Vincentius Lirinensis, who I am sure you will allow. He, giving precepts how the Catholic Church may be, in all schisms and heresies, known, writeth, 'When one part is corrupted with heresies, then prefer the whole world before that one part; but if the greatest part be infected, then prefer antiquity.

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"For when this our English Church (says Bishop Beveridge), through long communion with the Roman Church, had contracted like stains with her, from which it was necessary that we should be cleansed, they who took that excellent and very necessary work in hand, fearing that they, like others, might rush from one extreme to the other, removed indeed those things, as well doctrines as ceremonies, which the Roman Church had newly and insensibly superinduced, and, as was fit, abrogated them utterly. Yet, notwithstanding, whatsoever things had been, at all times, believed and observed, by all Christians, in- all places, those things they most religiously took care not so to abolish with them. For they well knew that all particular Churches are to be formed on the model of the Universal Church, since, according to that general and received - rule in ethics, every part which agreeth not with its whole is therein base. Hence, therefore, these first Reformers of this particular Church directed the whole line of that Reformation which they undertook according to the rule of the whole or Universal Church; casting away those things only which had either been unheard of, or rejected, by the Universal Church, but most religiously retaining those which they saw, on the other hand, corroborated by the consent of the Universal Church. Whence it hath been brought to pass, that though we have not communion with the Roman, nor with certain other particular Churches, as at this day constituted; yet have we abiding communion with the Universal and Ca

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tholic Church, of which, evidently, ours, as by the aid of God first constituted, and by his pity still preserved, is the perfect image and representation. But when we are speaking of the UNIVERSAL Church, and its agreement, regard is to be had especially to the PRIMITIVE Church: inasmuch as, although it be only a part of the whole, yet is it universally agreed that it was the more pure and genuine part...... insomuch that there can exist no doubt, but that, at least, during two or three ages from the apostles, the Church flourished in her primitive vigour, and, so to say, in her virgin state-that is, in the same condition in which she had been left by the apostles themselves; except that, from time to time, new heresies burst forth, even in those days, by which the Church was indeed harassed, but in no way corrupted; clearly no more than the Church, strictly apostolic, was perverted by those errors, which arose whilst the apostles were yet living: for they had scarcely time to rise up, before they were rejected by the Catholic Church. Which things, therefore, notwithstanding, the Universal Church, which followed, ever held that PRIMITIVE Church to be most pure; and in refuting all heresies which afterwards arose, appealed to her as the rule of other Churches. For if any one endeavoured to bring anything new into the doctrine or discipline of the Church, those fathers who opposed themselves to him, whether individually or assembled together in a body, sought their arguments, as out of holy Scripture, so also out of the doctrines and traditions of the Church of the first ages. For this is observable in nearly all acts of councils, and commentaries of individual fathers, wherever ecclesiastical controverIsies are discussed.??

-" If we mistake not the signs of the times (says Bp. Kaye), the period is not far distant when the whole controversy between thed English and Romish Churches will be revived, and all the points in dispute again brought under review. Of these points, none is more important than the question respecting tradition and it is therefore most essential, that they who stands forth as the defenders of the Church of England should take a borrect and rational view of the subject the view, in short, which was taken by our divines at the Reformation. Nothing was more remote from their intention than indiscriminately to condemn all tradition/They knew that, as far as external evidence is concerned, the tradition preserved in the Church is the only ground on which the genuineness of the books of Scripture can be established: For though we are hoty upon the authority of the Church, bound to receive as Scripture any book which contains internal evidence of its own

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