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authority in ecclesiastical matters, or assume the exclusive truth of any one form of Christianity. It must look mainly to the numbers of each religious persuasion, in deciding the question of endowments for religious and educational purposes; and to the religion of parents in establishing the rules for determining the creed in which children, incapable of judging for themselves, are to be brought up.

The Church of Rome makes boldly the claim of authority for its own decisions. But there is a large, and that not the least enlightened and intelligent, portion of the Christian world which peremptorily denies this claim. Moreover, even among its own members, there is great difference of opinion as to the organs of that authority. The ultramontane doctrines differ on this head from those of some of the national churches. Decisions, which some classes of Roman-catholics consider as authoritative, others refuse to admit as genuine expressions of the voice of the church.

Even if it is conceded that the teaching of the church carries with it an authority binding upon the consciences of all the faithful, yet there is no general agreement as

him; for of those who run from one communion to another, they are such who do not pretend to judge of arguments, or such who seldom give an account of their true inducements," &c., p. 241, ed. fol. And in his History of the Rebellion, he says-" Our observation and experience can give us few examples of men who have changed their religion, and not fallen into some jealousy and distrust, or disreputation, even with those with whom they side, that have made their future life less pleasant and delightsome; which, it may be, happens only because we have rare instances of men of extraordinary parts, or great minds, who have entertained those conversions," vol. iv. p. 317, ed. 12mo.

* On this subject, some further remarks are made in Chapter IX.

to the extent of the church, or the communion signified by this term. The member of the Church of Rome limits the acceptation of church to his own church; Protestants include under it different ecclesiastical communities, agreeing only in the profession of the Christian faith, or agreeing in certain fundamental tenets, such as the Athanasian doctrine of the Trinity—or in a certain form of church government, such as episcopacy. Even as to the term "Catholic church," there is no general agreement in Christendom. The historical usage limits this term to the Church of Rome, which never was a universal church, in the sense of its including, de facto, all Christians; but was universal, or Catholic, only in the sense of its claiming to be orthodox, and therefore to include, de jure, all Christendom, and also as not being a merely national church, but comprehending several nations and countries. Protestant divines in general, however, extend the term Catholic church either to all Christendom,* or they limit it by some condition, as to which there is a variety of opinion. The "Catholic church," or "Catholic consent" of the modern Oxford school, is a perfectly arbitrary standard, which can satisfy no marked denomination of Christians. Of what avail is it to imagine an invisible ideal church, formed of such heterogeneous and mutually repelling bodies, as the Church of Rome, the Greek Church, and the Church of England? What agreement exists, or can exist, between them, and how can it be defined or expressed?

* As to the claim of the reformed churches to be members of the Catholic church, and the declarations on the subject in their confessions, see Klee, Kathol. Dogmatik, vol. i. p. 98. See Bretschneider, Glaubenslehre, § 55, for the views of the modern German Protestants on the meaning of "Catholic church." As to Jurieu's doctrine, see Palmer, vol. i. p. 128.

The Church of Rome, by its authentic organs, proscribes the Church of England as heretical, and will hold no communion or church-membership with it. The Church of England lays it down, in an equally authentic manner, that the Church of Rome has erred in matters both of faith and discipline; and authoritative divines of the Anglican Church teach that the Church of Rome is a church without a religion. Under these circumstances, no practical solution of sectarian differences can be derived by a reference to "Catholic consent," so determined.

It follows that no person can accept the doctrines of the Church of Rome, upon the mere authority of the rulers and doctors of that church, with the same well-founded security against error which he possesses for his belief in adopting the established truths of astronomy or mechanics, upon the mere credit of mathematicians and men of science.

The same objection, founded on the absence of a general agreement, or tendency to agreement, among the principal theologians of Christendom, applies also to each of the Protestant creeds. The existence of the non-Protestant sects weakens the authority of the divines of the Protestant churches; the existence of the non-Catholic sects weakens the authority of the divines of the Church of Rome. The authority of each Protestant church is, again, still further weakened by the existence of mutual differences between Protestants as to their respective tenets.*

Besides which, the Protestant writers lay less stress on the authoritative teaching of the church; they admit

* See Bossuet, Variations des Eglises Protestantes, Pref. sect. 16.

that national churches have erred; and they hold that no doctrine of any church is binding, unless it can be proved by Scripture. The teaching of the church is not, as such, according to them, decisive; it must be demonstrably founded on Scripture authority. Add to which, that while they refer to Scripture as their exclusive canon of religious truth, they scarcely claim to possess any rule of interpreting Scripture, or of resolving doubts as to the signification of particular passages. For the interpretation of Scripture, each Protestant church relies upon the expositions of approved commentators, and, in doctrinal passages, principally on those of its own communion, but without setting up any infallible rule or standard of interpretation.*

§ 15. On account of the intrinsic obscurity and transcendental nature of the leading ideas in theology, and of the difficulty of arriving, even with the aid of revelation, at distinct and intelligible conclusions on subjects lying without the domain of human consciousness or sensation, it would be extremely desirable, for the guidance of people in general, that a consentient authority in questions of Christian theology should exist. The attempts to remove error, to enlighten dissidents from the true faith, to create a trustworthy authority in things spiritual, and to produce a unity of the church, have been ill-devised and unsuccessful-but they have almost invariably been sincere. They have originated in a sense of the evils springing from diversity of religious opinion, without a common living point of reference, and of the advantages likely to accrue from uniformity of

* See the Protestant doctrine of Scripture-interpretation explained at large, by Jeremy Taylor, in the Liberty of Prophesying, sect. 4.

faith and church discipline. Instead, however, of resorting to conciliatory courses, and of endeavouring to diminish differences by amicable explanations and mutual concessions, the teachers of theology and leaders of churches and sects have, in general, condemned diversities of opinion with asperity, and in a confident and intolerant spirit, which has provoked retaliation and perpetuated division. By seeking thus to propagate truth in a matter in which allowances ought peculiarly to be made for difference of opinion, divines have multiplied controversies beyond all reasonable limits; so that the most patient student is bewildered in the labyrinth of discussion, and the most deferential inquirer is at a loss to which authority he is to bow. When, however, a person, either from a firm reliance on the creed of the church in which he has been brought up, or from independent examination, is satisfied of the general truth of the doctrines of any particular church, he will naturally regard with respect the divines who are considered as authorities within that religious communion. In all controversies and discussions, too, carried on between members of the same church, the works of the received text-writers and leading divines of that church will be referred to as a common authority and standard of decision. It is in this sense that the Church of England, according to the opinion of the best expositors of its articles, claims authority in matters of faith, (Art. XX.) Its authority is limited to its own members.

This is, in substance, the view of church authority which is taken by Hooker. In determining the Rule of Faith, he places Scripture in the first rank; and, in the next, such direct and manifest inferences from it as each person may make by his own unassisted judgment. The last place he assigns to the authority of the church,

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