interpreters was founded high by the Catholic writers; and the clamour was fo great and fo popular, that the Protestants knew not how, confiftently with their own principles, or even in mere decency, to decline the appeal which was thus confidently made to that tribunal. The Reformers, too, piqued themfelves on their fuperior skill in antient literature; and were ashamed to have it thought that their adverfaries could have any advantage againft them in a dispute, which was to be carried on in that quarter. Other confiderations had, perhaps, their weight with particular churches: But, for thefe reafons, chiefly, all of them forwardly closed in with the propofal of trying their caufe at the bar of the antient church: And, thus, fhifting their ground, maintained henceforth, not that the fcriptures were the fole rule of faith, but the fcriptures, as interpreted by the primitive fathers.

When the state of the queftion was thus changed, it was eafy to fee what would be the

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the iffue of fo much indifcretion. The difpute was not only carried on in a dark and remote scene, into which the people could not follow their learned champions; but was rendered infinitely tedious, and, indeed, interminable. For those early writings, now to be confidered as of the highest authority, were voluminous in themselves; and, what was worse, were compofed in fo loofe, fo declamatory, and often in fo hyperbolical a ftrain, that no certain fenfe could be affixed to their doctrines, and any thing, or every thing, might, with fome plausibility, be proved from them.

The inconvenience was fenfibly felt by the Proteftant world. And, after a prodigious wafte of industry and erudition, a learned foreigner [7], at length, fhewed the inutility and the folly of purfuing the conteft any further. In a well-confidered difcourfe, On the use of the Fathers, he clearly evinced, that their authority was [] M. Daillé,

much lefs, than was generally fuppofed, in all points of religious controverfy; and that their judgement was especially incompetent in thofe points, which were agitated by the two parties. He evinced this conclufion by a variety of unanswerable arguments; and chiefly by fhewing that the matters in debate were, for the most part, fuch as had never entered into the heads of thofe old writers, being, indeed, of much later growth, and having first sprung up in the barbarous ages. They could not, therefore, decide on queftions, which they had no occafion to confider, and had, in fact, never confidered; however their carelefs or figurative expreffion might be made to look that way, by the dextrous management of the controverfialists.

This difcovery had great effects. It opened the eyes of the more candid and intelligent inquirers: And our incomparable Chillingworth, with fome others [m], [m] Lord Falkland, Lord Digby, Dr. Jer. Taylor, &c.

took

took the advantage of it to fet the controverfy with the church of Rome, once more, on its proper foot; and to establish, for ever, the old principle, THAT THE Bible, and that only, (interpreted by our best reason) IS THE RELIGION OF PROTEST

ANTS.

Thus, ONE of the two pillars, on which the Proteftant caufe had been established, was happily restored. And, though Mr. Mede, about the fame time, fucceeded as well in his attempts to replace the OTHER, yet, through many concurring prejudices, the merit of that fervice hath not, hitherto, been fo generally acknowledged. Whether the Pope be the Antichrift of the prophets, is ftill by fome Proteftants made a question. Yet, it seems as if it would not continue very long to be fo: And it may not be too much to expect, that this inftitution will, hereafter, contribute to put an end to the dispute.

The Reformation will, then, be fecured against the two invidious charges of SCHISM

and

and HERESY (for neither of which is there any ground, if the Pope be Antichrist, and if the fole Rule of faith to a Chriftian be the canonical scriptures) and will, thus, ftand immoveably on its antient and proper foundations.

In faying this, I do not, however, mean to affert, that the Reformation has no support, but in this principle-that the Pope is Antichrift. There are various other confiderations, which are decifive in the controversy between us and the Papists. So that, if the prophecies fhould, after all, be found to fuit any other perfon or power, better than the Roman Pontif, we shall only have one argument the less to urge againft his pretenfions, and the Proteftant caufe, in the mean time, ftands fecure. But, on the fuppofition that the prophecies are rightly, and must be exclusively, applied to the church of Rome (of which every man will judge for himself, from the evidence hereafter to be laid before him)

on