Now to quote sentences of the Fathers, as we do texts of Holy Writ, as being infallibly conclusive, (which has been done by writers of the Roman Church, especially before Daillé’s time,) can only be done in ignorance or in bad faith; because every person acquainted with them knows that, like all uninspired writers, they differ from each other and from themselves. But if we simply quote them as persons whose opinion or testimony ought to have with us very great weight, either for what they were in themselves, or for the age in which they lived, this is a quite different matter; it is constantly done in the Homilies of the Church; and there surely can be no valid objection to it. We do not hesitate to appeal to the judgment of the great lights of our own Church, and to regard their dicta as not to be lightly questioned, partly for their own learning, judgment, and piety, (as Hooker, Sanderson, Wilson, Waterland,) partly for the era in which they flourished, (as Cranmer, Ridley, Jewel:) we give them authority over our own minds, and in deciding controversies between ourselves; and what valid objection can be raised to our giving corresponding weight to the worthies of more ancient times? And as the earliest writers conversed either with Apostles, or with those who had heard the Apostles, it is natural to attribute greater weight to their words than to those of subsequent writers. And what if they do show whilst writing, that they had no anticipation of being guides to posterity? what if they caution us against trusting them implicitly, and recommend us to search the Scriptures for ourselves? what if they were sometimes in error? Do not all these circumstances apply to those more modern authors whom we do not hesitate to recognize as, in themselves, authorities? and why then should we be reluctant to yield to the more ancient that authority, as individuals, which all subsequent time has accorded to them? Authority may be great without being infallible. Authority may have weighty influence upon the judgment without directly binding the conscience. These remarks and arguments are capable of being stated much more fully, and of being illustrated by instances throughout; but to do so would require a separate treatise; and it has been thought better to produce them thus nakedly than to omit them altogether. It is proper to state that the editions of Irenæus and of other Fathers referred to are chiefly the Benedictine: Clement of Alexandria is quoted in the edition of Klotz, and Eusebius in that of Zimmermann. SUBSCRIBERS’ NAMES. Her Majesty Adelaide The Queen Dowager. The Most Reverend William Howley, D.D., Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of all England, 2 copies. The Most Reverend Edward Harcourt, D.C.L., Lord Archbishop of York, Primate of England. The Most Reverend John George Beresford, D.D., Lord Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of all Ireland. The Right Reverend Edward Maltby, D.D., Lord Bishop of Durham.