2. Yet the learned Albert Pighius scruples not to assert: that _General Councils are_, _not of divine_, _but of merely human_, _institution_; that _They originate only from a dictate of right reason_, _because doubtful matters may be better debated by many than by few_, _more especially when the many are prudent and experienced persons_; that _In the canonical Scriptures there is not a word about General Councils_, _nor from the institution of the Apostles did the primitive Church of Christ receive any thing special respecting them_: and that _From theological grounds it is impossible to demonstrate that the whole Church ought to be represented by a General Council_. {61d} V. Pass we next to the evidence upon which _all_ the manifold peculiarities of Romanism claim to repose. 1. The members of the Council of Trent declare: that, _In settling and defining the doctrines and practices of their Church_, _they follow the_ UNANIMOUS CONSENT AND TESTIMONY of the Holy Fathers. {62a} 2. Yet a modern romish doctor, Mr. Husenbeth, has been driven to confess: that, _Although the Latin Clergy_ OUGHT _to be able to trace every point of what he calls Catholic Faith up to the Apostles_, _they_, _in truth_, CANNOT _trace their peculiarities up to the Apostles_ THROUGH THE TESTIMONY OF THE FATHERS OF THE THREE FIRST CENTURIES. {62b} IV. How persons, who make such acknowledgments, can still have adhered to the communion of the Church of Rome, I pretend not to comprehend, and therefore cannot explain. Suffice it to say: that the acknowledgments _have_ been made, and that the individuals have nevertheless most unaccountably maintained and defended their unsubstantiated and confessedly unsubstantiable peculiarities. CHAPTER IX. EXTRAORDINARY THEOLOGICAL PRACTICES OF THE ROMISH CLERGY. REMARKABLE as are the acknowledgments made by the Romish Clergy, their theological practices will be found not less worthy the attention of the honest and conscientious inquirer. I. The general PRINCIPLE, on which these practices are constructed, is very clearly and distinctly laid down by the Professors of Douay. _In managing the old catholic writers when in disputation opposed to us by our adversaries_, say they, _we endure very many errors_. _Sometimes_, _we extenuate them_: _sometimes_, _we excuse them_: _very frequently_, _having devised some plausible comment_, _we even roundly deny them altogether_, _affixing to them some convenient sense_. {63a} II. Such is the avowed PRINCIPLE of these ingenious divines, through the medium of which when reduced to practice, a troublesome old author, whose claim to catholicity cannot be quite decently denied, by dint of judicious explaining and managing and correcting and garbling and interpolating, may be compelled, either apparently to uphold, or at least not to contradict, the peculiarities advocated by the Romish Clergy. Let us now, descending to particulars, mark how the PRINCIPLE is reduced to PRACTICE.