CONTENTS OF THE FIFTH NUMBER.

DEDICATORY LETTER

THE AUTHOR AND HIS OPPONENTS.

A GENERAL REPLY TO OBJECTIONS, BY A RE-STATEMENT OF THE
QUESTION.

What the Question is not - The Deference claimed for Antiquity
must be challenged on the assumed Ground of FACT, or Hy-
POTHESIS, OF THEORY . .

The Question stated concerning the assumed FACT — Illustration
of the Bearing of this Question on the present Controversy
SALVIAN, of Marseilles, his Time and Character

His Evidence as to the Condition of the Christian World, at the
Close of the Nicene Era

His Declarations as to the universal pravity of the Church, and the general Corruption of Morals

40

4.7

The Motive of the Caution he uses as to the Monks and Clergy.. Comparative moral Condition of the Catholic Church, and the heretical Barbarians

51

State of North Africa, and Morals of the Carthaginian Church . 65 Romanism a Reform of Ancient Christianity.

.

69

The Value of Salvian's Evidence.

74

Inquiry as to the internal or spiritual Condition of the Nicene
Church

80

.

Alternative as to the Genuiness of the Evidence now to be produced

82

The Ascetic Miracles.

The Historia Religiosa of Theodoret

A Comparison, on several Points, between Ancient and Modern
Piety

. . 118

129

The total Absence of Evangelical Sentiments among those reckoned the most Eminent for Sanctity in the ancient Church

86

87

89

102

104

115

TO THE VENERABLE

THOMAS BEWLEY MONSELL,

ARCHDEACON OF DERRY,

AND PRECENTOR OF CHRIST'S CHURCH, DUBLIN.

MY DEAR SIR;

I AM very sensible of the kindness of your late communications, and set a high value upon the expressions they contain of your continued and cordial regard. And yet, how vivid soever may be the pleasure with which I think of your steady friendship, it is with still more satisfaction that I find you declaring your confirmed conviction of the goodness of the cause which I have ventured thus actively to espouse.

It has appeared to you, as to others, and I believe to some of the best informed and most intelligent of my readers, that the various criticisms of which these numbers have been the subject, have exhibited more ill feeling and vexation than solid argument; and that the writers, while evidently impelled by an earnest wish to drive me altogether from the field, have left me undisturbed in the position I at first assumed; and have done me as little damage, in their eager assault upon the details of my evidence, as could well be supposed, considering its extent and variety, the vastness of the mass whence it has been drawn, the urgent circumstances under which it has been collected; as well as

the learning, the acuteness, and the animosity of those employed to demolish it.

These various and animated assaults have however, and for the reasons which I have stated in the early pages of this number, determined me to divert from the plan which I had laid down. I have indeed no wish to extend these numbers beyond the limit of another—that is to say, a second volume; but I am almost indifferent as to the particular subjects with which the remaining pages shall be occupied ;—only anxious to make good, in the opinion of impartial and intelligent readers, whatever I have already, and deliberately affirmed. This I confidently hope to do; and whether my purpose be effected in one manner, or in another, is with me a point of secondary consideration.

In stating the course which I am now taking, I wish particularly to save you, my dear sir, the mortification of thinking, or of being told, that I mean to evade meeting the objections or exceptions of my critics and reviewers. Every objection which has any colour of reason, and every exception which an impartial reader might wish to see disposed of (so far as such objections or exceptions may come to my knowledge) I hope fairly to encounter, and to do so in a manner that shall not expose me to the danger of forfeiting your good opinion, or that of any who have hitherto honoured me therewith. And I will here express my wish that, as I advance, if to you, or to any other candid reader, it shall seem that I am failing to afford the satisfaction which you, or they may desire, I may receive frank intimations, to that effect.

But you will grant that, in arranging the materials of my reply, I am free to dispose of them in the manner which, to myself, seems the most effective. It might indeed best have pleased some of my opponents, if, like an irritated controvertist, I had turned to the details affecting my personal share in the argument; and had, while so occupied, and while running hither and thither, in pursuit

of petty criticisms, abandoned the great argument which is now at issue. I shall not take this course; not even to oblige those critics to whose candour, temper, and gentlemanly bearing, I am so much indebted.

Instead of doing so, I shall first endeavour, by stating the argument anew, and by supporting it with fresh and ample proofs, to establish the momentous allegation—That the ancient church, notwithstanding its eminent merits in some instances, had, at an early time, fatally departed from apostolic Truth ;-that, in consequence of this departure, or apostasy, it wandered into paths of dangerous and puerile superstition, and became abandoned to the belief of lies;-AND THEREFORE, that any endeavour, in whatever way modified or disguised, to follow the leading of that church, or to revive its characteristic principles, or to imitate its usages, is to be deprecated in the most decisive

manner.

When I shall have done my best to make good these— my original allegations, I shall address myself to particular objections; or to such of them at least, as may not have been virtually and satisfactorily disposed of in the course of the more general argument.

It may happen to the commander of a vessel, or of a fort, to be attacked, at the same moment, by a public foe, and by a private enemy. In such a case a loyal man would, I think, first fight his ship, or defend his fort, in duty to his king and country-happen what might to himself; and having done so, he would turn to the assailant of his personal honour. I must follow this example. Let not my critics say, meantime, that I wish to forget them.

With the view, at once, of excluding exceptions, and of enabling the impartial reader to form his own opinion of the fidelity of my representations, I have determined, without regarding the severe labour it involves, to produce all the original passages on which any stress is laid; and these I shall accompany with such notes and illustrations,