Before we enter upon the next branch of our proposed inquiry, allow me
to premise that I am induced to examine into the evidence of Christian
antiquity not by any misgiving, lest the testimony of Scripture might
appear defective or doubtful; far less by any unworthy notion that God's
word needs the additional support of the suffrages of man[18]. On the
contrary, the voice of God in his revealed word is clear, certain, and
indisputable, commanding the invocation of Himself alone in acts of
religious worship, and condemning any such departure from that
singleness of adoration, as they are {62} seduced into, who invoke
saints and angels. And it is a fixed principle in our creed, that where
God's written word is clear and certain, human evidence cannot be
weighed against it in the balance of the sanctuary. When the Lord hath
spoken, well does it become the whole earth to be silent before him;
when the eternal Judge Himself hath decided, the witness of man bears on
its very face the stamp of incompetency and presumption.

[Footnote 18: While some authors seem to go far towards the
substitution of the fathers for the written word of God, others
in their abhorrence of that excess have run into the opposite,
fancying, as it would seem, that they exalt the Divine oracles
just in the same proportion as they disparage the uninspired
writers of the Church. The great body of the Church of England
adhere to a middle course, and adopt that golden mean, which
ascribes to the written Word its paramount authority, from which
is no appeal, and yet honours Catholic tradition as the handmaid
of the truth.]

For myself I can say (what I have good hope these pages will of
themselves evince) that no one can value the testimony of Christian
tradition within its own legitimate sphere more sincerely, or more