“THE FATHERS.”
Concerning these gentlemen who are regraded by some as the great lights of Christianity, Mr. Chandler says, “It is infinite, it is endless labour to consult all that the Fathers have written, and when we have consulted them, what one controversy have they rationally decided? How few texts of Scripture have they critically settled the sense and meaning of? How often do they differ from one another, and in how many instances from themselves? Those who read them, greatly differ in their interpretation of them, and men of the most contrary sentiments all claim them for their own. Athanasians and Arians all appeal to the Fathers, and support their principles by quotations from them. And are these the venerable gentlemen, whose writings are to be set up in opposition to the Scriptures? Are creeds of their dictating to be submitted to as the only criterion of orthodoxy? or esteemed as standards to distinguish between truth and error? Away with this folly and superstition! The creeds of the Fathers and Councils are but human creeds that have marks in them of human frailty and ignorance.”—Introd. Hist. Inquis.
M J. Barbeyrac declares himself thus concerning them: “The Fathers, you say, whom you regard as the propagators of the Christian Religion, must necessarily have been men of true piety and knowledge; but it has been maintained and proved to you by a great number of instances, that the Fathers have not only fallen into very gross errors, and been most profoundly ignorant of many things which they ought to have known; but, further, that most of them have more or less suffered themselves to be led by passion; so that their conduct has been found frequently to be such as is neither regular nor justifiable.” Again, “In the first ages of Christianity, and those that followed after, the men most applauded, and who bore the greatest character in the church, were not always those that had the greatest share of good sense; or were the most eminent for learning and virtue.”—Hist. Scien. Moral.
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