History of Presbyterianr’sm

reverently to its inspired dictum. No less, indeed, in matters of practice than of doctrine must we ever unhesitatingly bow to its unerring authority, and more especially so in every thing which may possibly pertain to the right management of the house of God. We must never forget that in reference to all things extraneous to that house our Saviour him- self has positively commanded, “Take these things hence.” So too, Roman Catholics claim that they have tradition as well as revelation to guide them in this as in many other ecclesiastical affairs. But nowhere in the New Testament do we find any tradition or oral information of any kind mentioned as binding on any parties whatever save on those only who had received them directly from the lips of those by whom they were originally propounded and with regard to which, at the time, there could have been no possibility of any mistake. This, how- ever, is an entirely different matter from giving heed to traditions falsely so called, professing to have come down to us second-handed, from mouth to mouth through many successive generations, and which manifestly on this account, if even they could be proved to have ever possessed any real founda- tion in facts, must long ere this have become so ut- terly perverted as to have completely lost all pre— tense whatever to genuine authenticity, and to be now at least destitute of the very smallest vestige of reliability. All such pretended traditions can no more, therefore, stand the test of the every- day experience of ordinary common sense than of

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