Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER In. The ancient writers of the Church, who are styled Fathers, are deservedly regarded with 'veneration for their piety, learning, and zeal. From an early period of the revolutionary career of Luther, he professed an utter disregard for their opinions ; in which he was followed by almost all the sectaries of the sixteenth and succeeding centuries : but " the Church of England" as the English Establishment is styled, professed a high veneration for them, notwithstanding the efforts of Middleton and others to lessen their authority. At the present day they are looked up to with increased reverence, especially by those who participate in the sentiments of Dr. Pusey, whilst they are necessarily depreciated by such Protestants as wish to retain an appearance of consistency. In the Catholic Church, the unanimous testimony of the Fathers, in favor of a doctrine, is conclusive evidence of divine tradition; and their concordant exposition of a text of Scripture is a certain guide to its true meaning : but their individual opinions, however worthy of respectful consideration, impose no restraint on our judgment, unless the Church by adopting them add the seal of her authority. In interpreting the Scripture they frequently turned aside from the literal meaning, especially where this was obvious, and had recourse to moral applications, or allegorical expositions, exercising considerable ingenuity in applying the divine words to matters of daily practice, or endeavoring to discover, under the surface of the letter, some reference or allusion to the great mysteries which are elsewhere explicitly propounded. This however, should give greater weight to their testimony, when they professedly declare the literal meaning of the sacred text, especially in matters which were exemplified in ... --This text refers to the Paperback edition.