Caa?. �.] TaB FATam. 163 s?ribe the Florentine Oouneil, where the Latins displayed all their stratagem. And among the Latin fathers Tertullian,' Ambrose,t Au- gustine,? Hilary,? Prudentius,] and Lactantius.�ese fathers ars known to be of the opinion that the souls of the saints are "in abditis reeeptaculis et exterioribus atriis," in ldddsn reetpta?let and extsrior /?/?, where they expect the resurrection of their bodies and the glori- ticaxion of their souls; and though they all believe them to be happy, yet they enjoy not the beatific vision befm?e the resurrection. 6. Ti? fatlun? coatrad?t each otl?r in many ?ings. Augustine did not think the fathers before him to be infallible, when it is plain that in many doctrines he differed from his predecessors. And when, in a questioa between himself and St. Jerome, about St. Peter and the second clmp?er to the Galatiaus, he was pressed wi? the suthority of six or seven Greek fathers, he answered tha? he gsve no such honour to any writers of books as to think them not to have erred, but to the Scriptures only. He believed other authors when they taught accord- in$ to $cfipture, not because they thought so, but because he thought them to have uttered truth. And he appeals to Jeroma whether he was not of the same mind respecting his own works.*' The fathers maintained but lit fie agreement among themselves, upon many occasions, respecting principal and important matters. Theo- philus, Epiphanius, Chrysostom, Augustine, Ruffin, and Jerome, being aJJ Christians, being all Catholics, being all fathers, contended against ona another with great animosity. The Greeks sad Latins were di- vided about ?d bread, and keeping of Easter, which were no? matters of snfficient importance to cause contentions. In their coun- cils, too, n?w er?n/? and n?o decrees were continually devised. Theophilus called Epiphanias/m'?/ar?h. Gennadius said that Au- gustine was not fax from being a heretic. Pope Boniface II. said that Aurelius, bishop of Carthage, Augustine, and other bishops in the Council of Africa, were spurred on and inspired of the devil. Their ditmenaions led Erasmus to say, in his preface to the works of Jerome, that at the time of the fathers the faith was in books rather than in the heart, and there were as many sundry creeds as there were professors of the faith. Hence the heathen upbraid the Christians in the follow- lag t?rms: "Ye Christians dissent among yourselves, and maintain so many sects, which, though they all claim the name of Christian, one of them curseth and condemneth another: therefore your religion is not lrue, nor hath her beginning nor ground from God."? Now we would ask, if the fathers are to be looked up to as the standards interpretation, what can we expect from them .by way of explanation of many points when themselves are very much divided ? 7. TAe fafAert co,widerfd ? LNTERPRBTBR8 0fScf?ttft0. Considered motely as expositors of Scripture, the fathers cannot poesen the quali- t? ascribed to them by the Church of Rome. Some of their inter- ?ns ate contradictory to each other. Some of them ate at vari- an? with the (3hurnh of Rome, Here6eal d?ctrin?s are taught by
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