Lincoln.

"Certainly we are Christians, and revere the doctrines of the Apostles."

"What say you of the remedies for sin?"

"I know of one only, which is the blood of Christ our Lord."

"How!--are the sacraments no remedies?"

"Certainly not."

"Is sin not remitted in baptism?"

"No."

"Is not the blood of Christ applied to sinners in the holy Eucharist?"

"I utterly refuse such a doctrine."

"What say you of marriage? is that a sacrament?"

"I do not believe it."

"Ha! the man is all right, is he?" whispered old Winchester satirically
to his young neighbour, Worcester.

"Doth not Saint Paul term marriage `_sacramentum magnum_'?"

"He did not write in Latin."

This was awkward. The heretic knew rather too much.

"Are you aware that all the holy doctors are against you?"

"I am not responsible for their opinions."

"Do you not accept the interpretation of the Church?"

What his Lordship meant by this well-sounding term was a certain bundle
of ideas--some of them very illiterate, some very delicate
hair-splitting, some curious even to comicality,--gathered out of the
writings of a certain number of men, who assuredly were not inspired,
since they often travesty Scripture, and at times diametrically
contradict it. Having lived in the darkest times of the Church, they
were extremely ignorant and superstitious, even the best of them being
enslaved by fancies as untrue in fact as they were unspiritual in tone.
It might well have been asked as the response, Where is it?--for no
Church, not even that of Rome herself, has ever put forward an
authorised commentary explanatory of holy Scripture. Her
"interpretation of the Church" has to be gathered here and there by
abstruse study, and so far as her lay members are concerned, is
practically received from the lips of the nearest priest. Gerhardt,
however, did not take this line in replying, but preferred to answer the
Bishop's inaccurate use of the word Church, which Rome impudently denies
to all save her corrupt self. He replied--

"Of the true Church, which is the elect of God throughout all ages,
fore-ordained to eternal life? I see no reason to refuse it."

The Scriptural doctrine of predestination has been compared to "a red
rag" offered to a bull, in respect of its effect on those--whether
votaries of idols or latitudinarianism--who are conscious that they are
not the subjects of saving grace. To none is it more offensive than to
a devout s