system of priestcraft, destructive of Christian liberty.

Now, it is no paradox to say that _this_ would be a sufficient answer to
such a speculation, were there no other, viz., that no answer _can_ be
made to it. I say, supposing it could not be answered at all, that fact
would be a fair answer. All discussion must have data to go upon;
without data, neither one party can dispute nor the other. If I
maintained there were negroes in the moon, I should like to know how
these same philosophers would answer me. Of course they would not
attempt it: they would confess they had no grounds for denying it, only
they would add, that I had no grounds for asserting it. They would not
prove that I was wrong, but call upon me to prove that I was right.
They would consider such a mode of talking idle and childish, and
unworthy the consideration of a serious man; else, there would be no end
of speculation, no hope of certainty and unanimity in anything. Is a man
to be allowed to say what he will, and bring no reasons for it? Even if
his hypothesis fitted into the facts of the case, still it would be but
an hypothesis, and might be met, perhaps, in the course of time, by
another hypothesis, presenting as satisfactory a solution of them. But
if it would not be necessarily true, though it were adequate, much less
is it entitled to consideration before it is proved to be
adequate--before it is actually reconciled with the facts of the case;
and when another hypothesis has, from the beginning, been in the
possession of the field. From the first it has been believed that the
Catholic system is Apostolic; convincing reasons must be brought against
this belief, and in favour of another, before that other is to be
preferred to it.

Now the new and gratuitous hypothesis in question does not appear, when
examined, even to harmonize with the facts of the case. One mode of
dealing with it is this:--Take a large view of the faith of Christians
during the centuries before Constantine established their religion. Is
there any family likeness in it to Protestantism? Look at it, as
existing during that period in different countries, and is it not one
and the same, and a reiteration of itself, as well as singularly unlike
Reformed Christianity? Hermas with his visions, Ignatius with his
dogmatism, Irenaeus with his praise of tradition and of the Roman See,
Clement with his allegory and mysticism, Cyprian with his "Out of the
Church is no salvation," a