Page:Characteristicks of men, manners, opinions, times Vol 3.djvu/328

320 self a sufficient Guide and Rule. They urg'd again and again that known Saying of a fam'd Controversial Divine of our Church against the Divines of another, "That the Scripture, the Scripture was the Religion of Protestants."

To this our Gentleman, at first, reply'd only, by desiring them to explain their word, and by inquiring into the Original of this Collection of antienter and later Tracts, which in general they comprehended under that Title: Whether it were the apocryphal , or the more canonical? The full or the half-authorized? The doubtful, or the certain? The controverted, or uncontroverted? The singly-read, or that of various Reading? The Text of these Manuscripts, or of those? The Transcripts, Copys, Titles, Catalogues of this Church and Nation, or of that other? of this Sect and Party, or of another? of those in one Age call'd, and in possession of Power, or of those who in another overthrew their Predecessors Authority, and in their turn also assum'd the Guardianship and Power of holy Things? For how these sacred Records were guarded in those Ages, might easily (he said) be imagin'd by any one who had the least Insight into the History of those which