Wesley Corpus

15. “I have now,” you say, “thrown together all which I had collected for the support of my argument;” (page 187;) after a lame recapitulation of which you add with an air of triumph and satisfaction: “I wish the Fathers the ablest advocates which Popery itself can afford; for Protestantism, I am sure, can supply none whom they would choose to retain in their cause; none who can defend them without contradicting their own profession and disgracing their own character; or produce anything, but what deserves to be laughed at, rather than answered.” (Pages 188, 189.) Might it not be well, Sir, not to be quite so sure yet? You may not always have the laugh on your side. You are not yet infallibly assured, but that even Protestantism may produce something worth an answer. There may be some Protestants, for aught you know, who have a few grains of common sense left, and may find a way to defend, at least the Ante-Nicene Fathers, without “disgracing their own character.” Even such an one as I have faintly attempted this, although I neither have, nor expect to have, any preferment, not even to be a Lambeth Chaplain; which if Dr. Middleton is not, it is not his own fault.- V. l. The last thing you proposed was, “to refute some of the most plausible objections which have been hitherto made.” To what you have offered on this head, I must likewise attempt a short reply. You say, “It is objected, First, that by the character I have given of the Fathers, the authority of the books of the New Testament, which were transmitted to us through their hands, will be rendered precarious and uncertain.” (Page 190.) After a feint of confuting it, you frankly acknowledge the whole of this objection. “I may venture,” you say, “to declare, that if this objection be true, it cannot hurt my argument. For if it be natural and necessary, that the craft and credulity of witnesses should always detract from the credit of their testimony, then who can help it? And if this charge be proved on the Fathers, it must be admitted, how far soever the consequences may reach.” (Page 192.) “If it be proved !” Very true.