: "Ego vero evangelio non crederem, nisi me eccleslii; catholicae commoveret auc- toritas." "^ Commonitorium, c. 23 (in Migne's Curs. Patrol, tom. 50, p. 667) : " Sed forsitan dicit aliquis : Xullusne ergo in ecclesia Christi profectus habebitur religionis ? Ilabeatur plane et maximus Sed ita tamen ut vere profectus sit ille fidei, non permutatio. Siquidem ad profectum pertinet ut in semetipsum unaquaeque res amplificetur ; ad permutationem vero, ut aliquid ex alio in aliud transvertatur. Crescat igltur oportet et multum vehementerque proficiat tam singulorum quam omnium, tam unius hominis, quam totius ecclesia?, ajtatum ac seculorura gradibus, intelligcutia, scientia, sapientia, sed in suo dutaxat genere, in eodem scilicet dogmate, eodem sensu, eademque sententla." § 65. THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS. 345 gree of its conformity to the Holy Scriptures ; -while the Greek and Roman churches make Scripture and tradition coordinate. The Protestant church justly holds the first four general councils in high, though not servile, veneration, and has re- ceived their statements of doctrine into her confessions of faith, because she perceives in them, though compassed with human imperfection, the clearest and most suitable expression of the teaching of the Scriptures respecting the Trinity and the divine- humau person of Christ. Beyond these statements the judg- ment of the church (which nmst be carefully distinguished from theological speculation) has not to this day materially advanced ; — the highest tribute to the wisdom and importance of those councils. But this is not saying that the Nicene and the later Athanasian creeds are the non jjliis xiltra of all the church's knowledge of the articles therein defined. Rather is it the duty of theology and of the church, while prizing and holding fast those earher attainments, to study the same prob- lems ever anew, to penetrate further and further these sacred fundamental mysteries of Christianity, and to bring to light new treasures fi'om the inexhaustible mines of the Word of God, under the guidance of the same Holy Spu'it, who lives and works in the church at this day as mightily as he did in the fifth century and the fourth. Christology, for example, by the development of the doctrine of the two states of Christ in the Lutheran church, and of the three offices of Christ in the Reformed, has been substantially enriched ; the old Catholic doctrine, which was fixed with unerring tact at the council of Chalcedon, being directly concerned only with the two natures of Christ, as against the dualism of Nestorius and the mono- physitism of Eutyches. With this provision for further and deeper soundings of Scripture truth. Protestantism feels itself one with the ancient Greek and Latin church in the bond of ecumenical orthodoxy. But toward the disciplinary canons of the ecumenical councils its position is still more fi-ee and independent than that of the Roman church. Those canons are based upon an essentially unprotestant, that is, hierarchical and sacrificial conception of church order and worship, which the Lutheran and Anglican 346 THIED PERIOD. A.D.