This page has been validated.
HISTORICAL FACTS.
49

admits the marriage in question had been condemned by "the Council of Neo-Cæsarea, A. D. 314, and that of Elvira, A. D. 305." But all this he sets aside by a sweeping remark: "Though it is true that Popery in form was not established so early, many of the corruptions of Popery came into being long before that." He then goes on and describes the corrupt state of the Church in future times, and thinks he has made out the impure origin of the prohibition.

His argument is—The Church of Rome, in subsequent periods, gave rise to unscriptural rules relating to marriage; therefore this prohibition was unscriptural, and derived its existence from Papal influence.

Let the Unitarian seize this weapon, and how would he use it in trying to demolish the glorious fabric of our common Christianity! Your doctrines of the Trinity, of the Godhead of Jesus Christ, of his vicarious atonement, of the personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit, are to be found, not in the Bible, but in Papal devices.

"But," says our brother, "the last fifty years have developed a great advance of the public