Popery condemned by scripture and the fathers - End Time Deception

SCRIPTURE AND THE fatiie:;s. 245
is there denominated " the Spirit of wisdoiii and
" revelation in the knowledge of Christ." He
is also called the Spirit of faith ; and so essentially
requisite are his operations to produce the
exercise of this grace, " that no man can say
" that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy
" Ghot *." In this manner, we Protestants
are brought to believe the scriptures as the word
of God.
It is some consolation to the R., if he be a
stranger to this doctrine, that his case is not
without precedent in the Church. " Art thou
" a master in Israel," said Christ to Nicodemus,
'*
and knowest not these things f " Yet, as an
instructor of the simple faithful,
he ought to acquire
at least a speculative knowledge of this
point ; for Christ seems to account it the only
entrance to the possession of the blessings of the
gospel :
" Verily, verily, 1 say unto thee, Ex-
*'
cept a man be born again, he cannot see the
" kingdom of God |."
The absurdity of the R.'s own principles upon
this subject can be very easily shewn him.
'^ It
*'
*'
is only," says he, " by the infallible testimo-
ny of the Church that we know the Scriptures
" to be the word of God." Divine truth, he
must confess, influences very powerfully the
mind of the Christian. Let him then inform
us, whether this influence proceeds from the
* 1 Cor. xii. 3. f John, iii. 10. X ^^cr. 3.
truth