re about rival
teachers, and that at least some of these rivals are so opposed to each
other, that tests are given us, in order to our shunning the one party,
and accepting the other. In such cases, the one teacher is represented
to be the minister of God, and the other the child and organ of evil.
The one comes in God's name, the other professes to come simply in his
own name. Such a contrast is presented to us in the conflict between
Moses and the magicians of Egypt; all is light on the one side, all
darkness on the other. Or again, in the trial between Elijah and the
prophets of Baal. There is no doubt, in such a case, that it would be
our imperative duty at once to leave the teaching of Satan, and betake
ourselves _to_ the Law and the Prophets. And it will be observed that,
to assist inquirers in doing so, the representatives of Almighty God
have been enabled, in their contests with the enemy, to work miracles,
as Moses was, for instance, and Elijah, in order to make it clear which
way the true teaching lay.

But now will any one say that the contrast between the English and the
Roman, or again, the Greek, Churches, is of this nature?--is any of the
three a "_monstrum nulla virtute redemptum"?_ Moreover, the magicians
and the priests of Baal "came in their own name"; is that the case with
the Church, English, Roman, or Greek? Is it not certain, even at first
sight, that each of these branches has many high gifts and much grace in
her communion. And, at any rate, as regards our controversy with Rome,
if her champions would maintain that the Church of England is the false
prophet, and she the true one, then let her work miracles as Moses did
in the presence of the magicians, in order to our conviction.

Probably, however, it will be admitted that the contrast between England
and Rome is not of that nature; for the English Church confessedly does
not come in her own name, nor can she reasonably be compared to the
Egyptian magicians or the prophets of Baal; is there any other type in
Scripture into which the difference between her and the Church of Rome
can be resolved? We shall be referred, perhaps, to the case of the false
prophets of Israel and Judah, who professed to come in the name of the
Lord, yet did not preach the truth, and had no part or inheritance with
God's prophets. This parallel is not happier than the former, for a test
was given to distinguish between them, which does not decide between the
Church of