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crucified Him, and invoked a curse on their own heads by taking on
themselves all the terrible guilt of the deed; how He died and was
buried; how thus He offered Himself a sacrifice for our sins; how He
remained for three days in the vale of departed spirits; how in His own
body He rose again to teach men the doctrine of the resurrection; how,
having fulfilled all the work of the sacrifice, He ascended into heaven,
and how He there acts as a mediator between God and man; how, too, in
His abundant mercy, He sent down the Holy Ghost to lead men aright, to
teach them the truth. That book tells us nothing of the Virgin Mary,
except that she was the earthly mother of our Lord. It tells us nothing
of the mediation of saints, but it tells us that God accepts but one
great sacrifice, that offered by our Lord Jesus Christ; that He is our
only Priest, our only Mediator in heaven; that those who heartily repent
of their sins, who put their faith in Him, and Him alone, will be saved.

"We find nothing said in the Bible of a Patriarch, or any other head of
the Church on earth. The only Patriarch, therefore, we can acknowledge,
the only Head of our Church, is Christ in heaven. Yet the Bible has
taught us to bow to the authority of earthly powers in all temporal
matters, but in spiritual matters to yield to the authority of no one
unless it is plainly and undoubtedly in accordance with the word of God
revealed in that book. Putting aside all the customs of the country,
which seemed to us so overloaded with error and abuse that we could not
distinguish the right from the wrong, we have endeavoured to form a
system of worship and mutual instruction as nearly similar as possible
to that instituted by our Lord Himself and His disciples. We knew that
we could not preach our doctrines in public without bringing down on our
heads a severe punishment from the authorities of the Empire; but they,
nevertheless, made certain though slow progress. No sooner did one
receive the truth than he became anxious to impart it to others. All
this time, who, think you, had joined our faith?--none but serfs,
peasants, humble mujicks. But this did not cast us down, for we asked
ourselves. Who were the first disciples of our Lord?--fishermen, humble
men like ourselves. Because our faith was different to that of the
great and mighty in the land, it did not make us less certain that it
was the true one, or less anxious to impart it to others, to o