134 .ON NOVEL OPINIONS duce a new one; while the champions of the antiquatedsystem all agree that "the old is better." Some Christians of the primitive ages were not then, perhaps many of the present age are not now, aware, that he who overleaps the truth, errs as widely . as he who falls short of it ; nay, the danger is even greater, as it is more difficult to recede than to advance. It was the vain desire of overturning esta- blished truths, of being wiser than the wisdom of God, of being more perfect than the perfection of the Gospel, of giving . new glosses to old opinions, and rejecting all opinions which did not hit their own distempered fancies ; 'together with the temptation of being considered as the founders of a new school,-4hieh gave rise to theEbionites, the Cerinthians, the Marcionites, and various other° sects; and which has continued, to this day, to introduce successive heresies into the church of Christ. Of the two classes above mentioned,
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