The moral chasm between it and the very earliest Christian writers seemed to me so vast, as only to be accounted for by the doctrine in which all spiritual men (as I thought) unhesitatingly agreed,--that the New Testament was dictated by the immediate action of the Holy Spirit.

The infatuation of those, who, after this, rested on _the Councils_, was to me unintelligible.

Thus the Bible in its simplicity became only the more all-ruling to my judgment, because I could find no Articles, no Church Decrees, and no apostolic individual, whose rule over my understanding or conscience I could bear.

Such may be conveniently regarded as the first period of my Creed.
[Footnote 1: It was not until many years later that I became aware, that unbiased ecclesiastical historians, as Neander and others, while approving of the practice of Infant Baptism, freely concede that it is not apostolic.

Let this fact be my defence against critics, who snarl at me for having dared, at that age, to come to _any_ conclusion on such a subject.