LECTURE II.

THE BIBLE.-I.

IN the last Lecture we had frequent occasion to quote portions of the New Testament; and while we treated Christianity as in its essence a spirit of life, with its own laws of growth and adaptability, and with its living word for each successive age, still we referred to the New Testament as containing the most authentic account of its large and governing ideas. The question is thus opened into the nature of the Christian Scriptures, and the place which they occupy in the religious life of Christendom. That sacred Scriptures have played a prominent part in the direction of Christian thought and practice from the first, is simply an historical fact. It is not true that the Church existed before the Bible, except in this sense, that it existed before the Bible was complete. Churches

were established in various countries before the books of the New Testament were written, and had become conscious of their corporate unity before these books were collected into an accepted Canon. This is undoubtedly a weighty fact, and confirms the view already taken, that Christianity is not bound by its earliest expression, but seeks new forms of utterance as circumstances require. It is significant that Christ himself wrote nothing; though, if it had been his purpose to promulgate a new law or to establish a dogmatic system, it would have been his natural course to write it down with all plainness, and demand the obedience or belief of his disciples. But instead of this, he enunciated large principles of life and thought, which were capable of various embodiment, and which he taught with greater clearness and power through the quality and force of his character than through his words. The personal impression of his own Sonship to God, an impression handed down by the living tradition of souls quickened by the same Spirit, is the most precious inheritance which he has bequeathed to mankind. But while all this is true, it is also true that the Old Testament is more ancient than the Christian Church, and formed an accepted

EARLY USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

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canon of Holy Scripture before Christ and his Apostles began to disturb the traditional orthodoxy of the Jews.1 So far as our scanty records enable us to judge, it seems probable that the first Christian missionaries went forth with these venerable writings in their hands. Not only did they appeal to their authority before Jews and proselytes, but St. Paul, in addressing Gentile Churches, assumes that the disciples are familiar with their contents.2 Heathen philosophers were converted to Christianity by reading the Old Testament, especially the Prophets; and in the earliest account which we possess of the regular Sunday services, we are told that the memoirs of the Apostles or the writings of the Prophets were read. It is a reasonable inference that before the books of the New Testament were written, and at a time when the

1 The fact that doubts existed about the precise limits of the Canon does not affect the truth of this general statement.

2 See Gal., 1 and 2 Cor., and I would add Rom., passim.

3 See Justin Martyr, Dial. 7 sq.; Tatian, Orat. ad Grac. 29; Theophilus of Ant. Ad Aut. I. 14; Clem. Al. Cohort ad Gent. i. pp. 3 and 8 (Potter); and for the inspiration of the Prophets, and the evidence they afford of the truth of Christianity, see Athenagoras, Supplic. 9.

Justin Martyr, Ap. I. 67.

Jewish element in the Church was influential, the Old Testament was the Christian Bible, and that it stood in a relation to Christian life and thought, if not identical with, at least similar to, that which at a later time was fulfilled by the two Testaments in combination.1 I think, therefore, that we are justified in affirming that not only were sacred Scriptures produced by the Church as a result of its own activity, and as a more exact expression of its own peculiar life, but that from the first a Bible was accepted as one of the foundations of the faith, as an authority in controversy, and as a source from which the religious spirit might derive nourishment and strength.

It is hardly necessary to say that throughout the history of the Church a position has been assigned to the Bible which places it quite apart from all other religious literature. It has been customary to attribute to it a unique kind of inspiration, and to recognize it as the supreme source, or one of two co-ordinate sources, of saving truth and moral discipline. The limits of this inspiration have not been precisely defined by ecclesiastical authority; but practically the infalli

1 I may refer here to 1 Tim. iv. 13, where the connection suggests public reading of the Scriptures.

VIEWS OF ITS INFALLIBILITY.

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bility of Scripture has been generally maintained by Christians, and it has been commonly assumed till very recent times that attacks on the credibility of any portion of it could proceed only from infidelity. In the Roman Catholic Church the Council of Trent declared that God was the author of the Old and New Testaments;1 and this certainly seems to imply their miraculous origin and absolute perfection, as similar language would not have been used about any other collection of books. The sixth Article of the Church of England is much less explicit, because its object is to assert "the sufficiency," and not the authority, of Scripture; but in the acknowledgment of the books as "Canonical," and as the final court of appeal in all questions of faith, the view of their inspiration prevalent at the time is virtually adopted. The ordinary Protestant view is clearly set forth in the Westminster "Confession of Faith." God is there pronounced to be "the author" of the Bible, "the Word of God written," and its "infallible truth and Divine authority," are accepted.2

At the present day an increasing number of men

1 Sessio Quarta, Decretum de Canonicis Scripturis.

2 Chap. i.