directed by the word of God, but this direction, in the case of rites and discipline, is by general rules, not by specific enactments. IV. Several passages from Augustine, Tertullian, Jerome, Hilary, &c. are cited, in which the absolute necessity of scripture proof is insisted on: but these passages relate to articles of faith, with which we are not here concerned. V. Tertullian, in arguing against the lawfulness of soldiers wearing garlands, asks, “where it is commanded in scripture;" in reply to his adversaries' question, "where it is forbidden in scripture." Therefore both parties appealed to scripture as conclusive in the question. Answer. Tertullian concludes that though scripture is silent on the point, tradition establishes his position. His adversaries' appeal to scripture did not imply that every lawful custom must be expressed there, but that every unlawful custom must be proved unlawful by its opposition to the word of God, which is exactly our principle. VI. It is injurious to the dignity and perfection of scripture as the word of God, to suppose that it omits any thing which may be convenient or profitable to the church. Answer. The dignity and utility of the scripture would have been less, if all rites and disciplines which might be useful to the church had been expressly mentioned. For the universality of the church in respect of time and place, would render the expediency of things exceedingly variable. Consequently, scripture would have contained many things obsolete or useless, and instead of comprising scarcely anything but the unchangeable word of God, would have been made up in a great degree of details concerning changeable and non-essential rites. The New Testament in this case would have apparently resembled the Mosaic law; and the liberty of the church from the law of ceremonial observances, which is so admirably reconciled with the order and peace of Christianity, by leaving her free to make and vary her rites and disciplines, could scarcely have been preserved perfect, without permitting a licentiousness of private judgment and action that would have filled the church with confusion. d See Hooker's Works, vol. i. p. 378, &c. ed. Keble. e Tertullian, De Corona Militis, see Hooker, p. 387, &c. CHAPTER V. ON THE OFFICE OF THE CHURCH IN RELATION TO FAITH. by the THE instruction of the existing church is, in its own age, an Faith ordinary and divinely-appointed external means for the produc- produced tion of faith. This is the position which I am about to main- church's tain, avoiding on one side the error of those who would found teaching. faith solely on the examination of each individual, and on the other, that which would represent the infallibility of the existing church as the only ground of our faith. In speaking of the church, I refer not only to the ministers of Jesus Christ but to all the brethren. That the former were commissioned to instruct the people of God, we know from scripture; "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations . . . . teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world a.' "He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, till we all come, in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man," &c.b "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also "." "Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow." "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account." Many similar proofs might be adduced: and the apostle Paul expressly connects faith with Christian instruction; "How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent ? . . . So, then, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Thus the instructions of the ministers of God are designed to produce faith. Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. c 2 Tim. ii. 2. d Heb. xiii. 7. e Ibid. 17. Rom. x. 15-17. Testimony of the fathers. Besides this, Christian parents are to teach their children the gospel, to "bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord :" all Christians are to love their neighbours as themselves; and on this principle, "Let no man seek his own, but every man another's wealth "," they are to "comfort themselves together and edify one another " In fine, the gospel is equally the privilege of all the faithful; and all in common, according to their degree, are exhorted to " contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." The church, then, is a society, in which, by the divine institution, a great and complicated system of instruction is always to continue. The admonitions of preachers, the words of parents and friends, the conversation and acts of all the brethren, all combine to impress the Christian's mind (even before his reason is yet able to exert itself) with the truths of revelation. This has always been the doctrine of the church. Irenæus says: "It is necessary to hear the presbyters of the church who have succession from the apostles, as we have shown; who with the succession of the episcopate have received the certain gift of truth according to the Father's will." Tertullian: "To know what the apostles taught, that is what Christ revealed to them, recourse must be had to the churches which they founded, and which they instructed by word of mouth, and their epistles," &c. Origen: "If the law of God be received according to the meaning which the church teaches, then truly it transcends all human laws, and will be believed to be truly the law of God." Cyprian: "Christ says to his apostles, and through them to all ministers who by a regular ordination succeed to them, He that heareth you heareth me, and he that despiseth you despiseth me"." Augustine: "The authority of the scriptures themselves commends the church; therefore since the holy scripture cannot deceive, let him who fears to be misled by the obscurity of the present question (concerning baptism) consult concerning it the same church, which without any ambiguity the holy scripture demonstrates "." By preaching, the apostles converted heathen nations before Faith does the scriptures were written, and Irenæus testifies that in his not rest on scripture time, some nations believed the gospel without being able to alone. read the scriptures P. So it has been even to the present day, for the majority of Christians have at all times been unable to institute an exact examination into scripture, or the doctrine of the church universal. Their faith is, and must necessarily be, founded to a great extent on the testimony of their pastors, of the learned, and of their brethren generally. For they have ordinarily no other external evidence of the history of Christianity, of the authenticity, inspiration, and uncorrupted preservation of scripture, of the accuracy of translations, of the universality and antiquity of the church, of the nature of its belief in all ages. It is true that those who have more information are able to search the scripture and the tradition of the universal church; but perhaps no man can have leisure to trace out all the evidence on each doctrine of religion so that, in fine, the faith of every Christian rests more or less on the testimony or instruction of the church. This instruction is the first external means of faith in the mind of a Christian: it accompanies and influences his opinions imperceptibly: and he Divine and human faith. The testimony of the church sufficiently certain. is never finally disengaged from it but by scepticism. Nor may this be affirmed only of the church: the very same thing occurs in every sect which exists as a society. Such is the mode in which God has willed that faith should generally take its rise. He founds it universally on sufficiently credible testimony, and in proportion as the intellect is expanded and cultivated, it is enabled to perceive a wider range of evidence: but the certainty of faith does not vary with the amount of the understanding: the evidence which an unlettered man has of Christian truth is sufficient to produce the firmest faith. We are here met by two opposite parties, who unite in asserting that faith supported only by the testimony of fallible men cannot be firm or divine faith; and that such faith must either be founded soley on the infallible authority of the existing church, or else solely on the infallible authority of scripture 9. I reply first, that divine faith is determined by the object on which it rests, that is to say, the authority of God himself. Human faith rests on the veracity of men. If therefore Christian truth is believed because God hath spoken it, that belief is divine, by whatsoever means it may have been produced. The patriarchs and apostles had this faith by means of immediate inspiration, the early Christians by means of the apostles' instructions, others by means of the church's testimony, some perhaps, in remote regions, only by means of their parents' instruction, some by means of the scriptures only; but in all these cases, divine faith exists whenever the doctrines of revelation are believed finally on the authority of God. Secondly, the testimony of the church, though given by fallible men, is a means sufficient to produce the firmest conviction that certain doctrines were revealed by God. Those professing Christians who rashly and inconsiderately deny this position, and who set aside human testimony as uncertain, in order to establish some system of their own, do not suppose that this mode of reasoning tends to the subversion of Christianity itself; but it does so very plainly. If all human This argument was common to opponents in the 16th and 17th centuries. |