from Scripture. Surely the Sacred Volume was never intended and was not adopted to teach us our creed; however certain it is that we can prove our creed from it, when it has once been taught us, and in spite of individual producible exceptions to the general rule. From the very first, the rule has been as a matter of fact, for the Church to teach the truth, and then appeal to the Scripture in vindication of its own teaching. And, from the first, it has been the error of heretics to neglect the information provided for them, and to attempt of themselves a work to which they are unequal, the eliciting a systematic doctrine from the scattered notices of the truth which Scripture contains. Such men act, in the solemn concerns of religion, the part of the self-sufficient natural philosopher, who should obstinately reject Newton's theory of gravitation, and endeavour, with talents inadequate to the task, to strike out some theory of motion by himself. The insufficiency of the mere private study of Holy Scripture for arriving at the entire truth which it really contains, is shown by the fact, that creeds and teachers have ever been divinely provided, and by the discordance of opinions which exist whenever those aids are thrown aside; as well as by the very structure of the Bible itself. And if this be so, it follows, that when inquirers and neophytes used the inspired writings for the purposes of morals, and for instruction in the rudiments of the faith, they still might need the teaching of the Church, as a key to the collection of passages which related to the mysteries of the gospel-passages which are obscure from the necessity of combining and receiving them all."

Here, then, my brethren, we have an acknowledgement made, within these last two years, by a learned divine of the Established Church, that the Christians in early times were not instructed in the important dogmas of religion, until baptised; and he answers the objection that the Scriptures were then the rule of faith, by asserting that they were indeed employed

by the Church to confirm the faith which it taught, but were never considered as the only ground upon which faith was te be built. This is more than sufficient for my purpose; it not only admits the premises which I have laid down, but goes as far as I can wish in the consequences it draws.

II. Thus much may suffice as to the method of instruction in the three first centuries; it was conducted on precisely the same principle as I explained in my last discourse. The next inquiry is, on what grounds the Christians of these centuries received the word of God. Did they consider the Scripture as the sole ground-work of faith, or with us, as a book to be received and explained on the authority of the Church? You shall judge from the very few passages which I will read to you from their works; because it would detain you a great deal too long, if I entered fully into this portion of the arguThere is a remarkable saying on this subject of the great St Augustine; for he is speaking of the method by which ne was brought to the knowledge of Christianity. Disputing with a Manichee, one of a class of heretics with whom in early life he had associated himself, he says expressly, as it should be rendered, from the peculiarity of the style; "I should not have believed the Gospel, if the authority of the Catholic Church had not led or moved me." This little sen

ment.

tence declares at once the principle on which he believed. This greatest light of the century in which he lived, declares that he could not have received the Scripture, except on the authority of the Catholic Church!

See now the way in which St Irenæus, the same father whom I before quoted, speaks on this point, "To him that believeth that there is one God, and holds to the head, which is Christ, to this man all things will be plain, if he read diligently the

* Contra epist. Fundamenti op. to. vi. p. 46, ed. Par. 1614, Evangelio non crederem, nisi me Catholicæ ecclesiæ commoveret auctoritas." Heraldus observes, that an Africanism here exists in the text, and crederem is for credidissem.-See Desiderii Heraldi animadv. ad Arnobium. Lib. 4, p. 54. or "Two Letters," as above, p. 66.

Scripture, with the aid of those who are the priests in the Church, and in whose hands, as we have shown, rests the doctrine of the Apostles."* That is to say, the Scripture may be read, and will be simple and easy to him who reads it, with the assistance of those to whom the Apostles delivered the unwritten code, as the key to its true explanation.

Still clearer are the words of another writer of the same century: but I will first premise a few words regarding the peculiar nature of his work. I allude to Tertullian, the first writer in the Latin language on the subject of Christianity; and the father, consequently, who gives us the very earliest. account of the methods pursued, in matters of faith and discipline, in the Western Church. He has written a very instructive work, when considered at the present time, entitled "On the prescription of Heretics," that is, on the method whereby those are to be judged and convicted, who depart from the Universal Church. The whole drift of his argument is to show, that they have no right whatever to appeal to Scripture, because this has no authority as an inspired book, save that which it receives from the sanction of the infallible Church; and that, consequently, they are to be checked in this first step, and not allowed to proceed any farther in the argument. They have no claim to the word; it is not their's; they have no right to appeal to its authority, if they reject that of the Church, on which alone it can be proved; and if they admit the authority of the Church, they must at once believe whatsoever else she teaches. Go, he tells them, and consult the Apostolic Churches at Corinth, or Ephesus; or, if you are in the west, Rome is very near, "an authority to which we can readily appeal," and receive from them the knowledge of what you are to believe.

I will quote to you one passage; and I might read you the entire work, and you would not find one doctrine differing from that which I have laid down on this subject. "What will you gain," he asks, "by recurring to Scripture, when one denies what the other asserts? Learn rather who it is

*Ibid, 1. iv. c. 52, d. 355.

that possesses the faith of Christ; to whom the Scripturesbelong; from whom, by whom, and when, that faith was delivered by which we are made Christians. For where shall be found the true faith, there will be the genuine Scriptures; there the true interpretations of them; and there all Christian traditions. Christ chose his apostles, whom he sent to preach to all nations. They delivered his doctrines and founded Churches, from which Churches others drew the seeds of the same doctrine, as new ones daily continue to do. Thus these, as the offspring of the Apostolic Churches, are themselves deemed apostolical. Now 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 by their epistles. For it is plain that all doctrine which is conformable to the faith of these Mother Churches, is true; being that which they received from the apostles, the apostles from Christ, Christ from God; and that all other opinions must be novel and false."

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Is not this, my brethren, precisely the very rule which the doctrine of the Catholic Church proposes at the present day? Does it not comprise every one of those principles, which I have been striving, for several successive evenings, to explain ? The doctrine of Tertullian is nowise at variance with that of other fathers; for, subsequently to him, we have plenty of writers, in both the Latin and in the Greek Church, who show that the grounds on which they proceeded were precisely the same. I will content myself with quoting two passages, one from each of these Churches.

The first is from Origen, one of the most learned men in the early ages of Christianity, a man of philosophical mind, and fully able to detect any flaw of reasoning, had it existed, in the train of argument advanced in demonstration of Christianity. "As there are many," he writes, "who think they believe what Christ taught, and some of these differ from others, it becomes necessary that all should profess that doctrine which came down from the apostles, and now continues in the

* De præscrip. hæretic. p. 334. ed. 1662.

Church. That alone is truth, which in nothing differs from ecclesiastical and apostolical tradition."* Again: "Let him look to it, who, arrogantly puffed up, contemns the apostolic words. To me it is good to adhere to apostolic men, as to God, and his Christ, and to draw intelligence from the Scriptures, according to the sense that has been delivered by them. If we follow the mere letter of the Scriptures, and take the interpretation of the law, as the Jews commonly explain it, I shall blush to confess, that the Lord should have given such laws. But if the law of God be understood as the Church teaches, then truly does it transcend all human laws, and is worthy of him that gave it."†

And in another place; "As often as heretics produce the canonical Scriptures, in which every Christian agrees, and believes, they seem to say, Lo! with us is the word of truth. But to them (the heretics) we cannot give credit, nor depart from the first and ecclesiastical tradition: we can believe only, as the succeeding Churches of God have delivered. "‡

One short passage more, from St Cyprian, and I will close this portion of my argument. In his treatise on the unity of the Church-a treatise entirely directed to prove that unity,

or

oneness of faith, is the essential characteristic of the Church, and, that unity of faith, unity of government, and unity of communion, are to be preserved by unity of rulehe thus writes: "Men are exposed to error, because they turn not their eyes to the fountain of truth; nor is the head sought for, nor the doctrine of the heavenly Father upheld. Which things would any one seriously ponder, no long inquiry

would be necessary. The proof is easy. Christ addresses

Peter: I say to thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it......He that does not hold this unity of the Church, can he think that he holds the faith? He that opposes and

* Præf. Lib. 1. Periarchon, T. 1. p. 47, Edit. PP. S. Mauri, Paris, 1733.

Hom. vii. in Levit. T. 11. pp. 224-226.

1 Tract. xxix. in Mat. T. iii. p. 864.