Part 31 (1/2)

[339:1] Vid. Proph. Offic. Lect. xiii. [Via Media, vol. i. p. 309, &c.]

[339:2] A late writer goes farther, and maintains that it is not determined by the Council of Trent, whether the whole of the Revelation is in Scripture or not. ”The Synod declares that the Christian 'truth and discipline are contained in written books and unwritten traditions.'

They were well aware that the controversy then was, whether the Christian doctrine was only _in part_ contained in Scripture. But they did not dare to frame their decree openly in accordance with the modern Romish view; they did not venture to affirm, as they might easily have done, that the Christian verity 'was contained _partly_ in written books, and _partly_ in unwritten traditions.'”--_Palmer on the Church_, vol. 2, p. 15. Vid. Difficulties of Angl. vol. ii. pp. 11, 12.

[340:1] Opp. t. 1, p. 4.

[341:1] Opp. t. i. pp. 4, 5.

[341:2] Ibid. p. 9.

[342:1] Proem. 5.

[342:2] p. 4.

[345:1] Lengerke, de Ephr. S. pp. 78-80.

[346:1] pp. 24-26.

[346:2] p. 27.

[348:1] Euseb. Hist. iv. 14, v. 20.

[349:1] Contr. Haer. iii. 3, -- 4.

[349:2] Ed. Potter, p. 897.

[350:1] Ed. Potter, p. 899.

[350:2] Clem. Strom. vii. 17. Origen in Matth. Comm. Ser. 46. Euseb.

Hist. vi. 2, fin. Epiph. Haer. 57, p. 480. Routh, t. 2, p. 465.

[352:1] Eur. Civil. pp. 394-398.

CHAPTER VIII.

APPLICATION OF THE THIRD NOTE Of A TRUE DEVELOPMENT.

a.s.sIMILATIVE POWER.

Since religious systems, true and false, have one and the same great and comprehensive subject-matter, they necessarily interfere with one another as rivals, both in those points in which they agree together, and in those in which they differ. That Christianity on its rise was in these circ.u.mstances of compet.i.tion and controversy, is sufficiently evident even from a foregoing Chapter: it was surrounded by rites, sects, and philosophies, which contemplated the same questions, sometimes advocated the same truths, and in no slight degree wore the same external appearance. It could not stand still, it could not take its own way, and let them take theirs: they came across its path, and a conflict was inevitable. The very nature of a true philosophy relatively to other systems is to be polemical, eclectic, unitive: Christianity was polemical; it could not but be eclectic; but was it also unitive? Had it the power, while keeping its own ident.i.ty, of absorbing its antagonists, as Aaron's rod, according to St. Jerome's ill.u.s.tration, devoured the rods of the sorcerers of Egypt? Did it incorporate them into itself, or was it dissolved into them? Did it a.s.similate them into its own substance, or, keeping its name, was it simply infected by them? In a word, were its developments faithful or corrupt? Nor is this a question merely of the early centuries. When we consider the deep interest of the controversies which Christianity raises, the various characters of mind it has swayed, the range of subjects which it embraces, the many countries it has entered, the deep philosophies it has encountered, the vicissitudes it has undergone, and the length of time through which it has lasted, it requires some a.s.signable explanation, why we should not consider it substantially modified and changed, that is, corrupted, from the first, by the numberless influences to which it has been exposed.

2.

Now there was this cardinal distinction between Christianity and the religions and philosophies by which it was surrounded, nay even the Judaism of the day, that it referred all truth and revelation to one source, and that the Supreme and Only G.o.d. Pagan rites which honoured one or other out of ten thousand deities; philosophies which scarcely taught any source of revelation at all; Gnostic heresies which were based on Dualism, adored angels, or ascribed the two Testaments to distinct authors, could not regard truth as one, unalterable, consistent, imperative, and saving. But Christianity started with the principle that there was but ”one G.o.d and one Mediator,” and that He, ”who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the Prophets, had in these last days spoken unto us by His Son.” He had never left Himself without witness, and now He had come, not to undo the past, but to fulfil and perfect it. His Apostles, and they alone, possessed, venerated, and protected a Divine Message, as both sacred and sanctifying; and, in the collision and conflict of opinions, in ancient times or modern, it was that Message, and not any vague or antagonist teaching, that was to succeed in purifying, a.s.similating, trans.m.u.ting, and taking into itself the many-coloured beliefs, forms of wors.h.i.+p, codes of duty, schools of thought, through which it was ever moving. It was Grace, and it was Truth.

-- 1. _The a.s.similating Power of Dogmatic Truth._