USE AND IMPORTANCE OF UNAUTHORITATIVE PAGE I.-Doubts and difficulties arising from the indirect and unsystematic teaching of the Christian doctrines in Painfully felt by some, why unperceived and unfelt Partial answer to the difficulty Solved upon the principle that, as a rule, the 14-47 Unauthoritative Tradition quite distinct from Romish Reasonableness of that use of Tradition which is 19 Not inconsistent with the proper completeness of Which implies previous Oral teaching The necessity of Unauthoritative Tradition not unfelt, Too much of systematie knowledge of Christian Whatever might have been expected, supposing the e.g., as to the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity Against distribution of the Scriptures as sufficient But the introductory teaching, not the duty of the What should be the mode of teaching unbelievers Such method will not unduly prejudice them Thrice happy those who have been led, &c. A DISSERTATION, ETC. WHY are many of the Christian doctrines so indirectly taught in the Scriptures ?-is a question sometimes put not merely by those who doubt or disbelieve the doctrines, but by very sincere believers, by those even who have ascertained their truth with abundant learning and ability. Why, they ask, are many of the most important articles of faith rather implied than taught; why have we to learn them in great measure from incidental notices of them in books written upon particular occasions, controversies, or heresies, many of them long since passed away, whilst some men have erred through ignorance of these particulars, and some have been at times perplexed although they have embraced the truth, and some have missed altogether that faith in which all are most concerned to live? why this difficulty, they ask, when more direct and systematic statements of the main points of faith might have been with equal ease delivered by the same authority, and would of course, from believers, have met with implicit veneration? The difficulty seems to deserve consideration, in order that we may solve the doubts of others at least, if not our own. B But though many may have perceived the indirectness, with which important truths are taught in the Scriptures, and yet have laboured under no perplexity in consequence; others probably will have avoided the doubt merely by inattention to the real existence and extent of the difficulty in the sacred Volume. Thoroughly convinced by the authority of Scripture they may not have attended strictly to the process by which their own conviction of the truth of the Christian doctrines has been established; although resting them entirely upon Scriptural authority, they may not have first collected them solely and immediately from the Scriptures. Hence they may not have observed, that the various proofs of a given doctrine have been accumulated perhaps from the parts of the sacred Volume the most unconnected apparently with each other; that one text occasionally of the greatest importance towards their conviction had no force at all in that respect until compared with another, and that perhaps with a third, each separately incapable of bearing upon the point in question, but all together composing an indissoluble argument, of so much the more force indeed, as it precludes the possibility of forgery and interpolation. In this manner important doctrines often receive strong confirmation from collations of texts in the New Testament with corresponding passages in the Jewish Scriptures: for example, the glory of Christ spoken of by St. John, (xii. 41.) and the dignity of the Holy Ghost according to the words of St. Paul, (Acts xxviii. 25.) are signally illustrated by referring to the passage in the prophecies of Isaiah, (Is. vi. 1-10.) to which both the apostles allude.* Again, in proof of a single doctrine we are accustomed to combine the declaration of John the Baptist concerning Christ, "He "shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost," as recorded by the first three Evangelists, (Matt. iii. 11. Mark i. 8. Luke iii. 16.) with our Lord's assertion in St. John's Gospel, "Except a man be born "of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the "kingdom of God," (John iii. 5.) and with the expression of St. Paul to Titus, God has "saved us "by the washing of regeneration and renewing "of the Holy Ghost," (Tit. iii. 5.) Another instance of complex proof of doctrines might be the comparison of the following texts, "All Scripture," says St. Paul to Timothy, "is given by inspiration "of God" (2 Tim. iii. 15, 16.) and is "able to make "thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is "in Christ Jesus"-" of which salvation," says St. Peter, (1 Pet. i. 10.) "the prophets have "enquired and searched diligently-searching "what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ "which was in them did signify unto whom it "was revealed, that unto us they did minister the "things which are now reported unto you by them "that have preached the Gospel unto you with the "Holy Ghost sent down from heaven :" and in this the apostle confirms the promises in St. John's Gospel, (John xiv. 26. xvi. 13. xv. 26.) whilst in another Epistle he declares the inspiration of the old prophets also to have proceeded from the Holy *See the observations upon these passages by Whitby, Jones of Nayland, Waterland, Bishops Wilson and Horsley, collected in the Family Bible, edited by D'Oyly and Mant. |