should be supposed to be invalidated upon either of the two following pretences: either upon the plea that these Epistles, although of a subsequent date, were yet addressed to Churches which had not at the time received the earlier works-or, if they had received them, that to the direct instructions in the earlier writings the indirect allusions of the later Epistles referred. In either of these cases it is evident that we could not infer the present use of oral instruction from any implication of it in the later Epistles; but both these forms of objection lose their force, if every separate part of the holy Volume be found to imply previous oral instruction. There is yet another objection to be noticed, which, if it were just, would indeed be fatal.

Is there still then a suspicion that the Scriptures condemn tradition, that our Lord Himself condemned it, and in the severest language which the lips of mercy could express? Without doubt He did, but that, and only that, tradition which presumed to rank itself with inspired authority, or worse, which set aside that authority altogether. These were His words, adopting those of Esaias, "In vain do they "worship Me, teaching for doctrines the command"ments of men;" and again He said unto the Pharisees and Scribes, "Full well ye reject the "commandment of God, that ye may keep your "own tradition." (Mark vii. 7, 9.)

Had Christ indeed done more than this, He might have appeared to contradict the injunctions of the Old Testament-for it seems quite apparent, that the Law was positively ordered by Moses himself to be taught by the fathers unto their children, as often as the external rites of that religion excited the curiosity of after-ages.

This is the continual language of Moses, and of Joshua, when they have even in the clearest manner recorded a miracle in their writings, or appointed its memorial: "And it shall come to pass, "when your children shall ask in time to come, "what mean these statutes? what mean ye by this "service, or this monument? that ye shall say, 66 Thus and thus hath the Lord delivered thy "fathers, thus and thus hath He done mightily for "us." (see Exodus xii. 26. xiii. 14. Deut. vi. 20. Josh. iv. 6, 21.) Christians surely ought not to require the outward sign, or service, (though the mercy of Him, who knew what was in man, did not leave them destitute of these also, when He ordained the Christian sacraments,) that they may be induced to excite by them the earliest curiosity of their children concerning that faith, which confesses a greater deliverance than that from Egypt, and looks to better promises than those of Canaan!

But, indeed, we have already seen what use the inspired witnesses of the New Covenant both made, and implied, of traditional instruction. And it is a very remarkable fact, under all the circumstances of the case, that, after hearing continual invectives against the improper use of traditions, the disciples should yet so constantly imply in their writings the use of traditional teaching-that such a verse indeed, as the one before cited, should be found in the New Testament at all-"hold the traditions "which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our Epistle."*

*And this in a chapter (2 Thess. ii.) often supposed to convey censure upon that very Church, which has chiefly misused tradition, and caused its opponents sometimes to forget what tradition was, in shewing what it was not.

If then the foregoing account of the Scriptures be correct, we cannot but admit the object of those sacred books to have been much less to teach, than to enforce and establish what had been taught before. Nor must this remark be applied to the apostolical age only, (for with respect to that it is undeniable,) but to later ages also, under the modification already mentioned concerning the authority of tradition. It seems difficult to avoid this conclusion, unless indeed it appeared that the necessity for such an introduction to the faith of Christ had since been unfelt, or the supply of the want withheld.

The reverse of both these suppositions is the fact. The necessity for previous or traditional instruction is generally felt; it governs the conduct of some, obliging them to resort to this assistance; it almost deters others from reading the Scriptures, or distributing them to the bulk of the community; it is a source of perplexity to some even of those who best understand the sacred Volume; and is one among the reasons why the sacred pillar of our faith, while it "gives light by night" to some, is "a cloud and darkness to others; "* so far then it does not appear why this very mode of supplying the deficiency complained of might not have been intended.

In fact also it is thus that the deficiency has in all ages been supplied, and almost in all cases where the saving truths of Christianity have been indeed admitted. Even the prevalence of great heresies for a season is no absolute objection to

* Compare Exod. xiv. 20 with Isaiah viii. 14, 2 Cor. iv. 3.

this; evidently not, if the traditions accompanying them superadded strange doctrines to the genuine creed, and not even when they abandoned some of the true doctrines, so long as they continued to be controverted-and in this way it seems that even corrupt Churches, provided they do not suppress the Scriptures, or disallow them as the only rule of faith, may still afford to many of their members the means of correcting their errors, and ascertaining the essential truths of Christianity.

The constant existence then of this aid is alone a presumption, that this use of tradition was intended. But there is another fact which almost raises this presumption to a demonstrative proof; the fact, namely, that ample provision for this supply of the want was at the first secured by Christ and His apostles, when they established a perpetual succession of ministers and teachers.

This is an argument which requires no comment; it asks only to be considered: the Christian ministry indeed was not ordained for this purpose alone, but that one department of its duty, one end of its appointment, was to watch over the purity of the faith, and initiate new members in the rudiments of Christianity, will be denied by no one, who allows that the ministerial order was indeed appointed.

We have thus the Scriptures implying traditional instruction; we have the necessity for such aid continually felt, and the assistance itself continually afforded to the Church; we find also an order of men appointed from the very beginning of Christianity, whose duties cannot but comprehend the care and distribution of this aid to all who need it. Surely, then, it is difficult to conceive that this

use of tradition was not also from the beginning contemplated and intended by the founders of Christianity.

Let it be particularly observed, that this opinion by no means claims any undue rank for ecclesiastical interpretations of Scripture; it would rather remove a difficulty from the path even of the unlearned in their own interpretation of Holy Writ, by suggesting to them the most natural, the clearest, the easiest method of discovering its meaning for their own conviction. At the same time this temperate, and unauthoritative, use of tradition desires not to prejudice the learner (if believers could use the term at all in its invidious sense); but here by this use of tradition nothing more is sought, and nothing more is likely to be produced, than that presumption in favour of doctrines so conveyed, which the strictest reason must allow to be properly demanded here, as indeed it forms the sole proof of many propositions upon profane subjects which are generally admitted as true. Upon this basis, which seems at once to take away the difficulty conceived from regarding the sacred oracles as first teachers of the faith, upon this basis let the structure of our faith be raised by the fullest examination, and canvassing of its doctrines by the only ultimate authority, the holy Scriptures.*

*Even in the exact mathematical sciences it is useful to find the propositions simply stated, before the demonstrations are given; or if the absence of such enunciations raised no difficulty, yet important truths incidentally established might frequently pass altogether unobserved, if the corollaries were not expressed; and the case of the Christian doctrines is often parallel with this. But whether or no the mathematician met with the

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