THE FAITH OF THE CHURCH.

NLY within recent years has the question been asked by Christians, Is the Bible inspired? Among the apostolic fathers, as they are called, and for centuries afterwards, there was no dispute on the part of those who accepted the Sacred Scriptures as a revelation from God, concerning their plenary inspiration, their supreme authority, and their divine infallibility from first to last. Clement, for example, of whom Irenaeus speaks "as having seen and conversed with the blessed apostles," and mentioned by one of the apostles as a fellow laborer in the gospel, wrote a long epistle to the Corinthians, the genuineness of which is not doubted. Scattered all through this epistle, when he quotes Scripture, and this he does continually, are such expressions as the following: "Hence we find how all the ministers of the grace of God have spoken by the Holy Spirit;" "For thus saith the Holy Spirit;" "For so says the Holy Scripture;" "The Holy Scripture itself bearing witness," "For He saith, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard;" "Look into the Holy Scriptures, which are the true words of the Holy Ghost;" "Ye know, beloved, ye know full well the Holy Scriptures; and have thoroughly searched into the oracles of God: call them therefore to your remembrance."

In an epistle of Barnabas, another companion and fellow-preacher with Paul, cited by Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, Eusebius, and Jerome, and accepted as genuine by many of the early fathers, we have testimonies like these: "For so the Lord saith again to those heretofore;" " Wherefore He again speaketh to them;" "For thus saith the Scripture;" "For God hath said;" "And therefore the Scripture again speaks;" "And again He saith, hear O Israel, for thus saith the Lord, thy God. And again the Spirit of God prophesieth, saying;" " Furthermore, it is written concerning the Sabbath, in the Ten Commandments, which God spake in the Mount Sinai to Moses, face to face;" " The Lord hath declared unto us by the prophets;" " Thus saith the Lord by the prophets;" " Moses in the Spirit spake."

The Cyclopaedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature contains an excellent article upon Irenaeus whom it represents as saying, "Well knowing that the Scriptures are perfect, as dictated (or spoken) by the word of God, and his Spirit. . . . We follow the one and only true God, as our teacher; and having His words as a rule of truth, do always speak the same things concerning the same things." " But more than this, by the language which Irenaeus uses, we find the church of his day harmonizing with and justifying the very highest claims that have ever been advanced in support of the inspired authority and infallible accuracy of the canonical writings." Hyppolytus, his disciple, says of the Bible writers, "Be assured they did not speak in their own strength, nor out of their own minds, what they proclaimed; but first by the inspiration of the word they were imbued with wisdom."

Origen, according to Lardner, declares "that the sacred books are not writings of men, but have been written and delivered to us from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit by the will of the Father of all things, through Jesus Christ;" "the sacred Scriptures come from the fulness of the Spirit; so that there is nothing in the prophets, or the law, or the gospel and the epistles which descends not from the Divine majesty; . . . one and the same Spirit proceeding from one God, teaching the like things in the Scriptures, written before the coming of Christ, and in the gospels and apostles."

Augustine is equally emphatic in asserting that the Scriptures were spoken by God through men; and many similar declarations could be furnished from other writers of the first centuries. Indeed, Lord Hailes, as stated in the biography of Robert Haldane, easily discovered in the Christian writings of these centuries the whole of the New Testament with the exception of seven verses, which he felt sure he could also find; and the passages thus plentifully quoted were always presented as the very word of God, and not as the word of man. It is enough perhaps to say that such is the unvarying testimony of the church for four hundred years, and it does not seem to have occurred to these early believers to inquire whether there might be different degrees and kinds of inspiration, or whether some of the books of the Bible, or some portions of some of the books, might be inspired, and others uninspired.

When the light of the reformation broke upon Europe the same profound reverence for the Scriptures, as fully and equally inspired, is discovered in all of the writings and confessions of the church. Thus we find according to Schaff's Creeds of Christendom in the Belgic Confession, A. D. 1561, Article III., as follows: "We confess that this word of God was not sent nor delivered by the will of man, but that holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, as the apostle Peter saith. And that afterwards God, from a special care which he has for us and our salvation, commanded his servants, the prophets and apostles, to commit his revealed word to writing; and he himself wrote with his own fingers the two tables of stone. Therefore we call such writings holy and divine Scriptures."

So the Helvetic confession of 1566 starts out with the declaration, "We believe and confess, the canonical Scriptures of the Holy prophets and apostles of both Testaments to be the true word of God itself, for God himself spoke to the fathers, the prophets and the apostles, and still speaks to us by the sacred Scriptures." "The Irish Articles of Religion," adopted in 1615, state:

1. "The ground of our religion and the rule of faith and all saving truth is the word of God, contained in the Holy Scriptures.

2. By the name of Holy Scriptures we understand all the canonical books of the Old and New Testament." Then follow the names of the books in the precise order in which we have them to-day. "All which we acknowledge to be given by the inspiration of God, and in that regard to be of most certain credit and highest authority.

"The Westminster Confession of Faith," 1647, opens with these striking words: "Although the light of nature, and the works of creation and providence, do so far manifest the goodness, wisdom and power of God, as to leave men inexcusable; yet are they not sufficient to give that knowledge of God, and of his will, which is necessary unto salvation; therefore it pleased the Lord, at sundry times, and in divers manners, to reveal himself, and to declare that his will unto his church; and afterwards for the better preserving and propagating of the truth, and for the more sure establishment and comfort of the church against the corruption of the flesh, and the malice of Satan and the world, to commit the same wholly unto writing; which maketh the Holy Scripture to be most necessary; those former ways of God's revealing His will unto his people being now ceased.

II. " Under the name of Holy Scripture, or the word of God written, are now contained all the books of the Old and New Testament, which are these: [the books of the Old and New Testament are then mentioned as they occur in our English Bible,] all which are given by inspiration of God, to be the rule of faith and life.

III. "The books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the canon of the Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the church of God, nor to be any otherwise approved or made use of than other human writings.

IV. "The authority of the Holy Scripture, for which it ought to be believed and obeyed, dependeth not upon the testimony of any man or church, but wholly upon God (who is truth itself,) the author thereof; and therefore it is to be received, because it is the word of God.

VIII. "The Old Testament in Hebrew (which was the native language of the people of God of old,) and the New Testament in Greek (which at the time of the writing of it was most generally known to the nations,) being immediately inspired by God; and by his singular care and providence kept pure in all ages, are therefore authentical; so as in all controversies of religion the church is finally to appeal unto them.

IX. "The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true or full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold, but one,) it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly.

X. "The Supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined, and all decrees, councils, opinions of ancient writings, doctrines of men, and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in the Scripture."

Even the famous Roman Catholic Council of Trent, 1546, "following," as it declares, "the examples of orthodox fathers, receives and venerates with an equal affection of piety and reverence, all the books both of the Old and New Testament — seeing that one God is the author of both — as also the said traditions, as well as those appertaining to faith as to morals, as having been dictated, either by Christ's own word of mouth, or by the Holy Ghost, and preserved in the Catholic church by a continuous succession."

So among the "Dogmatic Decrees of the Vatican Council," 1870, it is said that "this supernatural revelation, according to the universal belief of the church, declared by the sacred Synod of Trent, is contained in the written books and unwritten traditions which have come down to us, having been received by the apostles from the mouth of Christ himself; or from the apostles themselves by the dictation of the Holy Spirit, have been transmitted, as it were, from hand to hand. And these books of the Old and New Testament are to be received as sacred and canonical in their integrity with all their parts, as they are enumerated in the decrees of the said Council, and are contained in the ancient Latin edition of the Vulgate. These the church holds to be sacred and canonical, not because having been carefully composed by mere human industry, they were afterwards approved by her authority, nor merely because they contained revelations with no admixture of error, but because having been written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, they have God for their authority, and have been delivered as such to the church herself."

In the Longer Catechism of the Eastern church also, "Examined and approved by the most holy governing Synod, and published for the use of schools and of all orthodox Christians, by order of his imperial majesty at Moscow, 1839, we find question 19, "What is that which you call Holy Scripture? Answer: Certain books written by the Spirit of God through men sanctified by God, called prophets and apostles. These books are commonly termed the Bible. Question 20, What does the word Bible mean? Answer: It is Greek and means the books. The name signifies that the sacred books deserve attention before all others. Question 22, Why, then, was the holy scripture given? Answer: To this end that divine revelation might be preserved more exactly and unchangeably. In holy Scripture we read the words of the prophets and apostles precisely as if we were living with them and listening to them. Question 23, Must we follow holy tradition, even when we possess holy Scripture? Answer: We must follow that tradition which agrees with the divine revelation, and with holy Scripture."

These extracts must serve at present as samples of many similar testimonies that might be given from those who are known as "the fathers," and from all branches of the Christian church. They show with singular unanimity the belief of the entire body of the Saviour's professed followers in the divine inspiration of all the books that compose the Bible, however wide apart and discordant, and sharply opposed in many things pertaining to ecclesiastical ordinances, to forms of government, and to doctrines of minor importance. The Roman Catholic, the Greek, and the Protestant communion and the various parties and factions in each of these, may have little or nothing to do with one another, but they all unite with one voice in proclaiming that the sacred Scriptures are the word and work of God.

It is worthy of notice that they advance no theory about the mode of inspiration, nor is any theory held and maintained, so far as is known, for perhaps seventeen hundred years after the death of Christ. They content themselves with asserting in the strongest terms that we are indebted for the writings called the sacred Scriptures to the Holy Ghost, that the words we there read are the words of God, and hence that in the perusal of them we may be assured of entire exemption from the ignorance, the folly and the mistakes of men. Through all these centuries the church in every branch and portion that has the slightest ground for claiming the name of a church, has steadily and stoutly affirmed that the Bible is God's book in a sense that belongs to no other book, and hence that all of its commands are authoritative, all of its teachings are infallible, all of its narratives are indisputable, and all of its decisions are final.