are in Scripture "writ large," are expanded or illuminated. "Men fall into error," says S. Leo in the first chapter of his celebrated Tome, "when, being hindered by some obscurity in knowing the truth, they recur, not to the prophets, or apostles, or evangelists, but to themselves 1." This," says S. Chrysostom, "is what I am always advising you and will never cease advising you to do, viz. not merely to give your attention to what is said here [in church], but also when you are at home to be constantly occupied with reading the divine Scriptures.... The apostles and prophets set before all men plainly and clearly, as being the common teachers of the world, what proceeded from them, that each individual might be able even of himself to learn from the mere reading the sense of what they said; and foretelling this the prophet exclaimed, They shall be all taught of God 2.... Let every one when he returns home take the Bible in his hands and reflect on the meaning of what is said 1 Ep. ad Flav. i. 2 Opera, tom. i, pp. 737, 739 [ed. Ben.]. The teaching of S. Chrysostom on this point is collected in Meditations from S. Chrysostom on the Study of the Word of God, by R. King (Dublin, 1853). here, that is, if he would derive permanent and full benefit from the Scripture1.... Great are the advantages to be derived from such study.... It gives wings and elevation to the soul illuminated thus with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness; ... and what our bodily nourishment effects for the support of our [natural] strength, this the reading [we speak of] does for the spirit of man. For it is spiritual nutriment, and such as nerves the understanding and gives power to the soul; improving its tone, imparting philosophic views, leaving it no more more an easy prey to senseless passions, but giving buoyancy to its wing, and bearing it upward, so to speak, to heaven itself." "This," Chrysostom elsewhere says, "is the source from which have originated our thousand illsignorance of the Scriptures. Hence hath shot up the widespread pollution of heresies; hence the wasted lives, hence the fruitless labours. For as they who are destitute of this earthly light are unable to walk in a straight course, so in the same way they that see not the rays which beam forth from the divine Scriptures, must needs fall into many 1 Opera, tom. iii, p. 73. errors, and that continually, seeing that they walk in darkness of the worst kind1." 2. These representative passages prepare us for the important thesis constantly maintained by the Church for fifteen centuries, viz. that Scripture is the ultimate criterion of the Church's teaching on matters of faith. Our sixth Article is simply stating the universal belief of early ages in its declaration that "whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an article of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation." It is not too much to say, that "the whole weight of authority" is in favour of the doctrine of the sixth Article 2. The voice of Christian antiquity on this point is unanimous, and I need only quote some typical utterances. Athanasius of Alexandria tells us that "the holy and divinely inspired Scriptures are of themselves all-sufficient for the enunciation of truth;" and that the Scriptures "are the fountains of salvation" in which "alone the doctrine of godliness is proclaimed 3." Cyril of Jeru 1 Opera, tom. iv, p. 281; tom. ix, p. 426. ' Palmer, Treatise on the Church of Christ, Part iii, ch. 1. 8 Ath. c. Gent. 1; Fest. Epist. xxxix. salem teaches that "Nothing at all ought to be delivered concerning the divine and holy mysteries of faith without the Holy Scriptures;" and again he plainly says to his converts, "Do not believe me simply unless you receive the proof of what I tell you out of the Scriptures 1." "Keep that faith only," he elsewhere insists, "which the Church is now giving to you and which is certificated out of the whole of Scripture 2." The witness of the West is similar: "In those things," declares Augustine, "which are openly set down in Scripture, all things are found which embrace both faith and conduct 3." For the later Church of the East a reference to John Damascene will suffice, "All things that are delivered to us by the law, the prophets, the apostles, and the evangelists we receive, acknowledge, and reverence, seeking for nothing beyond these 4." The same doctrine is taught by many mediaeval writers, and is affirmed by Roman Catholic divines of 1 Catech. iv. 12; cp. 17. 8 de Doc. ii. 9. 2 Catech. V. 12. ✦ de Orth. Fid. i. 1. A large number of quotations similar in purport will be found in Palmer, Treatise on the Church, 1. c.; or in Bp. E. H. Browne's Exposition of the XXXIX Articles, pp. 140 f. authority, such as Cardinal du Perron1. As late as the eighteenth century the Gallican doctor du Pin approved of our sixth Article in language to the following effect: "This (viz. that Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation) we will gladly admit, provided that tradition be not excluded which does not set forth new articles of faith, but confirms and explains those things which are contained in Holy Scripture, and fences them by new safeguards against those who are otherwise minded, so that nothing new is said, but only the old in a new way 2? These are so many restatements of the axiom that what is de fide must be capable of proof from Scripture. The tradition of faith handed down by the Church is in fact identical with the teaching of Scripture, and is confirmed by it. وو At this point we may observe in passing that the body of revealed truths which depend upon this primary degree of authority, which are at once delivered by the Church and corroborated by the testimony of Scripture, 1 See Palmer, 1. c. - Pusey, Eirenicon, p. 213. Palmer even claims the Council of Trent in favour of the sixth Article (1. c.). See below. |