President:-THE Right Reverend M. CREIGHTON, D.D.,. LORD BISHOP OF LONDON. Chairman:-THE REVEREND W. E. COLLINS, PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY XI. The Voice of the Church and the Bishops. BY THE REV. R. B. RACKHAM, M.A., OF THE COMMUNITY OF THE RESURRECTION. SEVENTH THOUSAND. PUBLISHED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTEE. LONDON. SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERland Avenue, W.C.; 43, QUEEN VICTORIA STREET, E.C. BRIGHTON: 129, NORTH STREET. NEW YORK: E. & J. B. YOUNG & CO. iii. dissensions settled by conference and acceptance of the whole body PAGE 97 98 100 102 B. In the first four centuries i. the bishop is the teaching authority · 104 a. its character of witness synods which develope until they cul minate in the general council the final authoritative voice 7. written documents 109 ib. III iii. the utterance of the general council 130 134 THE VOICE OF THE CHURCH AND THE BISHOPS. ... διὰ τοῦτο ἔχοντες τὴν διακονίαν τάυτην . . . οὐκ ἐγκακοῦμεν .. τῇ φανερώσει τῆς ἀληθείας συνιστάνοντες ἑαυτοὺς πρὸς πᾶσαν συνείδησιν ἀνθρώπων ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ.—2 Cor. iv. 1, 2. WE start to-day with the assumption that there is such an utterance as the voice of the church, the vox ecclesiae: that the church has in technical language a magisterium or office of teaching: that in view of our Lord's commission to His apostles (St. John xx. 21, St. Matt. xxviii. 19) this magisterium is authenticum, or in other words has authority in matters of faith,-an authority which we can trust, relying upon the guidance of the Holy Ghost and the presence of our Lord with His church "even unto the end of the world" (St. John xiv. 17, 26, xvi. 13; St. Matt. xxviii. 20). Our object is to inquire How does this vox ecclesiae speak? how are we to discern the true voice of the church among the many kinds of voices in the world? And as the |