inspiration, because they were supported by miracles"; and she recognised as genuine the several members of our sacred canon, at a period when it was ascertainable from personal knowledge that they were truly written by the authors to whom they were assigned. She thus formed the first link in the chain of tradition. Not, however, in the chain of dogmatic tradition, as it is half insinuated by those who fain would involve the subject in confusion; but in that branch of the matter for which the name of critical tradition has been proposed in this discourse. This, it should be borne in mind, regards not the doctrine delivered, but merely the mode and means of its delivery 20. The age immediately succeeding that of the apostles, in supplying a second link to the chain of critical tradition, simply bore testimony to the prevalence of a conviction which no man, when the facts were thus recent, was able to elude. Important, however, as are this ancient ecclesiastical testimony and registration, posterity requires a great deal more for its satisfaction. Were the sacred books, it asks, admitted as genuine by the Fathers and heretics of highest antiquity? Do contemporaneous historical monuments afford them confirmation? Is their early dispersion attested by versions of the

most venerable age? Unless affirmative answers could certainly be returned to these questions, no force of authority, merely ecclesiastical, would obtain assent from discerning minds to the pretensions which these books advance. Nor is even this degree of satisfaction sufficient in such a case, involving, as it does, the whole conduct of human life, and every hope of the soul, on its escape from corporeal durance. Unless the "Spirit itself bore witness with our spirit'," when we humbly and earnestly seek for comfort and instruction from holy Scripture, assertions of its divine authority would sound in the ears of most men as little better than "idle tales "." It is because the sacred pages afford abundantly this kind of internal evidence, that they bring an irresistible conviction of their heavenly character to unprejudiced readers of every class. It is because the needful external evidence in their favour is complete in all particulars, much more than because the Church supplies her own peculiar links in this chain of critical tradition, that sound inquiring minds have universally acquiesced in the canonicity of our holy books.

Intellects of this description have ever also sought assistance from tradition, in the

1 Rom. viii. 16.

expo

m Luke xxiv. 11.

66

sition of Scripture, especially in those points which antiquity minutely canvassed, and accurately defined. It is indeed true that the volume of inspiration may be made, and ought to be made, its own interpreter. Spiritual things are to be compared with spiritual"," and thus men are to seek such a knowledge of "all the counsel of God"," as their several faculties admit, and circumstances require. But this task, in the more hidden mysteries of revelation, particularly, demands a high degree of diligence, judgment, and humility. The records of our holy faith, having been incidentally elicited, are naturally wanting in systematic arrangement and technical precision. Probably, however, the communication of heavenly knowledge by writers thus incited to composition, is among those merciful dispensations for which especial gratitude is due to Providence. For instruction is imbibed far more aptly, by the great majority of minds, in a miscellaneous form, than in one professedly didactic. Still it is obvious, that doctrines interspersed in a series of occasional compositions must be difficult of accurate exposition and classification. In fact, without some considerable acquaintance

n 1 Cor. ii. 13.

o Acts xx. 27.

with the circumstances under which our sacred books were written, with the controversies then prevailing, and with habits of thought and expression then existing, all attempts to use them theologically, are plainly hopeless. Now, these indispensable aids for biblical interpretation were possessed completely by those alone who conversed with the Apostles, and their immediate successors. A full per

suasion of this truth led the first council of Nice, that most august of ecclesiastical assemblies, to unfold the meaning of Scripture in certain controverted passages, upon principles current immemorially among Christians, and formally embodied in the confessions of particular churches". In this humble and wary deference for the most unsuspected periods of antiquity, the Proto-Nicene Fathers have been imitated by the best esteemed of subsequent councils, by the safest of scriptural expositors. Nor can any inquirer calculate rationally upon arriving at sound conclusions in dogmatic theology, unless he seeks for guidance from the venerable monuments of early Christianity. An arrogant or indolent neglect of hermeneutical tradition can scarcely fail of betraying cultivated minds, when intent upon religious knowledge, into rash confidence and erroneous opinions.

Respect is also manifestly due for the usages of that venerable period, when the church encountered no worldly temptations, and when apostolical recollections yet lingered among her teachers. Eminent divines, accordingly, have generally shewn a reverential deference for all those decencies of polity and worship, which ascend upwards to the remotest ages of Christian antiquity. But here expediency may be permitted to raise her voice. Ecclesiastical tradition regards not the faith itself, but its external profession. It may, therefore, allowably be restrained from offering violence to the varying aspect of human society.

In examining questions, however, arising from this, or from any other branch of the subject under consideration, actual possession should not lightly pass as a proof of establishment from the first. Particular churches may have holden traditions, even for centuries, which, notwithstanding, were adopted long after the apostles had gone to reap the fruit of their labours. For ascertaining, in any case, whether such may be the fact, inquiry may be safely and advantageously restricted within a limited range. If a link in the chain should be found wanting, arguments, drawn from alleged continuity are