Conybeare - Analytic Examination - Writings of Ante-Nicene Fathers (1839)

7/30/2019 Conybeare - Analytic Examination - Writings of Ante-Nicene Fathers (1839)

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AN

ANALYTICAL EXAMINATIONINTO THE

CHARACTER, VALUE, AND JUST APPLICATIONOP

THE WRITINGSOF

THE CHRISTIAN FATHERSDURING THE ANTE-NICENE PERIOD.

^// BEING THEBAMPTON LECTURESFOR THE YEAR MDCCCXXXIX.

W. D. CONYBEARE, M.A.OF CHRIST CHURCH,

VICAR OF AXMINSTER.

OXFORD,JOHN HENRY PARKER

J. G. AND F. RIVINGTON, LONDON,MDCCCXXXIX.


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BAXTER, PRINTER, OXFORD-


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PREFACE.

In preparing to commit this series of Lectm'esto the judgment of the public^ the Author cannotrefrain from mentioning those circumstances con-nected with their composition, which may, insome measure, claim for them a more indulgentconsideration. His name was not originally pro-posed as a candidate for the appointment whichhas called them forth ; and was only suggestedat the moment of election. He was thus neces-sarily deprived of that time for deliberation, whichis usual before the final acceptance of such anoffice, and which might very probably have re-sulted in the conclusion,

Perche alle spalle sue soverchia soma *.

On this unexpected call, the Author's choiceof a subject was naturally directed to a line of

Milton, vol, iv. p. 183. ed. Oxford, 1824.


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VI PREFACE.

enquiry, \vhich engaged at the time his privatetheological studies ; but he has since most sensiblyfelt the disadvantage of the very short intervalallowed him for preparation, and has experienced,to an extent far beyond what he had anticipated,the difference between collections formed onlyfor private satisfaction, and those which hecould regard as sufficiently matured for publicnotice.

It appears the more necessary to submit theabove statement of the circumstances connectedwith the Author's appointment to the office ofBampton Lecturer, and his selection of the sub-ject here discussed, because a widely-circulatedperiodical journal has given currency to an erro-neous impression, that the nomination was con-ferred and accepted with direct reference toprevailing controversies. But it must be suffi-ciently obvious from what has been said, that theBampton Trustees could not, at the time of theirelection, have possessed any intimation of theintentions of a party, with whom they had hadno previous communication whatever : and it istrusted, that the execution of the Lectures them-selves, however deficient in other respects, willsufficiently manifest, that to engage in personal


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PREFACE. Vll

aftd individual controversy, is of all things themost remote from the habits and intentions ofthe Author.

P. S. In some of the earlier Lectures, references willbe found to articles in a proposed Appendix ; but thebulk of the volume having exceeded expectation, it hasbeen judged expedient, as the articles in question werein no respect of material consequence to the generalargument, to abandon the intention proposed in thatrespect.


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'propertT^PEINGETOH

THEOLOGICiiLcgnte:

LECTURE I.Page 1,

1 Cor. ii. 5.That yourfaith should not stand in the zvisdom of

men, hut in the power of God,Introductory. On the opposition of the Anglicanand Tridentine rules of faith. The Bible, according to

our Church, the sole authoritative rule ; but Ecclesias-tical Tradition valued as an important subsidiary aid ininterpretation. Answer to objections commonly madeagainst the full sufficiency of the Bible as the rule offaith; especially those derived from its imraethodicalstructure. Proposal to examine analytically the writingsof the Ante-Nicene Fathers, as the earliest and most im-portant witnesses to Ecclesiastical Tradition.

LECTURE II.Page 51.Rev. ii. 13.

Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not deniedmy faith, even in those days in xMch myfaithfulmartyr zaas slain among you.Examination of the Apostolical Fathers, Clemens

Romanus, Ignatius, and Polycarp.


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X CONTENTS.

LECTURE III.Page 119.

1 Cor. ii. 6, 7.Hoxvheit we speak zmsdom among them that are

perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world; butwe speak the wisdom of God,Examination of the earlier Philosophical Fathers,

Justin, Tatian, and Athenagoras.

LECTURE IV.Page 186.

1 Thess. v. 21.Prove all things. Holdfast that which is good.Examination of the Alexandrian Fathers, ClemensAlexandrinus and Origen, with a preliminary sketch of

the Alexandrian Catechetical school.

LECTURE V.Page 258.1 Cor. xi. 19.

There must also be heresies amongst you, that theywhich are approved may be made manifest.

Examination of Irenaeus, with preliminary remarks onthe Gnostic Heresies.


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CONTENTS. XILECTURE VI.

Page 329.Rev. iv. 13, 14.

/ know thy works, and that thou holdest fast my7iame : but I have afew things against thee.

Examination of Tertullian.

LECTURE VII.Page 392.1 Tim. iv. 12.

Be thou an example of the believers in word, inconversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, inpurity.Examination of Cyprian, and concluding observations

on the general introduction of Councils, with particularremarks on that held on the errors of Paul of Samosataand the Nicene Council.

LECTURE VIILPage 453.

Eph. iv. 11, 12.And he gave some, apostles ; and so?ne, prophets ;and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and

teachers ; for the perfecting of the samts, forthe work of the ministry, for the edifying of thebody of Christ.Concluding recapitulation on the character of the

several classes of Christian Fathers, and the bearing ofthe testimony afforded by them on several leading pointsof doctrine and discipline.


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\'l\ EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTON S WILL." lowing, at St. Mary's in Oxford, between the com-'* niencement of the last month in Lent Term, and the" end of the third week in Act Term.

" Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity" Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon either of" the following Subjects :to confirm and establish the" Christian Faith, and to confute all heretics and schis-" niaticsupon the divine authority of the holy Scrip-" luresupon the authority of the writings of the" primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the" primitive Churchupon the Divinity of our Lord" and Saviour Jesus Christupon the Divinity of the" Holy Ghostupon the Articles of the Christian Faith," as comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.

" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divi-" nity Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, within" two months after they are preached, and one copy" shall be given to the Chancellor of the University,'* and one copy to the Head of every College, and one*' copy to the Mayor of the City of Oxford, and one" copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ; and the" expense of printing them shall be paid out of the** revenue of the Land or Estates given for establishing** the Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher** shall not be paid, nor be entitled to the revenue," before they are printed." Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be

** qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons," unless he hath taken the degree of Master of Arts at" least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or" Cambridge; and that the same person shall never" preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."


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ANANALYTICAL EXAMINATION

Src.


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LECTURE I.

1 Cor. ii. 5.That your faith should not stand in the wisdom ofmen, but

in the power of God,

That the voice which reveals to manhis relations to his Creator, his duties inlife, and his hopes in eternity, must beindeed a voice from heaven, is a truth asuniversally acknow^ledged, as if it did butamount to an identical proposition. Eventhose philosophers of the Gentiles, to whomthe high privilege of instruction from adirect revelation was denied, have yet fullyand frankly avowed their sense of its neces-sity ; have desired to see the things whichwe see, and have not seen them ; to hearthe things which we hear, and have notheard them. He, especially, who may justlybe said to have pursued to their utmostlimits the natural anticipations of divine

B


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2 LECTURE I.truth implanted by the Creator in the hu-man breast, even the greater disciple ofSocrates himself, has most humbly andexphcitly confessed his own deep con-viction, that some divine vsôrd was neces-sary, which could alone afford a securevehicle, to enable us to prosecute in safetyour hazardous journey in the investigationof truth^

The whole Christian world is equallyagreed, that this divine communication, soIons: looked for with such o:eneral andanxious expectation, was in due time fullyand finally vouchsafed, when He, whowâs the desire of all nations, wâs mademanifest ; when God, who at sundry timesand in divers manners had spoken to thefathers by the prophets, spake in the lastdays of his dispensation unto all by hisSon.In these things all Christians are agreed ;but, unhappily, some difference of opinionhas prevailed among the Churches, as tothe means appointed in the counsels ofDivine Providence, to guard and preserve,

Platonis Pli}i3(lo, cd. Scrr. t. i. p. 85.


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LECTURE I. 3through its descent to later ages, the com-pleted faith established by this final reve-lation ; and to perpetuate it in that single-ness and simplicity which must ever formits distinguishing characteristic.On every view of the subject which it is

possible for any Christian party to take,it is indeed perfectly evident, that all au-thority in matters ecclesiastical and theolo-gical, must ultimately resolve itself into anappeal to those divinely commissioned Apo-stles, whom Christ sent forth as his ownembassadors, armed with plenary powers,that they might erect his kingdom andChurch on the earth ; and for this endendowed in all fulness with the promisedgifts of the Spirit, to guide them into alltruth, that in all things their authoritymight be infallible and indisputable. Theonly question therefore must be, throughwhat channels the knowledge of these au-thoritative apostolical decisions has beentransmitted to us.

All are indeed equally agreed, that wepossess in the volume of the New Testa-ment the authentic writings of these emis-

B 2


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4 LECTURE 1.saries of the Lord ; and that these, beingimmediately dictated by the same SpiritAvlio guided them throughout the greatAvork committed to their charge, musttherefore be fully invested with his owndivine authority. Now, as the mind of theSpirit cannot be supposed to contradictitself, no one can for a moment imagine,that any thing contrary to this acknow-ledged scriptural standard can by anypossibiHty be admitted as valid. No oneof the Christian name can dispute, that therule of the Scripture is, so far as it mayextend, certain and absolute ; the onlyquestion which can arise must be, whetherthis scriptural rule be also sole as well assure ; whether it be universal, as contain-ing in itself all things essential to the faith,and therefore exclusive ; or whether it maynot have left some points undetermined orobscure, and thus admit, and indeed re-quire, addition and elucidation, from thetraditional memory of the oral instructionsoriginally dehvered by the same inspiredteachers.

This latter view the Church of Rome


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LECTURE I. 5strenuously maintains ; the TridentineCouncil expressly asserts, that the truthsessential to salvation are contained " inlibris Scriptis, et sine scripto traditionibus,quse ipsius Christi ore et Apostolis acceptse,aut et ipsis Apostolis, Spiritu sancto dic-tante, quasi per manus traditee ad nos us-que pervenerunt**."Our own Church, on the other hand,

dares not admit any other authoritativerule or standard, as to the essential doc-trines of a saving faith, than the CanonicalScriptures, the unquestioned and unques-tionable oracles of inspiration ; these sheregards as in themselves all-sufficient andall-perfect, and therefore neither requiringnor admitting any extrinsic addition vs^hat-soever. If any single point may be selected,as forming the peculiar and distinctivecharacter, w^hich the founders of our re-formed Church most earnestly desired, Iw^ill not say, to impress on the structurethey were rearing^ but rather to clear outfrom the incrustations which had concealedit on the ancient walls of the primitive

" Cone. Trid. Sess. 4.


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6 LECTURE I.temple they were restoring, it is undoubt-edly this. This she has distinctly inscribedin the first page of her Articles ; this shemost solemnly impresses on the conscienceof every Minister whom she fully commis-sions, when she directs her Bishops toadmit none to the priestly office until theyshall have first satisfactorily answered theemphatic question, ''Are you persuaded thatthe Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently alldoctrine required of necessity for salvationthrough Jesus Christ, and are you deter-mined out of the said Scriptures to instructthe people committed to your charge, andto teach nothing as required of necessityto eternal salvation, but that which youshall be persuaded may be concluded andproved by the Scripture V O, my brethren,let none of us who have once on this solemnoccasion deliberately answered to such anappeal, that " we were so persuaded, andhad so determined through God's grace,"let none of us seem in any way to swervefrom the obligation we have thus bound onour souls.

Yet assuredly we should greatly mistake


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LECTURE I. 7the intention of our Church, did weimagine that she called on us to neglectthe information which the venerable relicsof Christian antiquity have preserved tous, in recording the sentiments of theprimitive ages of the faith. Our holymother would never encourage us to depre-ciate the high and honourable claims of thefirst standard-bearers, and foremost cham-pions of our religion. The true line takenby our Church appears to be this. Sheknows nothing of tradition as an inde-pendent rule of faith ; but genuine andprimitive tradition she anxiously seeks todiscover, and when found she honours, notindeed as a rival mistress, but as the faithfulhandmaid of Scripture'',Many circumstances have of late con-

curred to reawaken upon these subjects theattention, too long it may be dormant, ofour own divines. The true nature and

Waterland has excellently expressed this sentiment." Antiquity ought to attend as an hanchnaid to Scripture,to wait upon her as her mistress, and to observe herto keep off intruders from making too bold with her, andto discourage strangers from misrepresenting her." Doc-tritte of the Trinity, c. vii.


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8 LECTURE I.foundation of the Christian rule of faith,the just value and apphcation of the re-mains of the early ecclesiastical writers,have again become the prominent topicsof theological controversy.

In these discussions the advocates of oneparty have spoken as if the Church hadreceived as a perpetual possession " a tra-dition independent of the v^ritten word,parallel to Scripture, and not derived fromit ; an unwritten word of God demandingthe same reverence from us, and for exactlythe same reasons, as that which is written"*/'


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LECTURE I. 9While these writers have loudly arraigned

what they call the presumptuous irreve-reconciling such views, with the express reservation ofthe Scripture as the sole and paramount rule of faithbut others will probably find no little difficulty, if theyadmit two parallel and independent sources of faith, anunwritten as well as written word of God, claimingequal deference as the revelation of his will, to assignany reason for attributing to the one revelation anyparamount authority over the other. And the naturaltendency of such views, even in the very case of thewriter referred to himself, is sufficiently obvious in asubsequent passage of his discourse. " As long as it isonly doubtful whether any statement or precept is part ofthe Apostolic system or no, so long a mind imbued withtrue devotion will treat that statement or precept withreverence, and will not rudely reject or scorn it, lest herefuse to entertain an angel unawares. So long themerefact of its not being contained in Scripture cannothe felt as a justification for casting it aside, any morethan its not being revealed in any particular book ofScripture which ue 7night happen to value above the rest.Although not in Scripture, it may yet be a part of theirrule, concerning whom the Son of God hath declared," He that heareth you heareth me ; and he that de-spiseth you despiseth me." p. 32. Is the idea, that theremay be such omissions in the Scripture of importantparts of the rule given by Christ to be proclaimed by hisApostles, at all consistent with the reception of thoseScriptures as the sole and sufficient standard of faith ?Can the parity here stated between the absence of adoctrine from one book of Scripture which may be con-tained in another, and the total absence from Scripture


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10 LECTURE I.rence of disparaging the Fathers, under theplea of magnifying the Scripture, may notthe language they have themselves some-times incautiously employed, seem Hableto the converse charge of disparaging theScriptures under the plea of magnifying theFathers ?

In the oscillations of human opinion, thenatural and necessary consequence of anyviolent impulse towards one side of thejust equilibrium, is ever to create a re-action of equal violence in the opposite di-rection. When such sentiments thereforehave been avowed on the one side, we cannotbe surprised that other parties should havebeen hurried into a contrary extreme, andexpressed themselves as if inclined utterlyto reject and despise the voice of Christianantiquity ; and to treat with ridicule andcontempt the names on so many accountsentitled to our regard and respect, thevenerable fathers of Christian faith, thenoble martyrs to Christian truth.of that wliicli nevertheless may be equally authorizedby Tiiulition, be so explained as not to place Traditionand Scripture itself on exactly the same level ofauthority ?


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LECTURE I. 11Is there then no via media ? May we not

even in these days, as the consistent sonsof our beloved Church, maintain with herthe full sufficiency and exclusive authorityof the holy Scripture, as the sole rule offaith ; and yet, with her, avail ourselvesof every valuable aid, to be derived from thevenerable relics of primitive Christianity ?These were the subjects which the circum-

stances of the times necessarily pressed onmy own mind, when I received from theElectors the sudden and unexpected callwhich has placed me in this office : andin complying with which, I have hoped thatI might perform a service not altogetherunacceptable in the present state of ourChurch, by throwing together in such aform, as might render them available forthe assistance of other and younger stu-dents, the collections I was employed inmaking to guide my own mind in forminga candid judgment. These will be princi-pally directed to an examination of thegeneral character, the true value, and thejust application, of the early Patristicalremains ; for that appeared to me to con-


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12 LECTURE I.stitute the great cardinal point, on whichthe whole discussion must eventually turn.To these objects, then, I propose to dedi-cate the series of Lectures on which I amnow entering.But first, in my present introductory

discourse, I shall desire to commence withthat which seems to lie at the foundation ofthe whole argument, the proyidential designevinced in the promulgation of the writtendocuments of the New Testament as thesure and permanent depository of the faith :and this will naturally lead me to the ex-amination of such circumstances connectedwith the nature and structure of theseScriptural records, as may appear to affecttheir competency to afford of themselves arule of faith full, clear, and self-sufficient,and their relation to the subsidiary meansof interpretation.

In the following Lectures I shall proceedto such an analytical and critical examina-tion of the remains of the principal Fathersof the Ante-Nicene period, as I have foundmost useful in imparting a more clear anddefinite character to my own views on the


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LECTURE I. 13subject; and I would therefore hope maynot be found altogether useless to others.

In the first place, in advocating the ex-clusive authority of Scripture as a rule offaith, very few observations will be ne-cessary with regard to the earlier divisionof the sacred Volume ; for as this is entirelyconfined to an introductory dispensation, itcan have only a very partial bearing onthe general question ; and here assuredlyno rival body of tradition is recognized^.The full interpretation, indeed, of much ofits prophetical portion, and the clear eluci-

^ It may, however, be perhaps said, that while allChristians reject the absurd figments of Cabbalistictradition, it is still desirable to ascertain as far as wecan what portions of the prophetical writings wereoriginally considered by the Jewish Chm'ch itself asapplicable to the Messiah. Such an investigation mayundoubtedly be often found very useful, as affordingargumenta ad homines in controversy with the Jewsthemselves in confutation of their later misinterpre-tation ; but beyond this it can hardly lead to anyconclusions challenging a very firm confidence. Theinspired authority of the New Testament appears theonly very certain guide as to the latent application ofthose earlier prophecies to the Christian scheme, eitherby directly pointing out such an application, or in-directly by the general analogy inferred from that whichit does thus positively establish.


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14 LECTURE I.elation of the spiritual realities shadowedforth by its typical rites, do assuredlyaltogether depend on the revelations of thefinal dispensation; but few, I apprehend,will be incUned to look for such an inter-pretation elsewhere than in the inspiredScriptures of that dispensation themselves,for none but the Spirit can be his own inter-preter in developing hidden meanings whichcan be known to his mind alone ; few, Irepeat, will ascribe any similar authorityto the extravagances of allegorical inter-pretation introduced by the AlexandrianJews ; however seductive such a schememay have unhappily proved to the mindsof some of the Christian Fathers, too easilybetrayed into adopting and extending it, andcolouring it in accordance to their ownviews.The real stress of the argument betweenwritten and unwritten tradition, as the

channels of handing authoritatively downthe doctrines of the Christian faith, mani-festly depends on the circumstances underwhich those doctrines were first communi-cated to the infant Churches ; and finally


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LECTURE I. 15embodied in writing by those di^/inely-commissioned promulgators, the inspiredApostles.The advocates of unwritten tradition are

constantly reminding us of the fact, (whichindeed none have ever questioned,) that theprimary instructions by which these Apo-stles built up the first Churches in the faith,were originally conveyed by oral and cate-cheticalinstruction; and that probablynearlythirty years had elapsed, after the founda-tions of an extended Church were laid by thePentecostal descent of the Spirit, before theearliest Scriptures of the New Testamentwere published ; and more than double thatperiod before its canon was fully com-pleted. While the living voice of theApostles could be heard and known, therecan be no doubt but that that voice wouldhave formed a fully sufficient standard offaith ; but this is quite a different thingfrom admitting, that when its living testi-mony was once withdrawn, tradition ofany kind could be relied upon as a secureand sufficient depository for its preserva-tion. We contend, that the uniform voice


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16 LECTURE I.of experience and history altogether nega-tives such a reUance, and declares that theedifice resting on such a treacherous andscanty foundation, contains the principle ofits own destruction ^ We contend that theconduct of these first teachers in commit-ting their instruction (before they werethemselves withdrawn) to written docu-ments, always implies their anxiety in thismanner to preserve the certainty of the faithand shews that they were unwilling to entrustit to any other channel. Thus being deaddo they yet speak with a voice that cannotbe mistaken ; thus have they bequeathed tothe Church the charter of its faith as aKT-q^a k ael, in records imperishable andimmutable. We contend that the well-known rule of legal evidence, which refusesto admit for a moment any hearsay reporton subjects where original documents canbe produced in the court, is founded onthe justest views of human testimony,and is strictly applicable to the presentcase.

' See article A in the Appendix, on the experience ofhistory as affecting the principle of Tradition.


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LECTURE I. 17With regard to that which may be said

to constitute the prime material of theChristian faith, the history of the wholeearthly ministry of its Divine Founder, thecare with which every essential circum-stance has been recorded in the writtenGospels is obvious. We need not indeedassert, that every single w^ord which heever spake has been so preserved^; but wedo assert with St. John, that all thosethings which were necessary so to esta-blish our faith in Jesus Christ, that believ-ing we might have life through his name,have been written. We do assert, thattradition has not preserved a single credibleaddition to the testimony of the inspiredpenmen with regard to the discourses ofpower by which he prepared the mindsof men for his faith, or the mighty worksby which he confirmed it. Yet it is notthat tradition has been altogether silent;on the contrary, it has spoken abundantlysufficient to confirm the extremest jealousy

= One single precept, indeed, " it is more blessed to givethan to receive," we know on the authority of St. Paul tohave been delivered, though the Evangelists have omit-ted to record it.

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18 LECTURE I.in refusing to listen to its voice, as possess-ing any concurrent authority with Scrip-ture. It is to tradition we owe the absurdlegends of the forged gospels ; and evenwhen the judicious Irenseus, in contradic-tion to his usual practice, in two instances^allowed himself to lend too easy an ear toits fallacious suggestions, the well-knownerrors into w^hich he was in both casesbetrayed may amply serve for an instructiveAvarning K And we must especially regretthat this should have happened to a Father,who had himself so explicitly and forciblystated, that the Apostles had been directedby the will of God to deUver down to us inthe Scriptures the things which before theyhad orally taught, in order thus to providea sure foundation and column to our

" See these cases considered in the Lecture on Irenaeus.' These will be particularly noticed in Lecture VI.

on that Father. The absurd and disgusting legendsconcerning the preternatural and monstrous swellingof the body of Judas, &c. attributed by Theophylactto Papias early in the second century, might also becited. Routh (Rel. Sac. t. i. p. 24.) argues, that someof the most gross circumstances were subsequent ad-ditions.


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LECTURE I. 19faith J/' In forsaking for a moment thatfoundation, he has sufficiently shewn, thatit is the only one on which it is safe todepend.The account which one of the Evan-

gelists has himself given us of his motivesin composing his written Gospel, and whichmay well serve for all, sufficiently attestshis conviction of the necessity even at thisearly period of embodying the substance ofthe previous catechetical instruction in awritten record, as the only effectual meansby which they could be transmitted andpreserved with the certainty of truth ; haiTrcyifm Tr^pl (hv Karrj^rjOrj^ Xoycov r-qv do-cpaXecai'.

In every other case the very same anxietydictated the original composition of theGospels. Thus when St. Matthew^ wasabout to withdraw from his ministry amongthe Hebrews, he left with them his Gospel,(originally published in their own lan-guage,) in order to supply by a writtendocument the loss of his own personal

J Iren. adv. Haer. 1. iii. c. 1." See Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. ii.

c 2


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20 LECTURE I.instructions; a labour surely superfluous ^ ifhe could have trusted to tradition.Thus also St. Mark (generally called by

ecclesiastical antiquity the interpreter ofSt. Peter) is said to have composed hisGospel at Rome, in consequence of theearnest request of those who had thereheard the preaching of his apostolic com-panion, that he would leave with them amemorial in ivriting of the truths which hadbeen so delivered.And last of all, the aged survivor of the

whole apostolical band, St. John, lest anything essential should remain uncertified tofuture ages by a sure record, composed hisown Gospel with the obvious design ofcompleting the evangelical series, by adocument strictly supplemental to all thosewhich preceded it.We may surely then conclude, that it wast\\e providential design of God through theinspiration of his Holy Spirit, to secure inthese written Gospels a complete and exclu-sive digest of all that was essential to beknown concerning the ministry and teach-


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LECTURE I. 21ing of his ever-blessed Son. Thus farindeed I apprehend our positions will hardlybe disputed by any. And strict parity ofreasoning will I think enable us to extendsimilar inferences to the remaining andmore doctrinal portions of the ChristianScriptures.For with regard to the personal dis-courses of our Lord thus carefully pre-served, although every consistent Christianmust admit that they contain the full andpregnant germ of all the articles of ourfaith; yet was that faith undoubtedly farmore explicitly developed, when the sameLord, having led captivity captive and goneup on high, poured down from his heavenlythrone the gifts of his Holy Spirit ; whenthat promised Paraclete fulfilled his fore-shewn office, by guiding the disciples intoall truth, concerning the great dispensationwhich could only at that time be saidto have received its final completion.

If then we should regard it as alreadyproved, that it seemed good in the divinecounsels to provide a permanent writtenrecord to secure the aacpdXeta of our Lord's


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22 LECTURE I.introductorycommunicationswhile on earth,can we at all conceive it probable, that thefinal revelations of the same Lord fromHeaven should have been left to repose onthose very traditional foundations, whichin the former case were confessedly re-jected as altogether inadequate to affordthe requisite security ?But to turn from presumptive argument

to positive fact. We know that we havepreserved to us the genuine Epistles ofmany of the Apostles to whom theseheavenly revelations were vouchsafed, andwe know that these Epistles are abundantlyrich in doctrine. We have only then toenquire, do these undoubted apostolicalwritin2:s constitute the sole authoritativestandard of the truths they were commis-sioned to teach, which has been bequeathedpermanently to the Church ; or are theysuch as to require some other concurrentand supplemental rule of faith .^

These Epistles in themselves undoubtedlyclaim as high an authority as any otherpart of the Scriptural volume. St. Paulappears fully to imply this equality, when


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LECTURE I. 23he concludes that which the best criticshave considered as the earUest of thosepubHshed by him, the first to the Thessa-lonians, with the following charge, so re-markable from the very impressive solem-nity with which it is conveyed : ^^ I adjureyou by the Lord, (opKi^co i^as rov Kvpioj/,^that this Epistle be read unto the holy bre-thren." We know that from the beginningthe prophetical Scriptures were read in thepublic assemblies of Christians, and it hastherefore been well observed on this pas-sage, that St. Paul here demands the samerespect to be paid to this Epistle, as to thewritings of the ancient prophets.The design of the Apostles, to leave inthese compositions a sure and permanent

record of their doctrines, is fully expressedin a very affecting passage in the intro-duction of the second Epistle of St. Peter;" Knowing that I must shortly put off thistabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christhath shewed me, I will endeavour [that is,by writing this Epistle] that ye may be ableafter my decease to have these things inremembrance, though ye now know them.


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24 LECTURE I.and be established in the present truth'."And again, " This second Epistle, beloved, Inow write unto you, in both which I stir upyour pure minds by way of remembrance,that ye may be mindful of the words whichwere spoken before by the holy prophets,andof the commandments of us the apostles ofthe Lord and Saviour." Here undoubtedlythis rock of the Christian Church distinctlyimplies, that he considered such writtenmemorials as the true security for the pre-servation of genuine apostolical traditions;^nd that to such means alone he trusted tokeep alive in the memory of his disciples,when his own voice was silenced in death,the truths that voice had once taught. Andwell had it been if the Church, which espe-cially professes to be built on him as herfoundation, had more faithfully received thespirit of these his words.Many of these Epistles, it is true, were

originally suggested by the local and tem-porary circumstances of the particularChurches to which they were addressed.Neither do they profess to form regular' 2 Peter i. 1 4, 15, compared with 11. '" 2 Peter iii. 1,2.


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LECTURE I. 25catechetical treatises, embodying all the doc-trines of Christianity, in a methodical anddigested system, such as might perhaps beconsidered most appropriate to the pur-poses of elementary instruction, but theyrather allude to these doctrines as truthsalready well known by those to whom theywere addressed, than propose them in theform of matters to be learnt for the firsttime. These circumstances of the occasionand structure of the apostolical Epistleshave sometimes been urged as if they justi-fied the conclusion, that such documentsmust of themselves be inadequate to consti-tute a full, perfect, and sufficient standard ofChristian doctrine. But I hope when weproceed more fully to examine the case, weshall find the juster inference to be, thatwhile they do indeed require the more care-ful comparative study of the several parts ofour Bibles, and the more diligent use ofevery subsidiary means of interpretation,yet the Bible itself is left after all as theone original source and the sole authoritativetest of the whole and every part of Chris-tian truth.


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26 LECTURE I.We may farther observe, that these very

chxumstances, sometimes almost imputedin the form of objections, have given doubleefficacy to the practical application of thedoctrines contained^ and supplied some of thestrongest arguments onwhich our confidencein the genuineness of Scripture reposes.For all must feel how much more forciblythe great Christian doctrines are broughthome in converting efficacy to the heart,by being incidentally presented in their com-bined and applied state as connected withthe particular duties to which they affordthe strongest motives, than had they beenrecorded in the abstracted form of a me-thodical digest"; a form more logical per-haps, but undoubtedly more dry, morecrude, more naked. And again, the struc-

" Thus in Phil. ii. 5. the inherent divinity of whichChrist emptied himself when he condescended to assumethe servile form of man, is brought forward as the greatargument for the production of the like mind of humilityand self-denial in his disciples. And in 1 Peter ii. 21.the Atonement of him ' who himself bare our sins inhis own body on the tree' is introduced to remind us ofthe great practical application of this doctrine, * that hethus suffered for us, leaving us an example that weshould follow his steps.'


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LECTURE I. 27ture of much of our Bible, as directly im-plicated with local circumstances and tem-porary occasions, could alone furnish thosemost conyincing proofs arising from unde-signed coincidences, which the sagacity ofa Paley has so acutely investigated and soirrefutably enforced.

All the objections which have beenfounded on such grounds, as implying anyincompetency in Scripture to form the solerule of faith, appear to me to err in thisthey regard the separate books of Scriptureonly in their individual and isolated cha-racter, and overlook them in their com-bined and collective capacity as united in asingle whole ; the true and just point ofview in which they ought ever to be con-sidered.We must remember, that these inspiredauthors wrote not of themselves, but asthey were moved by the Spirit of God.In order therefore to estimate aright theprovidential design of -the Christian Scrip-tures, we must consider them not merelywith reference to the particular intentionof the individual writers in each separate


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28 LECTURE I.composition, but we must view them inthe full integrity of their first completion,as they must have appeared in the counselsof Him, to whom " known are all his worksfrom their beginning."

I am fully persuaded that such a com-prehensive and combined survey of theChristian Scriptures will amply convinceus that they do thus contain in themselvesa summary of the whole body of Christiandoctrine, such as neither to require nor toadmit any extraneous addition whatsoever.

For I would at once specifically enquire,what one article of essential doctrine isthere which the Catholic Church has everreceived from the beginning, which shehas not always been able distinctly to de-monstrate from this sacred Volume alone ?If we are told of references to ecclesiasticaltradition by Irenseus and Tertullian ; wewould reply, that the short and simpledoctrinal formularies which they themselvespropose as embracing the whole sum andsubstance of that tradition, must at oncenegative the supposition, that it contained

" Acts XV. 18.


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LECTURE I. 29a single point not written in characters oflight, neither to be overlooked nor mis-taken in the Scriptures themselves. Theyare, in fact, nothing more than early copiesof that primitive Creed, commonly, from itshigh antiquity, ascribed to the Apostles ;every syllable of which would be receivedby biblical Christians of every denomina-tion, with the single and comparativelyunimportant exception of the Socinians,whom we can hardly be required to includein such a description.Or if from these brief and early formu-

laries we turn to the more copious andcomplete digest of all the articles of theChristian faith, which constitutes the con-fession of our own Church ; we havealready remarked, that she lays the found-ation of these by enforcing the Scripturealone as the all-sufficient and exclusivesource and rule of faith ; and if we try bythis test all the other doctrines she em-braces, we shall find her uniform and con-sistent throughout. The institutions of thischerished seat of our education, present


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30 LECTURE I.the most pregnant proof of this. A com-petent instruction in these articles of ourrehgion, here very properly forms an es-sential part of the discipline by which ourUniversity would train the minds of theyouth committed to her charge. To whatsources then, I would ask, does she teachher sons to look for the proofs they arerequired to produce of the truth of thedoctrines they thus profess ? Does she notalways exact full scriptural authority forevery point ? Would she ever be contentedby answers resting only on ecclesiasticaltradition ? And has it ever yet been foundthat the Scriptures were insufficient toanswer the call thus made on them ? andthat in order to produce more full andsatisfactory evidence of the truths ad-vanced, the respondent was ever reducedto the necessity of an appeal to tradition ?Our argument then, whether drawn from

the obvious design evinced in the provisionof a permanent scriptural record, or fromthe practical result, will converge to the sameconclusion ; namely, that those documents


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LECTURE I. 31were intended in themselves to form, andhave formed, the full, perfect, and sufficientsource and rule of Christian faith.But while we most strenuously maintainthis as the only secure foundation ; wefully allow at the same time that it haspleased the Almighty giver of inspirationso to appoint the structure of his revealedword, that it necessarily requires the mostdiligent and careful study rightly to extractand combine the great doctrines, whichwhen so studied it will be found distinctlyand abundantly to contain. The Bible isthe rich, the only mine, of sacred truthbut they who w^ould produce in an availableform the precious ore, must not shrink fromlabour, nor despise instrumental meansall the subsidiary aids which can conduceto a just interpretation of the scripturalrecord, must be eagerly sought and fullyapplied. Hermeneutics must ever con-stitute an essential branch of Theology.The faithful comparison of Scripture withScripture, the combined and collectivestudy of its various parts by which thegeneral harmony and analogy of the faith


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32 LECTURE I.is established, will undoubtedly form theprimary and pervading principle of soundHermeneutics. The Bible is ever its ownfirst and best interpreter ; and this willfurnish the sole test by which we shouldtry and examine every other professedguide. But in due subordination to this,weshould gratefully avail ourselves of everyuseful external aid which may present itselfto assist our interpretation ; and amongthese external and subsidiary aids, we mostcheerfully concede the very first place tothose interesting remains of Christian anti-quity, which may best guide us in ascer-taining the genuine and general sentimentsof the primitive Church.

If difficulties should occur to the mind,when it finds all this laborious process ofthe analytical investigation of the Scripture ^^necessary, to establish us fully in the rightunderstanding of the great truths theyreveal ; if we should rather have expectedto have found those truths ready drawnup for us in a brief and clearly digestedsystem of doctrine, requiring neither studynor assistance to exhibit them in that form;


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LECTURE I. 33it may be sufficient perhaps to remark, thatthe means which God has been pleased tosupply for the acquisition of religiousknowledge, are thus placed in the strictestanalogy with those which are afforded asthe basis of every other branch of know-ledge ; with this only difference, that as thescience which alone maketh wise untosalvation is the only one of general ne-cessity, in this case all the steps of theprocess of investigation are level to everycapacity to which they are properly ex-plained, and sufficient means for their beingso explained have been provided from thebeginning, by the institution of the Chris-tian ministry. Nor does this interventionof our ministerial office as Christian in-structors, in the least detract from the solesufficiency of the Bible as the rule of faith.We must ourselves be taught by it, beforewe can teach others ; it is our sole rule,and we do but unfold it as such to thosecommitted to our charge. We do not claimauthority as the lords over their faithbut we proffer assistance as its helpers.We require them to receive our doctrine,

D


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34 LECTURE I.not because we deliver it ; but we en-deavour to teach them, how to consult theirBibles for themselves. We invite them totry our representations by their agreementwith Avhat they shall find to. be therewritten, when their minds are so far in-structed as to enable them to conduct suchan enquiry advantageously. In this, ourultimate reference must of necessity be toprivate judgment, but we sedulously en-deavour that it shall not be to unqualifiedand uninstructed judgment. We wouldfirst train and cultivate the faculty, andplace faithfully before it all the materialson which it is called to exercise its decisionand then we trust we may frankly andfearlessly appeal to that decision. Suchan appeal in fact must ever form the lastresort ; for even he Avho yields the blindestsubmission to authority, does so simplybecause he is convinced by arguments satis-factory to his own private judgment, thatthere is some authority to which it is hisduty so to submit. It is indeed only anidentical proposition, that whatever any mansincerely believes, he must believe entirely


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LECTURE I. 35on his own individual conviction. But forthe safe exercise of this private judgment,most necessary is it that the pubKc mindshould be trained and disciplined, preparedand ripened ; and therefore from the begin-ning the Christian ministry has been ap-pointed, to attend on this very thing. God'sw^ord as the great subject-matter of in-struction, and his ministers as its instru-ments, were concurrently given. It neverhas been the will of Providence that thisdivine word should go forth altogetherunaccompanied, to effect its work of con-version. Nothing has ever actually oc-curred in the history of the Church at allresembling the romantic fiction of Bacon,respecting the introduction of Christianityinto his Utopian Atlantic Island ; when acolumn of flame, surmounted by a crossof light, attracted attention to a cedar arkfloating on thewaves, and containing a singlecopy of the Bible ; and this heaven-sentvolume was alone, and without any externalassistance whatever, the effectual instru-ment of converting and fully establishingthese wise but simple-minded islanders in

D 2


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36 LECTURE I.the faith. Not such, however, has everbeen the case with any actual Churchbut every successive age of Christianityhas found a regular system of Christiandoctrines delivered down to it by its pre-decessors ; and has been called only toexamine and certify these by careful com-parison with the inspired oracles, fromwhich they profess to have been derived.But how is this comparison to be con-

ducted? how are the instructors, appointedto assist the people, to be themselves in-structed .^ I have before suggested the ana-logy oii\\Q means provided, and the processesrequired for gaining religious and otherknowledge. The profound remark of Ori-gen, which suggested the most philosophicalof all theological treatises ; the great workof Bp. Butler, as its complete developmentmay be here most justly applied; for hewho believes the Bible and nature to be theworks of the same Author, must necessarilylook for analogous phenomena in both.Now in the book of revelation, consideredas the source of religious knowledge, wefind its structure such, as rather to com-


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LECTURE I. 37prise the several elements of that knowledgedisseminated throughout its several parts,than to present them regularly embodied ina systematic Avhole. And to this the bookof nature, considered as the source ofphysical science, exhibits throughout thestrictest analogy. It does but present usw^ith scattered and isolated phenomena,and these require to be developed by alaborious process of analytical investiga-tion, and to be combined and generalizedin their results, before we can succeed ineliciting in any systematic form the greattruths they are calculated to yield. Thosewho have exalted ecclesiastical traditionat the expense of the Bible, have indeedtauntingly urged this very analogy uponus. The Bible Christian has been scoffinglyplaced on a par with the sky astronomer*;as if in either case the rational desire topursue the investigation of the phenomenawith our own eyes, involved the neglectof the means calculated to assist the en-quiry. The parallel (thus as it shouldseem objected to us) we most cheerfully

See Fronde's Remains, p. 412, 413.


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38 LECTURE I.accept. We are quite willing to own, thatwe do in the one instance assert the phe-nomena of the sky, and these alone, to bethe rule of astronomical faith, exactly inthe same sense that we maintain (in theother) the Bible, and the Bible alone, to bethe rule of Christian faith ; the analogy isjust and close throughout. The volumeof the heavens presents phenomena hardof interpretation, and seemingly incon-sistent ; we shall there assuredly findSvaep/jLTjpevra and ipauTcocfjaur] quite as nu-merous and difficult, and indeed far moreso, than any critic can point out in thevolume of His word who made those hea-vens. What path then is the intellectualenquirer called to pursue ? is he to aban-don, as likely only to lead to error, theexamination of those phenomena, and seekconveniently to fix his faith on some sup-posed infallible authority, some illustriousname of old? Is he to adopt an axiomof Aristotle as the incontrovertible solutionof every difficulty? Such we know waslong the course pursued in the middle ages,by those who may be considered as the


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LECTURE I. 39genuine philosophical representatives of theschool of tradition ; but not such were theprocesses by which Kepler securely laid thefoundations of true science, in the dis-covery of the laws which have immortal-ized his name ; or Newton, combining andgeneralizing those laws, elicited from themthe great mechanical principle of the uni-verse. Such minds knew, that the appa-rent difficulties of the phenomena requiredonly, for their full and satisfactory solution,a more careful and minute study of them,and that careful comparison which mighteduce their general analogy. And in thevery same spirit that they read the book ofnature, should the Christian student read,mark, learn, and inwardly digest, his ownpeculiar book, the book of God.

I am of course aware that it may be said,that these illustrations are borrowed ratherfrom the original process of discovery, thanapplicable to the most suitable method ofsubsequently communicating the truth whenonce ascertained. I may be told, thatwhile the inventive method is necessarilyanalytical, the traditive method is more


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40 LECTURE I.properly synthetical, and proceeds mosteffectually by the development of truthfrom its systematic and integral form intoall its particular applications ; and I maybe reminded, that religion is a subject whichdoes not require the inventive process, andcan only properly admit that of inculcation.

But I would still observe, that to retracethe process of analytical investigation, isnecessary not only for the original investi-oration of truth, but to convince our mindsthat such truth has been correctly ascer-tained. When St. Paul proposed to theBeroeans Christ as the fulfilment of the law,they were not checked but highly com-mended for searching the Scriptures dailywhether these things were so. Our re-ligion, it is true, is first presented to ourminds as a system delivered down throughsuccessive ages of the Church, and chal-lenging on fair grounds of presumption tobe received as Scriptural truth ; but surelyto confirm our faith we are bound to com-pare that system with the source from whichit professes to be derived. And in this alsothe parallel, which I have before proposed.


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LECTURE I. 41will still hold, with the case of astronomy,and every other mature science. For theastronomical student of the present day iscertainly not at all in the same situationwith the earliest shepherd on the plains ofChaldsea or navigator of Tyre ; * Primusqui stellis numeros et nomina fecit.' Thestudent has now a probable system pro-posed to his acceptance ; and it is mosthkely that this system may have beenoriginally presented to his mind in thesynthetical method ; and so presented, mayhave to a great degree won the assent ofhis reason, by its obviously bearing thosecharacters of harmony and simplicity,which belong to our natural anticipationsof truth, our 7rp6XT]\l/L9 TrJ9 dXrjOela^. Butstill I may appeal to every academicalhearer, whether any aspirant to scientificknowledge is ever considered fully to havemastered the subject, until he has learntto trace step by step the analytical processon which it is founded. It is indeed mani-festly impossible to obtain any firm footingin science without this ; for if the meresynthetical student were challenged to


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42 LECTURE I.produce his evidence for the first princi-ples he assumed, it is obvious that everysatisfactory ansv^rer must ultimately resolveitself into the analysis by v^rhich they wereoriginally established ; and if w^e refer to aperiod when rival and plausible hypothesesmight offer coiiflicting claims to be received,by what other process than this can a justdetermination be possibly awarded ? In thevery same age, when the public mind wasdistracted in religion by the opposite pre-tensions of Romanism and Protestantismto be regarded as the pure and primitivefaith, it was equally disturbed in scienceby the very analogous struggle between thesystems of Ptolemy and Copernicus ; theformer resting on long-established autho-rity, and capable of explaining to a greatextent the known phenomena; the latterasserting its superior simplicity, demandinga more extended analysis, and courtinginvestigation as its sure field of triumph.And what but an appeal to the fullestanalysis of the celestial phenomena couldpossibly have led to the establishment ofastronomical truth? What but a similar


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LECTURE I. 43analysis of the declarations of the Scripturecan promise justly to determine the theolo-gical debate ?

Will it be objected, that the few and in-structed alone can be considered competentto conduct such a process ? We have allalong supposed that the assistance of quali-fied instructors is at hand, to unfold totheir people the nature of this Scripturalappeal ; and we maintain, that when onceso unfolded, the people are fully competentto follow out such an appeal, and to judgeof its justice ; as I have already observed.The author of the Acts assumes the Beroeansto have been so ; and in what can wesuppose them to have been superior to theinhabitants of any English provincial town ?If indeed the simple peasant be pronouncedquite incompetent for the just examinationof such evidence, I am anxious to be in-formed, in what manner it is supposed thathe can possibly arrive at truth in manysituations. In Ireland, for instance, thepeasant is beset on both sides by conflictingclaims of ecclesiastical authority. Now ifthe Scriptural appeal be rejected as above


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44 LECTURE I.his powers, what more simple and easy-test can be substituted ? I would ask then,is such an one, however sincerely andcandidly he may desire to ascertain thetruth, left destitute of the means ? Is hischoice between the two forms of Christi-anity a matter of absolute indifference ?And here for the present I would will-ingly pause. It has been my endeavourthroughout this introductory Lecture toexhibit the arguments most convincing tomy own mind as to the supremacy of theBible as the great standard to which theultimate appeal must always lie ; but Ihave been equally anxious to maintain, indue subordination to this, the importanceof an educated ministry, as the faithfulguides to the people to qualify them formaking this appeal with advantage ; andI would strongly urge on that ministry thenecessity of preparing themselves for theirhigh office by every appropriate preliminarystudy. Let the Bible itself be their first,their great, their constant object of atten-tion ; but let them not neglect in theirproper place and relation any useful subsi-


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LECTURE I. 45diary means of interpretation ; and leastof all, let them throw aside the judiciousstudy of Christian antiquity.With these views, having thus laid the

foundation in the paramount authority ofthe holy Scriptures, I shall endeavour inthe following Lectures, faithfully, I trust,however imperfectly, to offer such assist-ance as I may to the younger student, whomay be desirous of undertaking for himselfthe candid examination of the most inte-resting Christian remains of the first threecenturies. These I would class underthree leading divisions, as suggested by thejoint consideration of their age and schools.

1. The Apostolical Fathers, ClemensRomanus, Ignatius, and Polycarp.

2. The Philosophical and AlexandrianFathers, Justin, Athenagoras, Clemens,Alexandrinus, and Origen.

3. The more dogmatic Fathers of theWestern Church, Irenseus, Tertullian, andCyprian.

1 propose to conclude the brief and sum-mary survey, which alone my span willallow, with the period when the establish-


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46 LECTURE I.ment of Christianity as the religion of theempire allowed the Church to utter hersentiments with her united voice in GeneralCouncils, and it therefore remains no longernecessary to educe those sentiments fromthe collation of her individual writers.

I shall indeed be prevented, by the limitsI have thus prescribed to myself, from enter-ing into the rich field presented by the ableand eloquent writers who so richly adornedthe fourth century. But when the onlyalternative must have been to treat thesubject altogether in a superficial manner,or to confine my view to its earlier portion,I feel that I have made the most judiciouschoice in my power.

I am happy, however, to conclude thepresent Lecture by a few quotations fromtwo of the most distinguished luminaries ofthat century, which bear entirely on thegreat subject which has now engaged ourattention ; and shew that no biblical advo-cate of the present day can possibly be moredeeply impressed with a sense of thesupreme importance of the Bible than werethese ancient Fathers of the Church.


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LECTURE I. 47'^ The Scriptures/' saith the eloquent

Chrysostom, '' are an epistle from Godhimself, and to read them is to conversewith him^"

" The Apostolical writings/' he adds," are the very walls of the Church*^. Someone perhaps may ask, What then shall Ido, I who cannot have a Paul to refer to ?Why, if thou wilt thou mayest still havehim more entire than many, even withwhom he was personally present ; for itw^as not the sight of Paul that made themwhat they were, but his words. If thouwilt, thou mayest have Paul and Peter andJohn, yea, and the whole choir of Prophetsand Apostles, to converse with thee fre-quently. Only take the works of theseblessed men, and read their writings assi-duously. But why do I say to thee. Thoumayest have Paul; if thou wilt thoumayest have Paul's Master ; for it is hehimself that speaketh to thee in Paul'swords ^."

T. iii. p. 73. and Horn. ii. in cap. 1. Gen.' Horn, in 2 Tim. iii. 1.* In Coloss. Horn. ix.


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48 LECTURE I." Look not for any other teacher; you

have the oracles of God ; no one can teachUke them ; any other instructor may fromsome erroneous principle conceal from youmany things of the greatest importance;and therefore I exhort you to procure foryourselves Bibles. Have them for yourconstant instructors ; and in all your trialshave recourse to them for the remedies youneed/*

Chrysostom, therefore, most anxiouslyrecommends the constant study of these bestguides as of universal necessity to personsof every class in society. '' I alwaysadvise, and shall never cease to advise andcall upon you all, not only to attend tovs^hat is said here in the church, but also tobe diligent in reading the divine Scripturesat home. Nor let any one allege the usualfrivolous excuses, ' I am engaged in publicaffairs, or I have a trade, and a wife, andchildren, to take care of; in a word, I am asecular person, it is not my business toread.' So far are these things from makingout a valid or even tolerable excuse, thatupon these accounts and for these very


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LECTURE I. 49reasons, you have the more need to read theScriptures^."Another contemporary of Chrysostom,Basil of Csesarea, commonly surnamed the

Great, has many passages equally strong tothe same effect ; I need but cite three shortaphorisms.

" It behoveth/' saith he, " that everyword and every v^ork should be accre-dited by the testimony of the inspiredScripture ^"" Let the inspired Scriptures ever be ourumpire, and on w^hichever side the doc-

trines are found accordant to the divineword, to that side the award of truth maywith entire certainty be given."

' De Lazar. Horn. iii. t. i. p. 737.^ These quotations from Basil appear to me so very

important, that I think it best to give his own words inthe original. "On hi wav p^jaa, % Trgoiyixoe. TtKTToua-^cn rj j.a^-Tvqici TYjg QsoTrvsva-Tou yqci(pYig, Moral. Reg. 26. t. ii. p. 256.Ouxouv y) QsoTTVsvcrro^ y)pv diuiTYjO-oiTCti yga^pyj- xoc) ttuq' olguv sugsQrj Toi loyi^cKXcK. (Tuvcoloi Toig $s'm$ Xoyoig, eTn rovTOvgyi^si TtdvTMs Trig oiXYiQelag yj ifYi


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50 LECTURE I.Lastly, '' It is the duty of hearers, when

they have been instructed in the Scrip-tures, to try and examine by them thethings spoken by their teachers, to receivew^hatever is consonant to those Scriptures,and to reject whatever is aUen ; for thusthey will comply with the injunction ofSt. Paul, to prove all things, and hold fastthat which is good.''

These last quotations form a completesummary of all that I have myself wishedto inculcate on this important subject, andI feel that I cannot better conclude thanby leaving the impression of so muchhigher an authority on your minds. MayHe, into accordance w^ith whose will andword we would bring every thought andword of ours, graft his own truth inwardlyin your hearts.


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LECTURE II.Rev. ii. 13.

Thou holdest fast my name^ and hast not denied myfaith,even in those days in ivhich myfaithfvl martyr was slainamong you,I HAVE already, in my Introductory

Lecture, proposed as the subject of thepresent course, the analytical examinationof the remains of the earlier ChristianFathers ; considering this as the only satis-factory mode of forming a correct estimateof the real import and value of the vestigesof primitive tradition which remain to us,and of the just application of such materialsto the purposes of theological science.

In the Lecture of the present day, it ismy intention to commence this design, bythe consideration of the genuine remainsof those called the Apostolical Fathers ;the actual companions and immediate suc-cessors of the inspired founders of ourfaith. A description it is surely impos-

E 2


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52 LECTURE II.sible to repeat, without the associatedfeeUngs of the most reverential regard.The first of these whom we shall be

called to notice, Clement of Rome, mustespecially claim these sentiments of thedeepest deference ; for St. Paul himselfhas borne the strongest testimony to hisactive merits and holy character, as hisown fellow -labourer, whose name waswritten in the book of life''. The cotem-porary of the Apostles in date, and theirunwearied coadjutor in evangelical labour,he was no less closely connected withthem by identity of spirit. We have un-happily but one short Epistle which canwith any confidence be regarded as agenuine work of this first and most vene-rable of the uninspired transmitters of ourfaith. Small as it is in compass, Eusebiushas forcibly expressed the sense which theprimitive Church entertained of the mag-nitude of its interest and importance, whenhe calls it M7aAi7 koL Oavixao-ia ; and if weturn from the earliest to one of the mostmodern ecclesiastical historians, we find

^ Phil. iv. 3.


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LECTURE II. 53the pious Milner ascribing to it ^' a won-derful depth of hoUness and wisdom." Inthe primitive times, indeed, it appears tohave been constantly read, not only in theChurch to which it was addressed, but inmany others also, as conducing to greatand general edification.This valuable and interesting documenthad, however, very nearly been lost to theChurch, for it is extant in one only MS.being written at the end of the celebratedAlexandrian Codex of the New Testament,presented to our Charles I. by the then Pa-triarch of Constantinople ; and from thencefirst published, about two centuries ago,in our own University, by the care of ourdistinguished and general scholar Junius ^.Some parties were, at first, inclined to

question the genuineness of this singlecopy, brought to light at so late a periodbut it is now unhesitatingly and univer-sally received. It agrees exactly with thefragments preserved in ancient quotationsand no one who has the slightest skill andtact in appreciating internal evidence, and

" Oxonii 1633.


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54 LECTURE 11.distinguishing between the affectations ofsophistical forgeries and the simpUcity oftruth, can for a moment doubt, that theEpistle as we now possess it is a genuineproduction ; for it bears in every respectthe most convincing marks of its earlyorigin. The whole composition, indeed, ofthis Epistle so exactly tallies with the pecu-liar circumstances of the Church in that age,and with those of the author, and thesecoincidences are so obviously undesignedand natural, that similar arguments to those,by which the acuteness of Paley has placedthe genuineness of the Pauline Epistlesbeyond the possible reach of scepticism,might be readily applied to this.The argument of the Epistle, directedonly to oppose the factious spirit of theCorinthians, has nothing in it which couldin any way have been supposed to haverecommended itself to any forger ; for thereis nothing striking in the occasion, such asmight have captivated the fancy of a sophis-tical rhetorician; nor is there any thingwhich could have advanced the interest ofany party, or exalted the pretensions of


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LECTURE II. 55any order in the Church. It is throughoutonly a plain and practical exhortation toChristian peace and unity, occasioned by thefactious spirit which disturbed the Corin-thian Church. And, secondly, with referenceto the undesigned coincidences with the pe-culiar circumstances of the first age of theChurch; it is quite evident, that it musthave been written to a Church, of whicha considerable and influential portion ofthe members had been Jews or proselytesto that faith, since it throughout supposesthe most intimate acquaintance with theScriptures of the Old Testament ; for these,and not the Scriptures of the New, areuniversally quoted as the written authorityfor the doctrines it contains. The author,indeed, very properly refers to the dis-courses of our blessed Lord, as to an autho-rity of equal, and indeed still more especial,weight; but he never expressly quotes thesefrom any particular written Gospel ; andalthough he always exactly agrees withthese evangelical narratives in substanceand in sense, yet the verbal discrepanceswill shew, that he does not transcribe from


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56 LECTURE ILthem ; but, as Bp. Pearson has well ob-served, seems to have relied on a memorypreviously familiar with our Lord's words,from the oral communications of the Apo-stles or their disciples. Now this is exactlythe manner in which we should have sup-posed such references to have been made inan Epistle, which was most probably writtenbefore the publication of the last Gospel,that of St. John, and when the veryearliest could not have obtained a circu-lation of more than a very few years. Butif we compare the form of these quotationswith those in Justin Martyr, we shall seesuch a marked difference, as must at onceinduce us to refer these to a much earlierperiod.With the Epistles of his revered asso-

ciate in evangelical labours, St. Paul, themind of Clement appears to have been verythoroughly imbued. Coincidences of thoughtand expression are perpetually occurring,which can admit no other explanation thanthat particular passages of this Apostle'scompositions were directly present in histhoughts, while he was framinj? his own


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LECTURE II. 57sentences ; Eusebius has pafticularly re-marked such coincidences with the Epistleto the Hebrews. Yet Clement only ex-pressly quotes the particular Epistle of thatApostle to the same Corinthian Church towhich he was himself writing''; and as thiscircumstance would appear to indicate, thatat that early period the Epistles addressedto any particular Churches were not gene-rally read in the services of other congre-gations, it may serve to afford anothermark of the probable date of the compo-sition.As we should thus conclude from the

mere internal evidence of the Epistle itselfthat it must have been composed^ while a

" With reference to these allusions by Clement tothe New Testament, I would refer to Lardner's in-valuable collections. (Credibility, vol. i. p. 293.) Hequotes several passages parallel to the three first G ospels,and the fourth was certainly not yet published. Thecoincidences with the apostolic Epistles are far morenumerous, exceeding forty: they are referable to everyone of the Pauline Epistles, excepting that to Philemon,and to those of Peter, James, and Jude.

* The exact date of the publication of this Epistleis not certainly known ; but as it alludes to sufferingsrecently endured by the Roman Church, it appears tohave been written soon after the close of some persecu-


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58 LECTURE II.large and influential portion of the membersof the Church had been originally membersof the Synagogue, and while the Canon ofthe New Testament was only in the pro-cess of formation, so there are other indi-cations which would lead us to regard theauthor as having been himself originallya Gentile, and having had his mind pre-viously imbued with the associations ofClassical History and Mythology ; thusin enforcing the sacrifice of selfish intereststo the general good of the Church, he urgesthat the Gentiles*' could bring forward manyexamples of patriotic sovereigns, who haddevoted themselves to death to deliver theirpeople ; and of statesmen who had em-braced a voluntary exile to relieve theircities from the course of sedition ; to thesame efi^ect we may cite the reference tothe Danaidse and Dirce*^ among the in-tion. Certain critics have assigned that of Nero, A.D.64 ; others that of Domitian 95 : as the author speaks(c. 44.) of persons appointed to the ministry by othereminent men after the time of the Apostles, and callsCorinth an ancient Church, we must necessarily preferthe later date.

' Chap. 55.^ Chap. (>.


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LECTURE II. 59stances of unjust oppression, and thoughwe may not entirely approve the tastewhich has blended such mythological fableswith Scriptural examples, w^e are yet thusassisted in individualising the author. Ithink we may also trace to a similar sourcehis employing the fabulous legends con-cerning the Phoenix^ as an illustration ofthe great doctrine of the resurrection.This instance of credulity in Clement hasbeen often severely animadverted uponbut we must remember, that in justice heought to have as partners in the samereproach, Tacitus the most philosophicalof historians, and Pliny the professed natu-ralist '.

' Chap. 25. The later Fathers, who employed thesame illustration, probably borrowed it from Clement.

' Tacitus gravely relates, that this bird had been seenin Egypt ; though he certainly adds, that he believed theaccounts concerning it had been fabulis auctar (Annal. vi.28.) ; and Pliny devotes a whole chapter to recite themarvellous history of this bird, including its self-con-flagration and revivification as given by Manilius, whomhe praises as self-taught, yet illustrious for the highestlearning ; and PHny himself merely inserts a cautionarybaud scio an fabulose, (Hist. Nat. x. 2.)


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60 LECTURE II.Of the personal history of the author, we

gather very little additional informationfrom history, excepting that he was oneof the very early Bishops of Rome^. Somelater writers have asserted, that he sealedhis Christian testimony by martyrdombut the silence of the earlier authorities,although constantly careful to specify thosewho were thus called to resist unto blood,appears to negative this supposition.

His Epistle is written in the name of theRoman Church over which he presided,to that of Corinth, but it assumes no toneof authority. It is written as from a sisterto an equal sister, not as from a mistressto a dependent.The style is well characterized by Pho-tius,as simple and clear, and closely approx-imating to the natural and artless mannerof expression of the Apostolical compo-sitions.

The exact order of his succession to that See hasbeen disputed ; but Irenaeus the earliest, and Eusebiusthe most critically exact, authority, concur in assigningto him the third place after the foundation of thatChurch by the Apostles Paul and Peter.


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LECTURE 11. 61It cannot be expected that a single Epistle,

not longer than the former of those of St.Paul to the same Church, and of which theleading design is not to establish its mem-bers in the faith, but to compose theirdifferences, should afford us any very im-portant assistance in the determination ofdoctrinal questions. Valuable as it is, it assur-edly can advance no manner of claim to as-sumethe officeeven ofan interpreter as to anypoints, conceived to be less explicitly laiddown in the writings which the Apostlesthemselves have left us. It is in no respectmore methodical or more definite than theyare ; and there is scarcely a single Epistleof St. Paul from which it would not be easyto compile a still clearer and more copiousdigest of Christian doctrine than we shouldbe able to extract from this ; yet both, aswe shall see, would be found in the mostharmonious accordance with each other.For example, as to the divine nature ofChrist, Clement declares in the very wordsof the Epistle to the Hebrews, " that he isthe effulgence of God's Majesty, and somuch higher than the angels, as he has


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62 LECTURE II.obtained a more excellent name than they*";"and in another place describes him '' as theSceptre of the Majesty of God."

In the following passages, Clementstrongly refers to Christ as the great sourceof every spiritual grace; '^through himwe are enabled to raise our view to theheavenly height, and there behold his ownpure and sublime countenance ; throughhim the eyes of our hearts are opened, andour ignorant and darkened minds illuminedwith his admirable light ; and thus are wemade to taste of immortal knowledge.Christ is the high priest of our offerings,the supporter of our weakness'."Nor does this Father less explicitly directus to the sacrifice ofthe Atonement, as alone

having procured this grace. " Let us lookstedfastly at the blood of Christ, and see howprecious in the sight of God is that bloodwhich was shed for our salvation, and hathbrought in the grace of repentance for the

'^ See the 36th chapter for all these declarations of thedivine power of Christ, excepting that which describeshim as the Sceptre of God's Majesty, which occurs c. 16,

' Chap. 36.


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LECTURE II. 63whole world *". Through his love towardsus, Christ our Lord gave his blood for us \The whole fifty-third chapter"* of Isaiah,with all its distinct prophetical declara-tions of the great doctrine ofthe Atonement,is strongly insisted on in its application toChrist by this Father.He particularly dwells on those Scrip-

tures which most pointedly inculcate theuniversal and original corruption of ournature, and strongly quotes the humiliatingconfession of Job, though himself just andblameless, true, and one that served Godand eschewed evil, that no one is free frompollution, no, not though he should live butfor one day.The doctrine of justification by faith is

also one of those to which he has borne thefullest and clearest testimony. ^' The servantsof old",*' he tells us, '' were glorified andmagnified, not through themselves, orthrough any work of righteousness that

' Chap. 7.' Chap. 49.'" Chap. 16, 17. and in chap. 18, he cites the whole

fifty-first Psalm, as strongly demonstrating the samehumiliating truth.

- Chap. 3-2.


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64 LECTURE II.they had wrought, but through God's onlywill. And thus we also, being called byhis will in Christ Jesus, are not justifiedthrough ourselves, neither through ourown wisdom or intelligence or piety, orthrough the works we have done in anyholiness of our own hearts, but throughthat faith by which the Almighty hathjustified all from the beginning of time.It is written, Blessed are they whoseiniquities are remitted, and whose sins arecovered. Blessed is the man to whom theLord w^ill not impute sin ; and this blessed-ness is in the elect of God through JesusChrist our Lord, to whom be glory for everand ever**."Clement, however, carefully proceedsto enforce in the most animated strainthe utter inconsistency of such viewswith the gross abuse of Antinomianism p.'^ What then, brethren, shall we do ? shallwe pause from good works ? shall weabandon works of love ? Oh no, God willnever permit us thus to act. Rather let ushasten with more intense eagerness of mindto the accomplishment of every good deed.

Chap. 50. p Chap.^3.


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LECTURE II. 65The Creator and Lord of all himself re-joiceth in his own works. Having such anexample then before us, let us with all ourpower enter on the performance of hiswill, and obediently work the work ofrighteousness."

A Christian temper, therefore, in allthings, Clement copiously and emphaticallyenjoins, and more especially (as requiredby the contentions then agitating the Co-rinthian Church) a spirit of meekness, love,peace, and unity. This he enforces, in thefirst place, by precepts and examples drawnfrom the Old Testament, which, as we haveobserved-, he most generally and directlyquotes'^ ; but he very impressively winds up

'' With reference to these frequent quotations fromthe Scriptures of the Old Testament, we may observe,that in the applications made of them, we find scarcelyany thing of that extravagant fondness for allegoricalinterpretation, which so unhappily infected so many ofthe subsequent Fathers, and which seems to have beenprincipally derived from the Jewish Alexandrian schools.One instance does, however, occur, which may shewthat Clement himself had not entirely escaped ; namely,when he refers to the scarlet cord of Rahab as a type ofthe Saviour's blood, c xii. Justin, Irenaeus, and Origen,have the same application.

F


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66 LECTURE ILhis exhortation, by entreating them '' moreespecially to remember the words of theLord Jesus which he spoke," and then intro-duces the greater part of those inimitablelessons of Christian love, conveyed in ourLord's discourses, recorded Matt. vi. andLuke vii. but here repeated apparently frommemory.

Besides these scriptural arguments, Cle-ment very eloquently enforces the duty ofharmonious order, in obedience to God, asthe great governing principle in the uni-verse. '' In submission to his law, the hea-vens revolve in peace, and day and nightperform their appointed course withoutinterference ; by his ordinance the sun andmoon, and all the hosts of stars, roll on inharmony, without deviation from theirallotted bounds ; in obedience to his willthe pregnant earth yields her fruit plenti-fully in due season to man and beast, andto all creatures therein, not changing anything which was decreed by him ; theocean is restrained by the same commands,and its waves pass not their prescribedlimits ; spring and summer, and autumn


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LECTURE II. 67and winter, give place peaceably to oneanother ; the winds, in their station, per-form their service without interruption,each in his appointed season ; the perennialsprings, ministering both to pleasure andto health, yield, as it were, their breaststo our use ; nay, the smallest of livingcreatures maintain their intercourse in peaceand concord. For God is good to all, butabove measure to us, who flee to his mercythrough Jesus Christ, to whom be gloryand majesty for ever and ever. Amen*."While we admire the genuine scriptural

spirit of such passages, it must yet bequite obvious, that we cannot be said toderive from them any accession of inform-ation as to Christian doctrine, beyondwhat we may, with equal readiness, deriveat once from the inspired volume itselfWe may, however, more naturally andjustly turn to such a quarter, in the hopeof obtaining farther light with regard tothe form of discipline then estab

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Conybeare - Analytic Examination - Writings of Ante-Nicene Fathers (1839)