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But farther it must be remembered that the texts hitherto adduced, whatever weight may be thought due to them, contain only an ex parte view of the case. Whatever weight is due to them taken by themselves, they have to be balanced against texts of an opposite tendency; and perhaps it may be thought on consideration that these other texts come much closer to the point, bearing as they do directly on the Apostolic manner of teaching, and seeming to indicate that the Apostles did not write all they taught', but trusted some things to the fidelity of their successors.

The texts in question are as follows.

1 Cor. xi. 2. "I praise you, brethren, that you remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, [traditions] (KaréxeTe Tàs Tapadóσeis) as I delivered them to you."

2 Thess. ii. 15. 66 Brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions (κρατεῖτε τὰς παραδόσεις) which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle."

2 Tim. ii. 2. "The things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also."

With these texts the inquiry seems naturally to conclude; as it is not perhaps overstating the matter to say, that they appear decisive. An hypothesis has however been started to escape the obvious

1 [i. e. not all as far as developements are concerned, or as far as explanations of the words they use.]

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inference from them, which it may be worth considering, if only to point out that it is a mere hypothesis, and that, till proved itself, it can prove nothing else. It is said that, though at the time St. Paul wrote the Epistles, from which the above texts are quoted, much of the knowledge of each Church rested on oral as well as written communications; still, that when the Canon of Scripture was concluded, and the whole of it made known to every Church, then the deficiency, for the temporary supply of which oral instruction had been adopted, was at an end; for that each Church found, in the aggregate of what had been written to the other Churches, a thorough written exposition of every fact, doctrine, precept, intimation, which they had themselves received hitherto on Tradition. Now this hypothesis would be very useful and pious, if it was an ascertained fact that the Apostles taught nothing but what is contained at full length in the Scriptures, as it would do away with the seeming inconsistency between this fact and the texts above cited. But till this fact is ascertained, there is no inconsistency to be done away with, and therefore no need of an hypothesis. Indeed it may truly be called a gratuitous hypothesis, nor can any imagi nable use be made of it, except to prove the ingenuity of its deviser.

Enough perhaps has now been said on the Canon so frequently insisted on, "that God cannot be believed to have made any revelation to man, without causing it to be embodied in the writings of

inspired persons."

And every argument, which has been urged against this Canon will apply to the other à fortiori. It is however possible, that many serious Christians, though acquiescing to a certain extent in the arguments which have been brought forward, may feel at first unable to reconcile themselves to the conclusion. That we should be left in any kind of doubt on so important a subject as the will of God, and the manner in which to serve Him, may seem at first sight a shocking and unsettling thought, calculated to awaken a general scepticism, and to reduce religion to a calculation of chances.

Now all persons, on whom this presses as a difficulty, will do well to consult Bishop Butler (Anal. part. ii. c. 6), where many important trains of thought are suggested that may well tend to quiet their minds. These thoughts are indeed cast by Bishop Butler in a mould more immediately suited to the doubts of a Deist than a Christian: but by very slight alterations here and there of words obviously immaterial to the argument, it will be found that they apply with equal force, and carry equal satisfaction, to those who doubt how much they shall accept for revelation, as to those who doubt about accepting any at all. As a specimen of the way in which such application may be made, I shall extract one or two of this great Bishop's reflections, making the few required substitutions. On reference to the original it will easily be seen, whether any force has been put on the sentiments

of the author; and persons interested in the subject may perhaps be led to make a similar use of other parts of that remarkable volume.

"It appears to be a thing evident, though not much attended to, that, if on consideration of any professed revelation of God's will, the evidence of it should seem to some persons doubtful, in the highest supposable degree, even this doubtful evidence will, however, put them under very serious obligations. For, suppose a man to be really in doubt, whether one who was most certainly his best well-wisher, and most thoroughly knew his interest, did not very earnestly wish him to adopt some particular course of conduct, though for some reason or other he forbore to press it explicitly: suppose farther, that he was under obligations to this person of the deepest kind: no one who had any sense of gratitude or prudence could possibly consider himself in the same situation, with regard to choosing or avoiding such a course of conduct, as if he had no such doubt. In truth, it is as just to say that certainty and doubt are the same, as to say that the situations now mentioned would leave a man as entirely at liberty, in point of gratitude or prudence, as if he were certain that his wise and excellent friend had no such wish. And thus, though the evidence, that it is God's will we should act in a particular way, should be little more than that we are given to see it to be supposable and credible,

1 vid. Butler's Anal. ii. 6.

this ought in all reason to beget a serious practical apprehension that it may be true: and the apprehension, that such and such things may be the will of God, does as really lay men under obligations, as a full conviction that they are so. Such apprehension ought to turn men's eyes to every degree of new light which may be had, from whatever side it comes; and induce them to refrain, in the meantime, from every thought or act which may perhaps turn out in the end to have been an offence against God. Especially are they bound to keep at the greatest distance from all profane levity; for this the very nature of the case forbids; and to treat with the greatest reverence a matter on which such great things depend.

"Nor does there appear any absurdity in supposing, that the speculative difficulties in which the evidence of some parts of religion is involved, may make even the principal part of some persons' trial. For, as the chief temptations of the generality of the world are the ordinary motives to injustice or unrestrained pleasure, or to live in the neglect of religion from that frame of mind, which renders many persons almost without feeling as to any thing distant, or which is not the object of their senses; so there are other persons without this shallowness of temper, persons of a deeper sense as to what is invisible and future, who not only see, but have a general practical feeling, that what is to come will be present, and that things are not less real for not being objects of sense; and who, from

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