faithful would be obliterated from among the children of men.

II. Our next step is to examine the passages of Scripture which speak of the traditionary teaching of Christ's apostles. For it is argued, that although there be no Church in existence with a divine commission to judge of Scripture and truth on her own authority, yet that the universal Church is a witness and keeper of an original apostolic tradition, which expounds more or less of the written word, and which no man can reject without violating God's commands, and risking his eternal interests on the phantasies of his own imagination. And a series of expressions of the inspired writers is adduced, by way of proof that such is the fact, and such the duty of every right-minded man. Such are the following:

But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you." (Rom. vi. 17.)

"Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.” (1 Cor. xi. 2.)

"Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also

ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain." (1 Cor. xv. 1, 2.

Though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed." (Gal. i. 8, 9.)

Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle." (2 Thess. ii. 15.)

"Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us." (2 Thess. iii. 6.)

"I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession; that thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Tim. vi. 13, 14.) "O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings,

and oppositions of science falsely so called." (1 Tim. vi. 20.)

"Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us." (2 Tim. i. 13, 14.)

"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." (2 Tim. ii. 2.)

From these declarations of St. Paul the following theory is deduced that the first Christians were in possession of a deposit from the apostles "independent of, and distinct from," (I quote the words of a living writer,) "the truths which are directly Scriptural. That it contained, besides the substance of Christian doctrine, a certain form, arrangement, selection, methodizing the whole, and distinguishing fundamentals; and also a certain system of Church practice, both in government, discipline, and worship; of which, whatever portion we can prove to be still remaining, ought to be religiously guarded by us, even for the same reason

• Professor Keble's Sermon, entitled, " Primitive Tradition recognized in Holy Scripture;" p. 21.

that we reverence and retain that which is more properly scriptural, both being portions of the same divine treasure." It is further maintained, that so far as such tradition may extend, it is to be followed in all ages as the infallibly true exposition of the Scriptures, and that whensoever to the individual judgment, however humbly and teachably exerted, its declarations appear contradictory to the text of the Bible, they are nevertheless to be accepted as conveying the true mind of the Spirit of Christ. We are told that these commands of the apostle plainly show, that traditionary exposition is in all ages to be the arbitrator between contending interpretations of holy writ; that though Scripture is the rule of faith, yet such tradition is evidently meant to be the guide to its meaning; and that he who rejects what the Church Catholic declares to be supported by the unbroken testimony of past ages, as genuine apostolic truth, does not resist man, but Christ and God.

Now it is plain beyond contradiction, that the apostles must have preached the Gospel before they wrote concerning it. None can deny that the first Christians were converted by the oral teaching of Christ's messengers; and that, consequently, their memories must have been the

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original depositaries of the truths they learned. The apostles went from place to place, preaching, no doubt, the fundamentals of the Gospel, and leaving the infant Churches (as it appears) without any written record of their teaching. They expounded the revelations of Christ, and gave it in charge to the believers, that they should keep and maintain such doctrines as the blessed word of God, given to save their souls.

And what could possibly be more naturalwhat other course can we conceive the apostles to have pursued-than that when writing to these converts, they should recall their minds to the deposit thus left with them, and bid them keep firm to the eternal truths they once were taught? When St. Paul wrote to Timothy, an appointed teacher of the Gospel, and of course so thoroughly informed in necessary truth as to need little fresh instruction therein, what more reasonable than that he should exhort him to take heed how he forgot his earliest knowledge, and wandered into the regions of human fancy and human sophistry? He could do no otherwise; it would be preposterous to expect that an inspired teacher, in writing to converts either erring or liable to error, should not urge upon them the paramount necessity of bearing in mind what he had ori