Is there a God ? Has he revealed himself ? Has he estab- lished a church ? Is that church an infallible teacher ? Is private judgment a blind leader ? Which of all pretended churches is the true one ? Every one of these questions evidently must be settled in the private judgment of the inquirer, before he can, rationally or irrationally, give up his private judgment to the direction of the self-asserting church. Thus of necessity Eo- manists appeal to the Scriptures to prove that the Scriptures can
ROMISH DOCTRINE REFUTED. 89
not be understood, and address arguments to the private judg- ment of men to prove that private judgment is incompetent; thus basing an argument upon that which it is the object of the argu- ment to prove is baseless.
23. How may it he, proved that the people are far more com- petent to discover ivliat the Bible teaches than to decide, by the marks insisted upon by the Romanists, ichich is the true church ?
The Romanists, of necessity, set forth certain marks by which the true church is to be discriminated from all counterfeits. These are (1.) Unity (through subjection to one visible head, the Pope ;) (2.) Holiness ; (3.) Catholicity ; (4.) Apostolicity, (in- volving an uninterrupted succession from the apostles of canoni- cally ordained bishops.) — Cat. of Council of Trent, Part I., Cap. 10. Now, the comprehension and intelligent application of these marks involve a great amount of learning and intelligent capacity upon the part of the inquirer. He might as easily prove himself to be descended from Noah by an unbroken series of legitimate marriages, as establish the right of Rome to the last mark. Yet he can not rationally give up the right of studying the Bible for himself until that point is made clear.
Surely the Scriptures, with their self-evidencing spiritual power, make less exhaustive demands upon the resources of pri- vate judgment.
CHAPTER VI.
THE CANON OF SCRIPTURE.
1. What is meant by the phrase, canon of Scripture ?
The Greek word navuv, canon; signifies primarily a reed, a staff, and then a measuring rod, then a rule of life and doctrine. — Gal. vi., 16 ; Phil, iii., 16. The canon of Holy Scripture is the entire word of God, consisting of all the books which holy men of old wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God, constitut- ing our complete and only rule of faith and practice.
In order to determine this canon we have to prove, 1st. That the writings now recognized by Protestants as a part of God's word were, in fact, written by the inspired men whom they claim as their authors. 2d. That they have not been materially altered in their transmission to us. 3d. That no other extant writings have any valid claim to a place in the canon.
2. What is meant by the genuineness and what by the authen- ticity of a booh ?
A book is said to be genuine when it was really written by the person from whom it professes to have originated, otherwise it is spurious. A book is said to be authentic when its con- tents correspond with the truth on the subject concerning which it treats, otherwise it is fictitious.
A novel, though always fictitious, is genuine when it bears the name of its real author. A history is both genuine and au- thentic, if it was written by its professed author, and if its narra- tions correspond with the facts as they occurred.
3. What are the general principles upon ivhich Protestants settle the canon of Scripture, and wherein do they differ from those upon which Romanists proceed ?
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Protestants found their defense both of the genuineness and authenticity of the books severally constituting the canon of Scripture, as received by them, upon the same historical and criti- cal evidence that is uniformly relied upon by literary men, to establish the genuineness and authenticity of any ancient writings whatever. The only difference is, that in the case of the books constituting Holy Scripture, these evidences are preeminently numerous and conclusive.
These evidences are generally, 1st. Internal, such as language, style, nature and mutual harmony of subjects. 2. External, such as testimony of cotemporaneous writers, the universal consent of cotemporary readers, and corroborating history drawn from inde- pendent, credible sources.
The Komish theologians, while referring to all these sources of evidence as of corroborating though subordinate value, yet maintain the plenary infallibility and authority of the church, upon which they found the credibility of Scripture, and of its several parts.
4. When ivas the canon of the Old Testament completed ?
When the five books of Moses were completed, they were de- posited in the ark of the covenant. — Deut. xxxi., 24-26. The writings of the subsequent prophets were accredited and generally received as they appeared, and were then preserved with pious care by the Jews.