Contents.
I. The Unreal Bible.
II. The Real Bible.
III. The Wrong Uses of the Bible.
IV. The Wrong Uses of the Bible.
V. The Right Critical Use of the Bible.
VI. The Right Historical Use of the Bible.
VII. The Right Ethical and Spiritual Use of the Bible.
"The Gospel doth not so much consist _in verbis_ as _in virtute_."
_John Smith_.
"Liberty in prophesying, without prescribing authoritatively to other
men's consciences, and becoming lords and masters of their faith--a
necessity derived from the consideration of the difficulty of Scripture
in questions controverted, and the uncertainty of any internal medium
of interpretation."
_Jeremy Taylor_.
"To those who follow their reason in the interpretation of the
Scriptures, God will either give his grace for assistance to find the
truth, or His pardon if they miss it."
_Lord Falkland_.
[Rational Theology in England in the Seventeenth Century; John Tulloch,
D.D., II: 181, I:398, I:160]
Preface.
It has been my custom for several years to give occasionally a series of
sermons, having in view some systematic instruction of the people
committed to my care. Such a series of sermons on the Bible had been for
some time in my mind. With the recurrence of Bible-Sunday in our Church
year, this thought crystallized in the outline of a course that should
present the nature and uses of the Bible, both negatively and positively,
in a manner that should be at once reverent and rational. In the course of
this parochial ministration public attention was called to it in a way
that has rendered a complete report of my words desirable.
The views set forth in these sermons were not hastily reached or lightly
accepted. They represent a growth of years. Their essential thought was
stated in a sermon that was preached and published eight years ago. My
positions concerning certain books, etc., have been taken in deference to
what seems to me the weight of judgment among the master critics. They are
open to correction, as the young science of Biblical criticism gains new
light. The general view of the Bible herein set forth rests upon the
conclusions of no new criticism. In varying forms, it has been that of an
historical school of thought in the English Church and in its American
daughter. It is a view that has been recognized as a legitimate child of
the mother Church; and that has been given the freedom of our own
homestead, in the undogmatic language of the sixth of the Articles of
Religion of the Protestant Episcopal Church. It is distinctly enunciated
in the first sentence of the first sermon in the Book of Homilies, set
forth officially for the instruction of the people in both of these
Churches.
"Unto a Christian man there can be nothing more necessary or profitable
than the knowledge of holy scripture, forasmuch as _in it is contained
God's true word_, setting forth his glory, and also man's duty."
The whole controversy in Protestantism over the Bible may be summed into
the question whether the Bible _is_ God's word or _contains_ God's word.
On this question I stand with the Book of Homilies.
These sermons were meant for that large and rapidly growing body of men
who can no longer hold the traditional view of the Bible, but who yet
realize that within this view there is a real and profound truth; a truth
which we all need, if haply we can get it out from its archaic form
without destroying its life, and can clothe it anew in a shape that we can
intelligently grasp and sincerely hold. To such alone would I speak in
these pages, to help them hold the substance of their fathers' faith.
R. Heber Newton.
All Souls' Church, _March_ 1, 1883.