Yes! my dear Friend, it is my conviction that in all ordinary cases
the knowledge and belief of the Christian Religion should precede the
study of the Hebrew Canon. Indeed, with regard to both Testaments, I
consider oral and catechismal instruction as the preparative provided
by Christ himself in the establishment of a visible Church. And to
make the Bible, apart from the truths, doctrines, and spiritual
experiences contained therein, the subject of a special article of
faith, I hold an unnecessary and useless abstraction, which in too
many instances has the effect of substituting a barren acquiescence in
the letter for the lively _faith that cometh by hearing_; even as the
hearing is productive of this faith, because it is the word of God
that is heard and preached. (Rom. x. 8, 17.) And here I mean the
written word preserved in the armoury of the Church to be the sword of
faith _out of the mouth_ of the preacher, as Christ's ambassador and
representative (Rev. i. 16), and out of the heart of the believer,
from generation to generation. Who shall dare dissolve or loosen this
holy bond, this divine reciprocality, of Faith and Scripture? Who
shall dare enjoin aught else as an object of saving faith, beside the
truths that appertain to salvation? The imposers take on themselves a
heavy responsibility, however defensible the opinion itself, as an
opinion, may be. For by imposing it, they counteract their own
purposes. They antedate questions, and thus in all cases aggravate the
difficulty of answering them satisfactorily. And not seldom they
create difficulties that might never have occurred. But, worst of all,
they convert things trifling or indifferent into mischievous pretexts
for the wanton, fearful, difficulties for the weak, and formidable
objections for the inquiring. For what man _fearing God_ dares think
any the least point indifferent, which he is required to receive as
God's own immediate word miraculously infused, miraculously recorded,
and by a succession of miracles preserved unblended and without
change?--Through all the pages of a large and multifold volume, at
each successive period, at every sentence, must the question
recur:--"Dare I believe--do I in my heart believe--these words to have
been dictated by an infallible reason, and the immediate utterance of
Almighty God?"--No! It is due to Christian charity that a question so
awful should not be put unnecessarily, and should not be put out of
time. The necessity I deny. And out of time the question must be put,
if after enumerating the several articles of the Catholic Faith I am
bound to add:--"and further you are to believe with equal faith, as
having the same immediate and miraculous derivation from God, whatever
else you shall hereafter read in any of the sixty-six books collected
in the Old and New Testaments."
I would never say this. Yet let me not be misjudged as if I treated
the Scriptures as a matter of indifference. I would not say this: but
where I saw a desire to believe, and a beginning love of Christ, I
would there say:--"There are likewise sacred Writings, which, taken in
connection with the institution and perpetuity of a visible Church,
all believers revere as the most precious boon of God, next to
Christianity itself, and attribute both their communication and
preservation to an especial Providence. In them you will find all the
revealed truths, which have been set forth and offered to you, clearly
and circumstantially recorded; and, in addition to these, examples of
obedience and disobedience both in states and individuals, the lives
and actions of men eminent under each dispensation, their sentiments,
maxims, hymns, and prayers,--their affections, emotions, and
conflicts;--in all which you will recognize the influence of the Holy
Spirit, with a conviction increasing with the growth of your own faith
and spiritual experience."
Farewell.