INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER

ON

THE USE AND AUTHORITY

OF THE

FATHERS.

As the Opinions of the Fathers concerning Baptism and Baptismal Regeneration are about to be adduced, it may be proper to state the sentiments of some authors of repute, respecting their Use, and the Authority and Deference due to them.

With this object, the opinions of the following authors have been collected; so as to give a general notion on the subject: Collinson, Orme, Oxford Tract, Blunt, Walsh, Goode; Library of the Fathers by Pusey, Keble and Newman; Beveridge, Mosheim, Erasmus, Warburton, Bickersteth, Maurice, Wake, and in some of the above, are quoted or mentionedDaillé, Middleton, Lindsey, Priestley, Bull, Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Augustin, Martin Luther, Salmasius, Blondel, Chillingworth, Cave, Le Clerc, Kett, Reeves, Whitby, Barbeyrac, Milton, Hall, Cranmer, Ridley, Ken, Gerhard, Probus, Neander, Richer, Bangius,

Wotton, Clement of Rome, Hieronymus, Chrysostom, Athanasius, Basil, Erasmus, Maclaine, Gregory Nazianzen, Cyril, Ambrose, Lord Faulkland, Lord Digby, Sir Kenhelm Digby, Jeremy Taylor, Bede, Matthew Paris, Lactantius, Toll, Bengelius, William Orme, Bellarmine, Usher, Bossuet, Laud, Evans, Chevalier, Faber, Dr Buet, Carey, Talmer, Jewell, Bagster, Montesquieu, Hermas, and Ignatius.

COLLINSON.

In his Key to the Writings of the principal Fathers of the first three centuries, being his Bampton Lectures for the year 1813, he gives "The Contents" of his first sermon as follows:

The subject of the lecture proposed; viz. an Inquiry into the Writings of the Primitive Fathers of the first three centuries. The opinions which have been entertained of them in succeeding times by the Fathers of the Fourth and Fifth centuries. In the dark ages, from the Sixth to the Sixteenth century. At the time of the Reformation. DAILLE, MIDDLETON, LINDSEY, PRIESTLEY, Bishop BULL, CAVE, FLEURY. The just estimate and proper use of the Primitive Writings.

In page 5 of this Sermon he writes:

Above all, in order ❝ to make us wise unto Salvation," we are to study Holy "Scripture; which the Divine Spirit has mercifully given, " that we might believe that Jesus is Christ, the Son of God; and in believing might have life through his name, (JOHN XX, 31). Such is the scope and design of Scripture: " other foundation can no man lay than that is laid; which is Jesus Christ", (I COR. iii, 11) and it behoves us to take

care, that, like wise builders, we erect upon this foundation, not hay and stubble, but a solid and precious superstructure. The operations of the Holy Ghost are indeed unbounded, and touch men's consciences with a sense of piety, in more various ways than can be expressed. Still, the revealed word is the rule of truc religion; which it is the duty of all members of Christ's church, and particularly of the ministers of his flock, unceasingly to study; and by all just means, to explain, recommend, and enforce. Next to the volume of inspiration, and agreeably to the prophetical intimation in my text, (JER. vi, 16) we are to "enquire for the old paths," to fix our attention upon the recorded memorials of holy men; who in ancient times have trod the good way, and found rest for their souls. They constitute that history which is the best philosophy, teaching by the best examples. Human performances admit of constant and progressive improvement; but divine truths are only to be explained, not amended; and it is therefore reasonable to suppose, that they who lived nearest to the times of revelation, will manifest its most powerful influence; as water near the fountain-head, is in most abundance and purity....

It is my purpose in the ensuing discourse to treat of them [the authors of the three first centuries] generally; and to examine what have been the sentiments entertained of them at different times in the Christian world.

During the 4th and 5th centuries, which are the Augustan Ages of ecclesiastical literature, the numerous authors who then flourished, prove by continual quotations, the integrity of the antecedent writings

that have come down to us.

They speak of their predecessors, not indeed in terms of blind zeal and indiscriminate attachment, but with respect and confidence; and this testimony is weighty; because it is immediate, moderate, and reasonable.

COLLINSON then writes that EUSEBIUS speaks well of JUSTIN MARTYR, IRENEUS, and CLEMENS ALEXANDRINUS, that ST JEROME speaks well of JUSTIN, CLEMENS, TERTULLian, Origen, and CYPRIAN: that ST AUGUSTIN expresses himself in general

terms thus:

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Compositions of this kind have not canonical authority. Readers of the Fathers are not to suppose that the testimonies produced from their works, are unexceptionable; for their opinions may, in particular cases, be untrue. Truly catholic and praise-worthy as they were, we are not to place their writings on a level with Holy Scripture: on the contrary, we may, with all the honour and deference due to them, blame whatever in them, by divine assistance and sound reasoning, we discover to be unfounded."

COLLINSON observes that

This judicious caution of ST AUGUSTIN seems to be directed against an excessive reliance upon the authority of the Fathers; which probably appeared in his time and after the decease of those who may be called Classical Fathers, increased in the VIth century, with the growing superstitions of the age.

After about five pages, partly on the Protestant and Romish Clergy, COLLINSON writes in his first Sermon thus:

MARTIN LUTHER, in one of the Tracts which he

published A. D. 1520, in answer to the Pope's Bull of excommunication, uses this exhortation;

Setting aside an implicit dependence on all human writings, let us strenuously adhere to the Scriptures alone. The Primitive Church acted thus; she must have acted so; for she had no writings of the Fathers. Let the Fathers be allowed to have been holy men; still they were only men: and men inferior to Prophets and Apostles. It is enough that we have learned from them the duty of studying and diligently labouring in the Scriptures; it is not necessary that we approve of all their works."

About a page and a half after, COLLINSON writes;

While the appeal to Antiquity was prosecuted by both parties, the controversy took a new turn; the Protestants perhaps feared that, by this recurrence to the Fathers and Records of the Church, they derogated too much from Scripture, the only infallible rule of faith and practice. In the year 1631, M. DAILLÉ, a reformed minister of Paris, of the XVIIth century, published a work of great celebrity; the effects of which are probably still felt. His professed design is to prove that, as the Reformers place the standard of orthodoxy in Scripture, and Papists in Tradition, the primitive writings are not the proper media for settling the points in dispute between them; each party having an appeal to a separate higher tribunal. SALMASIUS, BLONDEL, and CHILLINGWORTH advanced the same opinions; which are, in the main, just. But besides this proposition, DAILLE's treatise contained articles respecting the mistakes of the Fathers; and their