from the Father," were simply adopted from our Lord's words in John xv. 26. A controversy afterwards arose between the Eastern and Western Church, whether the Holy Ghost could be said to proceed from the Son as well as from the Father. The Western or Latin Church said Yes, because Christ said in that same verse "Whom I will send ;" and because He is called "the Spirit of Christ" (1 Pet. i. II); and went so far as to add the word Filioque (and from the Son) to their copies of the Creed. The Greek Church said this was heresy, both because it was done without the authority of a General Council, and because mission did not involve procession. The controversy was carried on with strange pertinacity and vehemence, and ended very sadly in a schism between the two Churches (eleventh century) which has never been healed.

The importance of the doctrine of the Procession lies in this, that it distinguishes His Personality from that of the Son, Who is "generated." Thus, by the Creed of Constantinople, the doctrine of the Trinity was completed.

All the Three Persons are of one and the same Divine Essence or Substance, but each has His special characteristic.

The Divine Essence with the attribute of selfexistence is our idea of the First Person;

The Divine Essence with the attribute of Sonship or generation is our idea of the Second Person;

The Divine Essence with the attribute of Procession is our idea of the Third Person.

LESSON III.

OF THE BIBLE AND THE CREEDS.

ARTICLE VI.

Of the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation. HOLY Scripture containeth all things

necessary to Salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.

In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.

Then follow the Names and Number of the Canonical Books of the Old Testament.

And the other Books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine.

Then follow the names of the fourteen uncanonical Books:

All the Books of the New Testament, as they are commonly received, we do receive, and account them for Canonical.

Notes.-Necessary to salvation :-necessary to enable us to fulfil our part in the Christian Covenant. Canonical. The word Canon signifies a rule or standard by which other things are to be measured or judged. Hence Canonical, as applied to Books, means authoritative as a standard of Divine truth.

Hierome, the old English form of Hieronymus, more commonly called Jerome. He was born at Stridon in Dalmatia, about A.D. 331, some say 341, certainly some years before Chrysostom and Augustine. He was educated and converted to Christianity at Rome, and became the intimate friend and adviser of Pope Damasus. Being of a severe ascetic turn of mind, he withdrew from the society of men and lived as a monk at Bethlehem, employing himself in learning Hebrew and re-translating the Scriptures into Latin. This attempt to supersede the old imperfect Latin version of the Septuagint by a fresh version from the original Hebrew, was denounced by many as impious; but Jerome's version came gradually to be adopted by the Church, and is the foundation of the Vulgate,— the Latin Bible approved by the Roman Church ;— only with this important difference, that whereas St. Jerome carefully distinguished the uncanonical from the canonical Scriptures, the Council of Trent abolished the distinction. The English Church (as is seen in this Article) adheres to the judgment of St. Jerome.

:

Two things are insisted on in this Article :(1) The sufficiency of Scripture without tradition;

(2) the difference between the canonical and uncanonical Scriptures.

I. Six years before the first publication of these Articles (in 1546) the Council of Trent had decreed that Holy Scripture does not contain all that is necessary for faith and morals, but that there is also need of an unwritten traditional doctrine, which the Church is bound to regard with the same piety and reverence with which she receives the Holy Scriptures. The Church of England framed this Article to repudiate such a doctrine.

But

It is perfectly true that Christ said He had many things to say to His Apostles which they could not then bear (John xvi. 12), and that after His resurrection He spake many things pertaining to the Kingdom. of God which are not recorded in Holy Scripture (Acts i. 3), and that St. Paul told his converts to hold fast the traditions which they had been taught, whether by word of mouth or by epistle (2 Thess. ii. 15). we have indications that the Apostles, mistrusting such unwritten tradition, of set purpose committed to writing ere they died all that they deemed essential. St. Peter pleads as his reason for writing his Second Epistle his anxiety that they should be able, after his decease, to have these things always in remembrance (2 Pet. i. 15). St. John concludes his Gospel with the words, "These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His Name" (John xx. 31). He confessed that there were many other things which Jesus did which he had not recorded (xxi. 25), but he clearly considered that what he had written was sufficient for belief that Jesus is the Christ, the

Son of God, and for "life through His Name; "-the "sufficiency of Holy Scripture for salvation" could hardly be better expressed. St. Luke confesses that many accounts of our Lord's ministry were current, but he desired to commit an authentic one to writing, that Theophilus might "know the certainty of those things wherein he had been catechetically instructed" (Luke i. 1-4). He could not have stated more clearly our Church's opinion that written records are better than oral tradition. The value of a written Bible to

the Jews is frequently insisted on: Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me" (John v. 39); “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures" (Matt. xxii. 29); the chief advantage of the Jews was that to them were committed the oracles of God (Rom. iii. 1, 2); the Holy Scriptures are spoken of as able to make a man wise unto salvation, and again, as given by inspiration of God, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works (2 Tim. iii. 15-17). Tradition, on the other hand, is spoken of more than once as liable to mislead :-"Why do ye transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?" "In vain do they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matt. xv. 3, 9), "making the Word of God of none effect through your tradition" (Mark vii. 13).

No doubt a saying of Christ or of His Apostles handed down by oral tradition, if we could be assured that it was correctly handed down, would be as valuable as a written saying. But we have no such assurance, and can have none. Whereas, in the Vatican or Sinaitic Manuscript, we have a security that the New