morality as Christ delivered it,-where would it now have been? Would it have reached our times as a substantive religion?-Would truth have floated down to us without borrowing the wings of error? These are interesting, though purely speculative, questions.

One word in conclusion. Let it not be supposed that the conclusions sought to be established in this book have been arrived at eagerly, or without pain and reluctance. The pursuit of truth is easy to a man who has no human sympathies, whose vision is impaired by no fond partialities, whose heart is torn by no divided allegiance. To him the renunciation of error presents few difficulties; for the moment it is recognized as error, its charm ceases. But the case is very different with the Searcher whose affections are strong, whose associations are quick, whose hold upon the Past is clinging and tenacious. He may love Truth with an earnest and paramount devotion; but he loves much else also. He loves errors, which were once the cherished convictions of his soul. He loves dogmas which were once full of strength and beauty to his thoughts, though now perceived to be baseless or fallacious. He loves the Church where he worshipped in his happy childhood; where his friends and his family worship still; where his gray-haired parents await the resurrection of the Just: but where he can worship and await no more. He loves the simple old creed, which was the creed of his earlier and brighter days; which is the creed of his wife and children still; but which inquiry has compelled him to abandon. The Past and the Familiar have chains and talismans which hold him back in his career, till every fresh step forward becomes an effort and an agony; every fresh error discovered is a fresh bond snapped asunder; every new glimpse of light is like a fresh flood of pain poured in upon the soul. To such a man the pursuit of Truth is a daily martyrdom-how hard and bitter let the martyr tell. Shame to those who make it doubly so honour to those who encounter it saddened, weeping, trembling, but

unflinching still. "Illi in vos sæviant qui nesciunt cum quo labore verum invenietur; qui nesciunt cum quantâ difficultate sanetur oculus interioris hominis."1

To this martyrdom, however, we believe there is an end: for this unswerving integrity there is a rich and sure reward. Those who flinch from inquiry because they dread the possible conclusion; who turn aside from the path as soon as they catch a glimpse of an unwelcome goal; who hold their dearest hopes only on the tenure of a closed eye and a repudiating mind,-will, sooner or later, have to encounter that inevitable hour when doubt will no longer be silenced, and inquiry can no longer be put by; when the spectres of old misgivings which have been rudely repulsed and of questionings which have been sent empty away, will return "to haunt, to startle, to waylay;"-and will then find their faith crumbling away at the moment of greatest need, not because it is false, but because they, half wilfully, half fearfully, grounded it on false foundations. But the man whose faith in God and futurity has survived an inquiry pursued with that "single eye" to which alone light is promised, has attained a serenity of soul possible only to the fearless and the just. For him the progress of science is fraught with no dark possibilities of ruin; no dreaded discoveries lie in wait for him round the corner, for he is indebted for his short and simple creed, not to sheltering darkness, but to conquered light.

The CRAIG.

Dec. 4, 1850.

St. Augustine.

THE

CREED OF CHRISTENDOM.

CHAPTER I.

INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

WHEN an Inquirer, brought up in the popular Theology of England, questions his teachers as to the foundations. and evidence of the doctrines he has imbibed, he is referred at once to the Bible as the source and proof of all: "The Bible, and the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants." The Bible, he is told, is a sacred book of supreme and unquestionable authority, being the production of writers directly inspired by God to teach us truth-being, in the ordinary phrase, THE WORD OF GOD. This view of the Bible he finds to be universal among all religious sects,, and nearly all religious teachers; all, at least, of whom, in this country, he is likely to hear. This belief in the Inspiration of the Scriptures (OEоTVEVOTIα) is, indeed, stated with some slight variations, by modern Divines; some affirming, that every statement and word was immediately dictated from on high these are the advocates of Plenary, or Verbal Inspiration; others holding merely that the Scriptural writers were divinely informed and authorized Teachers of truth, and narrators of fact, thoroughly imbued with, and guided by, the Spirit of God, but that the words, the earthly form in which they clothed the ideas, were their own. These are the believers in the essential Inspiration of the Bible.

It is obvious that the above are only two modes of stating the same doctrine-a doctrine incapable of being defined or expressed with philosophical precision, from our ignorance

B

of the modus operandi of divine influences on the mind of man. Both propositions mean, if they have any distinct meaning at all, this affirmation :-that every statement of fact contained in the Scriptures is true, as being information communicated by the Holy Spirit-that every dogma of Religion, every idea of Duty, every conception of Deity, therein asserted, came from God, in the natural and unequivocal sense of that expression. That this is the acknowledged and accepted doctrine of Christendom is proved by the circumstance that all controversies among Christians turn upon the interpretation, not the authority, of the Scriptures; insomuch that we constantly hear disputants make use of this language: "Only show me such or such a doctrine in the Bible, and I am silenced."-It is proved, too, by the pains taken, the humiliating subterfuges resorted to, by men of Science to show that their discoveries are not at variance with any text of Scripture. It is proved, by the observation, so constantly forced upon us, of theologians who have been compelled to abandon the theory of Scriptural Inspiration, or to modify it into a negation, still retaining, as tenaciously as ever, the consequences and corollaries of the doctrine; phrases which sprung out of it, and have no meaning apart from it; and deductions which could flow from it alone. It is proved, moreover, by the indiscriminate and peremptory manner in which texts are habitually quoted from every part of the Bible, to enforce a precept, to settle a doctrine, or to silence an antagonist.-It is proved, finally, by the infinite efforts made by commentators and divines to explain discrepancies and reconcile contradictions which, independently of this doctrine, could have no importance or significance whatever.

This, accordingly, is the first doctrine for which our Inquirer demands evidence and proof. It does not occur to him to doubt the correctness of so prevalent a belief: he is only anxious to discover its genesis and its foundation. He immediately perceives that the Sacred Scriptures consist of two separate series of writings, wholly distinct in their character, chronology, and language-the one containing the sacred books of the Jews, the other those of the Christians. We will commence with the former.

Most of our readers who share the popular belief in the divine origin and authority of the Jewish Scriptures, would