Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

THE NEW TESTAMENT GENEBALY. XXXIX
better suited to be a fixed, unchangeable norm and rule of faith^
and coidd therefore be employed with exceeding force and efficiency
against all heretics. Thus the time was now come when a sifting
and separation of the many professedly Christian writings scattered
abroad in the church was necessary. Moreover, the difierent sects
of heretics had all sorts of forged writings among them, in which
their peculiar opinions were presented in the names of celebrated
prophets and apostles. Against such writings explicit declaration
must be made, in order to preserve the true apostolic doctrine from
mixture with erroneous and confused notions. As of course, how-
ever, individual fathers of the church could have but little influence
against the established sects of heretics, it was felt to be necessary
that real Christians should be more closely and intimately united,
and from the endeavour consequently made sprang the so-called
catJioNc, i. e., universal church. The teachers of the church, as well
as the laity, agreed together in the avowal of certain doctrines,
which afterwards formed their creed, or the so-called apostolic sym-
bol, because in them the true apostolic doctrines were stated in opposition
to heretics. Thus it became practicable to set firm bounds
to the tide of corruption ; and thus the various sects were gradually
suppressed by the preponderant influence of the universal church.
Still some of them lasted down to the fifth and sixth centuries.
This sifting of the various Christian writings demands a more
careful consideration. It has been before remarked that certain
edifying productions of estimable fiithers, e. g., Clement of Kome,
Hermas and others, were publicly read along with those of the
apostles. Still, however profitable the perusal of these writings
might be, the bishops of the Catholic church correctly felt that they
could be of no service against heretics, as these would not allow
them any weight. Since, however, they commonly acknowledged
the writings of the apostles, these and these alone could be appealed
to in confutation of them. All such writings, therefore, as were allowed
to be the compositions of other authors were first separated
from the rest. If this had not been done, it would have remained
uncertain in all subsequent time what books were properly to be
regarded as pure sources of apostolic doctrine ; and at the time of
the Eeforraation it would not have been so easy to restore the true
uncoiTupted doctrine of Christ by means of the Scriptures, as it ac-
tually was, on account of the circumstance that the genuine Scrip-
tures were possessed in a separate, fixed collection. Now, in the
endeavour to gather the genuine apostolic writings together by them-
selves, some of them were very easily distinguished from the rest
as the apostolic productions. These were called universally-admitted
writings ; in Greek homologoumena. Among these were reckoned
the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John ;
the Acts of