The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

:174 SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION.the Apocrypha a place in the inspired canon.The inspirationof these books was not made an article of the popishfaith till the Council of Trent. That Council, in its fourthsession, decreed the divine authority of the Apocrypha, notwithstandingthat the books are not found in the HebrewBible, were not received as canonical by the Jews, arenever quoted by Christ or by his apostles, were repudiatedby the early Christian fathers, and contain within themselvesmanifold proofs that they are not inspired. At thesame moment that the Church of Rome was exposing herselfto the curse pronounced on those who shall add tothewords of inspiration, she pronounced an anathema on allwho should refuse to take part with her in the iniquity ofmaintaining the divine authority of the Apocrypha.The Roman Catholic arguments in support of traditionas a rule of faith resolve themselves into three branchesfirst, passages from Scripture ; second, the office of the Churchto attest the authenticity and genuineness of the Bible ; andthird, the insufficiency ofprivate judgment.First, we are presented with a few texts which seem tolook with some favour upon tradition. These are eitherutterly inconclusive, or they are plain perversions. " Hearthe Church^'' from the frequency with which it is quoted,would seem to be regarded by Roman controversialists asone of their greatest strongholds. The words, as theystand by themselves, do look as if they inculcated submissionto the Church in the matter of our belief. When weexamine the passage in connection with its context, however,we find it refers to a supposed dispute between twomembers of the Church, and enjoins the appeal of the matterto the decision of the Church, that is, of the congregation,provided the off'ending party refuse to listen to theremonstrances of the offended ; which is a different thingaltogether from the implicit submission of our judgments inmatters of doctrine. Common sense teaches every manthat there isno comparison between a written and an oralaccount of a matter, as regards the degree of reliance to be