Church and Creed; Sermons Preached in the Chapel of the Foundling Hospital (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1890. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... 246 The Didache; or, Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. I HAVE explained to you1 how the particular books which we now find in "the Bible" came to be there. This subject is generally shrouded in a great deal of unnecessary mystery. In reality there is no mystery about it. It might be, and should be, explained to Sunday-school children. Whatever theory of "inspiration" you may hold, you must remember that the books of Scripture were collected together by synods or councils, composed of men for whom no inspiration, in the orthodox sense of the word, can be claimed. Nor indeed can it be claimed for them in any sense. For they have frequently contradicted one another, and it is manifest that two contradictory statements 1 See 'Inspiration, ' pp. 76-88. cannot both be inspired. The non-inspiration of councils is recognised by our Church in one of the Articles.1 "General councils, forasmuch as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed by the Spirit and Word of God, may, and sometimes have, erred." In fact, a council is only the ecclesiastical word for a committee. At committee meetings of rabbis in the case of the Old Testament, of bishops in the case of the New, it was determined whether a book should be admitted into the sacred canon or not. I explained to you that several books, after being for a long time rejected, were finally received; as for example, the Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes and Eevelation. Some of the doubtful books, however, never got into the canon at all. And of these a little treatise called the 'Teaching of the Twelve Apostles' was one. This book was called scripture by a "father " of the Church, Clement of Alexandria, at the end of the first century.2 Later on, Eusebius mentions it as one of the disputed books Anti-legomena). But he i...