THE DECLINE OF BIBLIOLATRY. 597 



symptom that the state Church seems more and more anxious 

 to repudiate all complicity with the principles of the Protestant 

 Reformation and to call itself " Anglo-Catholic." Inspiration, 

 deprived of its old intelligible sense, is watered down into a mys- 

 tification. The Scriptures are, indeed, inspired ; but they con- 

 tain a wholly undefined and indefinable " human element " ; and 

 this unfortunate intruder is converted into a sort of biblical 

 whipping boy. Whatsoever scientific investigations, historical 

 or physical, prove to be erroneous, the " human element " bears 

 the blame ; while the divine inspiration of such statements, as 

 by their nature are out of reach of proof or disproof, is still as- 

 serted with all the vigor inspired by conscious safety from attack. 

 Though the proposal to treat the Bible " like any other book," 

 which caused so much scandal forty years ago, may not yet be 

 generally accepted, and though Bishop Colenso's criticisms may 

 still lie, formally, under ecclesiastical ban, yet the Church has 

 not wholly turned a deaf ear to the voice of the scientific tempt- 

 er ; and many a coy divine, while " crying I will ne'er consent," 

 has consented to the proposals of that scientific criticism which 

 the memorialists renounce and denounce. 



A humble layman, to whom it would seem the height of pre- 

 sumption to assume even the unconsidered dignity of a " steward 

 of science," may well find this conflict of apparently equal ecclesi- 

 astical authorities perplexing suggestive, indeed, of the wisdom 

 of postponing attention to either until the question of precedence 

 between them is settled. And this course will probably appear 

 the more advisable, the more closely the fundamental position of 

 the memorialists is examined. 



No opinion of the fact or form of divine revelation, founded 

 on literary criticism (and I suppose I may add historical or phys- 

 ical criticism) of the Scriptures themselves, can be admitted to 

 interfere with the traditionary testimony of the Church, when 

 that has been once ascertained and verified by appeal to an- 

 tiquity." * 



Grant that it is " the traditionary testimony of the Church " 

 which guarantees the canonicity of each and all of the books of 

 the Old and New Testaments. Grant also that canonicity means 

 infallibility ; yet, according to the thirty-eight, this " traditionary 

 testimony " has to be " ascertained and verified by appeal to 

 antiquity." But " ascertainment and verification " are purely 

 intellectual processes, which must be conducted according to the 

 strict rules of scientific investigation, or be self-convicted of 

 worthlessness. Moreover, before we can set about the appeal to 

 " antiquity," the exact sense of that usefully vague term must be 



* Declaration, Article X. 



