1870] A THEOLOGICAL SOCIETY 145 



ment of it &quot; (Hist. Th. ii. 231). And hence we no longer 

 treat our symbols as a compendious statement of those 

 saving truths which the Church rejoices to have found 

 clearly laid down in Scripture and which she feels herself 

 bound to re-echo with all her might, not because she can 

 make them clearer or plainer than she found them in 

 Scripture, but because it is her duty and privilege as a 

 Church to profess to the praise and glory of God her faith 

 in the way of Salvation which He has provided. The 

 confession is to us no longer the spontaneous utterance 

 of the faith of the Church, offered for subscription only 

 because no one who sincerely accepts Scripture could for 

 a moment hesitate to endorse its doctrines, but a theo 

 logical formula claiming an independent theological value 

 as a statement of doctrine, and devised as a more crucial 

 test of theological views than the words of Scripture afford. 



I do not think it can be questioned that the current 

 theory of the necessity of confessions as the legal standard 

 of theological orthodoxy does imply that as a statement of 

 doctrine the symbols of our Church are better and more 

 distinct than Scripture. And it seems equally plain 

 that this can be reconciled with the paramount authority 

 which, as Protestants, we must ascribe to the Bible only 

 by admitting a difference of kind between the Bible and 

 the confession, i.e., since there can be no question that 

 the contents of the confession are dogma, by denying 

 that Scripture comes to us in the first instance at least 

 as a book of doctrines. But this is just the point which 

 the orthodox theology of our days seems unable either 

 to concede or to deny ; and it is this half- hear tedness 

 that exposes us to the insinuations of those without that 

 we really set our orthodox theology above the Bible. 



The compromise which is often attempted lies, as stated 

 by Dr. Cunningham, in the observation &quot; that Scripture 

 was constructed upon the principle of testing our candour 

 and love of truth ; that the peculiar doctrines of the 

 Christian system are set forth in Scripture with a force 



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