124 THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 



of exegesis by which ecclesiastical writers seek to es- 

 tablish catholic doctrine may often be mistaken, and 

 the detection of such errors is apt to shake men's 

 confidence in the doctrines which are thus erroneously 

 defended. The Spirit which guides the Church into 

 the fundamental truths of divine revelation at large 

 obviously has not endowed her writers with exegetical 

 infallibiHty. Yet the mind of the Church is an author- 

 itative indication of the mind of the Spirit who inspired 

 the Scriptures; and the prevaihng might of truth guar- 

 antees that in the long run scriptural exegesis will 

 vindicate ecumenical ecclesiastical teaching. But we 

 shall not be enabled to see this until we reahze that 

 the mind of the Spirit in Holy Scripture is to be ascer- 

 tained by general induction from the varied phenom- 

 ena of the centuries of progress in revelation which the 

 Bible records, rather than from an exclusive consider- 

 ation, however careful it may be, of detached "proof- 

 texts." Revealed doctrines are rarely given full or 

 systematic definition in single passages of Scripture, 

 and biblical teaching must be investigated in its 

 organic continuity, if it is to be studied successfully.^ 

 A parallel principle is to be observed in discovering 

 the mind of the Church. That mind is indeed Spirit- 

 guided; and, in its ecumenical aspects, has a finality 

 which no other authority in this world can claim. But 

 it may easily be misunderstood and misrepresented by 

 school theology and by provincial bodies. It is for 

 this reason that, while the ecclesiastical authority of 



* I return to this. See pp. 139, 140, below. 



