LECT. VI. out in pursuit of this object by any other course have missed their way. The truth is not to be sacrificed; nor is it to be served by a spirit at variance with its own expansive charity. Much has been attempted to make men of one mind, little has been done to make them one in heart. LECTURE VII. COLOSSIANS II. 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Summary of In the preceding Lecture, an attempt was made LECT. VII. to distinguish between some real delinquencies at- the preceding taching to the earlier Fathers as controversialists, Lecture. and certain points with respect to which their faults, to say the least, have been greatly exaggerated. And it appeared that much in their manner of defending Christianity, which it has been fashionable to describe as most inexcusable and pernicious, is, in fact, the very conduct which their accusers have been wont to applaud when occurring in other connexions. It was a great object with these venerable authors to obtain the testimony of nature in favour of revelation, their views of nature being such as to embrace the social condition of the human race, no less than the general appearances and laws of the material universe. This object was not only legitimate, LECT. VII. but creditable alike to their discernment and humanity. That they did not always prosecute this course wisely is admitted, and we have dwelt at some length on the injurious licence which it often disposed them to assume in the interpretation of the sacred writings. In the hope of softening or removing some of the points at issue between the wisdom of the world and the wisdom from above, they adopted those methods of explaining the inspired word which not only deprived it of its proper sovereignty as the guide to truth but often rendered it subservient to error. It has appeared, also, that the vicious temper generally betrayed in the contentions between philosophers, was too frequently allowed to make its appearance among disputants who had taken upon them the profession of Christianity. We have seen, moreover, that the effect of this temper, and of the form which the controversies of the early ages of the church assumed, was to introduce those scholastic abridgments of Christianity which, under the name of creeds or canons, superseded the Scriptures, conferred an undue authority on the ministers of religion, and contributed to the manifest deterioration of every thing christian. To this last subject we shall now advert more at length, the first point of consideration in the present Lecture being-the influence of the ancient philosophy as facilitating the establishment of FALSE AUTHORITY IN THE CHURCH. |