Reading the Ante Nicene Writings: What Are They, What Do They Teach & What Value Have they for Today’s Church?

By W. D. Conybeare

Preface

In preparing to commit this series of Lectures to the judgment of the public, the Author cannot refrain from mentioning those circumstances connected with their composition, which may, in some measure, claim for them a more indulgent consideration. His name was not originally proposed as a candidate for the appointment which has called them forth; and was only suggested at the moment of election. He was thus necessarily deprived of that time for deliberation, which is usual before the final acceptance of such an office, and which might very probably have resulted in the conclusion,

Perche alle spalle sue soverchia soma.

On this unexpected call, the Author’s choice of a subject was naturally directed to a line of enquiry, which engaged at the time his private theological studies; but he has since most sensibly felt the disadvantage of the very short interval allowed him for preparation, and has experienced, to an extent far beyond what he had anticipated, the difference between collections formed only for private satisfaction, and those which he could regard as sufficiently matured for public notice.

It appears the more necessary to submit the above statement of the circumstances connected with the Author’s appointment to the office of Bampton Lecturer, and his selection of the subject here discussed, because a widely-circulated periodical journal has given currency to an erroneous impression, that the nomination was conferred and accepted with direct reference to prevailing controversies. But it must be sufficiently obvious from what has been said, that the Bampton Trustees could not, at the time of their election, have possessed any intimation of the intentions of a party, with whom they had had no previous communication whatever: and it is trusted, that the execution of the Lectures themselves, however deficient in other respects, will sufficiently manifest, that to engage in personal and individual controversy, is of all things the most remote from the habits and intentions of the Author.

S. In some of the earlier Lectures, references will be found to articles in a proposed Appendix; but the bulk of the volume having exceeded expectation, it has been judged expedient, as the articles in question were in no respect of material consequence to the general argument, to abandon the intention proposed in that respect.

• Language: English
• Publisher: CrossReach Publications
• Release date: Nov 30, 2018

Book preview

READING THE ANTE NICENE WRITINGS

What Are They, What Do They Teach & What Value Have they for Today’s Church?

BY

W. D. CONYBEARE, M. A.

OF CHRIST CHURCH,

VICAR OF AXMINSTER

OXFORD,

JOHN HENRY PARKER;

J. G. AND F. RIVINGTON, LONDON

MDCCCXXXIX

.

Previously Titled:

an

ANALYTICAL EXAMINATION

into the

character, value, and just application

of

THE WRITINGS

of

THE CHRISTIAN FATHERS

during the ante-nicene period

being the

BAMPTON LECTURES

for the year mdcccxxxix.

by

W. D. CONYBEARE, M. A.

of christ church,

vicar of axminster

Hope. Inspiration. Trust.

We’re Social! Follow Us for New Titles and Deals:

FaceBook.com/CrossReachPublications

@CrossReachPub

Available In Paperback And eBook Editions

Please go online For More Great Titles

Available Through CrossReach Publications.

And If You Enjoyed This Book Please Consider Leaving A

Review online. That Helps Us Out A Lot. Thanks.

© 2017 Crossreach Publications

All Rights Reserved, Including The Right To Reproduce

This Book Or Portions Thereof In Any Form Whatever.

DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS

LECTURE I

1 Cor. 2:5

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

Introductory. On the opposition of the Anglican and Tridentine rules of faith. The Bible, according to our Church, the sole authoritative rule; but Ecclesiastical Tradition valued as an important subsidiary aid in interpretation. Answer to objections commonly made against the full sufficiency of the Bible as the rule of faith; especially those derived from its immethodical structure. Proposal to examine analytically the writings of the Ante-Nicene Fathers, as the earliest and most important witnesses to Ecclesiastical Tradition.

LECTURE II

Rev. 2:13

Thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days in which my faithful martyr was slain among you.

Examination of the Apostolical Fathers, Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, and Polycarp.

LECTURE III

1 Cor. 2:6, 7

Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world; but we speak the wisdom of God.

Examination of the earlier Philosophical Fathers, Justin, Tatian, and Athenagoras.

LECTURE IV

1 Thess. 5:21

Prove all things. Hold fast that which is good.

Examination of the Alexandrian Fathers, Clemens Alexandrinus and Origen, with a preliminary sketch of the Alexandrian Catechetical school.

LECTURE V

1 Cor. 11:19

There must also be heresies amongst you, that they which are approved may be made manifest.

Examination of Irenæus, with preliminary remarks on the Gnostic Heresies.

LECTURE VI

Rev. 2:13, 14

I know thy works, and that thou holdest fast my name: but I have a few things against thee.

Examination of Tertullian.

LECTURE VII

1 Tim. 4:12

Be thou an example of the believers in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

Examination of Cyprian, and concluding observations on the general introduction of Councils, with particular remarks on that held on the errors of Paul of Samosata and the Nicene Council.

LECTURE VIII

Eph. 4:11, 12

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ.

Concluding recapitulation on the character of the several classes of Christian Fathers, and the bearing of the testimony afforded by them on several leading points of doctrine and discipline.

EXTRACT

from

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

of the late REV. JOHN BAMPTON, Canon of Salisbury

—— "I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and singular the said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the intents and purposes hereinafter mentioned: that is to say, I will and appoint, that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, for the time being, shall take and receive all the rents, issues, and profits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations, and necessary deductions made) that he pay all the remainder to the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, to be established for ever in the said University, and to be performed in the manner following:

I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room adjoining to the Printing-House, between the hours of ten in the morning and two in the afternoon, to preach eight Divinity Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. Mary’s in Oxford, between the commencement of the last month in Lent Term, and the end of the third week in Act Term.

Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following Subjects:—to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to confute all heretics and schismatics—upon the divine authority of the holy Scriptures—upon the authority of the writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and practice of the primitive Church—upon the Divinity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ—upon the Divinity of the Holy Ghost—upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as comprehended in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds.

Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lecture Sermons shall be always printed, within two months after they are preached, and one copy shall be given to the Chancellor of the University, and one copy to the Head of every College, and one copy to the Mayor of the City of Oxford, and one copy to be put into the Bodleian Library; and the expense of printing them shall be paid out of the revenue of the Land or Estates given for establishing the Divinity Lecture Sermons; and the Preacher shall not be paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are printed.

Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be qualified to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath taken the degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge; and that the same person shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons twice."

PREFACE

In preparing to commit this series of Lectures to the judgment of the public, the Author cannot refrain from mentioning those circumstances connected with their composition, which may, in some measure, claim for them a more indulgent consideration. His name was not originally proposed as a candidate for the appointment which has called them forth; and was only suggested at the moment of election. He was thus necessarily deprived of that time for deliberation, which is usual before the final acceptance of such an office, and which might very probably have resulted in the conclusion,

Perche alle spalle sue soverchia soma.

On this unexpected call, the Author’s choice of a subject was naturally directed to a line of enquiry, which engaged at the time his private theological studies; but he has since most sensibly felt the disadvantage of the very short interval allowed him for preparation, and has experienced, to an extent far beyond what he had anticipated, the difference between collections formed only for private satisfaction, and those which he could regard as sufficiently matured for public notice.

It appears the more necessary to submit the above statement of the circumstances connected with the Author’s appointment to the office of Bampton Lecturer, and his selection of the subject here discussed, because a widely-circulated periodical journal has given currency to an erroneous impression, that the nomination was conferred and accepted with direct reference to prevailing controversies. But it must be sufficiently obvious from what has been said, that the Bampton Trustees could not, at the time of their election, have possessed any intimation of the intentions of a party, with whom they had had no previous communication whatever: and it is trusted, that the execution of the Lectures themselves, however deficient in other respects, will sufficiently manifest, that to engage in personal and individual controversy, is of all things the most remote from the habits and intentions of the Author.

P. S. In some of the earlier Lectures, references will be found to articles in a proposed Appendix; but the bulk of the volume having exceeded expectation, it has been judged expedient, as the articles in question were in no respect of material consequence to the general argument, to abandon the intention proposed in that respect.

an

ANALYTICAL EXAMINATION,

&c.

LECTURE I

1 Cor. 2:5

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

That the voice which reveals to man his relations to his Creator, his duties in life, and his hopes in eternity, must be indeed a voice from heaven, is a truth as universally acknowledged, as if it did but amount to an identical proposition. Even those philosophers of the Gentiles, to whom the high privilege of instruction from a direct revelation was denied, have yet fully and frankly avowed their sense of its necessity; have desired to see the things which we see, and have not seen them; to hear the things which we hear, and have not heard them. He, especially, who may justly be said to have pursued to their utmost limits the natural anticipations of divine truth implanted by the Creator in the human breast, even the greater disciple of Socrates himself, has most humbly and explicitly confessed his own deep conviction, that some divine word was necessary, which could alone afford a secure vehicle, to enable us to prosecute in safety our hazardous journey in the investigation of truth.

The whole Christian world is equally agreed, that this divine communication, so long looked for with such general and anxious expectation, was in due time fully and finally vouchsafed, when He, who was the desire of all nations, was made manifest; when God, who at sundry times and in divers manners had spoken to the fathers by the prophets, spake in the last days of his dispensation unto all by his Son.

In these things all Christians are agreed; but, unhappily, some difference of opinion has prevailed among the Churches, as to the means appointed in the counsels of Divine Providence, to guard and preserve, through its descent to later ages, the completed faith established by this final revelation; and to perpetuate it in that singleness and simplicity which must ever form its distinguishing characteristic.

On every view of the subject which it is possible for any Christian party to take, it is indeed perfectly evident, that all authority in matters ecclesiastical and theological, must ultimately resolve itself into an appeal to those divinely commissioned Apostles, whom Christ sent forth as his own embassadors, armed with plenary powers, that they might erect his kingdom and Church on the earth; and for this end endowed in all fulness with the promised gifts of the Spirit, to guide them into all truth, that in all things their authority might be infallible and indisputable. The only question therefore must be, through what channels the knowledge of these authoritative apostolical decisions has been transmitted to us.

All are indeed equally agreed, that we possess in the volume of the New Testament the authentic writings of these emissaries of the Lord; and that these, being immediately dictated by the same Spirit who guided them throughout the great work committed to their charge, must therefore be fully invested with his own divine authority. Now, as the mind of the Spirit cannot be supposed to contradict itself, no one can for a moment imagine, that any thing contrary to this acknowledged scriptural standard can by any possibility be admitted as valid. No one of the Christian name can dispute, that the rule of the Scripture is, so far as it may extend, certain and absolute; the only question which can arise must be, whether this scriptural rule be also sole as well as sure; whether it be universal, as containing in itself all things essential to the faith, and therefore exclusive; or whether it may not have left some points undetermined or obscure, and thus admit, and indeed require, addition and elucidation, from the traditional memory of the oral instructions originally delivered by the same inspired teachers.

This latter view the Church of Rome strenuously maintains; the Tridentine Council expressly asserts, that the truths essential to salvation are contained in libris Scriptis, et sine scripto traditionibus, quæ ipsius Christi ore et Apostolis acceptæ, aut et ipsis Apostolis, Spiritu sancto dictante, quasi per manus traditæ ad nos usque pervenerunt.

Our own Church, on the other hand, dares not admit any other authoritative rule or standard, as to the essential doctrines of a saving faith, than the Canonical Scriptures, the unquestioned and unquestionable oracles of inspiration; these she regards as in themselves all-sufficient and all-perfect, and therefore neither requiring nor admitting any extrinsic addition whatsoever. If any single point may be selected, as forming the peculiar and distinctive character, which the founders of our reformed Church most earnestly desired, I will not say, to impress on the structure they were rearing, but rather to clear out from the incrustations which had concealed it on the ancient walls of the primitive temple they were restoring, it is undoubtedly this. This she has distinctly inscribed in the first page of her Articles; this she most solemnly impresses on the conscience of every Minister whom she fully commissions, when she directs her Bishops to admit none to the priestly office until they shall have first satisfactorily answered the emphatic question, Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrine required of necessity for salvation through Jesus Christ, and are you determined out of the said Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge, and to teach nothing as required of necessity to eternal salvation, but that which you shall be persuaded may be concluded and proved by the Scripture? O, my brethren, let none of us who have once on this solemn occasion deliberately answered to such an appeal, that we were so persuaded, and had so determined through God’s grace, let none of us seem in any way to swerve from the obligation we have thus bound on our souls.

Yet assuredly we should greatly mistake the intention of our Church, did we imagine that she called on us to neglect the information which the venerable relics of Christian antiquity have preserved to us, in recording the sentiments of the primitive ages of the faith. Our holy mother would never encourage us to depreciate the high and honourable claims of the first standard-bearers, and foremost champions of our religion. The true line taken by our Church appears to be this. She knows nothing of tradition as an independent rule of faith; but genuine and primitive tradition she anxiously seeks to discover, and when found she honours, not indeed as a rival mistress, but as the faithful handmaid of Scripture.

Many circumstances have of late concurred to reawaken upon these subjects the attention, too long it may be dormant, of our own divines. The true nature and foundation of the Christian rule of faith, the just value and application of the remains of the early ecclesiastical writers, have again become the prominent topics of theological controversy.

In these discussions the advocates of one party have spoken as if the Church had received as a perpetual possession a tradition independent of the written word, parallel to Scripture, and not derived from it; an unwritten word of God demanding the same reverence from us, and for exactly the same reasons, as that which is written.

While these writers have loudly arraigned what they call the presumptuous irreverence of disparaging the Fathers, under the plea of magnifying the Scripture, may not the language they have themselves sometimes incautiously employed, seem liable to the converse charge of disparaging the Scriptures under the plea of magnifying the Fathers?

In the oscillations of human opinion, the natural and necessary consequence of any violent impulse towards one side of the just equilibrium, is ever to create a reaction of equal violence in the opposite direction. When such sentiments therefore have been avowed on the one side, we cannot be surprised that other parties should have been hurried into a contrary extreme, and expressed themselves as if inclined utterly to reject and despise the voice of Christian antiquity; and to treat with ridicule and contempt the names on so many accounts entitled to our regard and respect, the venerable fathers of Christian faith, the noble martyrs to Christian truth.

Is there then no via media? May we not even in these days, as the consistent sons of our beloved Church, maintain with her the full sufficiency and exclusive authority of the holy Scripture, as the sole rule of faith; and yet, with her, avail ourselves of every valuable aid, to be derived from the venerable relics of primitive Christianity?

These were the subjects which the circumstances of the times necessarily pressed on my own mind, when I received from the Electors the sudden and unexpected call which has placed me in this office: and in complying with which, I have hoped that I might perform a service not altogether unacceptable in the present state of our Church, by throwing together in such a form, as might render them available for the assistance of other and younger students, the collections I was employed in making to guide my own mind in forming a candid judgment. These will be principally directed to an examination of the general character, the true value, and the just application, of the early Patristical remains; for that appeared to me to constitute the great cardinal point, on which the whole discussion must eventually turn.

To these objects, then, I propose to dedicate the series of Lectures on which I am now entering.

But first, in my present introductory discourse, I shall desire to commence with that which seems to lie at the foundation of the whole argument, the providential design evinced in the promulgation of the written documents of the New Testament as the sure and permanent depository of the faith: and this will naturally lead me to the examination of such circumstances connected with the nature and structure of these Scriptural records, as may appear to affect their competency to afford of themselves a rule of faith full, clear, and self-sufficient, and their relation to the subsidiary means of interpretation.

In the following Lectures I shall proceed to such an analytical and critical examination of the remains of the principal Fathers of the Ante-Nicene period, as I have found most useful in imparting a more clear and definite character to my own views on the subject; and I would therefore hope may not be found altogether useless to others.

In the first place, in advocating the exclusive authority of Scripture as a rule of faith, very few observations will be necessary with regard to the earlier division of the sacred Volume; for as this is entirely confined to an introductory dispensation, it can have only a very partial bearing on the general question; and here assuredly no rival body of tradition is recognized. The full interpretation, indeed, of much of its prophetical portion, and the clear elucidation of the spiritual realities shadowed forth by its typical rites, do assuredly altogether depend on the revelations of the final dispensation; but few, I apprehend, will be inclined to look for such an interpretation elsewhere than in the inspired Scriptures of that dispensation themselves, for none but the Spirit can be his own interpreter in developing hidden meanings which can be known to his mind alone; few, I repeat, will ascribe any similar authority to the extravagances of allegorical interpretation introduced by the Alexandrian Jews; however seductive such a scheme may have unhappily proved to the minds of some of the Christian Fathers, too easily betrayed into adopting and extending it, and colouring it in accordance to their own views.

The real stress of the argument between written and unwritten tradition, as the channels of handing authoritatively down the doctrines of the Christian faith, manifestly depends on the circumstances under which those doctrines were first communicated to the infant Churches; and finally embodied in writing by those divinely-commissioned promulgators, the inspired Apostles.

The advocates of unwritten tradition are constantly reminding us of the fact, (which indeed none have ever questioned,) that the primary instructions by which these Apostles built up the first Churches in the faith, were originally conveyed by oral and catechetical instruction; and that probably nearly thirty years had elapsed, after the foundations of an extended Church were laid by the Pentecostal descent of the Spirit, before the earliest Scriptures of the New Testament were published; and more than double that period before its canon was fully completed. While the living voice of the Apostles could be heard and known, there can be no doubt but that that voice would have formed a fully sufficient standard of faith; but this is quite a different thing from admitting, that when its living testimony was once withdrawn, tradition of any kind could be relied upon as a secure and sufficient depository for its preservation. We contend, that the uniform voice of experience and history altogether negatives such a reliance, and declares that the edifice resting on such a treacherous and scanty foundation, contains the principle of its own destruction. We contend that the conduct of these first teachers in committing their instruction (before they were themselves withdrawn) to written documents, always implies their anxiety in this manner to preserve the certainty of the faith; and shews that they were unwilling to entrust it to any other channel. Thus being dead do they yet speak with a voice that cannot be mistaken; thus have they bequeathed to the Church the charter of its faith as a κτήμα ἐς ἀεὶ, in records imperishable and immutable. We contend that the well-known rule of legal evidence, which refuses to admit for a moment any hearsay report on subjects where original documents can be produced in the court, is founded on the justest views of human testimony, and is strictly applicable to the present case.

With regard to that which may be said to constitute the prime material of the Christian faith, the history of the whole earthly ministry of its Divine Founder, the care with which every essential circumstance has been recorded in the written Gospels is obvious. We need not indeed assert, that every single word which he ever spake has been so preserved; but we do assert with St. John, that all those things