THE SEAT OF AUTHORITY.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Cheetham, in his interesting letter, has traced the source of the subjective basis of authority to Coleridge. But. Luther long before expressed similar ideas to those of Coleridge and Dr. Dale, and made inner sentiment the test of authority in Holy Scripture. "God gave to the Jews a. written law—that is, the Ten Commandments—superfluously;. for they are nothing else than the law of Nature, which is by Nature written in our heart." "I keep the Commandments which Moses gave, not because Moses commanded them, but because they are implanted in me by Nature." Again : "In. St. Paul's Epistles the Gospel is clearer and brighter than in the four Evangelists, for the four Evangelista described Christ's life and words, which were not understood until after the advent of the Holy Spirit." "The Gospel of John is the one tender, right, chief Gospel." "The Epistles of Paul and Peter far excel the three Gospels. of Matthew, Mark, and Luke." More emphatically still he affirms : "We must not consider simply the question whether it be God's word, or whether God hath said it, but rather to. whom it is said." "One thing concerns me not, another touches me." We could hardly have a bolder statement of the relation of the Christian consciousness to the written word. The confusion that extreme subjectiveness gave rise to is also suggested here. The true ground of authority, as the Spectator has hinted, is objective, primarily in the per- sonality of God and in the order of his government_ The supreme authority of Christ, as the revealer of God and the dispenser of his life to men, is an objective fact.. As a fact, it is presented with all its evidences to the scientific verifying reason. Reason having discovered, by processes of necessary thought and historic evidence, wherein all moral authority abides, rests in Christ as the Truth, and progressively' discovers the rich content of that authority; our conscience, affections, and imagination acting concurrently, and feeling and responding to, with increasing fullness, the claims of Christ. Thus the whole man is gained, and instead of n shifting, sensational, egotistic basis, you get the solid rock of fact and consciousness. The Church of Christ, in her organic unity and unbroken succession, accepts Christ's authority on. this ground ; and having verified it in all her members, pre- sents in her turn an authoritative testimony to her Lord. The authority of Christ is thus reflected in the Church that wit- nesses to Christ, and she becomes, in the Apostle's words, "the pillar and ground of the truth."—I am, Sir, &c.,
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