Page:A General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament (7th edition, 1896).djvu/74

6 of the congregation. Most of the first heretics impugned the authority of Apostles, and for them their writings had no weight. Most of the first Christians felt so practically the depth and fulness of the Old Testament Scriptures, that they continued to seek and find in them that comfort and instruction of which popular rules of interpretation have deprived us.

But in the course of time a change came over the condition of the Church. As soon as the immediate disciples of the Apostles had passed away, it was felt that the tradition of the Apostolic teaching had lost its direct authority. Heretics arose who claimed to be possessed of other traditionary rules derived in succession from St Peter or St Paul, and it was only possible to try their authenticity by documents beyond the reach of change or corruption. Dissensions arose within the Church itself, and the appeal to the written word of the Apostles became natural and decisive. And thus the practical belief of the primitive age was first definitely expressed when the Church had gained a permanent position, and a fixed literature.

From the close of the second century the history of the Canon is simple, and its proof clear. It is allowed even by those who have reduced the genuine Apostolic works to the narrowest limits, that from the time of Irenæus the New Testament was composed essentially of the same books which we receive at present, and that they were regarded with the same reverence as is now shewn to them. Before that time there is more or less