Page:Catholic Thoughts on the Bible and Theology.djvu/12



The good and evil of such a state it is not intended here to weigh and adjust, but only to take occasion from the statement of the fact to suggest that, such being the case, it is above all things important for us to consider frequently with patience the grounds of our methods of Scriptural Interpretation; inasmuch as where false views are admitted in these, the erroneous Theological consequences following from them in our case will probably be more numerous than in any other, and the eradication of them produce interferences with popular traditions more important. And what is true of our Theology, is true of all Theology hitherto propounded; in a less degree indeed, but still in a degree which renders it very desirable that the study of it should henceforth be more careful and less dogmatic than it has been. For truly the errours of Theology, as well as those of Theologians, have been the direct cause of much irreverence towards the Bible. It has been, and is, the fearful manner in which the Bible’s holy words and blessed revelations have been made to minister to human presumption and uncharitableness, and to sanction many kinds of ignorance, that has involved the Scriptures themselves in something of the same aversion with which almost all Theologies have not altogether unreasonably been treated: and it is this, too, which compels those who would fain speak only of the glory and the beauty of the Bible—of its heavenly power to heal the soul’s sicknesses and to satisfy the heart's inmost needs—to define and to measure the limits of its mission, and to separate between the venerable vesture and the sacred substance which it clothes.

But while speaking thus of the degree in which the writer foresees that these Pages will probably differ from the more generally received traditions concerning both the significance of the Scriptures and the value of Theology, it must at the same time be said that at present he does not perceive that essential Christianity is in any way prejudiced by such difference; but on the contrary, he is full of hope that it may be hereby cleared from incumbrances which hitherto have impeded its progress and obscured its evidence. At present indeed he believes that it