ivine, while "crying I will
ne'er consent," has consented to the proposals of that scientific
criticism which the memorialists renounce and denounce.

A humble layman, to whom it would seem the height of presumption to
assume even the unconsidered dignity of a "steward of science," may
well find this conflict of apparently equal ecclesiastical authorities
perplexing--suggestive, indeed, of the wisdom of postponing attention
to either, until the question of precedence between them is settled.
And this course will probably appear the more advisable, the more
closely the fundamental position of the memorialists is examined.

"No opinion of the fact or form of Divine Revelation, founded on
literary criticism [and I suppose I may add historical, or physical,
criticism] of the Scriptures themselves, can be admitted to interfere
with the traditionary testimony of the Church, when that has been once
ascertained and verified by appeal to antiquity."[10]

Grant that it is "the traditionary testimony of the Church" which
guarantees the canonicity of each and all of the books of the Old and
New Testaments. Grant also that canonicity means infallibility; yet,
according to the thirty-eight, this "traditionary testimony" has to be
"ascertained and verified by appeal to antiquity." But "ascertainment
and verification" are purely intellectual processes, which must be
conducted according to the strict rules of scientific investigation,
or be self-convicted of worthlessness. Moreover, before we can set
about the appeal to "antiquity," the exact sense of that usefully
vague term must be defined by similar means. "Antiquity" may include
any number of centuries, great or small; and whether "antiquity" is to
comprise the Council of Trent, or to stop a little beyond that of
Nicaea, or to come to an end in the time of Irenaenus, or in that of
Justin Martyr, are knotty questions which can be decided, if at all,
only by those critical methods which the signataries treat so
cavalierly. And yet the decision of these questions is fundamental,
for as the limits of the canonical scriptures vary, so may the dogmas
deduced from them require modification. Christianity is one thing, if
the fourth Gospel, the Epistle to the Hebrews, the pastoral Epistles,
and the Apocalypse are canonical and (by the hypothesis) infallibly
true; and another thing, if they are not. As I have already said,
whoso defines the canon defines the creed.

Now it is quite certai