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3. But we need to bring the transition to written documents into definite relation with what was said above (p. 189 ff.) respecting the personal inspiration of the first promulgators of revelation. Their full equipment for the work of perpetuating or preserving revelation in a pure form, which was their calling, is defined dogmatically by the "Inspiration" of revelation in the stricter sense. Little, then, as the nature and character of inspiration needs to be settled as to details, the correct sense to be attached to it must be agreed upon and demonstrated.

Outside the circle of the first promulgators of the absolute revelation, and apart from them as the first in the line of tradition, there can be absolutely no pure, and therefore no real, perpetuation of the absolute religion, because the historic aspect, which is so essential for the latter, cannot be carried into effect otherwise than in a historic way, and therefore through the historic knowledge and testimony of the first generation of eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses. If it is part

of the prerogative of the God-man, that He, although an individual, possesses universal importance for the race, next to Him in universal, official prerogative come those who are unique in this respect, that they are penetrated and led to faith by His direct teaching, and form the first link in the entire chain of tradition and generations, all succeeding generations of believers being obliged to enter into communion with Christ through them. Thus, in reference to the begetting of faith in the world, the apostles of the God-man, in their collective capacity, are organs of universal importance; whereas in all subsequent times the circle of influence, even of the greatest men, can no longer extend to the entire Church on earth. They must therefore have received the absolute religion both in a complete and pure form;2 for otherwise the God-man would have appeared in vain, and must needs appear again for the purpose of adding that which is indispensable to the preservation of His work-the securing of a pure tradition. If the God-man is the foundation sustaining the whole building, they are the master-builders, carrying on the building in 1 This is implied in the passage Matt. xix. 28, according to which they will be seated on thrones beside the throne of His glory, John xv. 27. 31 Cor. iii. 10 ff.

2 With this agrees John xiv. 26, xvi. 13. .

harmony with the plan given in the foundation.

To vary the

figure, they form, along with the God-man as the ȧxpoywviaîos, the foundation on which all are to be built up into a spiritual building.1 Whatever they are, on their character depends essentially the Church of the future. With this lofty position a certain order of natural capacity will correspond, inviting the training of the God-man by whom they are called. But the elevation of their natural endowment into the apostolical Xápiopa must be brought about by special communication of the Spirit, by which their natural receptiveness receives full satisfaction. Though they have not a specifically different Tveûμa in comparison with others (p. 190 f.), still they have an equipment corresponding with their position in the building of the Church, and specifically different from all other Christian generations. In keeping with their specific position, they are so penetrated and illumined by the absolute revelation, that of them it is certain that they enjoy not merely a momentary inspiration, but a continuous and abiding possession of the Holy Spirit. They are not, as supposed by the old orthodox theory, filled with the Spirit for isolated moments, such as the moment of written narration. Rather, they must be filled with the Spirit who leads into all truth in all their official action, but especially when they exercise their office in written language. Certain as it is, that in contradistinction from the God-man they remain burdened with sin, it is easily compatible with this, that in spiritual things they do not give out error as truth. Further, it is natural, on moral grounds, to suppose that their self-concentration and abiding. in the atmosphere of the Spirit are more than usually intense in the act of drawing up written narrations. But the influence of the Holy Spirit in them is not simply negative, guarding against error, so that they are incapable of giving out error as truth, but positive, in imparting to them, to each one after his measure, a fulness of knowledge of divine things, which thereupon become their spiritual possession, and finally in 1 Eph. ii. 20; Matt. xvi. 18, xviii. 18.

3 John vi. 70, xv. 16, 19.

2 Gal. i. 15.

* John xv. 26, 27; Matt. x. 20; Luke xxi. 15, xxiv. 49.

5 Though it is certain, e.g., that Peter failed morally (Gal. ii. 12), he was far from teaching and laying down as a principle that Jewish Christians were defiled by eating with Gentile Christians.

exciting in them the impulse to provide, by word and deed, for securing the same among mankind. The historical knowledge which is theirs in a natural way becomes for them, in their inspired capacity, the material in speaking and writing, upon which the illuminating Spirit comes. Their historic consciousness becomes the object of training and cultivation by the Holy Spirit in distinguishing, arranging, and valuing the divine import of the historic, the Holy Spirit employing their new pneumatic man in all these ways. He recalls to their memory the primitive, historic matters of fact;1 He discloses to them the inner significance and truth of matters of fact, so that in comparison with Him they are not automata, but depose to what they know. He sets themselves, i.e. their inner man, to work to discriminate what is erroneous; He sharpens their conscience, that they may not give out what is erroneous as truth; He is their continual impulse to a more and more intensive appropriation of the truth. Finally, in relation to the image of the God-man, dependence on their own resources comes into play, including, in opposition to the effects of still remaining sin and infirmity, complete knowledge, power of memory, and the influence of eye- and earwitness (§ 60). The image of the God-man is thus formed in them with fidelity and in independence of the degree of their personal piety, and is not sketched altogether from the standpoint of the latter. Their piety is the effect, not the cause, of this image. Accordingly, this image purifies, elevates above their actual state. Moreover, through them it elevates above the actual state of God's Church, and is the normative objectivity which, counterbalancing the power of sin and error in the Church, draws more and more upward. Nor is it sufficient that true Tíoris merely exist in the apostolic circle. Considering the close connection between faith and doctrine, the work of bearing testimony to the God-man is only perfectly done, provided pure knowledge is also given as an integral element in the collective apostolate with fulness and force sufficient for all ages; and with this, considerable diversity of knowledge as to kind and degree in the case of individuals, in accordance with their individual character, is easily compatible.

1 John xiv. 26.

4. Certainly diversity of individual character carries with it the consequence that the first bearers of revelation will conceive the image of the God-man differently, for the most part under one aspect, whereas it is necessary to the preservation of the absolute revelation that none of the essential aspects of His image be again lost to mankind. But these different conceptions of the God-man under His essential aspects must also be preserved when combined in their mutually supplementary relations into one whole. This is the canonical record of Christianity. By forming a member in this whole, every individual gains a new and higher significance than before. Thus, the sacred authors form as it were the typical characters, whose collective testimony secures to the whole of humanity the objective and true conception of the perfected revelation, which must needs be completely enclosed within their limits collectively. Every country and nation is thus placed on a level with the first generation, nay, through the collective original testimony learns what as an eye-witness it would scarcely have met with. In the formation of the canon under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, conducing to the good of the whole Church and of every age of the Church, is fulfilled the divine will, to the effect that the succeeding age, instead of being dependent on the view of particular circles, shall possess the view of the collective apostolate as the message which they proclaim.

5. In what has preceded, the authority of the first witnesses has been established, and indirectly the authority of those who, under their eyes and with their approval, were their co-workers. Their authority is enhanced to the point of complete normative force for the Church of every age and for individuals, when we regard them not individually but as members of the canon. Even granting that the individual member needs correcting and supplementing as to one aspect left by him in the background, this is not to be drawn from without, but from their collective teaching, from

'On the mutually supplementary characteristics of the Christian typical representatives, Peter and James, Paul and John, Schelling has enlarged, Philos. der Offenb. II. Lect. 36, 37. He views them in the light of basis, mediating tendency and final aim, and sees prefigured in them the three chief epochs of the Christian Church.

2 As an example of this, James in relation to Paul may be referred to.

the circle of the original teachers, in which it cannot be wanting. Thus the Canon is its own interpreter and judge; it needs no foreign standard. Just so the Holy Spirit evokes in believers a power of judgment, a criticism, which is not subjective, but in which freedom and fidelity are combined. The criticism and exposition of faith does not contemplate its subjectmatter from without, either from a foreign or a traditional, servile standpoint; but living within the subject-matter, in its very heart, it does it increasing justice, because to every production of apostolical men it assigns its due place and distinctive canonical value. But finally, it should not be forgotten, that although the primitive collective testimony, reserved for the future, must be adapted to be a perfectly adequate substitute to succeeding generations for the historic objectivity of the God-man, and in this respect to take the place of the historic God-man, no one of His disciples can be placed on a level with the God-man Himself; for He alone has the Spirit without measure. To judge otherwise would certainly be to contradict the actual circumstances of the primitive memorial, and the idea which the authors must have entertained of themselves. Nay, in this a false position would undoubtedly be given to Holy Scripture in relation to faith (the material principle). It would become a mediator, as in Biblical Supernaturalism so called. As a source of certainty, the God-man and His Spirit would retire into the background. Accordingly, even the defects, which may perhaps appear in writings worthy of the Canon, and which cannot relate to the religious contents or be at all of an essential character in the case of a writing worthy of canonicity, are not indeed to be searched for and magnified with evil intent, but to be candidly acknowledged, on one hand in the firm conviction that no injury can thus result to the certainty of tradition on the whole, because otherwise watchful divine teleology would have taken precautions against it, on the other in the knowledge that these defects, which affect not the religious contents but the letter, and which should not, in violation of truth, be denied, form a perpetual motive not to rest in the external or to fall under bondage to the letter. For between the believer and the God-man no new wall of partition should be set up, by attributing the authority due only to Him and His Spirit, or

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