Three books alone “obtained a partial ecclesiastical currency, through which they were not clearly separated at first from the disputed writings of the New Testament.”  Westcott on the Canon, Appendix B, p. 550.  This was on the ground that they were written, or supposed to be written, by the immediate successors of the apostles.  The oldest known codex of the Bible is the Sinaitic, discovered at mount Sinai by Tischendorf in 1859, and which belongs to the fourth century.  This contains the whole of the epistle of Barnabas, and the first part of the work called the Shepherd of Hermas.  The Alexandrine codex, belonging to the fifth century, has appended to it the first epistle of Clement of Rome to the Corinthians, the genuineness of which is admitted, and also a portion of the second or apocryphal epistle, the remainder of it being lost.  The explanation is, that these three books were read in some at least of the churches when these codices were formed.  But they never obtained any permanent authority as canonical writings, and were excluded from the New Testament “by every council of the churches, catholic or schismatic.”  Tertullian, as quoted by Westcott, p. 551.

CHAPTER VII.

INSPIRATION AND THE CANON

By the word inspiration, when used in a theological sense, we understand such an illumination and guidance of the Holy Spirit as raises a speaker or writer above error, and thus gives to his teachings a divine authority.  If we attempt to investigate the interior nature of this superhuman influence, its different degrees and modes of operation, and the relation which the human mind holds to the divine in the case of those who receive it, we find ourselves involved in many difficulties, some of which at least are to our finite minds insuperable.  But if we look at it from a practical point of view, restricting our inquiries to the end proposed by God in inspiration, which is to furnish his church with an infallible and sufficient rule of faith and practice, we find no difficulty in understanding the subject so far as our duty and welfare are concerned.  From such a practical position the question of inspiration will now be discussed; and the inquiry will be, at present, restricted to the writings of the New Testament.  In connection with this discussion will also be considered the subject of the canon, not in its particular extent, but in the principle upon which it is formed.

1.  It is necessary, first of all, to find a sure rule by which we can try the claims of a given book to be inspired, and consequently to be admitted into the canon of the New Testament.  It cannot be simply the writer’s own declaration.  It will be shown hereafter that, in connection with other evidence, his testimony concerning himself is of the highest importance.  But the point now is, that no man’s inspiration is to be acknowledged