New-York tribune., 1891-09-25
PROFESSOR VINCENTS ADDRESS.

| IT. has all along been evident that il Ohe Ile'
bvterian Church excommunicates Professor
Rricgs to he consistent it will have to excom-
uunicate MANY other eminent Presbyterian
clerpymen and laymen. For the views which
aro contcmptuously referred to as Brggism
bv tbe moIe noisy wing of the conservatives
are widely beId in that Church. 1t is Presoy-
torians. and good Presbyterians too, who are
responsible fer the present attitude OF Union
Seminary. And. of course, if the man Whom
they are champoning is condemned they VIII
have 70 be condemned also. Moreover, some OF
tbe most eminent clergymen in the Presbyterian
Church have, in speeches and sermons, either
declared their agreement with the views for
which Professor Briggs is to be called to an
account. or, while not going so far as that, have
maintained that these views are not contrary
IN the standards of the Church. What shall be
donc with these men if Professor Briggs IS
turned out?
Still again. professors in Union Seminary, and
possibly also in Lane Seminary, have by their
utterances made themselves amenabe to charges
of heresy lust as Professor Briggs has. During
the last summer Professors Francis Brown and
Marvin R. Vincent, Of Union, have contributed
TO the denominatiOnal press elaborate articles
designed to show the falsity and the utter alb
snrdity of the old Presbyterian views of Script
uraI inspiration and inerrancy. And now Pro-
fessor Vincent, in his opening address at Union
Seminary Yesterday, takes occasion to reiterate
these views with great ability, boldneSs and
clearness While he acknowledges the facts of
theology TO be eternal, he maintains that the de-
ductions from, and cassifcations Of, these facts
81 or,ont Ac tiOn is
necessarily faIlible, the Interpretation of the
Bble in no age can be final. Moreover, not
only are ous views of the Bible thus liable to
he erroneous. but the Bible itself is Grant
"If.r SAYS Professor Vincent, :" q claim be made
for a literal verbally inerrant Interpretation,
the claim stands or falls by eXegesis alone. 1t
cannot be maintained on any PRIOR aSsump-
ton that inspiration must, in the nature of the
case. mean inerrancy, and that God must have
given Ills original written revelation in inerrant
autographs. That assumption can be vindi
Gated only by producing the incrrant autographs
Our formula of inspiration must be constructed
from the Bible as it is, and not from an imag-
Inary Bible. If the texts of our Greek or He
brew Bibles show that the contents are not liter
ally accurate and consistent in date quotation
don. not inspiration, but that particular theory
CT inspiration" And again he says: 1" If it
is true that Scripture reveals divine authority
which commends it to the universal faith of be-
levers. how comes it that the early Church
was not wholly agreed as to what books were
canonica that the apostolic fathers appeal to
apocryphal writings as inspiled, that the Council
of Carthage, which ratified the New Testament
canon as at present received, included in the
canon of the Old Testament four of the apoc
ryphal books"
II is possible that these views of the
learned Professor are not opposed to the essen
tial beliefs of presbyterianism on that question
we do not assume to speak But there can be
no doubt that they are entirely out of harmony
with the views Of those who put stigma on
Professor Briggs in the last General Assembly,
as well as of those who are now bringing about
his trial for heresy. Professor Vincent, like
Professor Briggs, not only accepts what Chris
tan scholarship has already said about the Bible,
but holds himself in readiness to accept what it
nay say in the future. lie acknowledges the
right Of no traditional belief or Interpretation
70 stand in the way of any facts or truths which
honest investigators may learn. In word, he
takes truth for authority, and not authority for
truth, principle which, however sound it may
be in other departments of human thought is
in fatal conflict with the theory of eccesi-
asticism. 1t remains to be seen whether the
Church will accept the gauge of battle which
Professor Vincent has thus thrown down. Any
how, it is pam that the present issue in the
Church is something more and greater than the
question whether or not Professor Briggs is
hereto. Ii involves the standing of a multitude
of men in the'Church whose attitude toward
the traditional teachings of the Church in the