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(c) The expulsion of the traffickers from the Temple
(d) The last supper and the crucifixion

Different aspects of Jesus' teaching

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Rev. J. J. Tayler on the Character of the Fourth Gospel
The Fourth Gospel implies the other three
The Gospel and the First Letter
Does Polycarp quote from 1 John?
Was the Gospel used by Basilides?
And by Justin the Martyr ?

iii. The evidence of Irenæus

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LECTURE VIII.

THE BIBLE AND THE CHURCH

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The sacred traditions of other religious communities
The Angel of the sacred Law in the Zend Avesta
The Three Baskets' of early Buddhism
The eternity and inerrancy of the Veda
Similarities of moral and religious experience

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iii. The miraculous Conception according to the Apostles' Creed
Incompatibilities in the Gospel narratives

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'Was Christ born at Bethlehem?' Prof. Ramsay's answer
Early Gospel testimony to the parentage of Jesus

Is the miraculous birth an addition to Luke's narrative?
Incompatibility with the narratives of the Baptism

Its absence from the teaching of Paul and 'John'
The miraculous birth in other lands: Egypt ...

Real basis of the doctrine in the authority of the Church
Need of a criticism of tradition

The miraculous birth in Buddhism

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Rise of a doctrine of the Buddha as the Self-Existent
Communion of the disciple with the Buddha...
Need of a criticism of experience

The Catholic's communion through the Eucharist
'Diversities of workings' but 'the same God'

The Bible and the testimonies of the past

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THE Nineteenth Century has witnessed a vast change in our conceptions of religion. New modes of thought have arisen; fresh intellectual impulses have been imparted in widely sundered fields of study; and immense accumulations of knowledge have rewarded the enquirer into the history of man and the constitution of the universe. The older Evangelicalism and the older Rationalism which ineffectually confronted each other a hundred years ago, have both been profoundly modified. Within the Church of England the Oxford movement produced a powerful ecclesiastical revival, the effects of which are everywhere visible to-day. The onward march of science was at first embarrassed by the resistance of the theologians over the early chapters of the book of Genesis. At a later stage behind the questions of the Creation and the Flood arose the profounder difficulties concerning the origin of the human race, its antiquity, its primitive condition, and its subsequent development; and finally the

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hypothesis of Evolution extended its sway over the whole phenomena of human life, and offered an explanation of the growth of man's thought, his social institutions, his arts, morals, and faith. Long before this was attempted, philosophy-for the time impersonated in Coleridge-sought to discover the foundations of religion in the reason and conscience, and the higher affections for truth, beauty, and goodness; and the inevitable application of ethical judgments to the sphere of theology destroyed one after another of the prevailing interpretations of Christian dogma. The great foreign missions, and the British conquest of India, had already brought to light the existence of collections of sacred books in China and Hindostan rivalling the Bible in antiquity, serving as the ground of religious knowledge and the rule of life for hundreds of millions of people, and containing teaching not unworthy to be set beside that attributed to Moses or Jesus. The spirit of historical enquiry, once awakened, enlisted a whole army of scholars in its service. Discoveries in Egypt and Mesopotamia supplied the clues to lost languages and buried civilisations; and a new science of the comparative study of religion was established.

The Bible could not remain unaffected by all this manifold activity. What influence has been exerted by the advance of knowledge on our view of the Scriptures? The whole process may be summed up in the treatment of the records of our religion by what the English Priestley designated in

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