Page:On the Revision of the Confession of Faith.djvu/93

It is, of course, easy to say that in all these remarks we have assumed that the Confession does embody the truth of God. This is perfectly true. We are addressing now a body of men all of whom have set their seal to it as "containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures": and it is no violent assumption that they hold fast their profession, until they give us notice to the contrary. In such circumstances it is surely within the mark to say that revision of the doctrine of the Confession is for us a question of our own faithfulness as much as it is of its truth. If its doctrines are not true, in God's name let it be shown out of the Scriptures, that we may all be saved from the confession of a lie. But until that is done (and as yet it has not been done, though generations of opponents from without have essayed it with quite as much learning and force as are now embarked in the effort from within), let not those who believe them to be the truth of God, as revealed in His Word, be misled into revising them on any such plea as that the Creed ought to be conformed to the living faith of the Church. If the Creed be conformed to the truth of God, that is a better thing. In such case (and we believe this to be such a case) the living faith of the Church needs rather to be conformed to the Creed.