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THE STUDY OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.
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reading and making use of His Word they must follow \ ^he Church as their guide and their teacher. St. Irenseus ^ long since laid down that where the chrismata of God e, there the truth was to be learned, and the Holy cripture was safely interpreted by those who had the . ^ostolic succession.^ His teaching and that of other m)ly Fathers is taken up by the Council of the Vatican, which in renewing the decree of Trent declared its "mind" to be this — that "in things of faith and morals, belonging to the building up of Christian doctrine, that it is to be considered the true sense of Holy Scripture, which has been held and is held by our Holy Mother the Church, whose place it is to judge of the true sense and interpre- tation of the Scripiuresy alldT^heretore, that it"is*per- rnmed to'no onB^t'STnterpret Holy Scripture against such sense or also against ^ the unanimous agreement of the ^Fathe rs." ^ By this most wise decree the Church by no means prevents or restrains t ]^ pursuit jo f biblical science, but rather protects it from error, and largely assists its reial progress. A wide— fretd" 15 "Still left open~lo the'"'piTvate student, in whiph his hermeneutical skill may display itself with signal_ effect ariH' tg~'t he— advanfages~of th e C&urch. OrTThe one hand7~nrTHose passages of Holy
- Scripture which have not as yet received a certain and
/definite interpretation, such labors may, in the benignant [providence of God, prepare for and bring to maturity
vli^^Ji^-^^SP^^^ °^ ^ Church; on the other, in passages already defined, the private student may do work equally valuable, either by setting them forth more clearly to the .-' flock or more skilfully to the scholars, or by defending them more powerfully from hostile attack. Wherefore the first and dearest object of the Catholic commentator •^ should be to interpret those passages which have received \ an authentic interpretation either from the sacred writers J
»C. haer. iv. 26, 5.
' Sess. iii. cap. ii. de revel.; cf . Cone. Trid. sess. iv. decret de edit, et usu sacr. libror.
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