ble in all matters of Christian faith and practice, and the divinely authorized depository and interpreter of the rule of faith. Her office is not to convey new revelations from God to man, yet her inspiration renders her infallible in disseminating and interpreting the original revelation communicated through the apostles.

The church, therefore, authoritatively determines, 1st, What is Scripture? 2d. What is genuine tradition ? 3d. What is the true sense of Scripture and tradition, and what is the true application of that perfect rule to every particular question of belief or practice.

This authority vests in the pope, when acting in his official capacity, and in the bishops as a body; as when assembled in general council, or when giving universal consent to a decree of pope or council. Decrees of Council of Trent, Session IV., Deus Theo., N. 80, 81, 84, 93, 94, 95, 96. Bellarmine, Lib. III., de eccles., cap. xiv., and Lib. II., de concil., cap. ii.

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17. By what arguments do they seek to establish this authority?

1st. The promises of Christ, given, as they claim, to the apostles, and to their official successors, securing their infallibility, and consequent authority.-Matt. xvi., 18; xviii., 18-20; Luke xxiv., 47-49; John xvi., 13; xx., 23.

2d. The commission given to the church as the teacher of the world.-Matt. xxviii., 19, 20; Luke x., 16, etc.

3d. The church is declared to be "the pillar and ground of the truth," and it is affirmed that "the gates of hell shall never prevail against her."

4th. To the church is granted power to bind and loose, and he that will not hear the church is to be treated as a heathen.Matt. xvi., 19; xviii., 15-18.

5th. The church is commanded to discriminate between truth and error, and must consequently be qualified and authorized to do so. 2 Thes. iii., 6; Rom. xvi., 17; 2 John 10.

6th. From the necessity of the case, men need and crave an ever-living, visible and cotemporaneous infallible Interpreter and Judge.

7th. From universal analogy every community among men. has the living judge as well as the written law, and the one would be of no value without the other.

8th. This power is necessary to secure unity and universality, which all acknowledge to be essential attributes of the true church.

18. By what arguments may this claim of the Romish church be shown to be utterly baseless?

1st. A claim vesting in mortal men a power so momentous can be established only by the most clear and certain evidence, and the failure to produce such converts the claim into a treason at once against God and the human race.

2d. Her evidence fails, because the promises of Christ to preserve his church from extinction and from error do none of them go the length of pledging infallibility. The utmost promised is, that the true people of God shall never perish entirely from the earth, or be left to apostatize from the essentials of the faith.

3d. Her evidence fails, because these promises of Christ were addressed not to the officers of the church as such, but to the body of true believers. Compare John xx., 23 with Luke xxiv., 33, 47, 48, 49, and 1 John ii., 20, 27.

4th. Her evidence fails, because the church to which the precious promises of the Scriptures are pledged is not an external, visible society, the authority of which is vested in the hands of a perpetual line of apostles. For (1.) the word church. (¿kkλŋoía,) is a collective term, embracing the effectually called (λŋrò,) or regenerated. Rom. i., 7; viii., 28; 1 Cor., i., 2; Jude i.; Rev. xvii., 14; also Rom. ix., 24; 1 Cor. vii., 18-24; Gal. i., 15; 2 Tim. i., 9; Heb. ix., 15; 1 Pet. ii., 9; v., 10; Eph. i., 18; 2 Pet. i., 10. (2.) The attributes ascribed to the church prove it to consist alone of the true, spiritual people of God as such.Eph. v., 27; 1 Pet. ii., 5; John x., 27; Col. i., 18, 24. (3.) The epistles are addressed to the church, and in their salutations explain that phrase as equivalent to "the called," "the saints," "all true worshipers of God;" witness the salutations of 1st and 2d Corinthians, Ephesians, Colossians, 1st and 2d Peter and Jude. The same attributes are ascribed to the members of the true church as such throughout the body of the Epistles.1 Cor. i., 30; iii., 16; vi., 11, 19; Eph. ii., 3-8, and 19-22; 1 Thes. v., 4, 5; 2 Thes. ii., 13; Col. i., 21; ii., 10; 1 Pet. ii., 9.

5th. The inspired apostles have had no successors. (1.) There is no evidence that they had such in the New Testament. (2.) While provision was made for the regular perpetuation of the offices of presbyter and deacon, (1 Tim. iii., 1-13,) there are no directions given for the perpetuation of the apostolate. (3.) There is perfect silence concerning the continued existence of any apostles in the church in the writings of the early centuries. Both the name and the thing ceased. (4.) None ever claiming to be one of their successors have possessed the " signs of an apostle."-2 Cor. xii., 12; 1 Cor. ix., 1; Gal. i., 1, 12; Acts i., 21, 22.

6th. This claim, as it rests upon the authority of the Pope, is utterly unscriptural, because the Pope is not known to Scripture. As it rests upon the authority of the whole body of the bishops, expressed in their general consent, it is unscriptural for the reasons above shown, and it is, moreover, impracticable, since their universal judgment never has been and never can be impartially collected and pronounced.

7th. There can be no infallibility where there is not self-consistency. But as a matter of fact the Papal church has not been self-consistent in her teaching. (1.) She has taught different doctrines in different sections and ages. (2.) She affirms the infallibility of the holy Scriptures, and at the same time teaches a system plainly and radically inconsistent with their manifest sense; witness the doctrines of the priesthood, the Mass, penance, of works, and of Mary worship. Therefore the Church of Rome hides the Scriptures from the people.

8th. If this Romish system be true then genuine spiritual religion ought to flourish in her communion, and all the rest of the world ought to be a moral desert. The facts are notoriously the reverse. If, therefore, we admit that the Romish system is true, we subvert one of the principal evidences of Christianity itself, viz., the self-evidencing light and practical power of true religion, and the witness of the Holy Ghost.

19. By what direct arguments may the doctrine that the Scriptures are the final judge of controversies be established?

That all Christians are to study the Scriptures for themselves, and that in all questions as to God's revealed will the appeal is to the Scriptures alone, is proved by the following facts :

1st. Scripture is perspicuous, see above, questions 11-13. 2d. Scripture is addressed to all Christians as such, see above, question 13.

3d. All Christians are commanded to search the Scriptures, and by them to judge all doctrines and all professed teachers.— John v., 39; Acts xvii., 11; Gal. i., 8; 2 Cor. iv., 2; 1 Thess. v., 21; 1 John iv., 1, 2.

4th. The promise of the Holy Spirit, the author and interpreter of Scripture, is to all Christians as such. Compare John xx., 23 with Luke xxiv., 47-49; 1 John ii., 20, 27; Rom. viii., 9; 1 Cor. iii., 16, 17.

5th. Religion is essentially a personal matter. Each Christian must know and believe the truth explicitly for himself, on the direct ground of its own moral and spiritual evidence, and not on the mere ground of blind authority. Otherwise faith could not be a moral act, nor could it "purify the heart." Faith derives its sanctifying power from the truth which it immediately apprehends on its own experimental evidence. John xvii., 17, 19; James i., 18; 1 Pet. i., 22.

20. What is the objection which the Romanists make to this doctrine, on the ground that the church is our only authority for believing that the Scriptures are the word of God?

Their objection is, that as we receive the Scriptures as the word of God only on the authoritative testimony of the church, our faith in the Scriptures is only another form of our faith in the church, and the authority of the church, being the foundation of that of Scripture, must of course be held paramount.

This is absurd, for two reasons—

1st. The assumed fact is false. The evidence upon which we receive Scripture as the word of God is not the authority of the church, but (1.) God did speak by the apostles and prophets, as is evident a from the nature of their doctrine, b from their miracles, c their prophecies, d our personal experience and observation of the power of the truth. (2.) These very writings which we possess were written by the apostles, etc., as is evident, a from internal evidence, b from historical testimony rendered by all competent cotemporaneous witnesses in the church or out of it.

2d. Even if the fact assumed was true, viz., that we know the

Scriptures to be from God, on the authority of the church's testimony alone, the conclusion they seek to deduce from it would be absurd. The witness who proves the identity or primogeniture of a prince does not thereby acquire a right to govern the kingdom, or even to interpret the will of the prince.

21. How is the argument for the necessity of a visible judge, derived from the diversities of sects and doctrines among Protestants, to be answered?

1st. We do not pretend that the private judgment of Protestants is infallible, but only that when exercised in an humble, believing spirit, it always leads to a competent knowledge of essential truth.

2d. The term Protestant is simply negative, and is assumed by many infidels who protest as much against the Scriptures as they do against Rome. But Bible Protestants, among all their circumstantial differences, are, to a wonderful degree, agreed upon the essentials of faith and practice. Witness their hymns and devotional literature.

3d. The diversity that does actually exist arises from failure in applying faithfully the Protestant principles for which we contend. Men do not simply and without prejudice take their creed from the Bible.

4th. The Catholic church, in her last and most authoritative utterance through the Council of Trent, has proved herself a most indefinite judge. Her doctrinal decisions need an infallible interpreter infinitely more than the Scriptures.

22. How may it be shown that the Romanist theory, as well as the Protestant, necessarily throws upon the people the obligation of private judgment?

Is there a God? Has he revealed himself? Has he established a church? Is that church an infallible teacher? Is private judgment a blind leader? Which of all pretended churches is the true one? Every one of these questions evidently must be settled in the private judgment of the inquirer, before he can, rationally or irrationally, give up his private judgment to the direction of the self-asserting church. Thus of necessity Romanists appeal to the Scriptures to prove that the Scriptures can