17. Neh. viii. 2, 3-Ezra read the Book of the Law to all the people.Isaiah viii. 20, and xxxiv. 16.-Psalm cxix. 105, 130.

18. Deut. xvii. 18, 19-Duty of a king, to write the Law, and read it. 19. 6th Arg. OUR LORD AND HIS APOSTLES INVARIABLY REFERRED TO THE WRITTEN Word of God AS THE RULE OF FAITH.

Our Lord's Temptation referred to: Matt. iv.-Satan rebuked. 20. Matt. xii. 1-3; xxi. 15, 16, 42—Christ refers to the Old Testament. 21. Matt. xxii. 23-34-Christ refutes the Sadducees from the Scriptures. 22. Luke x. 25-27-Christ's answer to the lawyer from the Old Testament. 23. Luke xvi. 29-31-The rich man's appeal to Abraham, and Abraham's answer as to Moses and the Prophets, i.e., the Old Testament.

24. Luke xxiv. 25-27-Christ instructs the Disciples going to Emmaus from the Scriptures; xxiv. 44, 45-Christ instructs the Apostles from the Written Word.

25. John v. 39-Search the Scriptures.

26. Christ condemns the Jews for following tradition-Matt. xv. 3-6; Mark vii. 9-13.

27. The Apostles always referred to the Scriptures as the Rule-Acts xvii. 1-3; xvii. 11-The case of the Bereans.

28. Acts xviii. 24-28-Apollos, "mighty in the Scriptures."

29. Acts xxiv. 14-Paul before Felix; xxvi. 22-Paul before Agrippa, refers to the Old Testament as his rule of faith; xxviii. 23-Paul persuades the Jewish chief men at Rome from the Scriptures. Rom. xv. 4 -Hope through the Scriptures.

30. Scriptures able to make wise unto salvation, &c.—2 Tim. iii. 15-17. 31. Two objections answered.

32. Luke i. 1-4-St. Luke wrote his Gospel to make certain the knowledge before obtained by oral instruction.

33. John xx. 30, 31-These are written that ye might believe, and through believing have life.

1. We are accountable beings, and as Christians we acknowledge it to be our duty to believe what God has revealed, and to do what He has commanded. It follows that it is necessary for us to know what God requires us to believe and to do. Hence the need for a rule of faith and practice. This rule must possess Divine authority. God only could supply us with it. Both Protestants and Romanists say that we must have a rule of faith, and also, that God has given one; and that such rule, having God for its author, is infallible.

66

2. What do we mean when we speak of a rule of faith ?"

The Romanist answers as follows :

Q. "What is that which you here call a rule of faith ?"

A. "That which guides us to the belief and practice of all that God has revealed and commanded."

* Controversial Catechism, by Rev. S. Keenan. 3rd edit., p. 46.

The Protestant answers with Archbp. Tillotson, who defines a "rule" to be,

"A measure by the agreement or disagreement to which we judge of all things of that kind to which it belongs."

And a "rule of faith to be,"

'The measure according to which we judge what matters we are to assent to as revealed to us by God, and what not; and more particularly the rule of Christian faith is the measure according to which we are to judge what we ought to assent to as the doctrine revealed by Christ to the world, and what not."*

Both Protestants and Romanists hold that by means of the rule of faith, we are enabled to ascertain what are ALL those things necessary for us to believe and to do in order that we may be saved.

3. What constitutes the Rule of Faith? The important question now presents itself, viz.: What constitutes the rule of faith? The answers to this are widely different. Here it is that the controversy begins. We deal at present with the "Protestant Rule." The Romish rule will be described hereafter.

4. Romish misrepresentation of the Protestant Rule.Romish controversialists, either through ignorance or design, invariably misstate the teaching of Protestantism on this point.

Dr. Milner says:—

"The written Word of God, or the Bible, according as it is understood by each particular reader or hearer of it, this is the professed rule of the more regular sects of Protestants, such as the Lutherans, the Calvinists, the Socinians, the Church of England men."t

Keenan thus misrepresents the Protestant Rule.

Q. "What is the third false rule of faith?"

A. “That of the respectable portion of Protestants, who maintain that the Bible and the Bible only, and the Bible, not as it sounds, or as it is understood by the learned, but as it is understood by each individual, whether ignorant or learned, is the rule of faith given by a wise and good God to mankind."‡

* Rule of Faith, Part 1. sec. I. + End of Controversy, Letter vi. Controv. Cat., p. 55.

The statements of Milner and Keenan amount to this, that the Protestant rule of faith consists of the Bible, as it is understood by each individual. Or as is often expressed thus, "the Bible interpreted by private judgment." That this is Keenan's idea is proved by his expressions in p. 56: "each individual Protestant explains the scriptures for himself." "The Protestant has only the security of his own judgment;" and p. 59, "If the Bible as privately interpreted were our only tribunal of appeal, &c." Here, two things separate and distinct are confounded, viz., the Bible and the use made of it. The Bible is one thing, the use of it, by our exercising our private judgment on its interpretation, is another and a totally different thing. The Bible is Divine in its origin. The use of it, or our exercise of private judgment, is human. To admit the definitions of Milner and Keenan, we would have as a rule of faith a Divine and a human element, or an infallible portion and a fallible one. Whilst Protestants hold that they may by "Divine right," exercise their private judgment on the interpretation of Holy Scriptures, they deny that such exercise of private judgment is any part of the rule of faith.

Illustration.-A surveyor by means of his chain ascertains the superficial area of a piece of ground. A carpenter by his rule ascertains whether or not a piece of timber is straight or crooked. But the acts by which the surveyor uses his chain, and the carpenter his rule, are in themselves altogether different from the chain and the rule.

So in the case of the rule of faith, we must make a clear distinction between the rule itself and any means by which the rule is used or applied.

5. Ritualistic and Protestant misstatements of the Rule of Faith. In the First Catechism of Christian Doctrine, the rule of faith is thus described :

Q. "What is faith ?"

A.

"It is to believe without doubting whatever God teaches.” Q. "How are you to know what the things are which God teaches ?"

A. By His word and the testimony of the Catholic Church, which God has appointed to teach all nations, those things which He has revealed."*

* Fourth Ed. (Painter and Sons, Union Press.)

Almost similar to the above, are the descriptions of the rule of faith given by two writers, who both have ably opposed Romanism, and rendered good service to the cause of Protestantism.

The Rev. G. S. Faber says:

"We Anglicans

receive as our exclusive rule of faith, Holy Scripture as understood by primitive antiquity."*

Mr. C. H. Collette says:

"In reply to Dr. Milner, we assert that the Church of England maintains the rule of faith to be THE BIBLE ALONE, not as it is understood by each particular reader of it, but according to the

INTERPRETATION OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH, EMBODIED AND DIS

TINCTLY SET FORTH IN HER OWN established standard of doctrine AND WORSHIP, THE PRAYER BOOK."t

I cannot receive either the teaching of the Ritualistic Catechism, or the statements of Mr. Faber or Mr. Collette. The "testimony of the Catholic Church" is human testimony, and is therefore no part of a divine rule of faith. The Anglican rule of faith is not the Holy Scripture as understood by primitive antiquity. What primitive antiquity may have understood is entitled to our respectful consideration, but it is not received as of Divine authority, and therefore is not a part of our rule of faith. Nor, can I admit that the interpretation of the Primitive Church embodied in the Prayer Book, is either part or parcel of our rule of faith. The Prayer Book is a very good book, but it is not written by inspiration of God, and, consequently, is not Divine, and although it may be useful in explaining a rule of faith, it forms no part of the rule itself. The Divine rule of faith is immutable. The Prayer Book is not so. It has been changed already, and may be changed again. That which is the rule of faith now has been the rule since the days of the Apostles, but the Prayer Book was not in existence for fifteen hundred years afterwards.

Having now stated what is not the Protestant rule of faith; namely, that it is not

I. The Bible interpreted by private judgment; or,

* Difficulties of Romanism, 3rd Ed., 1853, p. 26, Note.

Milner Refuted, p. 24.

or,

II. The word of God and the testimony of the Catholic Church;

III. Holy Scripture as understood by primitive antiquity; or, IV. The Bible alone according to the interpretation of the Primitive Church, as embodied in the Prayer Book,

I proceed to prove that it is THE BIBLE AND THE BIBLE ONLY.

6. The Bible and the Bible only is the Protestant Rule of Faith. We prove from authoritative documents what is the Protestant rule. The Churches of England and Ireland teach, Art. VI., entitled "Of the sufficiency of Holy Scripture for Salvation":

'Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation."

That the sufficiency of Holy Scripture, as a rule of faith, as set forth in the above Art., is the doctrine of the Church of England, is also proved by the Homilies. In the first Homily, we read :

Let us diligently search for the well of life in the books of the Old and New Testament, and not run to the stinking puddles of men's traditions (devised by man's imagination) for our justification and salvation. For, in Holy Scripture is fully contained what we ought to do, and what to eschew, what to believe, what to love, and what to look for at God's hands at length."

Nowel's Catechism teaches that :

"The Christian religion is to be learnt from no other source than from the Heavenly Word of God Himself, which He hath delivered to us in the Holy Scripture."*

That the Bible only is the sole rule of faith of the Churches of England and Ireland is further most clearly established from the "Form of Ordaining or Consecrating of an Archbishop or Bishop." The Archbishop "shall say to him that is to be consecrated,"

Q. "Are you persuaded that the Holy Scriptures contain sufficiently all doctrines required of necessity for eternal salvation through faith in Christ Jesus, and are you determined out of the same Holy Scriptures to instruct the people committed to your charge; and to teach or maintain nothing as required of necessity

*Substance of question and answer.

P.S. Ed. p. 114.