CHAPTER I.

"THE Rule of Faith" is the test by which we ascertain the character of revelation, the proof of the fact being presupposed. Sometimes it is used to express the way of testing the whole body of revelation, both the doctrines of faith and the precepts of obedience, as the words doctrina and Sidaokaλía often signify: but, chiefly, to distinguish the particular articles of what we technically call the Faith.

The fact of a revelation, and its character must, in the end, necessarily rest upon one and the same evidence. And we can hardly prove that a revelation has been given, without largely anticipating its particular characteristics; e. g. in proving the divine origin of Christianity, we must specify its main features; and so, both are resolved at last into a process of reasoning upon external evidence. We shall be found using the same kind of proof to convince gainsayers of a revelation without the Church, and to settle doubts on its particular doctrines within.

In the foregoing Sermon, the proof of revelation, as a fact, was of course taken for granted; and the words

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The subject, and argument

"Rule of Faith" used in the restricted sense, as a test of doctrine.

It was not my intention "to enquire what are the specific doctrines of the Gospel, but what is the Rule by which we may ascertain them." "Is there any principle to guide us in our search after the truth of revelation analogous to the principles of science, or the rules of moral reasoning? Such a rule there must be, unless the knowledge of the Gospel be revealed over and over again, from age to age, to churches, and to individuals, immediately, as in the beginning: that is unless the faith once delivered to the saints is, by the same supernatural communication, still being perpetually delivered to the saints. And if so, then is it a perpetual inspiration of men and churches: for in what does inspiration consist, but in the immediate teaching of the human mind? But if there be now no such inspiration, if the Holy Spirit teaches us, not without means but through means, what are the means ordained for that end, and on what principle are they to be used? and the answer will give us the rule we seek 2."

The nature of these means was next stated, "The institution of the Church, and the delivery of the Holy Sacraments and Scriptures, are a sufficient proof of the kind of dispensation, and of the medium through which it has pleased God to perpetuate, and to dispense the knowledge of his truth "."

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Such being the external evidence by which we are to ascertain the particular character of the Evangelical doctrines, the right use of it must be the test by which to distinguish truth from falsehood in matters of belief.

3 P. 14. See Leslie's Short and Easy Method, Works, vol. i. p. 27, 28.

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of the Sermon restated.-The Rule of Faith. The right principle of using these divinely ordained means was stated as follows:

1. All points of faith necessary to salvation must be proved by Holy Scripture.

2. All interpretations of Holy Scripture in matters of religious belief, must be made in accordance with the faith of those, on whose evidence we receive the written word of God itself.

3. The faith of the primitive Church, on whose testimony we receive the Canon of Holy Scripture, is presented to us in the Creeds and universal consent of Christians. This consent is the basis of the Doctrinal Articles of the Church of England.

4. All primitive interpretations prevalent, though not universal, claim their several measures of deference from us, and we may not lightly contradict them.

5. Where we have no external evidence of primitive interpretation, we have no other rule than our own judgment, aided by the laws of criticism and unauthoritative exposition.

The reason of this principle is, that universal agreement with the Church of the apostolic ages is the surest test of agreement with the doctrine of the Apostles of Christ.

And this Rule is commonly and shortly expressed in the words-Scripture and antiquity, or Scripture and the Creed attested by Universal Tradition.

I shall here state at full length all the objections I am aware of, against the Rule above given.

It is said,

1. That it is a departure from the principle of the Reformation.

2. That it is identical with the principle of the Church of Rome.

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The Rule of Faith: twenty popular Objections.

3. That it invests the Church, or the early Christian writers, with the Romish attribute of infallibility.

4. That there is no consent of the early Christian writers even in points of vital importance that the Catholic Creeds did not agree.

5. That the Fathers are to be cited as witnesses of facts only, and not of doctrines.

6. That they are to be used destructively only, to overthrow errors; and not constructively, to establish truth. 7. That it substitutes the traditions of men for the word of God.

8. That it shifts our faith from a divine to a human foundation.

9. That it makes all doctrine uncertain.

10. That to use the creeds as interpreters of Scripture, while we use Scripture to prove the creed, is arguing in a circle, inasmuch as Scripture must be first understood before it can be the proof of anything, and, when understood, needs no interpretation afterwards.

11. That if Scripture needs an interpretation, so do their writings: and, therefore, the appeal to them only moves the question one step further into perplexity.

12. That the writings of the Fathers abound in trifling and error, and in contradiction of each other and of themselves. 13. That we are better able to interpret Scripture than they were.

14. That revealed knowledge is progressive, like natural, and therefore, the early times were the infancy of our manhood.

15. That it is contrary to the promise that we shall be led into all truth.

16. That it makes a right knowledge of Scripture impossible to the unlearned.