OH,,IP. II.l SCgrP'ruRE. 51 not weaken its authority or clearness. '?tJs only shows us the danger of omitting at an early period of life the reading of them, the great necessity of praying to ? for direction, and of practising what we learn; and instead of submitting to the dictates of incompetent teachers, to have recourse to sober Protestant illustrations; and to mark, learn, and inwardly digest the Holy Scriptures, so that that they may bring forth in us th,? fruits of good living. IV. The Scriptures are the r?b and only r?l? of faith and practice. 1. The Protestant rule is the Scripture. To the Scripture the Roman Catholic adds, 1. The Apocrypha; 2. Traditions; 3. Acts and decisions of the church, embracing eight folio volumes of the pope's bulls; ten folio volumes of Decretals; thirty-one folio volumes of Acts of Councils; fifty-one folio volumes of the Acta Sanetorum, or the Doings and Sayings of the.Saints; 4. Add to these at least thirty-five volumes of the Greek and Latin fathers, in which is to be found the unanirn? ,-onset of the fathers; 5. To all these one hundred and thirty-five volumes folio add the chaos of unwrgtten traditions which have floated to us down from the apostolical times. But we must not stop here, for the expo- sitions of every priest and bishop must be added. The truth is, such a rule is no rule; unless an endless and contradictory mass of uncertain- ties could be a rule. No Romanist can soberly believe, much less/ears, his own rule of faith. 2. The Scripture itself points out no other rule than its own written declarations. Indeed, the Old Testament itself seems to be clearly a rule so far e. omi0/ste as to allow of no other rule. And if the Old Testament admitted no additional rule, it is doubly certain that none can be added to both Old and New Testaments. The Jewish Scripttires were able to make wise unto salvation, and to make the man of God perker, thoroughly furnished to every good word and work. But the evidence already adduced on the .?u.?c/zncy of Scripture proves it to be the rule and only rule of our faith. Our principal object, there- fore, in the present section will be to show the inconsistency of the. popish rule, answer some of their objections, and guard the Protestant rule from their attacks. 3. The primitive Christians acknowledged no other rule fium the Scriptures. They affirm that they are complete, that they are a perfect rule, that they contain all things necessary to salvation; and from them they confuted all heretics. The councils always took the Scriptures tbr the judge and rule in all difficulties that arose concerning faith and morals. The fathers always ,took Scripture for their own guide, and always recommended the faithful to read it.* 4. On the subject of private judgmeat a few remarks will be neces- sary. The Protestant rule is not the Bible as it is understood by eveo' particular reader or hearer of it. No Protestant church ever professed such a rule; yet all modern Roman Catholics take it for granted that it is our only rule. They argue from the assumption that .it is so; and they draw ?nany absurd conclusions from it, which they attempt to identify with Protestantism, though they are only their own fancies. Our rule of faith is the word of God ?m coatdiaed m t? Holy $?p- For abundant quotations on this point, see Bishop Tay'!or'$ Preservative, book i. ii, vol. ii, p. 86S. Ate, our clmpt? ? Tradition, whero�very full eo!le?tloe
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