Page:Outlines of Theology by A. A. Hodge (1879).djvu/90

 They are thus forced to the absurd assumption that what was taught in the fourth century was therefore taught in the third, and therefore in the first. (2.) The church is not infallible, as will be shown below (question 18).

4th. Their practice is inconsistent with their own principles. Many of the earliest and best attested traditions they do not receive. Many of their pretended traditions are recent inventions unknown to the ancients.

5th. Many of their traditions, such as relate to the priesthood, the sacrifice of the mass, etc., are plainly in direct opposition to Scripture. Yet the infallible church affirms the infallibility of Scripture. A house divided against itself can not stand.

5. What is necessary to constitute a sole and infallible rule of faith?

Plenary inspiration, completeness, perspicuity, and accessibility.

6. What arguments do the Scriptures themselves afford in favor of the doctrine that they are the only infallible rule of faith?

1st. The Scriptures always speak in the name of God, and command faith and obedience.

2d. Christ and his apostles always refer to the written Scriptures, then existing, as authority, and to no other rule of faith whatsoever.—Luke xvi. 29; x. 26; John v. 39; Rom. iv. 3; 2 Tim. iii. 15.

3d. The Bereans are commended for bringing all questions, even apostolic teaching, to this test.—Acts xvii. 11; see also Isa. viii. 16.

4th. Christ rebukes the Pharisees for adding to and perverting the Scriptures.—Matt. xv. 7-9; Mark vii. 5-8; see also Rev. xxii. 18, 19, and Deut. iv. 2; xii. 32; Josh. i. 7.

7. In what sense is the completeness of Scripture as a rule of faith asserted?

It is not meant that the Scriptures contain every revelation which God has ever made to man, but that their contents are the only supernatural revelation that God does now make to man, and that this revelation is abundantly sufficient for man's guidance in all questions of faith, practice, and modes of worship, and excludes the necessity and the right of any human inventions.

8. ''How may this completeness be proved from the design of Scripture? ''