RULE OF FAITH, the name given in polemical theology to what is regarded as the code from which the faith of Christians is to be drawn. One of the most vital of modern religions controversies is that which turns upon the question: What is the Christian rule of faith? We can but undertake to state the conflicting views. The reformers, ifs a body, laid it down as a first principle, that the word of God. alone, by which they meant the written word, or the Scriptures, could safely be accepted as a rule of faith. If the fathers could lie received at all, it is only hi the light of witnesses, and fallible witnesses, to the ancient interpretation of the Scriptures. This doctrine appears to be much modi fied in the English church of the Laudian period, and by the successors of that school, the modern 'Iractarians, who admit the "consent" of the fathers as an authoritative interpretation of the Scriptures. Roman Catholics, on the contrary, while they admit that God's word alone is the rule of faith, yet contend that the Scriptures are not to be considered as the only depository of God's word. Much of our Lord's to ins apostles was not. committed to writing in these authentic Scriptures; and as the teaching
of Christ, wherever found, is God's word, even as much as what is written in the Scrip tures, they hold that if it be possible to find such teaching elsewhere than in the Bible, the teaching so found is to be held as part of the rule of faith. Now they hold that the traditions (if the church, contained in the writings of the fathers, the decrees of councils, the decretals of popes, are a depository of Christ's teaching, less accessible, it is trite, but when unanimous, not less certain than the Scripture itself; and of this certainty of such unanimous interpretation, they regard the church as at all times the authoritative expositor.
Protestants acknowledge the authority of the oral teaching of Christ himself, and of his apostles, or others speaking by inspiration; but in respect of the want of any author itative or trustworthy record, they deny that any such teaching, not recorded in the ScriptUres, is of any value to us. As to the right of the church to expound author itatively, they deny it altogether