The True Protestant Position
The Bible and the Bible Only
THE Bible, I say, the Bible only, is the religion of Protestants!" Nor is it of any account in the estimation of the genuine Protestant HOW EARLY a doctrine originated, if it is not found in the Bible. He learns from the New Testament itself that there were errors in the time of the apostles, and that their pens were frequently employed in combating those errors. Hence if a doctrine be propounded for his acceptance, he asks, Is it to be found in the inspired Word? Was it taught by the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles? If they knew nothing of it, no matter to him whether it be discovered in the musty folio of some ancient visionary of the third or fourth century, or whether it spring from the fertile brain of some modern visionary of the nineteenth, if it is not found in the sacred Scriptures, it presents no valid claim to be received as an article of his religious creed. . . . The great question at issue between popery and Protestantism is this: Is the Bible only to be received as the rule of faith, or THE BIBLE AND TRADITION TOGETHER? Is no doctrine to be received as matter of faith unless it is found in the Bible, or may a doctrine be received upon the mere authority of tradition, when it is confessedly not to be found in the sacred Scriptures? The whole Christian world, both nominal and real, are divided by this question into two great divisions. The consistent and true-hearted Protestant, standing upon this rock, "THE BIBLE AND THE BIBLE ONLY," can admit no doctrine upon the authority of tradition; the papist and the Puseyite place tradition side by side with the Bible, and listen to its dictates with a reverence equal to, or even greater than, that which they pay to the sacred Scriptures themselves; and he who receives a single doctrine upon this mere authority of tradition, let him be called by what name he will, by so doing steps down from the Protestant rock, passes over the line which separates Protestantism from popery, and can give no valid reason why he should not receive all the earlier doctrines and ceremonies of Romanism upon the same authority.—Darling, "History of Romanism," Book 1, page 67.