They resolve themselves into the one principle of evangelical freedom, or freedom in Christ.
The ultimate aim of evangelical Protestantism is to bring every man into living union with Christ
as the only and all-sufficient Lord and Saviour from sin and death.
§ 6. The Authority of the Scriptures.
The objective principle of Protestantism maintains that the Bible, as the inspired record of
revelation, is the only infallible rule of faith and practice; in opposition to the Roman Catholic
coordination of Scripture and ecclesiastical tradition, as the joint rules of faith.
The teaching of the living church is by no means rejected, but subordinated to the Word of
God; while the opposite theory virtually subordinates the Bible to tradition by making the latter
the sole interpreter of the former and confining interpretation within the limits of an imaginary
consensus patrum. In the application of the Bible principle there was considerable difference between
the more conservative Lutheran and Anglican Reformation, and the more radical Zwinglian and
Calvinistic Reformation; the former contained many post-scriptural and extra-scriptural traditions,
usages and institutions, which the latter, in its zeal for primitive purity and simplicity, rejected as
useless or dangerous; but all Reformers opposed what they regarded as anti-scriptural doctrines;
and all agreed in the principle that the church has no right to impose upon the conscience articles
of faith without clear warrant in the Word of God.
Every true progress in church history is conditioned by a new and deeper study of the
Scriptures, which has "first, second, third, infinite draughts." While the Humanists went back to
the ancient classics and revived the spirit of Greek and Roman paganism, the Reformers went back
to the sacred Scriptures in the original languages and revived the spirit of apostolic Christianity.
They were fired by an enthusiasm for the gospel, such as had never been known since the days of
Paul. Christ rose from the tomb of human traditions and preached again his words of life and power.
The Bible, heretofore a book of priests only, was now translated anew and better than ever into the
vernacular tongues of Europe, and made a book of the people. Every Christian man could henceforth
go to the fountain-head of inspiration, and sit at the feet of the Divine Teacher, without priestly
permission and intervention. This achievement of the Reformation was a source of incalculable
blessings for all time to come. In a few years Luther’s version had more readers among the laity
than ever the Latin Vulgate had among priests; and the Protestant Bible societies circulate more
Bibles in one year than were copied during the fifteen centuries before the Reformation.
We must remember, however, that this wonderful progress was only made possible by the
previous invention of the art of printing and by the subsequent education of the people. The Catholic
Church had preserved the sacred Scriptures through ages of ignorance and barbarism; the Latin
Bible was the first gift of the printing press to the world; fourteen or more editions of a German
version were printed before 1518; the first two editions of the Greek Testament we owe to the
liberality of a Spanish cardinal (Ximenes), and the enterprise of a Dutch scholar in Basel (Erasmus);
and the latter furnished the text from which, with the aid of Jerome’s Vulgate, the translations of
Luther and Tyndale were made.
The Roman church, while recognizing the divine inspiration and authority of the Bible,
prefers to control the laity by the teaching priesthood, and allows the reading of the Scriptures in
the popular tongues only under certain restrictions and precautions, from fear of abuse and