Verbatim:
1John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1995), pp.289-290.
2Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1993), p. 358.
3The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), para. 5.010-5.011, 5.013.
4As quoted in Willem Balke, Calvin and the Anabaptist Radicals, trans. by William Heynen (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1981), pp. 230, 231.
5As quoted in Heinrich Heppe, Reformed Dogmatics (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1978), p.686.
6Ibid., p.686, 687.
7Ibid., p.687.
8Balke, Anabaptist Radicals, pp. 229.
9As quoted in The Practice of Confessional Subscription, David W. Hall, ed. (New York, NY: University Press of America, 1995), p. 51.
10The Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), para. 5.136
11Calvin, Institutes, pp.292.
12The Westminster confession of Faith (Glasgow, Eng.: Free Presbyterian Publications, 1985), ch. XXXI, para. III.
13Muller, Reformed Dogmatic, p. 332, 334.
Puritan Eye:
Reprinted with permission of Presbyterian Heritage Publications, from Unity of the Church, by Thomas M'Crie. Copyright 1989 by Presbyterian Heritage Publications, P.O. Box 180922, Dallas, TX, 75218.
Stauron:
*Summa Theologica, Third Part, Q. XXV, Art. 3. The Roman church has never repudiated this. The Creed of the Council of Trent (written in 1564), to which every faithful Catholic must still subscribe, reads, "I firmly assert that images of Christ, of the Mother of God ever Virgin, and of the other saints should be owned and kept, and that due honor and veneration should be given to them."
Historia:
*These two councils also included the Apocrypha in the Old Testament, which the Reformers rejected in accordance with the orthodox Jewish primitive Christian view.
Whole Counsel:
1An important clarification must be made. When affirming the doctrine of sola scriptura, the protestant reformers did not suggest that the church has no authoritative voice in matters of doctrine and morals. As the pillar and ground of the truth, the church must speak with real, commanding authority. By sola scriptura the reformers taught not that the Scriptures are the only authority, but that the Scriptures are the only ultimate authority. Thus, contrary to the Anabaptists, the reformers held the church to be authoritative, and they also held it to be, contrary to Rome, fallible and subordinate to Scripture (cf. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion IV.xiii-ix; Martin Luther, "Liberation from Human Authority" reprinted in Iain Murray, ed. The Reformation of the Church (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1965), pp. 29-34 ).
2This line of thought is developed by J. Gresham Machen in "The Creeds and Doctrinal Advance," reprinted in
God Transcendent (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1949).
