Excerpt from A Dissertation on the Rule of Faith: Delivered at Cincinnati, Ohio, at the Annual Meeting of the American Bible Society, and Published at Their Request For the best argument Ihave seen in favour of the views of Romanists, the reader may be referred to the controversial writings of that very learned and elegant writer, Bossuet. On the other side of the question, he will' find much to interest and instruct him in Prideaux's Connections in a Lec ture on Oral Tradition, by the late Dr. Fletcher, of London; in the Essays of the late Dr. Ewing, of Glasgow, on The Authority, Scope, and Consum mation of the Law and the prophets in an Essay by John Glass on Un written Tradition 3 and. In Gelmet's Dictionary, in loco. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The rule of faith was a summary of apostolic preaching and teaching made by writers of the early Christian centuries. As such it carries great importance for what the early church considered basic to its being and identity. It was not a fixed text, like a creed, but varied in wording and content according to circumstances. Yet, despite this flexibility and diversity, there is a clear Christ-centered, Trinitarian core at the heart of the rule shared by the early apostolic churches. In this short guide, Everett Ferguson introduces readers to the primary sources of our knowledge of the rule, the variety of ways in which ancient Christian authors spoke of the rule, and different scholarly attempts to interpret this ancient evidence. Ferguson argues that statements of the rule of faith were used to instruct new or potential converts, to combat false teachings, and to provide a framework for interpreting the Scriptures. He maintains that the rule retains considerable importance for churches of the twenty-first century.

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Tradition and the rule of faith are particularly apt themes for this collection of studies. The essays are written in honor of Joseph T. Lienhard, S.J., renowned American patristic scholar whose research and writings have focused on this particular theme.