Apologeticae sive Theologiae Fundamentalis, Tomus II (Pars Altera): Demonstratio Catholica

Protestants are bound to prove their principle from Scripture, since they affirm that nothing is to be believed unless it is proved from Scripture. But so far is Scripture from holding that principle ratified that it is rather reprobated, 1° implicitly by the character of the New Testament, and 2° explicitly by the words of the New Testament.

1. Implicitly by the character of the New Testament. No one is unaware that the individual books of the apostles were written on a given occasion and out of a particular necessity, that they were accommodated to the particular circumstances then existing, and that they were for the most part directed to individual churches or persons. The internal disposition of the books, too, is such that the sacred writers by no means treat each and every head of revelation in a catechetical manner and a didactic order; indeed, some of Christ's deeds and sayings are narrated by all, others, however most grave, are signified only very briefly by one, and still others are scarcely indicated in passing, so that they can be known only by theological speculation. Now such a character of the books evidently shows that the apostles did not consider their writings the sole formal rule of believing, to the exclusion of Tradition and of the living magisterium instituted by Christ.

Moreover, on the testimony of the same character of the New Testament, the Protestants affirm altogether gratuitously that Scripture comprehends the whole of Christian revelation and is therefore a sufficient material rule of believing. For since the individual apostles consigned certain heads of doctrine to writing only occasionally and independently of one another, it could have come about only by the sole divine direction of the Holy Spirit that at length all the books taken together should comprise the whole of revelation. But such a special direction of God is demonstrated by no argument; indeed, it seems to be excluded by the New Testament itself. For in the Gospels we not rarely read that Christ taught very many things without the things that He taught being narrated.¹ From this it is apparent that the apostles were not moved by the Holy Spirit to write the whole of revelation. Besides, the Protestants themselves admit as divinely revealed several things that are not written: the baptism of infants, the Lord's day in place of the sabbath (against Exod 20, 8), that not every oath is forbidden (against Mt 5, 34), that blood and things strangled may licitly be eaten (against Act 15, 28 sq.), that it is lawful to use the sword (against Mt 26, 52), etc.

Therefore Scripture is the sole rule, or the sole source, of faith no more materially than formally. The same is established:

2. Explicitly by the words of the New Testament, above all by the Pauline and Johannine texts. St. Paul praises the Corinthians because they followed the doctrine that he had delivered to them only by word of mouth as the norm of faith: "I praise you, brethren, that in all things you are mindful of me, and as I delivered to you, you hold my precepts (παραδόσεις = traditions)."² To lead the Galatians back to the right faith, he set his oral preaching as a rule to be followed absolutely: "I marvel that you are so quickly removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel ... But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel to you besides that which we have preached to you, let him be anathema."³ He admonishes the Thessalonians that oral Traditions and written Traditions are of the same weight: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the Traditions that you have learned, whether by word, or by our epistle."⁴ He beseeches Timothy strictly to keep the deposit of faith received by oral Tradition: "Hold the form of sound words, which you have heard from me in faith and in love in Christ Jesus. Keep the good deposit through the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us."⁵ And since he felt that the time of his dissolution was at hand,⁶ he lays upon the same Timothy to commend the doctrine received by word to men fit for teaching others: "You therefore, my son, be strengthened in the grace which is in Christ Jesus; and the things that you have heard from me through many witnesses, commend these to faithful men, who will be fit to teach others also."⁷ St. John, who outlived all the sacred writers of the New Testament, nowhere, however, appeals to their writings, but most of all inculcates Tradition as the norm of faith. For he says: "Let that which you have heard from the beginning abide in you. If what you have heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father."⁸ That the same apostle most highly esteemed oral Tradition and preferred it to written instruction appears from these words: "Having many things to write to you, I would not by paper and ink: for I hope to be with you, and to speak mouth to mouth."⁹

From all these things it is clear that Tradition was, in the time of the apostles, the principal source of revelation, and that, according to the apostles, it was always to remain the principal source of faith. Hence the apostles differ by the whole heaven from the principle of the Protestants, who establish sacred Scripture as the sole source of revelation and the only norm of faith.