"What Saith the Scriptures?"

 
“Our conscience is bound down by the Word of God: we can suffer all things, but we dare not overstep the Word of God. The Word of God most reign above all things, and remain the judge of all men.” ―Luther.
WHEN the tabernacle was pitched in the wilderness, what was the authority for its length and breadth? Why was the altar of incense to be placed here, and the brazen laver there? Why so many lambs or bullocks to be offered on a certain day? Why must the pass-over be roasted whole and not sodden? Simply and only because God had shown all these things to Moses in the holy mount; and thus had Jehovah spoken, “Look that thou make them after their pattern, which was shelved thee in the mount.” It is even so in the Church at the present day; true servants of God demand to see for all Church ordinances and doctrines, the express authority of the Church’s only Teacher and Lord. They remember that the Lord Jesus bade the apostles to teach believers to observe all things whatsoever He had commanded them, but He neither gave to them nor to any men power to alter his own commands. The Holy Ghost revealed much of precious truth and holy precept by the apostles, and to His teaching we would give earnest heed; but when men cite the authority of fathers, and councils, and bishops, we give place for subjection, no, not for an hour. They may quote Irenæus or Cyprian, Augustine or Chrysostom; they may remind us of the dogmas of Luther or Calvin; they may find authority in Simeon, or Wesley, or Gill — we will listen to the opinions of these great men with the respect which they deserve as men, but having so done, we deny that we have anything to do with these men as authorities in the Church of God, km there nothing has any authority, but “Thus saith the Lord of hosts.” Yea, if you shall bring us the concurrent consent of all tradition―if you shall quote precedents venerable with fifteen, sixteen, or seventeen centuries of antiquity, we burr the whole as so much worthless lumber, unless you put your finger upon the passages of Holy Writ which warrants the matter to be of God You may further plead, in addition to all this venerable authority, the beauty of the ceremony and its usefulness to those who partake therein but this is all foreign to the point, for to the trot Church of God the only question is this, Is then a “Thus saith the Lord” for it? And if divine authority be not forthcoming, faithful men thrust forth the intruder as “the cunning craftiness of men.”―Spurgeon.
“Earnestly contend for the faith ONCE delivered unto the saints. (Jude.) “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” (Colossians 2:88Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. (Colossians 2:8).) “Teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake.” (Titus 1:1111Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. (Titus 1:11).)
“To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” (Titus 1:1111Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. (Titus 1:11).)
“These were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:1111These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so. (Acts 17:11).)
“SEARCH THE SCRIPTURES.”