From a netfriend:

Hooker’s famous 3-legged stool

We hear a lot about the place of reason in arriving at truth in Anglican circles. Here is what Richard Hooker actually wrote in “Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity.” I have used modern punctuation.

“What Scripture doth plainly deliver, to that the first place both of credit and obedience is due. The next whereunto is what any man can necessarily conclude by force of reason. After these the voice of the church succeeds.”

Please note that that the plain meaning of Scripture is primary. Reason comes in when the meaning of a passage is not absolutely and obviously clear.

But it is not the reasoning of a scholar who can discern something other than what the passage obviously says. We never reason against Scripture. The reasoning we use is the plain common sense that every body has.

The accepted interpretation established by long precedent comes into play when there is still some doubt as to the meaning.

The three legs – Scripture, reason and tradition – are by no means equal, and there is certainly no way to employ one against another.

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