Good and necessary consequence
 | This article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject. (November 2009) |
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The phrase good and necessary consequence was used more commonly several centuries ago to express the idea that we would place today under the general heading of Logic as a science of necessary inference; that is, to reason validly by logical deduction or deductive reasoning.
Even more particularly, it would be understood in terms of term logic, also known as traditional logic, or as many today would also consider it to be part of formal logic, which deals with the form (or logical form) of arguments as to which are valid or invalid.
In this context, in the phrase "good and necessary consequence" we may better understand the word "good" more technically as intending a "valid argument form".
One of the best recoqnised articulations of the authoritative use of good and necessary consequence to make deductions from Scripture can be readily found in one of the most famous of Protestant Confessions, the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 1, sec. 6, (1646) as well as in many others, including the Heidelberg Catechism, the Belgic Confession, and the Second London Baptist Confession (1677/1689).