Chapter 7. By What Testimony the Scripture Ought to Be Established, That Is by the Witness of the Holy Spirit, That the Authority Thereof May Remain Certain. And That It Is a Wicked Invention to Say That the Credit Thereof Depends upon the Judgment of the Church

But before I go any further, it is needful to say somewhat of the authority of the Scripture, not only to prepare men's minds to reverence it, but also to take away all doubt thereof. Now, when it is a matter confessed that it is the word of God that is there set forth, there is no man of so desperate boldness, unless he be void of all common sense and natural wit of man, that dare derogate the credit of him that speaks it. But because there are not daily oracles given from heaven, and the only Scriptures remain wherein it has pleased the Lord to preserve his truth to perpetual memory, the same Scripture by no other means is of full credit among the faithful, but in that they do believe that it is as truly come from heaven as if they heard the lively voice of God to speak therein. This matter indeed is right worthy both to be largely treated of and diligently weighed. But the readers shall pardon me if herein I rather regard what the proportion of the work which I have begun may bear, than what the largeness of the matter requires. There has grown up among most men a most hurtful error, that the Scripture has only so much authority as by common consent of the church is given to it: as if the eternal and inviolable truth of God did rest upon the pleasure of men. For so, to the great scorn of the Holy Spirit, they ask of us who can assure us that these Scriptures came from God: or who can ascertain us that they have continued to our age safe and uncorrupted: who can persuade us, that this one book ought to be reverently received, and that other to be stricken out of the number of Scripture, unless the church did appoint a certain rule of all these things? It depends therefore (say they) upon the determination of the church, both what reverence is due to the Scripture, and what books are to be reckoned in the canon thereof. So these robbers of God's honor, while they seek under color of the church to bring in an unbridled tyranny, care nothing with what absurdities they snare both themselves and others, so that they may enforce this one thing to be believed among the simple, that the church can do all things. But if it be so: what shall become of the poor consciences that seek steadfast assurance of eternal life, if all the promises that remain thereof stand and are stayed only upon the judgment of men? When they receive such answer, shall they cease to waver and tremble? Again, to what scorns of the ungodly is our faith made subject? Into how great suspicion with all men is it brought, if this be believed that it has but as it were a borrowed credit by the favor of men?

But such babblers are well confounded even with one word of the Apostle. He testifies that the church is built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles. If the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles be the foundation of the church: then it must needs be, that the same doctrine stood in steadfast certainty, before the church began to be. Neither can they well cavil, that although the church takes her first beginning thereof, yet it remains doubtful what is to be said the writings of the Prophets and Apostles, unless the judgment of the church did declare it. For if the Christian church were at the beginning built upon the writings of the Prophets and preaching of the Apostles: wherever that doctrine shall be found, the allowed credit thereof was surely before the church, without which the church itself had never been. Therefore it is a vain forged device, that the church has power to judge the Scripture, so as the certainty of the Scripture should be thought to hang upon the will of the church. Therefore when the church does receive the Scripture and seals it with her consenting testimony, she does not of a thing doubtful, and that otherwise should be in controversy, make it authentic and of credit: but because she acknowledges it to be the truth of her God, according to her duty of godliness without delay she honors it. As for their question, how shall we be persuaded that it came from God, unless we resort to the decree of the church? This is just the same as if a man should ask, how shall we learn to know light from darkness, white from black, or sweet from sour. For the Scripture shows in itself no less apparent sense of its truth, than white and black things do of their color, or sweet and sour things of their taste.

I know that they commonly allege the saying of Augustine, where he says that he would not believe the gospel, except that the authority of the church moved him to it. But how untruly and captiously it is alleged for such a meaning, by the whole tenor of his writing it is easy to perceive. He had to do with the Manichees, which required to be believed without contradiction, when they boasted that they had the truth on their side, but proved it not. And to make their Manichaeus to be believed, they pretended the gospel. Now Augustine asks them what they would do, if they did light upon a man that would not believe the gospel itself, with what manner of persuasion they would draw him to their opinion. Afterward he says: I myself would not believe the gospel, etc., except that the authority of the church moved me to it. Meaning that he himself, when he was a stranger from the faith, could not otherwise be brought to embrace the gospel for the assured truth of God, but by this that he was overcome with the authority of the church. And what marvel is it, if a man not yet knowing Christ, have regard to men? Augustine therefore does not there teach that the faith of the godly is grounded upon the authority of the church, nor does he mean that the certainty of the gospel hangs upon it: but simply and only, that there should be no assuredness of the gospel to the infidels, whereby they might be won to Christ, unless the consent of the church did drive them to it. And the same meaning a little before he does plainly confirm in this saying: When I shall praise that which I believe, and scorn that which you believe, what do you think fitting for us to judge or do? But that we forsake such men as first call us to come and know certain truths and after command us to believe things uncertain: and that we follow them that require us first to believe that which we are not yet able to see, that being made strong by believing we may attain to understand the thing that we believe: not men now, but God himself inwardly strengthening and giving light to our mind. These are the very words of Augustine: whereby every man may easily gather, that the holy man had not this meaning, to hang the credit that we have to the Scriptures upon the will and judgment of the church, but only to show this, (which we ourselves also do confess to be true) that they which are not yet enlightened with the spirit of God, are brought by the reverence of the church to a willingness to be taught, so as they can find in their hearts to learn the faith of Christ by the gospel: and that thus by this means the authority of the church is an introduction, whereby we are prepared to believe the gospel. For, as we see, his mind is that the assurance of the godly be stayed upon a far other foundation. Otherwise I do not deny but that he often presses the Manichees with the consent of the whole church, when he seeks to prove the same Scripture which they refused. And from here it came, that he so reproached Faustus for that he did not yield himself to the truth of the gospel so grounded, so established, so gloriously renowned, and from the very time of the Apostles by certain successions perpetually commended. But he never labors to this end, to teach that the authority which we acknowledge to be in the Scripture, hangs upon the determination or decree of men. But only this, which made much for him in the matter that he disputed of, he brings forth the universal judgment of the church, wherein he had the advantage of his adversaries. If any desire a fuller proof of this, let him read his book concerning the profit of believing. Where he shall find that there is no other readiness of belief commended to us by him, but that which only gives us an entry, and is to us a convenient beginning to inquire, as he calls it: and yet not that we ought to rest upon bare opinion, but to lean to the certain and sound truth.

We ought to hold, as I before said, that the credit of this doctrine is not established in us, until such time as we be undoubtedly persuaded that God is the author thereof. Therefore the principal proof of the Scripture is commonly taken from the person of God the speaker of it. The Prophets and Apostles boast not of their own sharp wit or any such things as procure credit to men that speak: neither stand they upon proofs by reason, but they bring forth the holy name of God, thereby to compel the whole world to obedience. Now we have to see how not only by probable opinion, but by apparent truth it is evident, that in this behalf the name of God is not without cause nor deceitfully pretended. If then we will provide well for consciences, that they be not continually carried about with unsteadfast doubting, nor many waver, nor stay at every small stop, this manner of persuasion must be fetched deeper than from either the reasons, judgments or the conjectures of men, even from the secret testimony of the Holy Spirit. True indeed it is, that if we listed to work by way of arguments, many things might be alleged that may easily prove, if there be any God in heaven, that the law, the prophecies and the gospel came from him. Indeed although men learned and of deep judgment would stand up to the contrary, and would employ and show forth the whole force of their wits in this disputation: yet if they be not so hardened as to become desperately shameless, they would be compelled to confess, that there are seen in the Scripture manifest tokens that it is God that speaks therein: whereby it may appear that the doctrine thereof is from heaven. And shortly hereafter we shall see, that all the books of the Holy Scripture do far excel all other writings whatever they be. Indeed if we bring there pure eyes and uncorrupted senses, we shall forthwith find there the majesty of God, which shall subdue all hardness of gainsaying and enforce us to obey him. But yet they do disorderly, that by disputation labor to establish the perfect credit of the Scripture. And truly although I am not furnished with great dexterity, nor eloquence: yet if I were to contend with the most little despisers of God, that have a desire to show themselves witty and pleasant in weakening the authority of Scripture, I trust it should not be hard for me to put to silence their babblings. And if it [reconstructed: be] profitable to spend labor in confuting their cavillations, I would with no great business shake asunder the brags that they mutter in corners. But though a man do deliver the sound word of God from the reproaches of men, yet that suffices not forthwith to fasten in their hearts that assuredness that godliness requires. Profane men because they think religion stands only in opinion, to the end they would believe nothing fondly or lightly, do covet and require to have it proved to them by reason, that Moses and the Prophets spoke from God. But I answer that the testimony of the Holy Spirit is better than all reason. For as only God is a convenient witness of himself in his own word, so shall the same word never find credit in the hearts of men, until it be sealed up with the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. It behooves therefore of necessity that the same Holy Spirit which spoke by the mouth of the Prophets, do enter into our hearts to persuade us that they faithfully uttered that which was by God commanded them. And this order is very aptly set forth by Isaiah in these words: My spirit which is in you and the words that I have to put in your mouth and in the mouth of your seed shall not fail forever. It grieves some good men, that they have not ready at hand some clear proof to allege, when the wicked do without punishment murmur against the word of God: as though the Holy Spirit were not for this cause called both a seal and a pledge, because until he does lighten men's minds they do always waver among many doubts.

Let this therefore stand for a certainly persuaded truth, that they whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught do wholly rest upon the Scripture, and that the same Scripture is to be credited for its own sake, and ought not to be made subject to demonstration and reasons: but yet that the certainty which it gets among us, it attains by the witness of the Holy Spirit. For though by the only majesty of itself it procures reverence to be given to it: yet then only does it thoroughly pierce our affections, when it is sealed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So being enlightened by his virtue, we do then believe, not by our own judgment, or other men's, that the Scripture is from God: but above all men's judgment we hold it most certainly determined, even as if we beheld the majesty of God himself there present, that by the ministry of men it came to us from the very mouth of God. We seek not for arguments and likelihoods to rest our judgment upon: but as to a thing without all compass of consideration, we submit our judgment and wit to it. And that not in such sort as some are wont sometime hastily to take hold of a thing unknown, which after being thoroughly perceived displeases them: but because we are in our consciences well assured that we hold an invincible truth. Neither in such sort, as silly men are wont to yield their mind in thralldom to superstitions: but because we undoubtedly perceive therein the strength and breathing of the divine majesty, by which we are drawn and stirred to obey, both wittingly and willingly, and yet more lively and effectually than man's will or wit can attain. And therefore for good cause does God cry out by Isaiah, that the Prophets with the whole people do bear him witness, because being taught by the prophecies they did undoubtedly believe without guile or uncertainty that God himself had spoken. Such therefore is our persuasion, as requires no reasons: such is our knowledge, as has a right good reason to maintain it, even such a one, wherein the mind more assuredly and steadfastly rests than upon any reasons: such is our feeling, as cannot proceed but by revelation from heaven. I speak now of none other thing but that which every one of the faithful does by experience find in himself, saving that my words do much want of a full declaration of it. I leave here many things unspoken, because there will be elsewhere again a convenient place to treat of this matter. Only now let us know, that only that is the true faith which the Spirit of God does seal in our hearts. Indeed with this only reason will the sober reader and willing to learn be contented. Isaiah promises, that all the children of the renewed church shall be the scholars of God. A singular privilege therein does God vouchsafe to grant to his elect only, whom he separates from all the rest of mankind. For what is the beginning of true doctrine, but a ready cheerfulness to hear the voice of God? But God requires to be heard by the mouth of Moses, as it is written: say not in your heart, who shall ascend into heaven, or who shall descend into the deep? The word is even in your own mouth. If it be the pleasure of God that this treasure of understanding be laid up in store for his children, it is no marvel nor unlikely, that in the common multitude of men is seen such ignorance and dullness. The common multitude I call even the most excellent of them, until such time as they be grafted into the body of the church. Moreover Isaiah giving warning that the Prophets' doctrine should seem incredible not only to strangers but also to the Jews that would be accounted of the household of God, adds this reason: because the arm of God shall not be revealed to all men. So often therefore as the smallness of number of the believers does trouble us, on the other side let us call to mind, that none can comprehend the mysteries of God but they to whom it is given.

Before going further, it is necessary to say something about the authority of Scripture — not only to prepare people's minds to reverence it, but also to remove all doubt about it. Now, when it is an admitted matter that what is set forth there is the word of God, no person of so reckless a boldness, unless stripped of all common sense, would dare to rob credibility from the One who speaks it. But since oracles are no longer given from heaven daily, and Scripture alone remains — wherein it has pleased the Lord to preserve His truth for perpetual record — Scripture holds full credibility among the faithful only in this: that they believe it has come from heaven just as truly as if they heard the living voice of God speaking in it. This matter is genuinely worthy of thorough treatment and careful consideration. But readers will pardon me if I attend here more to the proportions of the work I have begun than to the full scope the subject demands. Among most people a very harmful error has grown up: that Scripture has only as much authority as the church by common consent has given to it — as if the eternal and inviolable truth of God rested on the pleasure of men. For on this basis they ask us, with great contempt for the Holy Spirit, who can assure us that these Scriptures came from God? Who can certify us that they have come down to our age uncorrupted? Who can persuade us that one book should be reverently received and another excluded from the canon of Scripture, unless the church had appointed a fixed rule for all these things? It depends therefore, they say, on the church's determination, both what reverence is due to Scripture and which books belong in its canon. So these robbers of God's honor, while seeking under the cover of the church's name to introduce an unbridled tyranny, care nothing about what absurdities they entangle themselves and others in, as long as they can force this one thing to be believed among the simple: that the church can do all things. But if this were true, what would become of poor consciences seeking firm assurance of eternal life, if all the promises remaining for it stand and depend solely on the judgment of men? If they received such an answer, would they cease to waver and tremble? Moreover, to what mockery from the ungodly is our faith exposed? Into what suspicion with all men is it cast, if it is believed to rest on nothing more than a borrowed credit given by human favor?

Such babblers are however well silenced by a single word from the apostle. He testifies that the church is built upon the foundation of the prophets and apostles. If the doctrine of the prophets and apostles is the foundation of the church, then that same doctrine must have stood in firm certainty before the church began to exist. Nor can they rightly object that although the church takes its beginning from that doctrine, it still remains doubtful what writings are to be counted as those of the prophets and apostles unless the church's judgment declares it. For if the Christian church was from the beginning built on the writings of the prophets and the preaching of the apostles, then wherever that doctrine is found, its proved authority existed before the church — without which the church itself would never have come into being. It is therefore a vain and invented notion that the church has power to judge Scripture, as if the certainty of Scripture were thought to depend on the will of the church. Therefore when the church receives Scripture and seals it with her consenting testimony, she is not making an otherwise doubtful or disputed thing authentic and credible. Rather, because she recognizes it as the truth of her God, she honors it without delay, as her duty of godliness requires. As for their question — how are we to be convinced that Scripture came from God unless we appeal to the decree of the church — this is exactly like asking how we are to distinguish light from darkness, white from black, or sweet from sour. For Scripture gives no less clear evidence of its own truth than white and black things give of their color, or sweet and sour things of their taste.

I know they commonly cite Augustine's saying, where he declares that he would not believe the Gospel except that the authority of the church moved him to it. But how falsely and craftily this is cited for such a meaning is easy to perceive from the whole course of his writing. He was dealing with the Manichees, who demanded to be believed without contradiction when they boasted they had the truth on their side but could not prove it. And to get their Manichaeus believed, they appealed to the Gospel. Augustine therefore asks them what they would do if they encountered a man who would not even believe the Gospel itself — with what argument would they draw him to their opinion? He then says: I myself would not believe the Gospel, etc., except that the authority of the church moved me to it. He meant that he himself, while still a stranger to the faith, could only be brought to embrace the Gospel as the certain truth of God by being overcome by the authority of the church. And what wonder is it that a man not yet knowing Christ should have regard to men? Augustine therefore is not teaching there that the faith of the godly is grounded on the church's authority, nor does he mean that the certainty of the Gospel depends on it. He simply means that there would be no way for unbelievers to be won to Christ unless the consent of the church drove them to it. The same meaning he plainly confirms a little before in these words: When I praise what I believe and mock what you believe, what do you think we ought to judge or do? We ought to forsake those who first call us to come and learn certain truths and then command us to believe uncertain things. We ought to follow those who require us first to believe what we are not yet able to see, so that being strengthened by believing we may come to understand what we believe — not men now inwardly strengthening and enlightening our minds, but God Himself. These are Augustine's own words, from which every reader may easily gather that the holy man did not intend to make our faith in Scripture depend on the will and judgment of the church. He intended only to show — what we ourselves also acknowledge as true — that those not yet enlightened by the Spirit of God are brought by the reverence they have for the church to a willingness to be taught, so that they find it in their hearts to learn the faith of Christ through the Gospel. In this way the authority of the church serves as an introduction that prepares us to believe the Gospel. For as we see, his intention is that the assurance of the godly rest on a very different foundation. I do not deny that elsewhere he often presses the Manichees with the consent of the whole church when he seeks to prove the Scripture they rejected. This is why he so reproached Faustus for not yielding to the truth of the Gospel — a Gospel so well established, so solidly confirmed, so gloriously renowned, and commended in continuous succession from the apostles' own time. But he never labors to teach that the authority we acknowledge in Scripture depends on the determination or decree of men. He simply brings forward — because it served him greatly in his argument — the universal judgment of the church, in which he had the advantage over his adversaries. For a fuller proof of this, anyone may read his book on the profit of believing, where he will find that the only readiness of belief he commends to us is what gives us an entry and a fitting starting point for inquiry, as he calls it — and yet not that we should rest on bare opinion, but that we should lean on certain and sound truth.

We ought to hold, as I said before, that the authority of this doctrine is not established in us until we are undoubtedly persuaded that God is its author. Therefore the primary proof of Scripture is ordinarily taken from the person of God who speaks in it. The prophets and apostles do not boast of their own sharp wit or any other quality that procures credibility for speakers. Nor do they stand on reasoned proofs. They simply bring forth the holy name of God, by which they compel the whole world to obedience. Now we need to see how, not by mere probable opinion but by evident truth, it is plain that the name of God is not without cause or deceitfully invoked in this. If we are to provide well for consciences — that they may not be perpetually tossed about by unsteady doubting, that many may not waver and stumble at every small difficulty — this persuasion must be sought at a deeper level than human reasons, judgments, or conjectures: it must come from the secret testimony of the Holy Spirit. It is true that if we were to work by argument, many things could be brought forward to easily prove — if there is a God in heaven — that the law, the prophecies, and the Gospel came from Him. Indeed, even if learned men of deep judgment stood against us and brought the full force of their minds to bear in debate, if they are not so hardened as to be past all shame, they would be compelled to confess that in Scripture there are clear tokens that it is God who speaks therein, so that it evidently appears that the doctrine is from heaven. Shortly we shall see that all the books of Holy Scripture far surpass all other writings of whatever kind. Indeed, if we bring pure eyes and uncorrupted senses to Scripture, we will at once find there the majesty of God, which will overcome all resistance and compel us to obey. But those who by disputation labor to establish the full authority of Scripture are going about it in the wrong way. And truly, although I am not furnished with great skill or eloquence, if I were to contend with the most shameless despisers of God who want to seem clever by undermining the authority of Scripture, I trust it would not be hard to silence their babbling. And if it were profitable to spend effort refuting their objections, I could without great difficulty scatter the boasts they mutter in corners. But though a man might defend the true word of God from the insults of men, that is not yet sufficient to plant in their hearts the assurance that godliness requires. Profane men, because they think religion stands only in opinion, and wanting to believe nothing rashly or lightly, desire to have it proved to them by reason that Moses and the prophets spoke from God. But I answer: the testimony of the Holy Spirit is better than all reason. For as only God is a fitting witness of Himself in His own word, so that word will never find credibility in human hearts until it is sealed by the inward witness of the Holy Spirit. It is therefore necessary that the same Holy Spirit who spoke by the mouth of the prophets enter into our hearts to persuade us that they faithfully uttered what God commanded them. This order is fittingly expressed by Isaiah in these words: 'My Spirit that is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart from your mouth, or from the mouth of your offspring, or from the mouth of your offspring's offspring, says the Lord, from this time and forevermore.' Some good people are troubled that they do not have a clear proof ready to produce when the wicked without punishment murmur against the word of God — as though the Holy Spirit were not called both a seal and a pledge for precisely this reason: that until He enlightens men's minds, they always waver among many doubts.

Let this therefore stand as a firmly settled truth: those whom the Holy Spirit has inwardly taught rest wholly upon Scripture, and Scripture is to be believed for its own sake and must not be subjected to proofs and arguments. Yet the certainty it gains among us is obtained through the witness of the Holy Spirit. For though by its own majesty alone it procures reverence, it truly pierces our hearts only when it is sealed there by the Holy Spirit. So being enlightened by His power, we then believe — not by our own judgment or another's — that Scripture is from God. Rather, above all human judgment we hold it as most certainly established, as if we beheld the very majesty of God present there — that by the ministry of men it came to us from the very mouth of God. We do not look for arguments and likelihoods on which to rest our judgment, but we submit our judgment and understanding to it as to something entirely beyond calculation. And not in the way some hastily seize on something unknown that later displeases them when they get to know it better — but because we are firmly assured in our consciences that we hold an invincible truth. And not in the way foolish people surrender their minds to superstitions — but because we undeniably perceive in Scripture the power and breath of divine majesty, by which we are drawn and moved to obey, willingly and knowingly, and yet more effectively and vigorously than any human will or understanding could attain. Therefore God rightly cries out through Isaiah that the prophets with the whole people bear witness to Him, because being taught by the prophecies they believed undoubtedly and without deception or uncertainty that God Himself had spoken. Such therefore is our persuasion — it requires no reasons. Such is our knowledge — it has very good reason behind it, yet it is a reason on which the mind rests more firmly and steadfastly than on any argument. Such is our feeling — it can only proceed from heavenly revelation. I speak now of nothing other than what each of the faithful experiences in himself, except that my words fall far short of a full expression of it. I leave many things unspoken here, as there will be a fitting place elsewhere to treat this matter more fully. For now, let us simply know that only that faith is true which the Spirit of God seals in our hearts. For the sober and willing learner, this reason alone will be sufficient. Isaiah promises that all the children of the renewed church will be taught by God. In this God graciously extends a singular privilege to His elect alone, whom He separates from all the rest of humanity. For what is the beginning of true doctrine but a ready willingness to hear the voice of God? But God requires to be heard through Moses' mouth, as it is written: 'Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven? or, Who will descend into the deep? The word is near you, in your mouth.' If it pleases God to lay up this treasure of understanding for His children, it is no wonder or surprise that in the common mass of people such ignorance and dullness is found. By the common mass I mean even the most excellent among them, until they have been grafted into the body of the church. Moreover, Isaiah, warning that the prophets' doctrine would seem incredible not only to outsiders but even to those Jews who counted themselves among God's household, gives this reason: because the arm of God will not be revealed to all. Therefore, as often as the small number of believers troubles us, let us recall on the other side that none can comprehend the mysteries of God except those to whom it is given.