Antithesis: Of the Papists.
Antithesis: Of the Papists.
§ 379. Antithesis. The Papists deny the perfection of Scripture directly. Roffensis, art. 27, p. 584: “It is false to say that all things that pertain either to faith or to the laws of behavior and works are fully explained in the Scriptures.” The Censur. Colon., f. 220, argues: “Scripture is imperfect, mutilated, maimed because it does not contain all things that pertain to salvation, faith, and behavior for living devoutly.” Hesselius, Catech., p. 44: “When they wrote, the apostles did not do this to put in writing the entire teaching of the faith but because of the necessity that developed. What they could not give orally, being absent, they put in writing, being content with satisfying a difficulty that was arising.” Bellarmine, De verbo Dei, bk. 4, c. 3: “We (Papists) claim that in the Scriptures the entire necessary instruction either about faith or behavior is not contained expressly. Hence, in addition to the written Word of God, we also require an unwritten Word of God, that is, the divine and apostolic traditions. On the other hand, they (the Evangelicals) teach that in the Scriptures are contained all things necessary for faith and behavior; and that, hence, there is no need for an unwritten Word.” Costerus, Enchirid., p. 47, asserts: “All the mysteries of faith that one must believe are written clearly in the heart of the Church. Many things are lacking on the pages of the New Testament as well as of the Old.” He adds, p. 48: “God avoided committing all the dogmas of faith to writing so that pearls would not be thrown to the swine.” Gregorius de Valentia says (Anal., p. 389): “Sacred doctrine is held in higher esteem when not all its chapters are divulged indiscriminately to the common people but when some are kept like a sort of hidden treasure among the more learned.” One finds similar statements in Canisius (Opus catech., fol. 126, 160ff.) and in the Colloquy of Regensburg (pp. 96 and 48, Ingolstadt edition).