3. As regards form, the Bible has the quality of perspicurty
The Principle of Protestantism the nature of the case, must be subject to change and distortion, making it impossible at last to distinguish truth from falsehood.
In such passages as Acts 20:27; 26:22; 2 Timothy 3:14-17; Galatians 1:8; Revelation 22:18, the Scriptures ascribe this character to themselves quite directly; and the claim is made good continually in practical life. The more anyone enters into the contents of the Bible, the more he learns to say with Luther that it resembles an herb, that by every rubbing becomes only the more odoriferous, a tree, that by every shaking throws down only a richer supply of golden apples. Every valuable exegetical work discloses to us new treasures; and our church, after having lived upon it already three hundred years, must still with Paul exclaim in amazement, "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!"
3. As regards form, the Bible has the quality of perspicurty (perspicuitas); not absolutely again, as excluding every mystery; but so, as that all things indispensably necessary to salvation may be known by every member of the church from the Scriptures, without the aid of tradition or councils, if only the proper conditions are at hand for the purpose. These include not simply the general command of intellect and knowledge that are requisite for the understanding of every human book, by which the loose spiritualism of the Quakers is disowned, but a living sense also of spiritual need, and a proper affinity with the Spirit from which the Scriptures proceed. And here the Protestant Church appears in full opposition to rationalism, in the case of which the natural understanding, that cannot discern the things of the Spirit according to Paul (1 Corinthians 2:14; 12:3; 2 Corinthians 3:5), is made the principle of interpretation. That it is properly the Holy Spirit only which can interpret the Scriptures, is admitted by the Romish Church also; and so all controversy here turns upon the question: Where is this Holy Spirit?* The Church of Rome of course arrogates its presence, and with this the right interpretation of the Bible, entirely to herself, her bishops and her popes; and thus
* Bellarmine, de verbo Dei, Il], 3. Convenit etiam inter nos et adversarios, scripturas intelligi debere eo spiritu, quo factae sunt, i.e., spiritu sancto. ..
, Tota igitur quaestio in eo posita est, ubi sit iste spiritus.
Philip Schaff
in fact exalts herself above the Bible, as its infallible judge.* The Protestant, however, binds the Spirit that "bloweth where it listeth," not to a particular form and section of the church, but to the word alone (comp. John 8:31-32). Where the word is read and preached, there the Spirit lives and moves and creates light; in other words, the Scriptures interpret themselves. When, notwithstanding, controversies arise, as they unavoidably must, and opposite parties contend for different senses of the word in their own favor, the Protestant requires, it is true, a subjection of the individual to some general authority; whether it be a small body of theologians, as that which framed the Formula of Concord, or a regular synod, as of Dort, Westminster, and others, which establishes a standard of faith for all within its jurisdiction. On this ground, it is known, the Reformers were earnestly urgent for a general council in which the controversies of the time might be decided. But here still this important difference prevails between the Protestant and Romish systems, that in the view of the first no such ecclesiastical authority is permitted to draw its decision from tradition, but always again from the Bible itself only; and thus the principle of its self-interpretation in the Holy Spirit remains unimpaired.?
* Bellarmine, I, c. 3, 9, has poorly sustained his usual logical acumen at this point. He maintains that as the Bible is the subject of controversy, we must not appeal to it as judge in the case, but only something external to it, that is the church. But the church is also a party; and so not qualified to act as judge, unless in the most partial, and in the worst sense, extra-biblical style.
7 Scriptura sacra est sui ipsius legitimus interpres. Comp. especially the Reformed symbols; for example, Conf. Helv. II, c. 2, p. 469: illam duntaxat scripturarum interpretationem pro orthodoxa et genuina agnoscimus, quae ex ipsis est petita scripturis ..
. cum regula fidei et caritatis congruit et ad gloriam Dei hominumque salutem eximie facit.
+ The Lutheran divines distinguish accordingly thus:
(1) Index principalis est spiritus s.; (2) judex instrumentals est s. scriptura;
(3) jud. ministerialis (also inferior) est ministerium ecclesiasticum. 'This last however may not "pro suo arbitrio sententiam pronunciare, sed juxta normam a supremo judice praescriptam, videl. juxta scripturam s., quam propterea vocem judicis supremi et normam judicis inferioris et judicem directivum appellamus." Calvin treats of the point in Jnstit., IV, c. 9, § 13, where the remarkable passage occurs:
"Nos certe libenter concedimus, si quo de dogmate incidat disceptatio, nullum esse nec melius nec certius remedium, quam si verorum episcoporum Synodus conveniat, ubi controversum dogma excutiatur. Multo enim plus ponderis