AND HOW IN THE PAPACY, WITH UNBRIDLED LICENSE, THE CHURCH HAS BEEN LED TO CORRUPT
ALL PURITY OF DOCTRINE
(Ecclesiastical power limited by the Word of God, 1-9)
1. TASK AND LIMITS OF THE CHURCH’S DOCTRINAL AUTHORITY
There now follows the third section, on the power of the church, which resides partly in individual bishops, and partly in councils, either
provincial or general. I speak only of the spiritual power, which is proper to the church. This, moreover, consists either in doctrine or in
jurisdictionF256 or in making laws.F257The doctrinal side has two parts:
authority to lay down articles of faith, and authority to explain them.
Before we begin to discuss each of these in particular, I should like to warn pious readers that they should remember to refer whatever is taught about the power of the church to the purpose for which, according to Paul, it is given, that is, for up-building and not for destruction [<471008>2 Corinthians 10:8; 13:10]. Those who use it lawfully deem themselves no more than servants of Christ, and at the same time servants of the people in Christ [<460401>
1 Corinthians 4:1]. Now the only way to build up the church is for the ministers themselves to endeavor to preserve Christ’s authority for himself; this can only be secured if what he has received from his Father be left to him, namely, that he alone is the schoolmaster of the church. For it is written not of any other but of him alone, “Hear him” [<401705>
Matthew 17:5].
The power of the church is therefore to be not grudgingly manifested but yet to be kept within definite limits, that it may not be drawn hither and
thither according to men’s whim. For this reason it will be of especial benefit to observe how it is described by the prophets and apostles. For if we simply grant to men such power as they are disposed to take, it is plain to all how abrupt is the fall into tyranny, which ought to be far from Christ’s church.
2. THE DOCTRINAL AUTHORITY OF MOSES AND THE PRIESTS
Accordingly, we must here remember that whatever authority and dignity the Spirit in Scripture accords to either priests or prophets, or apostles, or successors of apostles, it is wholly given not to the men personally, but to the ministry to which they have been appointed; or (to speak more
briefly) to the Word, whose ministry is entrusted to them. For if we examine them all in order, we shall not find that they have been endowed with any authority to teach or to answer, except in the name and Word of the Lord. For, where they are called to office, it is at the same time enjoined upon them not to bring anything of themselves, but to speak from the Lord’s mouth. And he himself does not bring them forth to be heard by the people before teaching them what to speak: they are to speak nothing but his Word.
Moses himself, the prince of all the prophets, was to be heard above the rest; but he was previously instructed on his orders and could proclaim nothing at all except from the Lord [<020304>
Exodus 3:4 ff.]. The people, therefore, embracing his teaching, “believed,” it is said, “in God and in his servant Moses” [<021431>
Exodus 14:31].
That the authority of the priests also might not be held in contempt, it was sanctioned with the heaviest penalties [<051709>
Deuteronomy 17:9-13].
But the Lord at the same time shows under what condition they were to be heard when he says that he has made his covenant with Levi, that the law of truth might be on his lips [<390204>Malachi 2:4,6]. And a little later he adds: “The lips of a priest should guard knowledge, and men should seek the law from his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of Hosts”
[<390207>
Malachi 2:7]. Therefore, if the priest wishes to be heard, let him show himself to be God’s messenger; that is, let him faithfully
communicate the commands which he has received from his Author. And
as far as the hearing of them is concerned, it is expressly laid down that they are to answer according to God’s law. [<051710>
Deuteronomy 17:10- 11.]
3. THE DOCTRINAL AUTHORITY OF THE PROPHETS Ezekiel felicitously describes the general character of the prophets’ power:
“‘O Son of man,’ says the Lord, ‘I have appointed you as a watchman for the house of Israel; you will therefore hear a word of my mouth and will declare it to them from me’” [<260317>
Ezekiel 3:17 p.]. Is not he who is bidden to hear a word from the Lord’s mouth forbidden to invent anything of his own? What is it to bring tidings from the Lord? So to speak that one dare confidently boast that the word he brings is not his own, but the Lord’s. Jeremiah expresses the same thought in other words: “Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, and let him who has my word speak my true word” [<242328>
Jeremiah 23:28 p.]. Surely, he is stating a law for them all. Moreover, it is such that God does not allow anyone to teach more than he has commanded. And he afterward calls whatever has not come forth from himself alone, “chaff” [<242328>Jeremiah 23:28].
Therefore, none of the prophets opened his mouth unless the Lord had anticipated his words. Hence, it comes that these expressions are so often found among them: “the Word of the Lord,” “the burden of the Lord,”
“Thus saith the Lord,” “The mouth of the Lord has spoken.” And rightly!
For Isaiah exclaimed that his lips were unclean [<230605>
Isaiah 6:5];
Jeremiah admitted that he knew not how to speak, for he was a child [<240106>
Jeremiah 1:6]. What could come forth from the defiled mouth of Isaiah and the foolish mouth of Jeremiah but filth and folly, if they spoke their own word? But they had holy and pure lips when they began to be instruments of the Holy Spirit. When the prophets are bound by this reverence not to deliver anything but what they have received, then they are adorned with extraordinary power and excellent titles. For when the Lord testifies that he has “set them over nations and kingdoms, to pluck up and to root out, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant”
[<240110>
Jeremiah 1:10], he immediately adds the reason: because he has put his words in their mouth [<240109>Jeremiah 1:9].
4. THE DOCTRINAL AUTHORITY OF THE APOSTLES Now if you look upon the apostles, they are indeed commended with many notable titles. They are “the light of the world” and “the salt of the earth” [<400513>
Matthew 5:13-14]; they are to be heard for Christ’s sake
[<421016>Luke 10:16]; whatever they “bind or loose on earth shall be bound
or loosed in heaven” [<401619>
Matthew 16:19; 18:18; cf. <432023>
John 20:23]. But they show by their name how much is permitted to them in their office. That is, if they are “apostles,” they are not to prate whatever they please, but are faithfully to report the commands of Him by whom they have been sent. And Christ’s words, with which he has defined their mission, are plain enough: he commanded them to go and teach all nations everything he had enjoined [<402819>
Matthew 28:19-20]. But he also received this law in himself and applied it to himself so that it would be unlawful for anyone to reject it. “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me,” the Father’s [<430716>John 7:16]. He was the sole and eternal counselor of the Father, and was appointed Lord and Master of all by the Father. Yet, because he performs the ministry of teaching, by his own example he prescribes for all his ministers what rule they ought to follow in teaching. The power of the church, therefore, is not infinite but subject to the Lord’s Word and, as it were, enclosed within it.
5. UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY OF REVELATION
But although this principle has prevailed in the church from the beginning and ought to prevail today, that the servants of God should teach nothing which they have not learned from him, still, according to the diversity of the times, they have had divers ways of learning. But the present order differs very much from what existed in former times.
First, if what Christ says is true—“No one sees the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” [<401127>
Matthew 11:27]—csurely they who would attain the knowledge of God should always be directed by that eternal Wisdom. For how could they either have comprehended God’s mysteries with the mind, or have uttered them, except by the teaching of him to whom alone the secrets of the Father are revealed? Therefore, holy men of old knew God only by beholding him in his Son as in a mirror (cf. <470318>
2 Corinthians 3:18). When I say this, I
mean that God has never manifested himself to men in any other way than through the Son, that is, his sole wisdom, light, and truth. From this fountain Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others drank all that they had of heavenly teaching. From the same fountain, all the prophets have also drawn every heavenly oracle that they have given forth.
For this Wisdom has not always manifested itself in one way. Among the patriarchs GodF258 used secret revelations, but at the same time to confirm these he added such signs that they could have no doubt that it was God who was speaking to them. What the patriarchs had received they handed on to their descendants. For the Lord had left it with them on this
condition, that they should so propagate it. The children and children’s children knew when God dictates within that what they heard was from heaven, not from earth.
6. SCRIPTURAL FOUNDATION OF THE WORD OF GOD IN THE OLD COVENANT
But where it pleased God to raise up a more visible form of the church, he willed to have his Word set down and sealed in writing,F259 that his priests might seek from it what to teach the people, and that every doctrine to be taught should conform to that rule. Therefore, after the law has been published, the priests are bidden to teach “from the mouth of the Lord”
[<390207>Malachi 2:7, cf. Vg. and Comm.]. This means that they should
teach nothing strange or foreign to that doctrine which God included in the law; indeed, it was unlawful for them to add to it or take away from it [<050402>
Deuteronomy 4:2; 13:1].
There then followed the prophets, through whom God published new oracles which were added to the law—but not so new that they did not flow from the law and hark back to it. As for doctrine, they were only interpreters of the law and added nothing to it except predictions of things to come. Apart from these, they brought nothing forth but a pure
exposition of the law. But because the Lord was pleased to reveal a clearer and fuller doctrine in order better to satisfy weak consciences, he
commanded that the prophecies also be committed to writing and be accounted part of his Word. At the same time, histories were added to these, also the labor of the prophets, but composed under the Holy
Spirit’s dictation. I include the psalms with the prophecies, since what we attribute to the prophecies is common to them.F260
Therefore, that whole body, put together out of law, prophecies, psalms, and histories, was the Lord’s Word for the ancient people; and to this standard, priests and teachers, even to the coming of Christ, had to
conform their teaching. And it was not lawful for them to turn aside either to the right or to the left [<050532>Deuteronomy 5:32], for their whole office was limited to answering the people from the mouth of God. This is inferred from a well-known passage of Malachi, where the Lord bids them remember the law and give heed to it, even until the preaching of the gospel [<390404>Malachi 4:4]. For thus he shields them from all novel doctrines, and does not allow them to turn aside even a hairsbreadth from the way which Moses had faithfully shown them. And here is the reason why David so eloquently proclaims the excellence of the law, and recounts so many praises of it [<191907>Psalm 19:7 ff.]: that the Jews should yearn for no foreign thing, since all perfection was contained in it.
7. “THE WORD BECAME FLESH”
But when the Wisdom of God was at length revealed in the flesh, that Wisdom heartily declared to us all that can be comprehended and ought to be pondered concerning the Heavenly Father by the human mind. enow therefore, since Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, has shone,F261 while before there was only dim light, we have the perfect radiance of divine truth, like the wonted brilliance of midday. For truly the apostle meant to proclaim no common thing when he wrote, “In many and various ways God spoke of old to the fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has begun to speak to us through his beloved Son” [<580101>
Hebrews 1:1-2 p., Cf. Comm.]. For Paul means, in fact, openly declares, that God will not speak hereafter as he did before, intermittently through some and through others; nor will he add prophecies to prophecies, or revelations to
revelations. Rather, he has so fulfilled all functions of teaching in his Son that we must regard this as the final and eternal testimony from him. In this way this whole New Testament time, from the point that Christ appeared to us with the preaching of his gospel even to the Day of Judgment, is designated by “the last hour”F262 [<620218>
1 John 2:18], “the last times” [<540401>1 Timothy 4:1; <600120>1 Peter 1:20], “the last days”
[<440217>Acts 2:17; <550301>2 Timothy 3:1; <610303>2 Peter 3:3]. This is done that, content with the perfection of Christ’s teaching, we may learn not to fashion anything new for ourselves beyond this or to admit anything contrived by others.
It was therefore with good reason that the Father by a singular privilege ordained the Son as our teacher, commanding him, and not any man, to be heard. He has, indeed, in few words commended Christ as our teacher when he says, “Hear him” [<401705>
Matthew 17:5]. But in these words there is more weight and force than is commonly thought. For it is as if, leading us away from all doctrines of men, he should conduct us to his Son alone; bid us seek all teaching of salvation from him alone; depend upon him, cleave to him; in short (as the words themselves pronounce), hearken to his voice alone. And what, indeed, ought we now either to expect or to hope from man, when the very Word of life has intimately and openly disclosed himself to us? But the months of all men should be closed when once he has spoken, in whom the Heavenly Father willed all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom to be hid [<510203>Colossians 2:3], and has, indeed, so spoken as befitted the wisdom of God (which is in every part seamless [cf. <431923>John 19:23]) and the Messiah (from whom the revelation of all things was awaited [<430425>
John 4:25]); that is, after himself he left nothing for others to say.
8. THE APOSTLES AUTHORIZED TO TEACH WHAT CHRIST COMMANDED
Let this be a firm principle: No other word is to be held as the Word of God, and given place as such in the church, than what is contained first in the Law and the Prophets, then in the writings of the apostles; and the only authorized way of teaching in the church is by the prescription and standard of his Word.
From this also we infer that the only thing granted to the apostles was that which the prophets had had of old. They were to expound the ancient Scripture and to show that what is taught there has been fulfilled in Christ.
Yet they were not to do this except from the Lord, that is, with Christ’s Spirit as precursor in a certain measure dictating the words.F263 For by this condition Christ limited their embassy awhen he ordered them to go and
teach not what they had thoughtlessly fabricated, but all that he had commanded them [<402819>
Matthew 28:19-20]. And nothing could be said more clearly than what he says in another place: “But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher... the Christ” [<402308>
Matthew 23:8,10]. Then, to fix this more deeply upon their minds, he repeats it twice in the same place [<402309>
Matthew 23:9-10]. And because, on account of their ignorance, they could not grasp what they had heard and learned from the Master’s lips, the Spirit of truth is promised to them, to guide them into a true understanding of all things [<431613>John 16:13]. For that restriction must be carefully noted in which he assigns to the Holy Spirit the task of bringing to mind all that he has previously taught by mouth [<431426>
John 14:26].
9. NOT EVEN THE APOSTLES WERE FREE TO GO BEYOND THE WORD: MUCH LESS THEIR SUCCESSORS
Accordingly, Peter, who was well instructed by the Master as to how much he should do, reserves nothing else for himself or others except to impart the doctrine as it has been handed down by God. “Let him who speaks,” he says, “speak only the words of God” [<600411>
1 Peter 4:11];
that is, not hesitatingly and tremblingly as evil consciences are accustomed to speak, but with the high confidence which befits a servant of God furnished with his sure commands. What is this but to reject all inventions of the human mind (from whatever brain they have issued) in order that God’s pure Word may be taught and learned in the believers’ church?
What is it but to remove the ordinances, or rather inventions of all men (whatever their rank), in order that the decrees of God alone may remain in force? These are those spiritual “weapons... with power from God to demolish strongholds”; by them God’s faithful soldiers “destroy
stratagems and every height that rises up against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” [<471004>2 Corinthians 10:4-5, Comm.]. Here, then, is the sovereign power with which the pastors of the church, by whatever name they be called, ought to be endowed· That is that they may dare boldly to do all things by God’s Word; may compel all worldly power, glory, wisdom, and exaltation to yield to and obey his majesty; supported by his power, may command all from the highest even to the last; may build up Christ’s household and