16. Now the sacred Scripture is entirely the word of God in this second acception, as being that which we acknowledge to be inspired from God; and innumerable places of it, in the first. And seeing the greatest part of it is conversant either in the prediction of the kingdom of heaven, or in prefigurations before the incarnation of Christ, or in evangelization and explication after; the sacred Scripture is also the word of God, and therefore the canon and rule of all evangelical doctrine, in this third signification; where the word of God is taken for the word concerning God, that is to say, for the gospel. But because in the same Scriptures we read many things political, historical, moral, physical, and others which nothing at all concern the mysteries of our faith; those places, although they contain true doctrine, and are the canon of such kind of doctrines, yet can they not be the canon of the mysteries of Christian religion.
The word of a lawful interpreter of Scriptures, is the word of God.
17. And truly, it is not the dead voice or letter of the word of God, which is the canon of Christian doctrine; but a true and genuine determination. For the mind is not governed by Scriptures, unless they be understood. There is need therefore of an interpreter to make the Scriptures canon, and hence follows one of these two things; that either the word of the interpreter is the word of God, or that the canon of Christian doctrine is not the word of God. The last of these must necessarily be false; for the rule of that doctrine which cannot be known by any human reason, but by divine revelation only, cannot be less than divine; for whom we acknowledge not to be able to discern whether some doctrine be true or not, it is impossible to account his opinion for a rule in the same doctrine. The first therefore is true, that the word of an interpreter of Scriptures is the word of God.
The authority of interpreting Scriptures, is the same with that of determining controversies of faith.
18. Now that interpreter whose determination hath the honour to be held for the word of God, is not every one that translates the Scriptures out of the Hebrew and Greek tongue, to his Latin auditors in Latin, to his French in French, and to other nations in their mother tongue; for this is not to interpret. For such is the nature of speech in general, that although it deserve the chief place among those signs whereby we declare our conceptions to others, yet cannot it perform that office alone without the help of many circumstances. For the living voice hath its interpreters present, to wit, time, place, countenance, gesture, the counsel of the speaker, and himself unfolding his own meaning in other words as oft as need is. To recall these aids of interpretation, so much desired in the writings of old time, is neither the part of an ordinary wit, nor yet of the quaintest, without great learning and very much skill in antiquity. It sufficeth not therefore for interpretation of Scriptures, that a man understand the language wherein they speak. Neither is every one an authentic interpreter of Scriptures, who writes comments upon them. For men may err; they may also either bend them to serve their own ambition; or even resisting, draw them into bondage by their forestallings; whence it will follow, that an erroneous sentence must be held for the word of God. But although this might not happen, yet as soon as these commentators are departed, their commentaries will need explications; and in process of time, those explications expositions; those expositions new commentaries, without any end. So as there cannot, in any written interpretation whatsoever, be a canon or rule of Christian doctrine, whereby the controversies of religion may be determined. It remains, that there must be some canonical interpreter, whose legitimate office it is to end controversies begun, by explaining the word of God in the judgments themselves; and whose authority therefore must be no less obeyed, than theirs who first recommended the Scripture itself to us for a canon of faith; and that one and the same person be an interpreter of Scripture, and a supreme judge of all manner of doctrines.
Divers significations of a Church.
19. What concerns the word ecclesia, or Church, originally it signifies the same thing that concio or a congregation does in Latin; even as ecclesiastes or churchman, the same that concionator or preacher, that is to say, he who speaks to the congregation. In which sense we read in the Acts of the Apostles, of a Church confused, and of a lawful Church (Acts xix, 32-39): that, taken for a concourse of people meeting in way of tumult; this, for a convocated assembly. But in holy writ by a Church of Christians, is sometimes understood the assembly, and sometimes the Christians themselves, although not actually assembled, if they be permitted to enter into the congregation and to communicate with them. For example, Tell it to the Church, (Matth. xviii. 17), is meant of a Church assembled; for otherwise it is impossible to tell any thing to the Church. But He laid waste the Church, (Acts viii. 3), is understood of a Church not assembled. Sometimes a Church is taken for those who are baptized, or for the professors of the Christian faith, whether they be Christians inwardly or feignedly; as when we read of somewhat said or written to the Church, or said, or decreed, or done by the Church. Sometimes for the elect only, as when it is called holy and without blemish (Ephes. v. 27). But the elect, as they are militant, are not properly called a Church; for they know not how to assemble; but they are a future Church, namely, in that day when severed from the reprobate they shall be triumphant. Again, a Church may be sometimes taken for all Christians collectively; as when Christ is called the head of his Church (Ephes. v. 23); and the head of his body the Church (Coloss. i. 18). Sometimes for its parts; as the Church of Ephesus, the Church which is in his house, the seven Churches, &c. Lastly, a Church, as it is taken for a company actually assembled, according to the divers ends of their meeting, signifies sometimes those who are met together to deliberate and judge; in which sense it is also called a council and a synod; sometimes those who meet together in the house of prayer to worship God, in which signification it is taken in the 1 Cor. xiv. 4, 5, 23, 28, &c.
What a Church is, to whom we attribute rights, actions, and the like appellations proper to a person.
20. Now a Church, which hath personal rights and proper actions attributed to it, and of which that same must necessarily be understood, Tell it to the Church, and he that obeys not the Church, and all such like forms of speech, is to be defined so as by that word may be understood a multitude of men, who have made a new covenant with God in Christ, that is to say, a multitude of them who have taken upon them the sacrament of baptism; which multitude may both lawfully be called together by some one into one place, and, he so calling them, are bound to be present either in person or by others. For a multitude of men, if they cannot meet in assembly when need requires, is not to be called a person. For a Church can neither speak, nor discern, nor hear, but as it is a congregation. Whatsoever is spoken by particular men, (to wit, as many opinions almost as heads), that is the speech of one man, not of the Church. Furthermore, if an assembly be made, and it be unlawful, it shall be considered as null. Not any one of these therefore who are present in a tumult, shall be tied to the decree of the rest; but specially if he dissent. And therefore neither can such a Church make any decree; for then a multitude is said to decree somewhat, when every man is obliged by the decree of the major part. We must therefore grant to the definition of a Church, to which we attribute things belonging to a person, not only a possibility of assembling, but also of doing it lawfully. Besides, although there be some one who may lawfully call the rest together; yet if they who are called, may lawfully not appear; which may happen among men who are not subject one to another; that same Church is not one person. For by what right they, who being called to a certain time and place do meet together, are one Church; by the same, others flocking to another place appointed by them, are another Church. And every number of men of one opinion is a Church; and by consequence, there will be as many Churches as there are divers opinions; that is to say, the same multitude of men will at once prove to be one, and many Churches. Wherefore a Church is not one, except there be a certain and known, that is to say, a lawful power, by means whereof every man may be obliged to be present in the congregation, either himself in person, or by proxy; and that becomes one, and is capable of personal functions, by the union of a lawful power of convocating synods and assemblies of Christians; not by uniformity of doctrine; and otherwise it is a multitude, and persons in the plural, howsoever agreeing in opinions.
A Christian city is the same with a Christian Church.