De inspiratione sacrae Scripturae: theologica disquisitio

It pleases me, therefore, to put an end to this dissertation of whatever sort with the words of Irenaeus, where, signifying that the exposition of the Scriptures is to be sought from those who in the Catholic Church have succession from the apostles, he says: « Wherefore we ought to obey those presbyters who are in the Church, those who have succession from the apostles, as we have shown; who with the succession of the episcopate have received the certain gift of truth according to the good pleasure of the Father; but the rest who stand apart from the principal succession, and gather together in whatever place, to hold suspect... Where therefore the gifts of the Lord are placed, there we must learn the truth, with those who have the succession of the Church from the apostles, and where it stands firm what is sound and irreproachable in conduct, and unadulterated and incorruptible in speech. For these both keep our faith which is in the one God, and increase the love which is in the Son of God, who made such great dispensations for our sake, and expound the Scriptures to us without danger, neither blaspheming God, nor dishonoring the patriarchs, nor despising the prophets » ¹.

Furthermore, the new exegetes have thought that one must recede from this traditional exposition and from the sense received from the ancients, allured by the name of a higher understanding and by the appearance of progress. But of what kind that progress is which is now owed to their studies and labors has sufficiently appeared from what has been said thus far. Formerly we used to say confidently with the Psalmist: The words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire, proven in the earth, purified seven times. Now those same divine words are asserted to contain also lead and tin and dross, which it will be necessary to refine to purity by the work of criticism. Formerly it was firmly held that even the old Scripture was such that, comprehending in its humble measure of speech an inexhaustible fullness of truth, it both nourished the small and delighted great minds. Now it has been discovered that, conceived with an infantile thought, it was accommodated only to the infantile mentality of the ancients. Formerly, against the Protestants, the mysterious obscurity of Scripture was asserted as being in many things, but far be it from being in all. Now the last conclusion of the new exegesis is that Scripture is bathed in black darkness from beginning to end, and that there is far, far denser obscurity in those things which have hitherto been held as clear and perspicuous than in the rest. For to whom would the riddles of the sphinx not seem easier than the simple history of the Bible such as they wish it to be? And already it has befallen us worse than the Jews, of whose future blindness concerning the prophecies Isaiah, prophesying, said: Because the Lord has mixed for you a spirit of slumber, He will close your eyes, and will cover your prophets and your princes who see visions. And the vision of all shall be to you as the words of a sealed book, which when they give it to one who knows letters, they shall say: Read this, and he shall answer: I cannot, for it is sealed.

Will there then, you will say with the Lerinian, be no progress in the Church of God as regards the understanding of the Scriptures? « Let there be, plainly, and the greatest. For who is so envious of men, so hateful to God, as to attempt to forbid it? But in such a way, however, that that progress be truly of faith, not a change... in the same sense and the same meaning ». But for such progress many things perhaps would be required which are lacking. There would be required a study devoted to those sacred disciplines of which the Church is the author and teacher; now, however, too much oriental literature makes them mad. There would be required especially some reverence toward God and toward His sacred oracles; now, however, to every levity of opinion they daily twist and bend Scripture, as though making an experiment on a worthless soul. There would be required further the laying aside of all arrogance concerning the key of knowledge, for the unlawful usurpation of which the Pharisees are reproved in the gospel by Christ; now, however, they wish this key to be so much their own that they are wont to call themselves competent, and everyone else incompetent. One would also have to destroy that ridiculous idol of the modern soul, to which they have built altars, and to which they burn incense, and sing amatory songs. For concerning that modern soul it is not yet known of what species it is, and if the things set forth are true, it seems to be placed outside the universal redemption of Christ, since it is not moved by all those things which Christ provided for the edification of His religion, for instance miracles and prophecies. In sum, one would have to return to that nest which Augustine elegantly designates, l. 12 Confess. c. 27, when, speaking of those to whom the simplicity of the Scriptures began to be a disgust, he says: « If any one of these, despising as it were the cheapness of the words, has stretched himself out beyond the nourishing cradle in proud weakness, alas! he will fall miserably. And, Lord God, have mercy, lest those who pass by the way trample the unfledged chick, and send Your angel to put it back in the nest, that it may live until it wishes ».