# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_Februar 1859_S55
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

54                    J. Ch. Köcher's Proof that the Evangelical-Lutheran Religion, etc.

-of Holy Scripture and the command of God, who teaches us": ¹) "But
everything else that they invent and put forth of themselves, without
authority or testimony of Scripture, as an apostolic ordinance, the sword
of God shatters and destroys;"

Augustine ²): "I have learned to show this honor and esteem only to the
books of Scripture that are called canonical, so that I firmly believe
that no author of them, in writing, allowed himself to fall into any
error. But the other writers I read in such a way that, however holy and
learned they may have been, I do not for that reason hold something to be
true because they were of that opinion, but because they are able to prove
the truth of it to me either from those canonical writers, or from some
probable ground": ³) "We must not regard the doctrines of all men, even
though they were catholic and renowned, as equal to the canonical
Scripture, in such a way that we would not be permitted, without violating
the honor due to them, to disapprove and reject something in their
writings, if we should happen to find that they thought otherwise than the
truth — which we or others have come to know with divine assistance —
requires. Such is my attitude toward the writings of others, and such I
also wish the readers of my own writings to have toward mine;"

Lactantius ⁴): "All this the heathen philosophers must confirm, not by
their own assertion (for the authority of a mortal man counts for nothing
at all), but by divine testimonies, as we are accustomed to do;"

Basil ⁵): "It is right and necessary that everyone learn what is useful
from the God-inspired Scripture, both for greater perfection in godliness,
and also so that he does not become accustomed to human ordinances;"

1) Commentar. in Aggaeum Cap. I. Tom. VI. Opp. p. 184. Sed et alia, quae
absque autoritate et testimoniis scripturarum, quasi traditione apostolica, sponte
reperiunt atque confingunt, percutit gladius Dei.

2) Epistola XIX. ad Hieronymum Tom. II. Opp. p. 27. Ego solis eis Scrip-
turarum libris, qui iam Canonici appellantur, didici hunc timorem honoremque
deferre, ut nullum eorum auctorem scribendo aliquid errasse, firmissime credam.
— Alios autem ita lego, ut, quantalibet sanctitate doctrinaque praepolleant, non ideo
verum putem, quia ita ipsi senserunt; sed quia mihi vel per illos auctores Canonicos,
vel probabili ratione, quod a vero non abhorreat, persvadere potuerunt.

3) Epistola CXI. p. 199. Tom. II. Opp. Neque enim quorumlibet disputationes,
quamvis catholicorum et laudatorum hominum, velut scripturas canonicas habere de-
bemus, ut nobis non liceat, salva honorificentia, quae illis debetur hominibus, ali-
quid in eorum scriptis improbare atque respuere, si forte invenerimus, quod aliter
senserint, quam veritas habet, divino adiutorio vel ab aliis intellecta, vel a nobis.
Talis ego sum in scriptis aliorum, tales volo esse intellectores meorum.

4) Divinarum Institutionum Lib. V. Cap. XIX. num. 11. Quae omnia non ad-
severatione propria, (nec enim valet quidquam mortalis hominis auctoritas) sed
divinis aliquibus testimoniis confirment, sicuti nos facimus.

5) In Regulis brevioribus Interrog. XCV.