J.H. Heidegger's Corpus of Christian Theology: Theology in General: Revealed Theology, Part 4

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29.  For discerning divine Revelation, the authority of human testimony avails nothing.

So the authority and infallibility of whatever human testimony avails nothing for discerning Divine revelation:  upon which the Papists insist in order to overthrow the true faith of Divine revelation, and to introduce into religion human authority, or rather the carnal empire and dominion of certain men.  For, although men of God, themselves persuaded of the Divinity of revelation, by planting and watering, that is, by their sharing, demonstration, and manifestation of its Truth to conscience, are able to be ministers by whom we believe, 1 Corinthians 3:5, 6; nevertheless, their title, authority, dictum, and authentic, as they call it, declaration is not required for the discernment of any revelation.  ‎אֲדֹנָ֥י יִתֶּן־אֹ֑מֶר הַֽ֜מְבַשְּׂר֗וֹת צָבָ֥א רָֽב׃, The Lord giveth the word:  the preachers of good (those publishing the gospel) are a great company, Psalm 68:11.  Therefore, no declaration is absolutely authoritative except the Word of the Lord.  But men, receiving that word in great numbers, with the demonstration of the same, proclaim it.  For there is one Spirit, one Lord, one faith of all, Ephesians 4:4-6.  As that one Lord alone has the authority and power to work certain faith in the hearts of men, without which the whole world avails nothing for the heart and conscience of man.  For, by what authority of men did Adam, Abraham, Moses, and the Apostles discern the Divine revelation made to them?  Not the Church, but the Spirit and the Word, which God promised to the Church and all its members ἴσως, in like manner, Isaiah 59:21; not immediately to some, with other mediating to them, but with Christ out head alone mediating, who distributes His Spirit as He wills:  have the power to open eyes and to move the heart.  For no one is able to call Jesus Lord, except by the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:3.  Is not my word like a fire, saith Jehovah, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Jeremiah 23:29.  But who is the manאֲשֶׁ֥ר נְשָׁמָ֖ה בְּאַפּ֑וֹ, in whose nostrils is breath?  Cease ye from him.  ‎בַמֶּ֥ה נֶחְשָׁ֖ב הֽוּא׃, for wherein is he to be accounted of? Isaiah 2:22.  That is, that he might be able to rule over the conscience of man, and to teach him concerning Divine revelation authentically, and by his own proper authority, and known of itself, as it were.  The Spirit is not able to be given by a man, who himself has nothing except the spirit that he breathes through his nostrils.

30.  Neither does the superintendence of human reason avail anything in the discernment of Divine revelation, impiously asserted by the Socinians and the Jews.

Moreover, just as in this matter the Papists turn the ministry of men into the authority and magisterium of the same:  so the Socinians, with equal impiety, transform the ministry of human Reason into the principium of Faith and Revelation, and are confident that they are now able with perfect precision to measure, from the deadly and most deceitful rule of reason left to them, the ineffable and innermost recesses of the truth, as concerning some Augustine already of old complained, De Utilitate Credendi, chapter I.  Indeed, this opinion is implanted deeply in their souls, that it is to be believed, that God said, and revealed in His word, only that which is apparent to reason, and is able to be demonstrated by its proper causes and effects to be so.  But those things that are otherwise, even if it appears that God Himself said them, are not yet considered sufficiently true.  Indeed, if it be openly evident to human reason that they are not able to happen, those things, no matter how often they appear in the Sacred Books, and are expressly set forth to have been done, and are everywhere discovered to have been testified to in the clearest possible words, are by no means to be believed, but rather are to be turned unto another sense, even through uncommon tropes.  How κυρίαν/lordly a δόξαν/doctrine of men hardly rational, it is possible to elicit from the very words of Socinus and Smalcius,[1] and from the constant practice.  In which matter they closely follow the Jews, exploding the mystery of the Trinity and of the Incarnation, as not agreeing with reason.  As if either God’s thoughts were our thoughts, or His ways our ways, which, as the Heavens are higher than the earth, so they are higher than our ways and our thoughts, Isaiah 55:8, 9:  or, therefore, mysteries not quite agreeable to reason deserve no faith, because man sees nothing similar in himself and other creatures.

31.  For, it is not permitted to speak of the mystery, or to think anything, without God revealing.

Something is certainly τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, known or knowable of God, namely, His eternal power and Divinity, Romans 1:19, 20, from which knowledge and thing known it is permitted to man to reason.  But concerning that which is a μυστήριον/mystery/secret, it is not permitted to man to say or to know anything, except what God has revealed as to be said and thought.  Now, that there is mystery in God, higher than human thought and comprehension, even natural reason itself teaches, which recognizes θειότητα/Divinity/Godhead, the Divine Majesty and loftiness of God, dwelling in light inaccessible,[2] so that God is not like unto ἀνθρώπου ἐνθυμήσει, man’s thought (Acts 17:29[3]).  To whom will ye liken God Almighty? and what likeness will ye compare to Him? Isaiah 40:18.  To whom will ye liken me, and shall I be equal? saith the Holy One? verse 25.  Which is to be referred, not to the figure of the body alone, but to every concept of the mind that man is able to form.  For what does man understand, except what is imperfect?  Therefore, if to us God reveals anything in our words, that is always to be accepted by us in a manner that agrees, not with our reason and thinks, but with His surpassing greatness.  Therefore that, because of which God is loved, as the God of the sinner, as justifying the ungodly,[4] as having a Son, through whom He is able to justify the sinner; since He is not able to be known from those things that are and are done in the whole world, or to be discovered by any reason, is certainly not the dictate of reason, but a mystery, which revelation alone opens to us.  Whence, since the Apostle called it the mystery of God the Father and of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Colossians 2:2, 3, in verse 8 he immediately exhorts:  Beware lest any man spoil you through Philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, and not after Christ.  That is to say, Beware of being persuaded, that nothing is to be believed by you, except the like of which is able to be discovered in created things by reason alone and the investigation of nature.

32.  Indeed, God revealed the mystery, not to the wise, but to babes, and every mind ought to be taken captive to the obedience of Christ.

But it is so far from being true, that Christ conceded the magisterium to reason, that He rather gave thanks to God, that He had hid these things from the understanding and wise, and had revealed them to νηπίοις/babes/infants, Matthew 11:25; and also said to His disciples, Except ye be converted, and become ὡς παιδία, as little children, ye shall not enter the Kingdom of God, Matthew 18:3.  Hence also we are commanded to bring into captivity πᾶν νόημα, every mind/ thought, to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5:  while, if we listen to Socinus, Christ ought rather to be brought into captivity to the obedience of our νοήματος/mind and reason; and so our λογισμοὶ/reasonings/imaginations ought to be exalted, and not cast down.[5]  But, on the other hand, the prerogative of God and Christ, since it embraces the whole man, certainly comprehends the reason as much as the will:  so that a man ought to deny his whole self, and yield to God.  Therefore, just as we are bound to obey the Divine Law, in spite of the resistance of our will:  so also we are obliged to have faith in the word of God, in spite of the resistance of our reason desiring reason.  But if we believe only those things that are agreeable to reason, we give our assent now, not to the author, but to the things, which is wont to be furnished with witnesses of suspect trustworthiness.  Contrariwise, the more some mystery is above reason, the more honor those that embrace it show to to God:  the more noble the victory of faith is.

[1] Valentinus Smalcius (1572-1622) was a German Socinian theologian.  He translated the Racovian Catechism into German (probably having had a hand in the Catechism’s original composition), and the Racovian New Testament into Polish.

[2] 1 Timothy 6:16.

[3] Acts 17:29:  “Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device (ἐνθυμήσεως ἀνθρώπου).”

[4] See Romans 4:5.

[5] 2 Corinthians 10:5:  “Casting down imaginations (λογισμοὺς καθαιροῦντες), and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought (πᾶν νόημα) to the obedience of Christ…”