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E
CHAPTER 9.
FANATICS, ABANDONING SCRIPTURE AND
FLYING OVER TO REVELATION, CAST DOWN
ALL THE PRINCIPLES OF GODLINESS

1. THE FANATICS WRONGLY APPEAL TO THE HOLY SPIRIT

b
Furthermore, those who, having forsaken Scripture, imagine some way or
other of reaching God, ought to be thought of as not so much gripped by
error as carried away with frenzy. For of late, certain giddy men have
arisen who, with great haughtiness exalting the teaching office of the Spirit,
despise all reading and laugh at the simplicity of those who, as they
express it, still follow the dead and killing letter. f294 But I should like to
know from them what this spirit is by whose inspiration they are borne
up so high that they dare despise the Scriptural doctrine as childish and
mean. For if they answer that it is the Spirit of Christ, such assurance is
utterly ridiculous. Indeed, they will, I think, agree that the apostles of
Christ and other believers of the primitive church were illumined by no
other Spirit. Yet no one of them thence learned contempt for God’s Word;
rather, each was imbued with greater reverence as their writings most
splendidly attest, eAnd indeed it had thus been foretold through the mouth
of Isaiah. For where he says, “My Spirit which is in you, and the words
that I have put in your mouth, will not depart from your mouth, nor from
the mouth of your seed…forever” [ <235921>Isaiah 59:21 p., cf. Vg.], he does
not bind the ancient folk to outward doctrine as if they were learning their
ABC’s; rather, he teaches that under the reign of Christ the new church
will have this true and complete happiness: to be ruled no less by the
voice of God than by the Spirit. Hence we conclude that by a heinous
sacrilege these rascals tear apart those things which the prophet joined
together with an inviolable bond. Besides this, Paul, “caught up even to
the third heaven” [<471202>2 Corinthians 12:2], yet did not fail to become
proficient in the doctrine of the Law and the Prophets, just as also he
urges Timothy, a teacher of singular excellence, to give heed to reading
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[<540413>1 Timothy 4:13]. And worth remembering is that praise with which
he adorns Scripture, that it “is useful for teaching, admonishing, and
reproving in order that the servants of God may be made perfect” [ <550316>2
Timothy 3:16-17 p.]. What devilish madness is it to pretend that the use
of Scripture, which leads the children of God even to the final goal, is
fleeting or temporal?
b
Then, too, I should like them to answer me whether they have drunk of
another spirit than that which the Lord promised his disciples. Even if
they are completely demented, yet I do not think that they have been
seized with such great dizziness as to make this boast. But in promising it,
of what sort did he declare his Spirit would be? One that would speak not
from himself but would suggest to and instill into their minds what he had
handed on through the Word [<431613>John 16:13]. Therefore the Spirit,
promised to us, has not the task of inventing new and unheard-of
revelations, or of forging a new kind of doctrine, to lead us away from the
received doctrine of the gospel, but of sealing our minds with that very
doctrine which is commended by the gospel.

2. THE HOLY SPIRIT IS RECOGNIZED IN HIS AGREEMENT

WITH SCRIPTURE
b
From this we readily understand that we ought zealously to apply
ourselves both to read and to hearken to Scripture if indeed we want to
receive any gain and benefit from the Spirit of God — eeven as Peter
praises the zeal of those who were attentive to the prophetic teaching,
which nevertheless could be seen to have given up its place after the light
of the gospel dawned [<610119>2 Peter 1:19]. bBut on the contrary, if any
spirit, passing over the wisdom of God’s Word, foists another doctrine
upon us, he justly deserves to be suspected of vanity and lying
[<480106>Galatians 1:6-9]. What then? Since “Satan disguises himself as an
angel of light” <471114>[2 Corinthians 11:14], what authority will the Spirit
have among us, unless he be discerned by a most certain mark? And he is
very clearly pointed out to us by the voice of the Lord: except that these
miserable folk willingly prefer to wander to their doom, while they seek
the Spirit from themselves rather than from him. Yet, indeed, they contend
that it is not worthy of the Spirit of God, to whom all things ought to be
subject, himself to be subject to Scripture. As if, indeed, this were
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ignominy for the Holy Spirit to be everywhere equal and in conformity
with himself, to agree with himself in all things, and to vary in nothing! To
be sure, if the Spirit were judged by the rule of men, or of angels, or of
anything else, then one would have to regard him as degraded, or if you
like, reduced to bondage; but when he is compared with himself, when he
is considered in himself, who will on this account say that injustice is done
him? Nevertheless, he is thus put to a test, I confess, but a test by which
it pleased him to establish his majesty among us. He ought to be sufficient
for us as soon as he penetrates into us. But lest under his sign the spirit of
Satan should creep in, he would have us recognize him in his own image,
which he has stamped upon the Scriptures. He is the Author of the
Scriptures: he cannot vary and differ from himself. Hence he must ever
remain just as he once revealed himself there. This is no affront to him,
unless perchance we consider it honorable for him to decline or degenerate
from himself.

3. WORD AND SPIRIT BELONG INSEPARABLY TOGETHER

b
They censure us for insisting upon the letter that kills, f295 but in this
matter they pay the penalty for despising Scripture. For it is clear enough
that Paul there [ <470306>2 Corinthians 3:6] contends against the false apostles,
who indeed, in commending the law apart from Christ, were calling the
people away from the benefits of the New Testament, in which the Lord
covenants “to engrave his law in the inward parts of believers, and to write
it in their hearts” [<243133>Jeremiah 31:33 p.]. The letter, therefore, is dead,
and the law of the Lord slays its readers where it both is cut off from
Christ’s grace [<470306>2 Corinthians 3:6] and, leaving the heart untouched,
sounds in the ears alone. But if through the Spirit it is really branded upon
hearts, if it shows forth Christ, f296 it is the word of life [cf.
<500316>
Philippians 3:16] “converting souls giving wisdom to little ones,” etc.
[ <191808>
Psalm 18:8, Vg.; 19: 7, EV]. What is more, in the very same place the
apostle calls his preaching “the ministration of the Spirit” [<470308>2
Corinthians 3:8], meaning, doubtless, that the Holy Spirit so inheres in His
truth, which He expresses in Scripture, that only when its proper
reverence and dignity are given to the Word does the Holy Spirit show
forth His power. And what has lately been said f298 —that the Word itself is
not quite certain for us unless it be confirmed
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by the testimony of the Spirit — is not out of accord with these things.
For by a kind of mutual bond the Lord has joined together the certainty of
his Word and of his Spirit so that the perfect religion of the Word may
abide in our minds when the Spirit, who causes us to contemplate God’s
face, shines; and that we in turn may embrace the Spirit with no fear of
being deceived when we recognize him in his own image, namely, in the
Word.
So indeed it is. God did not bring forth his Word among men for the sake
of a momentary display, intending at the coming of his Spirit to abolish it.
Rather, he sent down the same Spirit by whose power he had dispensed
the Word, to complete his work by the efficacious confirmation of the
Word.
In this manner Christ opened the minds of two of his disciples [<422427>Luke
24:27, 45], not that they should cast away the Scriptures and become wise
of themselves, but that they should know the Scriptures. Similarly Paul,
while he urges the Thessalonians not to “quench the Spirit” [<520519>1
Thessalonians 5:19-20], does not loftily catch them up to empty
speculations without the Word, but immediately adds that prophecies are
not to be despised. By this, no doubt, he intimates that the light of the
Spirit is put out as soon as prophecies fall into contempt. What say these
fanatics, swollen with pride, f298 who consider this the one excellent
illumination when, carelessly forsaking and bidding farewell to God’s
Word, they, no less confidently than boldly, seize upon whatever they
may have conceived while snoring? Certainly a far different sobriety befits
the children of God, who just as they see themselves, without the Spirit of
God, bereft of the whole light of truth, so are not unaware that the Word is
the instrument by which the Lord dispenses the illumination of his Spirit
to believers. For they know no other Spirit than him who dwelt and spoke
in the apostles, and by whose oracles they are continually recalled to the
hearing of the Word.