Excellence and Dignity of Sacred Scripture
The supreme excellence, dignity, and authority of Sacred Scripture as God's own letter to humanity, surpassing all human learning and philosophy, containing divine wisdom that illumines, converts, and sanctifies. God employed His pen to set before us living images of divine things; the sacred books are letters written by God to us and indubitable witnesses of the divine will.
Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture
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Section One
— The universe is a book of divinity, but Scripture is a superior revelation: God employed another pen to set before us living images of divine things.
"It therefore seemed good to the divine and boundless goodness — that is, to the most wise scribe, writing swiftly and with wondrous condescension — to employ another pen, to set before us other tablets"
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Section One
— Scripture described as letters written by God to us, a domestic oracle surpassing Apollo's tripod, where God Himself speaks.
"how wonderful it is to have always at hand the sacred books of divine Scripture — the very letters, I say, written by God to us, and the indubitable witnesses of the divine will"
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Section One
— St. Charles Borromeo read Scripture with bare head and bended knee, treating it as the oracle of God.
"St. Charles Borromeo was thinking when he used to read Sacred Scripture, as if they were the oracles of God, only with bare head, and bended knee, reverently reading"
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Section One
— St. Gregory rebukes Theodore for negligent Scripture reading: Scripture is a letter from Almighty God to His creature.
"The Emperor of heaven, the Lord of angels and men, has sent his letters to you for your life, and you neglect to read them eagerly! For what is Sacred Scripture but a kind of letter from Almighty God to his creature?"
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Chapter II: On the Object and Breadth of Sacred Scripture
— Scripture is an incomprehensible sphere of learning whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere, being the Word of the divine mind.
"It is an incomprehensible sphere of learning whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere — for Sacred Scripture is the Word of God"