1. The Sacred Scripture, or Word, Is Divine Truth Itself

Everyone says that the Word comes from God, is Divinely inspired, and so is holy. But even so, no one has known before this wherein the Divinity in it lies. For in its letter the Word appears as though written in the ordinary way, in a foreign style, neither as sublime or nor as lucid as writings of the present age seem to be.

As a result, a person who worships nature as God, or in preference to God, and so thinks prompted by self and his own self-interest, and not prompted by heaven in response to the Lord, may easily fall into error regarding the Word, and into scorning it, and when reading it, saying to himself, “What is this? What is that? Is this Divine? Can God, whose wisdom is infinite, speak so? Where is the holiness in it, and what makes it holy, other than some teaching of religion and so conviction?”

81. Because every single constituent of the Word contains such a marriage, we find therefore many times in the Word paired expressions which seem to be repetitious of the same idea. They are, however, not repetitious, but one expression relates to goodness and the other to truth, and the two taken together produce a combination of them so as to form a single concept. This, too, is what accounts for the Divinity of the Word and its holiness; for present in every Divine work is goodness combined with truth, and truth combined with goodness.

50. The Church’s Doctrine Must Be Drawn from the Word’s Literal Sense and Verified by It

In the preceding section we showed that in its literal sense the Word is in its fullness, in its holiness, and in its power. And because the Lord embodies the Word — inasmuch as He is the totality of the Word — it follows that the Lord is most present in that sense, and that He teaches and enlightens a person in the light of it.

This, however, needs to be demonstrated according to the following outline:

1. The Word is not understood apart from doctrine.

2. Doctrine must be drawn from the Word’s literal sense.

3. However, Divine truth, of which doctrine ought to consist, is apparent only to people who are enlightened by the Lord.