The Bereans; Moses, the Prophets, Christ, and the Apostles prove from Scripture
3. Take the Bereans. Day by day, and with praise, they tested against the Scriptures whether Paul's and Silas's preaching held (Acts 17:11). If Paul's doctrine could lawfully — and praiseworthily — be examined by Scripture, how much more may the Pope's determinations be brought to that same test? In the order of our knowing, then, it is plainer that Scripture does not deceive than that the Roman Church or the Pontiff does not.
4. Moses, the Prophets, Christ himself, and the Apostles show the same proving practice, and Scripture itself presses the same warnings. Moses: do whatever the priests teach you according to the Lord's law (Deuteronomy 24:8). Isaiah: to the law and to the testimony (Isaiah 8:20). David in Psalm 119: blessed are those who search God's testimonies. Christ answers the resurrection-denying Sadducees from the sacred letters alone (Matthew 22:29; Mark 12:24), and the Pharisees likewise (Matthew 22:43-Matthew 22:44). John the Baptist points to Isaiah as witness of his calling (Matthew 3:3). Across their epistles the Evangelists and Apostles both allege law and prophets for the articles of faith and proclaim Scripture's authority as a whole (2 Peter 1:19; 2 Timothy 3:15-2 Timothy 3:17).
These witnesses — and countless more that could be stacked here — seal the analytic proving we press against the papacy and other sophists. The whole method is this: theologians confirm theological and spiritual theorems, and the articles of faith, theologically — from Sacred Scripture's own principles — as the Apostle, teacher of the Gentiles, required in 1 Corinthians 2:4 and 1 Corinthians 2:13. No one is more analytic (ἀναλυτικώτερος) than he. First, he names the kind of proof by which he fixed the Corinthians' articles of faith: ἀπόδειξις, a spiritual demonstration that works in the soul. Second, he names what kind of conclusion and principles that demonstration must have: he fits spiritual principles to the spiritual or theological theorems that hold the articles of faith — not λόγοις ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας, the reasons of human wisdom that deceiving philosophy hands over.
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3. Ab exemplo Beroeensium, qui, quae Paulus & Silas praedicaverant, quotidie & cum laude ad scripturas examinaverunt, an ita se habeant, Act. 17.v.11. Si enim licuit & cum laude conjunctum fuit, Pauli doctrinam ad scripturas examinare, quanto magis licebit & laude dignum erit determinationes Papae ad scripturas exigere? Ex quo manifestum fit in ordine ad nostram cognitionem notius esse, scripturam non fallere, quam Ecclesiam Romanam sive Pontificem. 4. A Mosis, Prophetarum, CHRISTI ipsius & Apostolorum instituto probandi modo & admonitionibus a scriptura expressis: Facies, ait Moses, quodcunque te docuerint sacerdotes juxta legem Domini, Deut. 24.8. Et Esaias 8.20. Ad legem & testimonium. David Psal. 119. Beati, qui scrutantur testimonia DEI. Christus ipse Sadducaeos nonnisi e sacris literis confutat, negantes resurrectionem, Matth. 22.29. Marc. 12.24. & pharisaeos, Matth. 22.43.44. Sic Johannes Baptista testem suae vocationis laudat Esaiam, Matth. 3.3. Omnes denique Euangelistae & Apostoli in epistolis suis non solum testimonia legis & prophetarum in probandis articulis fidei allegant, sed & auctoritatem scripturarum universim praedicant, 2.Pet.1.19. 2.Tim.3.15.16.17. Haec & alia innumera, quae huc referri possent, analyticam hanc probandi rationem, quam adversus papatum & alios sophistas urgemus, maxime confirmant, quae in hoc tota consistit, ut Theologi theologica seu spiritualia theoremata & articulos fidei theologice, hoc est, e propriis sacrae Scripturae principiis confirment, ut Apostolus gentium doctor monuit 1.Cor.2.4.13. quo nemo ἀναλυτικώτερος esse potest. Nam 1. docet, quonam genere probationis usus sit ad stabiliendos Corinthiis articulos fidei, nimirum ἀποδείξει demonstratione spirituali & in animis efficaci. 2. Cujus generis & conditionis esse oporteat ejus demonstrationis conclusionem & principia, cum ait se spiritualibus seu theologicis theorematis, quibus articuli fidei continentur, spiritualia principia aptare, non autem λόγοις ἀνθρωπίνης σοφίας rationes humanae sapientiae, quas philosophia deceptrix subministrat.