Annotatio I §.II: Literal sense wider than proper/improper — Scherzer on literal/logical sense and figures
A biblical proposition’s literal sense is wider than proper vs improper, and stretches equally to both with equal clarity.
An improper predication does not make the sense less literal, less true, or less matched to the speaker’s intent — the letter is open to impropriety no less than to propriety.
Scherzer puts it best: the literal or logical sense is what the Spirit first and proximately intends, whether in proper words or figurative speech; otherwise many biblical sayings would have no literal sense at all (Syst. Theol. I.§.24).
Latin
Quia literalis alicujus propositionis, etiam Biblicae, sensus, proprio impropriôque latior existit, & ad hos, etiam aequè perspicuos, perinde extensus: neque enim sensus alicujus propositionis biblicae minus literalis, i. e. minùs verus genuinus & dicentis menti ac intentioni minus conformis, quin & minus perspicuus, remanet, si impropria, quam si propria facta sit praedicatio, litera propositionis, unà cum perspicuitate sua, Improprietati non minùs, quàm Proprietati, obnoxia, vel ab ista non minus quam ab hac, afficienda. Unde rectissimè Scherzerus: Ad perspicuitatem, inquit, pertinet omnino sensus literalis seu Logicus, i. e. quem Spiritus S. per se primo & proximè intendit, sive propriis verbis, sive figurato sermonis genere efferatur. Si enim sensus literalis solùm propriis verbis proferretur, plures orationes Biblicae nullum haberent sensum literalem, quod absurdum, System. Theol. loc. 1. §. 24. p. m. 24. in fin.