"I wish that you were not so addicted to the letter of Scripture, thus withdrawing your heart from the teaching of the Spirit . . . You should much rather interpret the Scripture as a confirmation of your conscience, so that it testifies to the heart and not against it. Again, you should not believe and accept something (merely) reported by Scripture – and feel that the God in your heart must yield to Scripture . . . Saint Paul speaks not in vain (2 Cor. 3:6) that the letter killeth. And yet it is (precisely visible letters) which almost all and especially the learned divines consider to be the sole, pre-eminent word of God – supposing God’s word really could be written – and the sole teacher . . . I . . . hold completely that the intention of the Lord does not reside precisely in the rind of Scripture. We ought always in all matters to notice what God says in us, to pay attention to the witness of our hearts, and never to think, or act, against our conscience. For everything does not hang upon the bare letter of Scripture; everything hangs, rather, on the spirit of Scripture and on a spiritual understanding of the inner meaning of what God has said.
If we weigh every matter carefully we shall find its true meaning in the depth of our spiritual understanding and by the mind of Christ. Otherwise, the dead letter of Scripture would make us all heretics and fools, for EVERYTHING can be bedecked and defended with texts; therefore let nobody confound himself and confuse himself with Scripture, but let every one weigh and test Scripture to see how it fits his own heart. If it is against his conscience and the Word within his own soul, then be sure he has not reached the right meaning, according to the mind of the Spirit, for the Scriptures must give witness to the Spirit, never against it.
"[T]he letter . . . of Scripture cannot be the testing stone and the final scales for discerning the spirits . . . Thus, because the letter of Scripture is cloven and divided in itself, all sects arise from it. One pricks the dead letter here, another pricks it there. This one understands it as it is written here, the other, as it is written there. Only a free, non-sectarian, party-less Christianity which is not bound by any of these things, but stands freely on God’s word, in the Spirit, . . . is of God . . . I do not think much of any splinter group or sect. Everyone without question can be pious by himself, wherever he is."
Sebastian Franck,
16 century Protestant mystic
Photo: Pasqueflowers appear to be lit from within as they sprout from a burned area; Hewlett Burn, Poudre Canyon, Roosevelt National Forest, CO; April 8, 2014
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