Wednesday, October 25, 2017

William Whitaker: Human reasonings and testimonies ... are like the armour of Saul.


Image: William Whitaker (1547-1595)


As part of preparation to teach on the topic “Canon and Reformation” at Redeeming Grace BC in Matthews, Virginia this weekend, I’ve been reading over the opening to William Whitaker’s A Disputation on Holy Scriptures (Soli Deo Gloria reprint, original 1588, English translation, 1849). In the Preface, Whitaker notes his choice of weapon in his polemics:

Our arms shall be the sacred scriptures, that sword and shield of the word, that tower of David, upon which a thousand bucklers hang, and all the armour of the mighty, the sling and the pebbles of the brook wherewith David stretched upon the ground that gigantic and haughty Philistine. Human reasonings and testimonies, if one use them too much or out of place, are like the armour of Saul, which was so far from helping David that it rather unfitted him for the conflict (p. 19).


JTR

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