John Calvin's view of Scripture

"[2] Calvin compares Scripture to being like a pair of spectacles, that enable us to properly interpret what we see in creation:[3] For as the aged, or those whose sight is defective, when any book, however fair, is set before them, though they perceive that there is something written, are scarcely able to make out two consecutive words, but, when aided by glasses, begin to read distinctly, so Scripture, gathering together the impressions of Deity, which, till then, lay confused in our minds, dissipates the darkness, and shows us the true God clearly.

John Murray has suggested that the distinction between the authority intrinsic to Scripture, and our persuasion that it is authoritative is not "as clearly formulated in Calvin as we might desire.

"[14] Calvin believed that Scripture possesses "a divine majesty which will subdue our presumptuous opposition, and force us to do it homage.

It is not particularly eloquent, for that would detract from its message: The sublime mysteries of the kingdom of heaven have for the greater part been delivered with a contemptible meanness of words.

But now, when an unpolished simplicity, almost bordering on rudeness, makes a deeper impression than the loftiest flights of oratory, what does it indicate if not that the Holy Scriptures are too mighty in the power of truth to need the rhetorician’s art?