I’m anxious to see what you folks find interesting in chapter 7 of book 1 of the institutes. On my first reading through, I felt it was addressing an improper designation of spiritual authority in the church; however, I now see it as a marvelous insight into the role of Holy Spirit both in the individual and the local church. Calvin asks the rhetorical question: who can or who has the spiritual authority to define that the scriptures are the Word of God? The common sense answer is no-one – only God; however because scripture is the Word of God it bears the clear evidence of its truth. This sounds like a rhetorical answer to a rhetorical question until Calvin develops the role of the Holy Spirit in our Christian lives. The Holy Spirit provides the assurance, for us, that holy scripture proceeds from God. Calvin uses a wonderful verse from Isaiah chapter 59 (verse 21) to support this point: “As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit, who is on you, will not depart from you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will always be on your lips, on the lips of your children and on the lips of their descendants—from this time on and forever,” says the LORD. “ – pretty good. There is a point that Calvin makes in this dialog: “waxing stronger in our faith, we are able to understand what we believe … with God Himself internally strengthening and illuminating our mind”. Through others and the local church, we may first encounter Jesus Christ and called to Him we find faith; however as we seek to know Him better our faith increases (e.g. waxing stronger) and our understanding of what we believe increases. Calvin has brought Jesus Christ, God the Father and the Holy Spirit together at the focus point of holy scripture to define the spiritual attribute understanding. In seven chapters, he’s managed to define the three spiritual attributes which govern our relationship with God: wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Calvin also has a nice dialog on some Augustine quotes and their relationship to Manichaeism. Manichaeism was pretty much gone by Calvin’s time however in the time of Augustine it was one of the largest religions in the world with recognized followers from Western Europe to China. Founded by the Persian Zoroastrian priest Mani, Manichaeism had a mixed theological base that was borrowed from the ancient Persian religion Zoroastrianism as well as Christianity and Buddhism. It was poplar primarily with educated, upper-class people – thus Augustine’s focus; though if you think of Gamaliel’s statement to the Sanhedrin in the book of Acts, chapter 5 (verses 33-39): “if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God”. I don’t believe Calvin is “worried” about other religions or their scriptures; the Holy Spirit is our guarantee of salvation through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit confirms the truth of God’s Word by increased understanding of what we read in holy scripture and believe in – that is the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our Savior. Note Paul in the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, verses 11-14 making the same dialog on the role of the Holy Spirit:  ^“In him we were also chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory. And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory. “ I like Calvin’s choice of words for the unobstructed obvious: ”How shall we distinguish light from darkness, white from black, sweet from bitter …” thus is our ability to distinguish the truth in divinely inspired scripture if we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I liked this chapter and Calvin’s dialog, I feel he leaves just one hanging premise in one of the syllogisms – that is: the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, in Christians, develops a uniformity in our understanding of divinely inspired, holy, scripture. I hope he picks up on this thread in a future chapter.