Augustine on Scripture

[From Book VI, chapter 5 of Augustine's Confessions, which we have been studying in Sunday school at Kosmosdale Baptist Church]:

1. Scripture is necessary:

Since then we were too weak to find out truth by reason alone: for this very reason we needed the authority of Holy Writ;

2. Scripture is authoritative:

I had now begun to believe that You would never have given such excellency of authority to the Bible in all lands, had You not willed thereby to be believed in, thereby sought. For now those things in the Scripture that sounded strange and had previously offended me, having heard many of them expounded satisfactorily, I referred to the depth of the mysteries, and its authority appeared to me the more venerable, and more worthy of religious credence,

3. Scripture is clear:

Its plain language and simple style make it accessible to everyone, and yet it absorbs the attention of the learned.

4. Scripture is sufficient to lead to salvation:

By this means it gathers all men in the wide sweep of its net, and some pass safely through the narrow mesh and come to You.