Prophetic divinity; criterion of the sign (Hebrew and Greek); external catholic testimony
(3) The divinity, majesty, sharpness, and wonderful force and efficacy of prophecy (Hebrews 4:12; James 1:21; 2 Timothy 3:15; Romans 1:16; Luke 24:32; John 6:68) — which even Stenius from the papal flock acknowledges in the opening of his Cosmopoeia.
The criterion of the sign is one thing for the Old Testament, another for the New. The Old Testament's is the Hebrew tongue, by Justin's witness in Apology 2 for the Christians — except a few pericopes in Daniel, Ezra, and Jeremiah written in the Chaldean idiom. Whether Arabic and Syriac words are sometimes mixed into Job — to say nothing of Greek words — is a deeper inquiry; on which see M. Mayer's Sacred Philology page 151. The New Testament's is the Greek tongue, in which the whole is written — though Baronius, Annals volume 1 at year 45, holds that Mark wrote not in Greek but in Latin, and wins assent from Kirsten in the preface to his Arabic Grammar page 36; and concerning Matthew's Gospel the matter is more tangled — consult Flacius Illyricus in the preface to the Gloss on Matthew, Isaac Casaubon Exercises 15 chapter 1 page 279 and 16 chapter 15 page 485, Johannes Drusius Observations on the New Testament chapter 1, and others.
But the external criterion is the catholic testimony of the primitive and true church concerning each Testament's autograph — from which, in the time of Ezra and Malachi, the Old Testament canon was constituted, and the New's in the time of the Apostolic men and was finished by John the Apocalyptist. For that reason, if there are any sacred books that lack testimony from the autograph and against which the church that flourished when the canon was set has catholically contradicted, they are not trustworthy.
Latin
3. prophetiae divinitatem, majestatem, acumen & mirabilem vim atque efficaciam, Heb. 4.v.12. Jac. 1.v.21. 2. Tim. 3.v.15. Rom. 1.v.16. Luc. 24.v.32. Joh. 6.v.68. Quam etiam agnoscit e pontificiorum grege Stenhus in principio Cosmopoeiae. Momentum signi aliud est Veteris Testamenti, aliud Novi. V.T. est lingua Hebraea, teste Justino Apol. 2. pro Christianis, exceptis pauculis pericopis in Daniele, Esdra & Jeremia, quae Chaldaico idiomate scriptae sunt. An vero in Jobo interdum Arabicae & Syrae voces admixtae sint, ut de Graecis nihil dicam, altioris est indaginis, qua de re videas M. Majeri Philologiam sacram p. 151. N.T. est lingua Graeca, qua totum scriptum est, licet Baronius tom. 1. annalium ad an. 45. statuat Marcum non Graece, sed Latine scripsisse, & suffragium impetret a Kirstenio praefat. Gramm. Arabicae p. 36. deque Euangelio Matthaei res sit intricatio, de qua consule Flacium Illyricum praefatione Glossae ad Matthaeum, Isaacum Casaubonum exerc. 15. cap. 1. p. 279. & exerc. 16. cap. 15. p. 485. Joh. Drusium obs. in N.T. cap. 1. & alios. Externum vero momentum est testimonium catholicum primitivae & verae ecclesiae de utriusque testamenti autographo, ex quo, tempore Esdrae & Malachiae canon veteris testamenti, Novi autem, tempore virorum Apostolicorum constitutus & a Johanne Apocalypta absolutus est. Hacpropter si qui sunt libri sacri, qui testimonium ab autographo non habent & quibus inde ab ecclesia, quae tempore canonis constituti floruit, catholice contradicitum fuit, non sunt axiopistoi.