Well the only thing that I can think of right now is what Saint Peter Says:
Understanding this first, that no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation. [II Peter 1, 20]
20. Private. ] The Scriptures cannot be rightly expounded of every private spirit or fantasy of the vulgar reader: by the same spirit wherewith they were written, which is resident in the Church.
As also in all epistles, speaking in them of these things, in the which are certain things hard to be understood, which the unlearned and unstable deprave, as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own perdition. [II Peter 3, 16]
16. Certain things hard. ] This is a plain text to convince the Protestants, who (as all heretics lightly do and did from the beginning) say the Scriptures be easy to understand, and therefore maybe not only read safely, but also expounded boldly of all the people, as well unlearned as learned: and consequently everyone by himself and his private spirit, without respect of the expositions of the learned Fathers, or expectation of the Church's, their Pastors and Prelates judgment, may determine and make choice of such sense as himself liketh or thinketh agreeable. For this is partly their saying, partly the necessary sequel of their foolish opinion, which admitteth nothing but the bare Scriptures. And Luther said that the Scriptures were more plain than all the Fathers commentaries: and so all to be superfluous but the Bible. Prafat assert. art. damonat.
Against all which Devilish and seditious arrogancy, tending to make the people esteem themselves learned or sufficient without their Pastors and spiritual rulers help, to guide themselves in all matters of doctrine and doubts in religion: the holy Apostle here telleth and forewarneth the faithful, that the Scriptures be full of difficulty, and specially St. Paul's epistles of all other parts of holy writ. And that ignorant men and unstable or fantastical fellows puffed to and from with every blast of doctrine and heresy, abuse, pervert, and misconstrue them to their own damnation. And *St. Augustine saith, that the special difficulty in St. Paul's epistles, which ignorant and evil men do so pervert and which St. Peter meaneth, is his hard speech and much commendation of that faith which he saith doth justify. Which the ignorant even from the Apostle's time, and much more now, have and do so misconstrue, as though he had meant that only faith without good works could justify or save a man. Against which wicked collection and abuse of St. Paul's words, the said Father saith, all these Canonical or Catholic epistles were written.
But the Heretics here to shift off the matter, and to creep out after their fashion, answer, that St. Peter saith not, St. Paul's epistles be hard, but that many things in them are hard. Which may be to the Catholics an example of their sophistical evasions from the evidence of God's word. As though it were not all one to say, Such an author or writer is hard read. There be many things in that writer hard to be understood. For, whether it be that the argument and matter be high and past vulgar capacity, as that of predestination, reprobation, vocation of the Gentiles, and justifying faith: or whether his manner of style and writing be obscure: all prove that his epistles be hard, and other Scriptures also: because St. Peter here affirmeth that by reason of the difficulties in them, whether in the style, or in the depth of the matter, the ignorant and unstable (such as Heretics), and through ignorance, pride, and private fantasy, meeting with hard places of St. Paul's epistles or other Scriptures, breed Heresies.
And that not only the things treated of in the holy Scriptures, but also that the very manner of writing and enditing thereof, is high and hard, and purposely by God's providence appointed to be written in such sort, see St. Augustine li. 2 de doct. Christ. c. 6 and ep. 119. St. Ambrose ep. 44 in principio. St. Jerome to Paulinus ep. 103 c. 5,6,7. who also (ep. 65 c. 1) saith, that in his old age when he should rather have taught then be taught, he went as far as Alexandria, only to hear Didymus, and to have his help for the understanding of the Scriptures, and confesseth with great thanks to the said Didymus, that he learned of him that which before he knew not. David saith, Give me understanding, and I will search thy law. The Eunuch in the Acts said, “How can I understand without an interpreter?” The Apostles, till Christ opened their sense to understand the scriptures, could not understand them. The holy Doctors by continual study, watching, fasting, and praying, had much ado to understand them: that great cleric St. Augustine confessing in the foresaid epistle 119 c. 21, that there were many more things that he understood not, than that he understood. The Heretics say the Fathers did commonly err, and how could such grat wise learned men be deceived in reading and expounding the Scriptures, if they were not hard? And if they were hard to them, how are they easy to these new masters of the Heretics? Finally, why do they write so many new glosses, scholies, commentaries, as a cart cannot carry? Why do Luther, Zwinglius, Calvin, and their companions agree no better upon the interpretation of the Scriptures, if they be not hard? Whereat stumbled all the old heretics and the new, Arius, Macedonius, Vigilantius, Nestorius, Eutyches, Berengarius, Wyclif, Protestants, Puritans, Anabaptists, and the rest, but at the hardness of the Scriptures? They be hard then to understand, and Heretics pervert them to their own damnation.
