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A most pernicious error has very generally prevailed; viz.,that Scripture is of importance only in so far as conceded to it by the suffrage of the Church; as if the eternal and inviolable truth of God could depend on the will of men. With great insult to the Holy Spirit, it is asked, who can assure us that the Scriptures proceeded from God; who guarantee that they have come down safe and unimpaired to our times; who persuade us that this book is to be received with reverence, and that one expunged from the list, did not the Church regulate all these things with certainty? On the determination of the Church, therefore, it is said, depend both the reverence which is due to Scripture, and the books which are to be admitted into the canon.

I would be interested in hearing what our Catholic FRiends have to say about this chapter, especially the second paragraph of the first section:

Are you sure about that? :-)

Calvin here sets up a false dichotomy -- that the Canon is either protected and defined by God, or it is protected and defined by the Church.

Of course, the answer is that God guides the Church in the protecting and definition of the Canon.

As with so many other things, the Protestant refuses to contemplate the Incarnation and how God works through man to accomplish His goals.

(For what it's worth, I have never heard a Cahtolic say the Bible depends on the "suffrage" of the Church, or that it depended on the will of man. Instead, as I have said, it is the Holy Spirit working through man.)