comforts of thy life. Let this revive thee, that shortly thou shalt enjoy God, and then shalt have more than tliou canst ask or think ; thou shalt have angels' joy, — glory without intermission or expiration. We shall never enjoy ourselves fully till we en- joy God eternally.
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OF THE SCRIPTURES.
Quest. II. WHAT rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him ?
Ans. The word of God (which is con- tained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament) is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.
2 Tim. iii. IG., " All scripture is given by inspiration of God," &c. By scripture is understood the sacred book of God. It is given by divine inspiration, that is, the scripture is not the contrivance of man's brain, but of a divine original. The image of Diana was had in veneration by the E- phesians, because they did suppose it fell from Jupiter, Acts xix. 213. This book then of the holy scripture is to be highly reverenced and esteemed, because we are sure it came from heaven, 2 Pet. i. 21. The two Testaments are the two lips by which God hath spoken to us.
Q. How doth it appear that the scriptures have a jus divinum, ' a divine authority' stamped upon them ?
A. Because the Old and New Testament are the foundation of all religion. If their divinity cannot be proved, the foundation is gone on which we build our faith. J shall therefore endeaA^our to ev'ince this gi-eat truth, that the scriptures are the very word of God. I wonder whence the scrip- ture should come, if not from God ! — I. Bad men could not be the authors of scripture. Would their minds be employed in indicting such holy lines? Would they declare so fiercely against sin ? — 2. Good men could not be the authors of scripture. Could they write in such a strain ? or could it stand with their grace to counterfeit God's name, and put, " Tluis saith the Lord," to a book of their own devising ? — 3. Nor could any angel in heaven be the author of scripture :
Because, 1. Tlie angels pry and search into the abyss of gospel-mysteries, 1 Pet. i. 12., which implies their nescience of some parts of scripture ; and sure they cannot be au- thors of that book which themselves do not fully understand. Besides, 2. VHiat angel in heaven durst be so arrogant as to perso- nate God, and say, " I create," Isa. Ixv. 17., and " I the Lord have said it," Numb. xiv. 35. ? So that it is evident, the pedigree of scripture is sacred, and it could come from none but God himself.
Not to speak of the harmonious consent of all the parts of scrij)ture, there are seven cogent arguments which may evince it to be the word of God.
1. By its antiquity. It is of ancient stand- ing. The gray hairs of scripture make it venerable. No human histories extant reach farther than since Noah's flood ; but the holy scripture relates matters of fact that have been from the beginning of the world ; it writes of things before time. Now, that is a sure rule of Tertullian, " That which is of the greatest antiquity, — idverum qvod primiim, — is to be received as most sa- cred and authentic."
2. We may know the scripture to be the word of God, by the miraculous preserva- tion of it in all ages. The holy scriptures are the richest jewel that Christ hath left ; and the church of God. hath kept these public records of heaven Uiat they have not been lost. The word of God liath never wanted enemies to oppose, and, if possible, to extirpate it. They have given out a law, concerning scripture, as Pharaoh did the midwives concerning the Hebrew woiy.en's children, to strangle it in the birth ; yet God hath preserved this blessed book in- violable to this day. The devil and his a-
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OF THE SCKIPTURES.
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gents have been blowing at scripture light, but could never prevail to blow it out, — a clear sign that it was lighted from heaven. Nor hath the church of God, in all revolu- tions and changes, only kept the scripture that it should not be lost, but that it should not be depraved. The letter of scripture hath been preserved, without any corrup- tion, in the original tongues. The scrip- tures were not corrupted before Christ's time, for then Christ would never have sent the Jews to the scriptures; but he sends them to the scriptures, John v. 39., " Search the scriptures." Christ knew these sacred springs were not muddied with human fan- cies.