SERMON XXIX.
Se-nctify them tJirough thy truth : thy luord is truth. — John XVII. 17.
Secondly, The church hath owned the word. You see how God hath owned it ; he saith it is my word. Let us see how the church hath owned it. Here I shall show three things : —
1. What is the church's duty to the word.
2. What credit and value we ought to put on the church's tes- timony.
3. How the church hath witnessed to the word in all ages.
1. What is the church's duty ? To keep the word, and to transmit it pure to the next age, that nothing be added, nothing diminished ; that it be published to the present age, and transmitted pure to the next: Eom. iii. 2, ' Unto them were committed the oracles of God.' We are trustees : Jude 3, ' Earnestly contending for the faith that was once delivered to the saints : 1 Tim. iii. 15, ' The church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.' The church is to hold it forth, as a pillar doth a proclamation, that it may not be lost and extinguished. This is the jewel Christ hath left his spouse, as the law was kept in the ark.
2. What respect we ought to bear to the church's testimony? To hearken to it till we have better evidence. We do not ultimately resolve our faith into the church's authority, for the authority of the church is not absolute, but ministerial ; as a royal edict doth not receive credit by the officer and crier, he only declareth it. Yet the church's testimony is not to be neglected ; for * faith comelh by hear- ing,' Eom. X. 14. It is a preparative inducement : John iv. 42, ' Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.' If we would know the truth of a thing before we have experience, go to them that have experience; the judgment of others, whom we respect and reverence, causeth us to have a good opinion of a thing till we make trial. The testimony of the church hath inclined us to
VeR. 17.] SERMONS UPON JOHN XVII. 451
thinlv that the scriptures are the word of God ; not that the church can make and unmake scripture when it pleaseth, as a messenger that carrieth letters from a king doth not give authority to them.
3. How the church hath witnessed to the truth of the scriptures in all ages ? Partly by tradition, partly by martyrdom.
[1.] By tradition. Holy books were indited one after another, according to the necessity of times, and still the latter confirmed the former. Moses was confirmed by Joshua, chap, xxiii. 6, ' Be ye courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses ; ' and Joshua and others by succeeding prophets ; and all were confirmed by Christ : Luke xxiv. 44, ' These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms concerning me ; ' for the New Testament, it was confirmed by all the suceeding ages of the church. Christians different in other things yet agreed these to be the writings of the apostles. So that we have a more general consent than we have about any other matter probable in the world. Men of excellent parts and learning, that were not apt to take matters on trust, all assent to scripture, as the public record for the trial of doctrines. When heirs wrangle, they go to the last will and testament.
[2.] By martyrdom. The patience and constancy of the martyrs, who have ratified this truth with the loss of their dearest concernments, yea, even of life itself: Kev. xii. 11, ' They overcame by the blood of the Lamb, and the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death.' It is possible that a man may suQer for a false religion, and sacrifice a stout body to a stubborn mind ; but because there is counterfeit coin, is there no true gold ? The devil's martyrs are neither so many for number, nor for temper and quality so holy, so wise, so meek, as Christ's champions. The christian religion can show you persons of all ages, young and old ; of all sexes, men and women ; of all conditions of life, noble and of low degree ; of all qualities, learned and unlearned ; persons that could not be suspected to be mopish or melancholy, or tired out with the inconveniences of an evil world, but were in a capacity to enjoy temporal things with the highest delight and sweetness, and yet counted not their lives dear to them, to confirm the truth of this word. What is dearer to men than life ? And this not out of any desire of vainglory, their death being accompanied with as many disgraceful as painful circumstances ; not out of any senseless stupidity, or fierceness of mind, they being of a meek temper, and blamed for nothing else but their constancy in asserting that truth which they professed ; not out of any confidence in their own strength, in bearing those horrible cruelties that were inflicted upon them, but humbly committing themselves to God, and imploring his strength, did deliberately and voluntarily give up them- selves to be cruelly butchered and tormented, as a testimony of the power of this truth upon their hearts ; some of them kissing the stake, thanking the executioner, others wrestling a while with flesh and blood and natural desires of life, yet, the love of the truth prevailing, came at length to encounter the horrors of a cruel death with a well- tempered constancy and resolution ; which certainly in so many