First of all, observe hence, that,
Ohs. The foundation of faith vinst be out of a man's self.
That bottom that a man must lay his soul upon, must be out of himself : it must be divine, it must be God. For the soul rests not till it come to God.* And if the word were not God's word, it would not rest on that. God must open himself by his word. It must be divine revelation that the soul must stand upon, and at last resolve to pitch, and build, and rest there. It must not be human authority, therefore, not the authority of any creature that the soul must stand on ; because that that the soul stands on, must stand itself. Now nothing hath a firm consistence, but that which is divine : which I prove thus, there is no creature, but though it be true and good, jet it is changeably true, and may be otherwise than it is, and yet be a creature still, and a good creature. There is no man but he is changeable, and is changeable as a creature, and as a creature severed from the consideration of sin he is changeable. The very angels are changeable as they are creatures. All things created are mutable. It is the observation of Damascene.!
Now that that is the foundation of faith must not only be true, but infallibly and unchangeably true : there must be no danger of error in that that faith lays itself upon. It is an old rule, falsehood cannot be under faith, because faith must lie upon truth, infallible and immutable truth ; and who is so but God ? and what revealed truth is so, but divine truth ? Therefore faith only relieth upon the first good, and the fu'st truth, upon God and his truth.
Therefore we may see what to judge of that controversy between us and our adversaries, that would have our faith to be resolved into the authority of the church, and not of the Scriptures, and by consequent, not to the authority of God himself.
The question is. Who hath the best standing, the papists or we ? We say v/e stand by faith, therefore we stand better than they. They say they stand by faith too, but how ? Their faith is resolved into the autho- rity of the church at length, and there they rest. But I say, even by the confession of themselves, or of any reasonable man, the word of God is * See Note h, vol. I. p. 294.— G. t See notejjj.—G.
2 CORINTHIANS CHAP. I, VER. 24. 523
more divine than the authority of the church can be. For the authority of the church is therefore infaUible and true, because the word of God saith so, that ' he will be with the church,' &c., and save his church. The ground is determined upon the word.
Now the word to which they have recourse, to prove that they cannot err, that must be trusted before them. If they have credit from the v.-oi'd, the word must be beheved before them, before men ; for there is no man, if God speak by him, but he speaks by him so far as he understands the Scripture, and buikls upon the Scriptures first. Therefore we must first found ourselves upon the Scriptures, and upon men as far as they agree to the Scriptures.
If the Scriptm-es were not the word of God indeed, they could not be the foundation of faith, we could not stand upon them ; but they are the word of God indeed, for men wrote as ' they were inspired by the Holy Ghost,' 2 Tim. iii. 16. Now that that comes from men it is not infallibly the word of God ; but if they speak anything that is good, it is so far as it is agi'ee- able to the first truth, the word of God.
Indeed, the resolution of their faith is very rotten and unsound, and bewrays what their church is ; for they come at length in the gi'and point of all, to mere traditions. What is the present church ? The pope is the church virtually. How do they know that he cannot err ? He is Peter's successor ! How do they know he is so ? The Scriptures saith not so. It is tradition. So that the foundation of their religion is mere tradition, a thing from hand to hand, that is questionable and uncertain. That is the foundation of all their religion. What a resolution of faith is this !
We stand upon this against the gates of hell, and against all temptations and trials whatsoever. We believe, and fasten our souls upon this truth. Why ? It is the word of God. How do we know it is the word of God '? Indeed the church first of all hath an inducing, leading power, persuading to read, and to hear the word of God, and to unfold the word by the ministry ; and that is all that the church doth. But when we hear this, there is a divine intrinsical majesty in the word itself, by which I know the word to be the word. How do I know light to be light ? From itself. It gives evidence from itself. So divine light in the Scriptures gives light of itself to all those for whom the Scripture was penned. For whom was the Scripture penned ? For God's people. To all that have gracious hearts, the word carries its own evidence with it. As light carries its own evidence, it discovers itself and all things else ; so doth the Scriptui'es, ' You have a sm-e word of the prophets,' 2 Pet. i. 19.