(1.) The church is said to be the pillar and ground of truth, 1 Tim. iii. 15; which is the only text pleaded with any sobriety to give countenance unto the assertion of the authority of the Scripture with respect unto us to depend on the authority of the church. But the weakness of a plea to that purpose from hence hath been so fully manifested by many already that it needs no more to be insisted on. In short, it cannot be so the pillar and ground of truth that the truth should be, as it were, built and rest upon it as its foundation ; for this is directly contrary to the same apostle, who teacheth us that the church itself is " built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone," Eph. ii. 20. The church cannot be the ground of truth, and truth the ground of the church, in the same sense or kind. Wherefore, the church is the pillar and ground of truth, in that it holds up and de- clares the Scriptures and the things contained therein so to be.
(2.) In receiving any thing from a church, we may consider the authority of it, or its ministry. By the authority of the church in this matter, we intend no more but the weight and importance that is in its testimony ; as testimonies do vary according to the worth, gravity, honesty, honour, and reputation of them by whom they are given: for to suppose an authority, properly so called, in any church, or all the churches of the world, whereon our reception of the Scrip-
CHAP. III.] EXTERNAL ARGUMENTS FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 31
ture should depend, as that which gives it authority towards us, and a sufficient warranty to our faith, is a nice imagination ; for the au- thority and truth of God stand not in need nor are capable of any such attestation from men. All they will admit of from the children of men is, that they do humbly submit unto them, and testify their so doing with the reasons of it. The ministry of the church in this matter is that duty of the church whereby it proposeth and de- clareth the Scripture to be the word of God, arid that as it hath occa- sion, to all the world. And this ministry also may be considered either formally, as it is appointed of God unto this end, and blessed by him; or materially only, as the thing is done, though the grounds whereon it is done and the manner of doing it be not divinely ap- proved.
We wholly deny that we receive the Scripture, or ever did, on the authority of the church of Kome, in any sense whatever, for the rea- sons that shall be mentioned immediately. But it may be granted that, together with the ministry of other churches in the world, and many other providential means of their preservation and successive communication, we did de facto receive the Scriptures by the minis- try of the church of Borne also, seeing they also were in the posses- sion of them ; but this ministry we allow only in the latter sense, as an actual means in subserviency unto God's providence, without re- spect unto any especial institution.
And for the authority of the church in this case, in that sense wherein it is allowed, — namery, as denoting the weight and import- ance of a testimony, which, being strengthened by all sorts of cir- cumstances, may be said to have great authority in it, — we must be careful unto whom or what church we grant or allow it : for let men assume what names or titles to themselves they please, yet if the generality of them be corrupt or flagitious in their lives, and have great secular advantages, which they highly prize and studiously im- prove, from what they suppose and profess the Scripture to supply them withal, be they called church or what you please, their testi- mony therein is of very little value, for all men may see that they have an earthly worldly, interest of their own therein ; and it will be said that if such persons did know the whole Bible to be a fable (as one pope expressed himself to that purpose), they would not forego the profession of it, unless they could more advantage themselves in the world another way. Wherefore, whereas it is manifest unto all that those who have the conduct of the Roman church have made, and do make to themselves, great earthly, temporal advantages, in honour, power, wealth, and reputation in the world, by their profession of the Scripture, their testimony may rationally be supposed to be so far influenced by self-interest as to be of little validity.
32 THE REASON OF FAITH. [BOOK VI., PART I.
The testimony, therefore, which I intend is that of multitudes of persons of unspotted reputation on all other accounts in the world, free from all possibility of impeachment, as unto any designed evil or conspiracy among themselves, with respect unto any corrupt end, and who, having not the least secular advantage by what they testi- fied unto, were absolutely secured against all exceptions which either common reason or common usage among mankind can put in unto any witness whatever. And, to evidence the force that is in this con- sideration, I shall briefly represent, [1.] Who they were that gave and do give this testimony, in some especial instances ; [2.] What they gave this testimony unto; [3.] How, or by what means, they did so: —