[1.] And, in the first place, the testimony of those by whom the several books of the Scripture were written is to be considered. They all of them, severally and jointly, witnessed that what they wrote was received by inspiration from God. This is pleaded by the apostle Peter in the name of them all: 2 Pet. i. 16-21, " We have not followed cunningly-devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts: knowing this first, that no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation. For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man : but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." This is the concurrent testi- mony of the writers both of the Old Testament and the New, — namely, that as they had certain knowledge of the things they wrote, so their writing was by inspiration from God. So, in par- ticular, John beareth witness unto his Revelation : chap. xix. 9, xxii. 6, " These are the true and faithful sayings of God." And what weight is to be laid hereon is declared, John xxi. 24, " This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things : and we know that his testimony is true." He testified to the truth of what he wrote ; but how was it known to the church, there intended, (" We know that his testimony is true,") that so it was indeed? He was not absolutely ubr6iri<frag, or " one that was to be believed in merely on his own account;" yet here it is spoken in the name of the church with the highest assurance, " We know that his testimony is true." I answer, This assurance of theirs did not arise merely from his moral
CHAP. III.] EXTERNAL ARGUMENTS FOR DIVINE REVELATION. 33
or natural endowments or holy counsels, but from the evidence they had of his divine inspiration; whereof we shall treat afterward.
The things pleaded to give force unto this testimony, in particular, are all that such a testimony is capable of, and so many as would require a large discourse by itself to propose, discuss, and confirm them. But supposing the testimony they gave, I shall, in compliance with my own design, reduce the evidences of its truth unto these two considerations : 1st. Of their persons; and, 2dly. Of the manner of their writing: —
1st. As to their ])ersons, they were absolutely removed from all possible suspicion of deceiving or being deceived. The wit of all the atheistical spirits in the world is not able to fix on any one thing that would be a tolerable ground of any such suspicion concerning the in- tegrity of witnesses, could such a testimony be given in any other case; and surmises in things of this nature, which have no pleadable ground for them, are to be looked on as diabolical suggestions or atheistical dreams, or at best the false imaginations of weak and dis- tempered minds. The nature and design of their work; their uncon- cernment with all secular interests; their unacquaintance with one another; the times and places wherein the things reported by them were done and acted ; the facility of convincing them of falsehood if what they wrote in matter of fact, which is the fountain of what else they taught, were not true; the evident certainty that this would have been done, arising from the known desire, ability, will, and interest, of their adversaries so to do, had it been possible to be effected, seeing this would have secured them the victory in the con- flicts wherein they were violently engaged, and have put an imme- diate issue unto all that difference and uproar that was in the world about their doctrine; their harmony among themselves, without con- spiracy or antecedent agreement; the miseries which they underwent, most of them without hope of relief or recompense in this world, upon the sole account of the doctrine taught by themselves ; with all other circumstances innumerable, that are pleadable to evince the sincerity and integrity of any witnesses whatever, — do all concur to prove that they did not follow cunningly-devised fables in what they declared concerning the mind and will of God as immediately from himself. To confront this evidence with bare surmises, incapable of any ra- tional countenance or confirmation, is only to manifest what brutish impudence, infidelity, and atheism, are forced to retreat unto for shelter.
2dly. Their style or manner of writing deserves a peculiar consi- deration; for there are impressed on it all those characters of a divine original that can be communicated unto such an outward adjunct of divine revelation. Notwithstanding the distance of the ages and