This they deny ; and this we shall first, though more briefly, prove ; and then disjorove — as well as we deny — what they assert.
Argument i. The Holy Ghost, in Scripture, calls us to the Scrip- ture itself, and God's authority only in it, and not to the church, for tlie settling of our belief of its divinity ; and therefore in the Scrip- ture itself tve have a sufficient argument to move us to believe its com- ing from God. In Isa. viii. 20, we are sent " to the law and to the tes- timony." The prophets generally propound what they deliver merely in the name and on the authority of God : their usual style is, " Thus saitli the Lord," and, "The word of the Lord." They do nowhere send us to the church to know whether it be so or not ; but leave it with us, as being of itself (that is, without the testimony of the church) sufficient to convince us ; and if we will not believe it, at our own peril be it. So, in the text, Abraham (that is indeed Christ, whose mind Abraham in this parable is brought in speaking) sends Dives' brethren to " Moses and the prophets : " and our Saviour Christ sends the Jews to the Scriptures, — bids them "search" them, John v. of); and so verses 46, 47. And Luke commends the Bereans, not that they sent up to Jerusalem to the church there, or waited for a general council, to assure tliem of the divineness of what was preached to them; but that "they daily searched the Scriptures, to see if those things were so," Acts xvii. .11. But all this would be in vain, our labour would be lost in searcliing the Scriptures, and looking into them for the confirmation of themselves, if there were not something in them sufficient to persuade us of their having God for their author, but at la.st we must have recourse to the church to assure us of it. Why are we sent thus far about, if a nearer way be at hand?
A rg. II. Those p>roperties luhich the Holy Ghost in the Scripture attributes to the Scripture luill prove the same. It is light: "The connnandment is a lamp, and the law is light," Prov. vi. 23; "A
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lamp to my feet, and a light to my path/' Ps. cxix. 105; "A light shining in a dark place," 2 Pet. i. 19. And, surely, that which is light may discover itself. He that needs another to tell him what is light, wants eyes. It " is quick, and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword," Heb. iv. 12; it enters into the soul: and therefore by its own power and efficacy discovers itself to us as well as us to oiurselves. It is " like as a fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces," Jer. xxiii. 29. So likewise, 1 Cor. xiv. 21', 25 ; and Ps. xix. 7, 8 : from both which we may argue, That word which con- vinceth men, judgeth them, makes manifest the secrets of their hearts; that, again, which converts the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoiceth the heart, enlightens the eyes; is sufficiently able to discover itself to be of God, though the church should not give in her testi- mony ; but such a Avord is the Scripture : therefore, etc. And, far- ther, why may not God's word discover its author as well as his works do? If "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handy-work," Ps. xix. 1 ; if " even the least creatures preach God to us,"^ they that bear not his image on them, yet have some vestigia, some "footsteps" of him; and much more [if] his greater and more noble works, the glorious fabric of heaven and earth, and man, the most excellent of his creatures on earth, show forth that excellency in them which manifests itself to be from none but God ; and [if] he hath, in a word, left such an impress of himself upon his works, as that they generally proclamr themselves to be his ; why should it be thought incredible that God should leave the like notices of himself upon his word, and stamp that upon it which might plainly evidence it to be his? Nay, if men do commonly make themselves known by their works, — %\Titers by their skill, artists by their curious pieces ; if Apelles could have draAVTi such a picture, Phidias have cut such a statue, Cicero have penned such an oration, that any who had judgment in such things might have said [that] such a man, and no other, was the author of such a work ; surely, then, much more may God in so lively a manner express himself in his word as clearly to notify to us that it is his. And if any should say, God could have done it, but would not, I desire to know a good reason why God, who hath left us so plain and conspicuous CA^dences of his wisdom, power, and goodness on his creatures, Avould not leave the print of himself in the like manner upon his word.
Arg. III. God's revealing Idmselfto us in the Scripture is the first and highest revelation upon which our faith is built; and therefore that revelation is sufficient to manifest itself to us, even without the church's testimony.^ The reason of the consequence is, because faith