508 AUTHORITY OF THE SCTjrTUnE.
Before I proceed to another argument, let us examine what is ex- cepted against this. To this text, Eph. ii. 20, it is re})Hed by some of the Pa])ists, —
Exception I. That " by ' foundation' is not meant the Scripture written by the apostles and prophets, but their preaching."
Answer. But, 1. If that were granted, it would not prejudice our cause. What they wrote and preached is the same tnith, and differs not essentially, but only in the way of delivery ; one being delivered to their present hearers viva voce, and the other by wiiting, trans- mitted likewise to posterity : " Witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come," Acts xxvi. 22. So Acts xvii.
2. The preaching of the apostles and jorophets did last but a while ; whereas Paul speaks of the lasting, perpetual foundation of the church.
3. If he speaks only of the preaching of the apostles and prophets, how comes he to join these two together? For the prophets were long since dead; and their preaching, if that only were the foundation of the church, could be the foundation of that church only which lived with them, and heard them.
Except. II. " He meant, therefore," say some of our adversanes, " tlie New Testament jDrophets, who preached at the same time with the apostles."
Ansiuer. But that is not so easily proved as said: for though such prophets are mentioned in some places of the New Testament, it doth not follow that they must needs be understood here. For why doth the apostle mention them only, and not evangelists too, nay, pastors and teachers likewise, whom he joins all together in Eph. iv. 11, and who did at the same time preach the same truth which the apostles did? Beside that, we find, by the doctrine of " the prophets" men- tioned in the New Testament, the truth preached and written by the prophets under the Old commonly understood. So, 2 Pet. i. 1.9, " A more sure Avord of prophecy." Heb. i. 1, " God spake to the fathers by the prophets." So also, Rom. i. 2, and Luke i. 70. The apostles under the New Testament were the chief that taught, though New Testament prophets, as likewise evangelists, pastors, and teachers, did preach the same doctrine; as fonnerly, under the Old Testament, the prophets that then lived were the chief, though others beside, as the Levites, did teach " the good knowledge of the Lord," 2 Chron. XXX. 22.
Except. III. " But," say they again, " the Ephesians were not built upon Paul's writings, which were not then extant, but on his preaching; and therefore these other kind of prophets must be un- derstood, on whose preaching, together with the apostles', they were built.
AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURE. 509
Ans. The preaching [of] the truth, or wiiting it, makes no dif- ference; but still it is the same truth, which is the foundation of the church, whether it be written or preached. And though the Ephesians were built on the word as preached by Paul, yet what hinders but they might likewise be built on the word as tvritten by former prophets; whom, though they could not now hear, yet they might read ? And Paul himself proves what he preached, by what the prophets had written ; that so both the word preached and written might be pro- pounded to the Ephesians as one and the same foundation of their faith.
Except. IV. They say that " by ' the church' in this place is un- derstood, not the pastors, but the people; because the pastors were they that preached ; and therefore, if they were meant, it would fol- low that they should be built upon themselves."
Ans. 1. It is most absurd to say, that the pastors and doctors of the church are not built upon the doctrine of the apostles and pro- phets. Who ever heard of one foundation for the faith of the teachers, and another for the faith of the people? It seems, then, by their own confession, [that] the pope and his clergy are not built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets; and if they have not this foundation, I am sure they have no better. The faith of pastors and people is the same; and why is not the foundation the same too? Are they fit to build up others in the faith of the Scriptures, tuho are not themselves built upon the Scriptures? And it is idle to say, [that] they are built on the Holy Spirit : for will they separate the Spirit from the Scripture? What doth the Spirit teach, but out of, and according to, the Scripture ? To be led by the Spirit, and yet built on the Scriptures, are very well consistent.
Ans. 2. It is not absurd to say, that the teachers of the church are built on the doctrine they teach; though not as they teach it, yet as they have before received and believed it. Indeed, they ought to offer nothing to others, as the foundation of their faith, but what is the foundation of their own ; nor to hazard the souls of their hearers upon any worse bottom than they would venture their o-\vn souls. And it doth not follow from hence that they are taught by themselves, or are a foundation to themselves ; but only, that the doctrine they have themselves believed and are built upon, — they deliver to others, that they too may believe it, and be built upon it.