Arg. VII. If the testimony of the church is necessary, and the only sufficient reason of our believing the divineness of the Scripture, then it will certainly follow, that no man who is out of the church can he called into the church by the Scripture; — which is pretty strange doc- trine, and yet I see not how possibly the Papists can evade it. For they that are called into the church by the Scripture are persuaded b)' the Scripture, and convinced by it, that it is their duty to join themselves to the church ; but this can never be if the Scripture be of no authority with them." Whatever convinceth or persuades a man, must certainly have some authority with him ; and if, therefore, the church persuades men by the Scripture, that Scripture must needs be received and owned ere they be joined to the church, the Scrip- ture being the very reason and argument whereby they are persuaded. The conclusion will not be yielded to, if the medium from whence it is inferred be not first granted; and in this case the Scripture is the medium the church makes use of, in persuading men to embrace her society. Thus it was in the beginning of the gospel church; Peter disproves the conceit some of the Jews had of him and the rest of the apostles, that they were " full of new wine," Acts ii. 13, by the
' See the Papists' Objections, under head IV. of this discourse, pages 522-532. — Ed. * Vide Chamieri Panstratia, de Can., lib. vi. c. IS.
518 AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURE.
testimony of Scripture, prophesying concerning the pouring out of the Holy Ghost in the latter days, Joel ii. 28-32. Then he proves the resurrection of Christ by Ps. xvi. 8, etc. ; and his ascension into heaven by Ps. ex. ] ; and his being the Christ promised to David to be of tlie fruit of his loins, by Ps. cxxxii. 11. And hereui^on follows the bringing into the church three thousand of the hearers, who, " when they heard these things, were pricked in their hearts," Acts ii. 37. And so, in Acts iii., how often doth Peter cite the pro- phets, particularly Moses! verse 22. And Philip thus preacheth to the eunuch out of the prophet Isaiah, Acts viii. 27-39 ; and Peter again to Cornelius out of the prophets, Acts x. 43 ; and Paul, in Acts xiii., where we find some, both Jews and Gentiles, wrought on by his preaching, and brought into the church. And was it the authority of these apostles (that is, in the Papists' style, the church) that per- suaded thus many? Alas ! they that heard them did not ohce dream of thek being the church ; and therefore did not believe on that account.
Arg. VIII. No laiu receives its authoriti/ of binding men to sub- jection to it from those that are merely subject to it, and did not make it; therefore the Scripture hath not its authority from the church, which is merely subject to it as a law, and is not the author of it. The whole church is so, and not only pastors, but people ; and if the pope himself be not under the Scripture, as the law by which he is to be ruled, well may he pass for 6 avo[i«g, " that wicked or law- less one," spoken of in 2 Thess. ii. 8. True, indeed, a law may be made known ])y a herald that proclaims it; but who can say it re- ceives its authority of binding the subjects from him, when he him- self is one of them, and as much bound to it as any else ? Allow the church to be the herald which proclaims and publisheth this law, must she therefore give authority to it? Put [a] case: a subject hears of a law, though not b}^ a herald ; — is he not bound to submit to it, because he did not hear it proclaimed? Suppose a man come to the knowledge of the Scripture some other way than by the ministry of the church, in the pojiish sense, — that is, the pastors of it (as it is storied the Indians and the Iberians did, by the help of private per- sons),— is he not bound to submit to it? Must ho suspend his belief till he have the testimony of the church to assure him that the Scrip- ture is of God ?
If it be said, that " a law doth nut bind till it be promulged, and the promulgation of it is the church's business;" I answer, God hath published his law sufficiently in the Scripture, and to it all must be .subject to whom the Scripture comes, whether the church farther tells them that it is the word of God or not; as in the case mentioned, it was received and submitted to. I Avonder how the church was the herald that proclaimed the law of God to the Iberians, when they
AUTHORITY OF THE SCEIPTURE. 519
received it from a poor captive woman. Stapleton (before) tells us, that when Paul preached to the Thessalonians, his voice was the voice of the church ; and, I pray, was this poor woman's voice the voice of the church too? By my consent, let her even be the church itself, virtual, infallible,^ — a mere pope Joan I. But, farther : if the church pubhsh this law we speak of, and it doth not bind till published by her, upon what account did she herself believe it when she first pub- lished it? (Let the question be concerning the herald himself, why he believes the law which himself proclaims.) Doth the church be- lieve the Scripture to be the word of God at all, antecedently to her own publishing and propounding it to others, or not? Is her faith wi'ought in her by the testimony she herself gives to the Scripture, or by something before? I suppose the Papists will scarce be so mad as to say the former; for what kind of faith must that be,- when a man believes merely upon his own testimony? And how can the church be the church before she believes? If they say the church's faith in the Scripture was wrought in her before her own testimony concern- ing its divineness, I would fain know what that is by which it is wrought. If it be any thing in the word itself, or be the testimony of the Spirit, why may not I, or any man else, believe the Scripture, before the church give in her testimony concerning it, upon the same account that she herself doth? But if she believe the divinity of the Scripture upon the testimony of the former church, I would know, again, what better assurance she hath of the testimony of the former church than of the Scripture itself, seeing she can know it only out of the writings of the ancients ; and whoever questions the authority of the Scripture, may, upon much better grounds, question the writ- ings of fathers, a,nd decrees of councils, as was said before.