526 AUTHOEITY OF THE SCRIPTURE,
usetli in tliis private woi'k; Avhich they say is the testimony of the church, and we say is the Scripture itself. Both of us agree that it is the Spirit's public testimony; but they call one thing so, and we another. If they say that yet this is not enthusiasm, because here is no immediate revelation, biit means are made use of; I say the same of 'the Spirit's witnessing to the divinity of the Scripture in the heart of a private believer by the Scripture itself, or those notes of divinity which are apparent in the word. This is no more imme- diate than the other, nor any less [so], by the intervention of means. And for the other consequent they would infer fi'om the private testimony of the Spirit, — that then " we shall run in a round, and prove the Scripture to be the word of God by the testunony of the Spirit, and prove the Spirit again by the Scripture,"^ — there is as little fear of this as of the other For we bring not the private tes- timony of the Spirit in our consciences (against which only this ob- jection is made), or his applying his public testimony to us in a Avay of illumination and conviction of our minds, as the argument inducing us to believe ; but that, we say, is his public testimony in the word, when he v/itnesseth its divinity to us by that excellency, light, and power which is in the word itself, and makes use of that to persuade us to believe. The Spirit, indeed, is the efficient of our faith, or the agent which causeth us to believe, enlightening our minds, and drawl- ing our hearts to consent to the truth ; but the evidences of divinity we see in the Scripture, through the Spirit's enlightening us, is the reason or motive of our believing: they move us to believe objec- tively, but the Spirit effectively. So that here is no danger of a circle in our discourse, or proving idetn ^jer idem. For if I be asked, how I know the Scripture to be the word of God ; this question may have a double sense : for either it is meant of the power and virtue Avhereby I believe; and then I answer. By the power and efficiency of the Spirit of God, opening the eyes of my understanding, and enabling me to believe; — or it is meant of the medium or argiunent made use of, and by which, as a motive, I am drawn to believe ; and then I answer, Those impressions of divinity the Spirit hath left on the v/ord, and by which he -vvatnesseth it to be of God, are the argument or mo- tive persuading me to believe. Now, when they ask how I know the Spirit, who witnesseth in my conscience to the divinity of the Scrip- ture, to be the Spirit of God, the <|uestion is plainly, by what means or argiunent I am persuaded that it is the Spirit of God; and then I answer, By those properties of the Spirit which the Scriptiu-e men- tions. And so the question, how I know the Scripture to be the word of God, either is concerning the effi^cient of my belief of the Scrip-
' Vih- R. Baron., Contra Turncb.; Cameroneni De Verbo Dei ; et Tiirretinum Do Cr. Poutif.
AUTHORITY OF THE SCllIPTURE. 527
ture, or else it is not to the purpose (for I do not allege the efHciency or inward operating of the Spirit as the motive of my faith) ; and the latter is concerning the objective cause or argument inducing me to believe the Spirit to be the Sjoirit of God. The mistake is this, — they would fasten upon us, that we make the Spuit in his inward Avork upon our hearts to be the motive to our faith ; whereas we only make it to be the efficient of our faith.
To conclude this answer to their first argument : — let us see if it may not be retorted upon themselves. If the church's testimony give authority to the Scripture, as Papists say, then if a man deny the authority of the church, how will they prove it? For neither one \)n.i'i of the church can give credit to the other, v/hen the whole is questioned ; nor can the whole church give credit to itself ; for then the whole church v/ill be more known than itself Or if we ask. How comes the church to believe the Scripture? is it by its own testi- mony? But surely it must believe it ere it can give testimony to it. Or is it by the testimony of the Spirit? If so, is it by the public tes- timony of the Spirit? That cannot be; for, according to them, that is no other than the testimony of the church itself, the absurdity of which hath been already shown. Or if it be the private testimony of the Spirit ; then they, by their o^vn arguing, will run into enthusiasm, as well as we. And, indeed, they do plainly run into a circle, in their proving the Scripture by the authority of the church, and the autho- rity of the church agaia by the Scripture ; for with them the authority of the church is the motive or ai'gument, whereby they prove the divine authority of the Scripture, and that again is the motive or argument, by which they prove the authority of the church. And so both the church and the Scripture are more known than each other, and 5^et less, too: more known, because they prove each other; and less known, because they are proved by each other. Here they are themselves in a noose. But it is no matter ; the pope's omnipotency can easily break it, or the church's authority make her logic canonical, though all the Aristotles in the world should make it apocry]3hal !