1 have no more to add, but only begging I may have the continuance of your prayers and assistance in your several stations for the carrying on the work of our Lord and ^Master in this place committed unto us, that I may give in my ac- count with joy and not with grief to Him that stands at the door, I conmiend you to the powerful word of his grace, and remain, your fellow-labourer and brothei-, in our dear Lord Jesus, \
J. O.
From my Study, September 22, 1658.
' This reftrs to the elaborate treatise on the " Perseverance of the Saints," which Dr Owen had written in opposition to John Goodwin, and to which that celebrated Arrainian replied. — Ed.
2 Dr Henry Wilkinson, public reader of divinity in the university.
THE DIVINE ORIGINAL,
AUTHORITY. SELF-EVIDENCING LIGHT, AND POWER
OP
THE SCKIPTUEES:
AX ANSWER TO THAT INQUIRY,
HOW WE KKOW THE SCRIPTL'RES TO BE THE WORD OF GOD.
PREFATORY NOTE.
This interesting treatise originated in the reciuest of several persons, Avho had heard Owen preaching on the subject, that he would publish the substance of what he had preached. It broaches the great argument of the experimental evidence in favour of the Christian revelation, which he afterwai-ds developed more fully in his " Reason of Faith" (see vol. iv., p. 4), in connection with wliich the present treatise should be studied. A similar train of reasoning has been prosecuted by Professor Halyburton, in the appendix to his work on Natural and Revealed Religion ; by President Edwards, in his treatise on Religious Affections ; and by Dr Chalmers, in his Theological Institutes. The last-mentioned author, in a preface to the following Avork, has recorded his high opinion of its merits : — " Dr Owen's Treatise ' On the Divine Original,' etc., embraces a distinct but most important species of evidence ; and this article will be held in high estimation by those who desidei-ate a satisfactory conviction of the claims of the Bible to divine inspiration, of which he adduces the most solid and indubitable proof." Com- paring it with other treatises on the evidences, by Leslie, Lyttelton, Doddridge, Bates, and Baxter, and after awarding a due meed of praise to these writers, he proceeds : " Yet do we hold Dr Owen to have rendered a more essential service to the cause of divine revelation, when, by his clear and irresistible demonstrations, he has proved that the written Word itself possesses a self-evidencing light and power for manifesting its own divine original, superior to the testimony of eye-witnesses, or the evidence of miracles, or those supernatural gifts with which the first teachers of Christianity were endowed for accrediting their divine mission."
ANALYSIS.
Starting with the principle that the authority of revelation depends on its divine ori- gin, he exhibits the claim of the Old Testament Scriptures to this high authority, and un- folds the special providence through which they have been transmitted to us without corruption or mutilation. The same claim is advanced for the New Testament, chap. i. Having proved that the Scriptures are to be received in the exercise of faith, resting directly on the authority of God as its foundation, or as the formal reason of our assent to them as his word, he defines their authority to be their right and power to command and require obedience in the name of God. He enumerates three ways by which their divine origin, and, consequently, their divine authority, are proved :— I. By a general induction, which consists of analogical arguments, to the effect that as the stamp of a divine authorship is impressed on creation, so that, apart from any separate and indepen- dent testimony fi-om God, it teems with evidence of a divine original, so in the Word tho intrinsic evidence of a divine original may reasonably be expected, and is actually to be found, chap. ii. ; 11. By the testimonies which tlie Word itself contains to its own charac- ter and claims ; and. III. By innate arguments, evidence springing intrinsically from tho Woi'd, in the influence with which it operates on the mind and conscience. This self- evidencing property of Scripture is unfolded under a reference to the light which it im- parts, and its spiritual efficacy to renew and sanctify, chap, iir., iv. He explains what is meant by " the testimony of the Spirit," discriminating it from popish and fanatical errors : he proceeds to reject the authority of tradition, and to indicate the true place of miracles in the evidences of Christianity, chap. v. Two supplementary arguments close the treatise, designed to prove still further the self-evidencing power of the Word, and derived, — 1. From the nature of the doctrines contained in the Word, such as their universal adaptation and peculiarly glorious character ; and, 2. From the harmony and connection subsisting among all the parts of Scripture.— Ed.
THE DIVINE OEIGINAL OF THE SCKIPTURE.
CHAPTER I.
The divine original of the Scripture the sole foundation of its authority — The original
of the Old Testament — The peculiar manner of the revelation of the word The
written word, as written, preserved by the providence of God — Cappellus' opinion about various lections considered — The Scripture not /S/a; I'jnXvin&is — The true meaning of that expression — Entirely from God, to the least tittle — Of the Scrip- tui-es of the New Testament, and their peculiar prerogative.