CHAPTER II.
The main question proposed to consideration — How we may know assuredly the Scrip, ture to be tlie word of God— The Scripture to be received by divine faith — The authority of God the foundation — The way whereby that authoiity is evidenced or made linown — Tlie various ways of God's revealing himself and liis mind — 1. By his works ; 2. By the light of nature ; 3. By his word- — All of these evince them- selves to bo from him, his word especially.
Having laid, in the foregoing chapter, the foundation that we are to build and proceed upon, I come now to lay do^vn the inquiry, whose resolution must thence be educed. That, then, which we are seeking after, is, how we, and the rest of men in the world, who, through the merciful dispensation of God, have the book or books wherein the scripture given out from him (as above declared) is con- tained, or said to be contained — we, who live so, many ages from the last person who received any part of it immediately from God, or who have not received it immediately ourselves — may come to be ascertained, [assured,] as to aU ends and purposes wherein we may be concerned therein, that the whole and entire written word in that book, or those books, hath the original, and consequently the autho- rity, that it pleads and avows — viz., that it is l^ ovpavov^ and not l| dvSpu-rruv, from God, in the way and manner laid do'wn, and not the invention of men, attending to ffsgo(piff/j.svoj5 /xvdo/g, (2 Pet. i. 16,) or " cunningly devised fables."
Now, seeing it is expected from us, and required of us, by God himself, and that on the penalty of his eternal displeasure if we fail in our duty, (2 Thess. i. 7-10,) that we receive the Scripture not as we do other books — in relation to their authors — with a firm opinion, built on prevailing probable arguments, prevalent against any actual conclusions to the conti-ary — but with divine and supernatural faith — omitting all such inductions as serve only to ingenerate a persuasion not to be cast out of the mind by contrary reasonings or objections — it is especially inquired, What is the foundation and formal reason of our doing so, if we so do ? Whatever that be, it returns an answer to this important question, " Why, or on what account, do you
AXJTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE CONTAINED IN ITSELF. SO 7
believe the Scriptures, or books of the Old and New Testament, to be the word of God 1" Now the formal reason of things being but one — whatever consideration may be had of other inducements or arguments to beget in us a persuasion that the Scripture is the word of God, yet they have no mfluence on that divine faith where- with we are bound to beheve them. They may, indeed, be of some use to repel the objections that are, or may be, raised against the truth we believe — and so indirectly cherish and further faith itself — but as to a concurrence unto the foundation, or formal reason, of our believing, it is not capable of it.
Having, then, laid down the divine original of the Scriptures, and opened the manner of the Word's coming forth from God, an answer shall now, on that sole foundation, be returned to the inquiry laid down. And this I shall do in the ensuing position : —
The authority of God, the supreme Lord of all, the first and only absolute Truth, whose word is truth — speaking in and by the penmen of the Scriptures — evinced singly in and by the Scripture itself — is the sole bottom and foundation, or formal reason, of our assenting to- those Scriptures as his word, and of our submitting our hearts and consciences unto them with that faith and obedience which morally respect him, and are due to him alone.
God speaking in the penmen of the Scripture, (Heb. i. 1,) his voice to them was accompanied with its own evidence, which gave assurance unto them ; and God speaking hy them or their -writings unto us, his word is accompanied with its own evidence, and gives assurance unto us. His authority and veracity did, and do, in the one and the other, sufficiently manifest themselves, that men may quietly repose their souls ujoon them, in believing and obedience. Thus are we built srri r J ^f/ze7./w ruv aToffroAwi' xa/ -Trpoiprirwv, (Eph. ii. 20,) " on the foundation of the apostles and prophets," in our belie^dng.
That, then, which (to the establishment of the souls of believers) I shall labour to prove and evince, is plainly this, viz., that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament do abundantly and vm- controllably manifest themselves to be the word of the living God ; so that, merely on the account of their own proposal of themselves unto us in the name and majesty of God, as such — without the contribution of help or assistance from tradition, church, or any thing else without themselves — we are obhged, upon the penalty of eternal damnation, (as are all to whom by any means they come, or are brought,) to receive them, with that subjection of soul which is due to the word of God. The authority of God shining in them, they afford unto us all the divine evidence of themselves which God is willing to grant unto us, or can be granted us, or is any way needful for us. So, then, the authority of the written Word — in itself