There are, then, two things that are accompanied with a self- evidencing excellency; and every other thing doth so, so far as it is partaker of their nature, and no otherwise. jSTow, these are — Is^, Light; 2d, Power, for or in operation.
1. Light manifests itself Whatever is light doth so; that is, it doth whatever is necessary on its own part for its manifestation and discovery. Of the defects that are or may be in them to whom this discovery is made we do not as yet speak ; and " whatever manifests itself is light" — -n-ai/ yap ro (pavspou/xsvov (pojg sdrt. (Eph. V. 13.) Light requhes neither proof nor testimony for its evidence. Let the sun arise in the fiimament, and there is no need of witnesses to prove and confirm, unto a seeing man, that it is day. A small candle will so do. Let the least child bring a candle into a room that before was dark, and it would be a madness to go about to prove by sub- stantial mtnesses — men of gravity and authority — that light is brought in. Doth it not evince itself with an assurance above all that can be obtained by any testimony whatever ? Whatever is light, either naturally or morally so, is revealed by its being so. That which evidenceth not itself is not lijrht.
That the Scripture is a light we shall see immediately. That it is so, or can be called so, unless it hath this nature and property of light, to
320 THE DIVINE ORIGINAL OF SCRIPTURE.
evidence itself as well as to give light unto others, cannot in any toler- able coiTespondency of speech be allowed. Whether light spiritual and intellectual regarding the mind, or natural with respect to bodily sight, be firstly and properly light, from whence the other is by allusion denominated, I need not now inquire. Both have the same properties in their several kinds. Owg dXri6mv fa'mr — " Tme light shineth." 'o Qihg f^g hen, (1 John i. 5,) "God is light;" and he inhabiteth fujg a'xpoeiTov, (1 Tim. vi. 16,) not a shining, ghstering brightness, as some^ grossly imagine, but the glorious, unsearchable majesty of his own being, Avhich is inaccessible to our understandings. So Isaiah, (Ivii. 15,) " God mhabiteth eternity." Solix npy saith the Psalmist, (civ. 2,) "Thou clothest thyself with light "and Daniel, (ii.22,) ^1^ n^V vr^'r\y\^ the " light remaineth with him." God is light essen- tially, and is, therefore, kno-wn by the beaming of his eternal proper- ties in all that outwardly is of him. And light abides with him as the fountain of it, he communicating light to all others. This being the fountain of all light, the more it participates of the nature of the fountain, the more it is light; and the more properly, as the properties and qualities of it are considered. It is, then, spiritual, moral, intellectual light, with all its mediums, that hath the pre- eminence, as to a participation of the nature and properties of light.
Now, the Scripture, the Word of God, is light. Those that reject it are called (Job xxiv. 1 3) "iiJ«''l"]bj " light's rebels"— men resisting the authority which they cannot but be convinced of (Ps. xix. 8, xliii. 3, cxix. 105, 130; Prov. vi. 23; Isa. ix. 2; Hos. vi. 5; Matt. iv. 16, V. 14; John iii. 20, 21.) It is a light so shining with the majesty of its Author, as that it manifests itself to be his, (2 Pet. i. 19,) "a light shining in a dark place," with an eminent advantage for its own discovery, as well as unto the benefit of others. Let a light be ever so mean and contemptible, yet if it shines, casts out beams and rays in a dark place, it will evidence itself If other things be wanting in the faculty, the light, as to its innate glory and beauty, is not to suffer prejudice. But the Word is a glorious, shining light, as hath been showed; an illuminating light, compared to and preferred above the light of the sun. (Ps. xix. 5-8; Eom. x. 18.) Let not, then, a reproach be cast upon the most glorious light in the world, the most eminent reflection of uncreated light and excellencies, that will not be fastened on any thing that, on any account, is so called. (Matt. V. 16.)
Now, as the Scripture is thus a light, we grant it to be the duty of the church, of any church, of eveiy church, to hold it up,
' .John Biddle, the father of English Sociuians, in a catechism which he pub- lished in 1654 Ed.
THE SELF-EVIDENCING LIGHT OF THE BIBLE. 321
whereby it may become the more conspicuous. It is a pillar and ground to set this light upon. (1 Tim. iii. 15.) SruXos xa/ sdpaiu/xa, Tfj; dXrtSi/'ag, may refer to the mystery of godliness in the next words following, in good coherence of speech, as well as to the church; but granting the usual reading, no more is affirmed but that the light and truth of the Scripture are held up and held out by the church. It is the duty of every church so to do— almost the whole of its duty. And this duty it performs ministerially, not authorita- tively. A church may hear up the light — it is not the light It bears witness to it, but kindles not one divine beam to fui-ther its discovery. All the preaching that is in any church, its administra- tion of ordinances, all its walking in the truth, hold up this light.