Thus far, then, have we proceeded: The Scripture, the written
PRE'i'ENCES AND ALLEGATIONS. 329
Word, hath its infallible truth in itself: 'O "koycg 6 ahg dXrjdsid san. (John xvii. 17.) From whence it hath its verity, thence it hath its authority; for its whole authority is foiuided in its truth. Its authority in itself, is its authority in respect of us; nor hath it any whit more in itself than, de jure, it hath towards and over all them to whom it comes. That, de facto, some do not submit themselves unto it, is their sin and rebellion. This truth, and consequently this authority, is evidenced and made knoAvn to us by the public testimony which is given unto it by the Holy Ghost speaking in it, with divine light and power, to the minds, souls, and consciences of men ; bemg therein by itself proposed unto us, we being enlightened by the Holy Ghost, (which, in the condition wherein we are, is necessary for the apprehension of any spiritual thing or truth in a spiritual manner,) we receive it, and religiously subject our souls unto it, as the word and will of the ever-living, sovereign God and Judge of all. And if this be not a bottom and foundation of faith, I here publicly profess that, for aught I know, I have no faith at all.
Having laid this stable foundation, I shall, with all possible brevity, consider some pretences and allegations for the confirmation of the authority of the Scripture, invented and made use of by some to divert us from that foundation, the closing wherewith will, in this matter alone, bring peace unto our souls. And so this chapter shall, as it were, lay in the balance and compare together, the testimony of the Spnit before mentioned and explained, and the other pretences and pleas that shall now be examined.
1. Some say — when, on other accounts they are concerned so to say — that we " have received the Scripture from the Church of Rome, which received it hy tradition; and this gives a credibility unto it." Of tradition in general — without this limitation (which destroys it) of the Church of Rome — rl shall speak afterward. Credibility either keeps within the bounds of probability, as that may be heightened to a manifest uncontrollableness, whilst yet its principles exceed not that sphere — in which sense it belongs not at all to our present discourse ; or it includes a firm, suitable foundation for faith, super- natural and divine. Have we, in this sense, received the Scripture from that church, as it is called ? Is that church able to give such a credibility to any thing ? or doth the Scripture stand in need of such a credibihty to be given to it from that church ? Is not the first most false, and is not the last blasphemous ? To receive a thing from a church as a church, is to receive it upon the authority of that chm'ch. If we receive any thing fr-om the authority of a church, we do it not because the thing itself is dmbo-xrig ci^ios, " Avorthy of acceptation," but because of the authority alleged. If, then, we thus receive the Scriptures from the Church of Rome, why
330 THE DIVINE ORIGINAL OF SCRIPTURE.
(in particular) do we not receive the apocryphal books also which she receives ? How did the Church of Eome receive the Scriptures ? Shall we say that she is authorized to give out what seems good to her as the Word of God? No; but she hath received them by tradition. So she pleads that she hath received the apocryphal books . also. We, then, receive the Scriptures from Rome — Rome by tradition ; we make ourselves judges of that tradition ; and yet Rome saith this is one thing that she hath by the same tradition, viz., that she alone is judge of what she hath by tradition. But the common fate of liars is befallen that harlot. She hath so long, so constantly, so desperately lied, in many, the most, things that she professeth pretendmg tradition for, that indeed she deserves not to be believed when she telleth the truth. Besides, she pleads that she received the Scriptures from the beginning, when it is gi'anted that the copies of the Hebrew of the Old and the Greek of the New Testament were only authentic ; these she pleads, now under her keeping, to be wofully corrupted, and yet is angry that we believe not her tradition.
2. Some add, that we receive the Scripture to be the word of God upon the account of the miracles that were wrought at the giving of the Law and of the New Testament; which miracles we have received by universal tradition. But, first, I desire to know whence it comes to pass, that, seeing our Saviour Jesus Christ wrought many other miracles besides those that are written, (John XX. SO, xxi. 25,) and the apostles likewise, they cannot, by all their traditions, help us to so much as an obscm'e report of any one that is not written ; (I speak not of legends ;) which yet at their perform- ance were no less known than those that are, nor were less useful for the end of miracles than they. Of tradition in general afterward: but is it not evident that the miracles whereof they speak are pre- sei-ved in the Scripture, and no otherwise? And if so, can these miracles operate upon the understanding or judgment of any man, unless he first grant the Scripture to be the word of God — I mean to the begetting of a divine faith of them, even that there were ever any such miracles ? Suppose these miracles, alleged as the ground of our beheving of the Word, had not been written, but, hke the sibyl's leaves, had been driven up and down by the worst and fiercest wind that blows m this world — the breath of man ; — those who should keep them by tradition (that is, men) are by nature so vain, foohsh, mahcious — such liars, adders, detractors — have spirits and minds so unsuited to spiritual things, so hable to alteration in themselves, and to contradiction one to another — are so given to impostures, and are so apt to be imposed upon — have been so shuffled and driven up and down the world in every generation —