But yet suppose that this also were granted, and that men might be allowed to speak in their own name and authority, giving testi- mony to themselves — which, upon the hjrpothesis under consideration, God himself is not allowed to do — I shall desire to know whether, when the church declares the Scriptures to be the word of God unto
' Hinc Masora sive Massorcth Traditio, vel rei dc manu in maiiiim, aut doctringe ex animo in animum, mediante docentis voce, qua seu manu doctrina alteri traditur. (Buxtor. Comment. Mas.)
THE INFALLIBLE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH DISPROVED. 333
US, it doth apprehend any thing in the Scripture as the ground of that judgment and declaration, or no ? If it says. No, but that it is proposed upon its sole authority — then surely, if we think good to acquiesce in this decision of this doubt and inquiry, it is full time for us to lay aside all our studies and inquiries after the mind of God, and seek only what that man [says,] or those men say, who are intrusted A\dth this authority — as they say, and as they would have us believe them, though we know not at all how or by what means they came by it, seeing they dare not pretend any thing from the Scrip- ture, lest thereby they direct us to that in the first place.
If it be said that they do upon other accounts judge and believe the Scripture to be true, and to be the word of God — I suppose it will not be thought unreasonable if we inquire after those grounds and accounts, seeing they are of so great concernment unto us. All truths in relations consisting in their consonancy and agreement to the nature of the things they deliver, I desu-e to know how they came to judge of the consonancy between the nature of the things delivered in the Scripture and the delivery of them therein. The things whereof we speak being heavenly, spiritual, mysterious, and supernatural, there cannot be any knowledge obtained of them but by the Word itself How, then, can they make any judgment of the truth of that Scripture in the relation of these things which are no where to be knoAvn (I speak of many of them) in the least, but by that Scripture itself ?
If they shall say that they found then- judgment and declaration upon some discovery that the Scripture makes of itself unto them, they affirm the same that we plead for ; only they would very desir- ously appropriate to themselves the privilege of being able to discern that discoveiy so made in the Scripture. To make good this claim, they must either plead somewhat from themselves or from the Scrip- ture. If from themselves, it can be nothing but that they see, (like the men of China,) and all others are blind, or have but one eye at the best — being wiser than any others, and more able to discern than they. Now, though I shall easily grant them to be very subtle and cunning, yet that they are so much wiser than all the world besides — that they are meet to impose upon their belief things that they neither do nor can discern or know — I would not be thought to admit, until I can believe myself and all others, not of their society or com- bination, to be beasts of the field, and they as the serpent amongst us. If it be from the Scrij)ture that they seek to make good this claim, then as we cause them there to make a stand — which is all we aim at — so their plea must be from the promise of some special assist- ance gi'anted to them for that puipose. If their assistance be that of the Spii'it, it is either of the Spirit that is promised to believers to work in them, as before described and related, or it is some piivate
334 THE DIVINE OEIGINAL OF SCRIPTUEE.
testimony that they pretend is afforded to them. If the former be afl&rmed, we are in a condition wherein the necessity of devolving all on the Scripture itself, to decide and judge who are behevers, lies in every one's view ; if the latter, who shall give me assm-ance that when they pretend that witness and testimony, they do not He and deceive? We must here certainly go either to the Scripture or to some cunning man to be resolved. (Isa. viii. 19, 20.)
I confess the argument is of great force and efficacy which hath, not long since, been smgled out, and dexterously managed, by an able and learned pen,^ viz., of proving the truth of the doctrine of the Scripture from the truth of the story, and the truth of the story from the certainty there is that the writers of the books of the Bible were those persons whose names and inscriptions they bear; so pursu- ing the evidence, that what they wrote was true and known to them so to be, from all requisita that may possibly be sought after for the strengthening of such evidence. It is, I say, of great force and effi- cacy as to the end for which it is insisted on — that is, to satisfy men's rational inquiries ; but as to a ground of faith, it hath the same insuf- ficiency with all other arguments of the like kind. Though I should grant that the apostles and penmen of the Scripture were persons of the greatest industry, honesty, integrity, faithfulness, holiness, that ever lived in the world, as they were ; and that they wrote nothing but what themselves had as good assurance of as what men by their senses of seeing and hearing are able to attain : yet such a knowledge or assurance is not a sufficient foundation for the faith of the church of God. If they received not every word by inspiration, and that evidencing itself unto us , othermse than by the authority of their integrity, it can be no foundation for us to build our faith upon.