The Duty of searching the Scriptures.
JOHN v. 39.
_Search the Scriptures._
WHEN the Sadducees came to our blessed LORD, and put to him the question, “whose wife that woman should be in the next life, who had seven husbands in this,” he told them “they erred, not knowing the scriptures.” And if we would know whence all the errors, that have over-spread the church of CHRIST, first arose, we should find that, in a great measure, they flowed from the same fountain, ignorance of the word of GOD.
Our blessed LORD, though he was the eternal GOD, yet as man, he made the scriptures his constant rule and guide. And therefore, when he was asked by the lawyer, which was the great commandment of the law, he referred him to his Bible for an answer, “What readest thou?” And thus, when led by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil, he repelled all his assaults, with “it is written.”
A sufficient confutation this, of their opinion, who say, “the Spirit only, and not the Spirit by the Word, is to be our rule of action.” If so, our Saviour, who had the Spirit without measure, needed not always have referred to the written word.
But how few copy after the example of CHRIST? How many are there who do not regard the word of GOD at all, ♦but throw the sacred oracles aside, as an antiquated book, fit only for illiterate men?
♦ “bot” replaced with “but”
Such do greatly err, not knowing what the scriptures are, or for what they are designed.
I shall, therefore,
_First_, Shew, that it is every one’s duty to search them.
And, _Secondly_, Lay down some directions for you, to search them with advantage.
I. I am to shew, that it is every person’s duty to search the Scriptures.
By the Scriptures, I understand the law and the prophets, and those books which have in all ages been accounted canonical, and which make up that volume ♦commonly called the Bible.
♦ “commmonly” replaced with “commonly”
These are emphatically stiled the _Scriptures_, and, in one place, the “Scriptures of Truth,” as though no other books deserved the name of true writings or scripture in comparison of them.
They are not of any private interpretation, authority, or invention, but holy men of old wrote them, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
The foundation of GOD’s revealing himself thus to mankind, was our fall in _Adam_, and the necessity of our new birth in CHRIST JESUS. And if we search the scriptures as we ought, we shall find the sum and substance, the _Alpha_ and _Omega_, the beginning and end of them, is to lead us to a knowledge of these two great truths.
All the threats, promises and precepts, all the exhortations and doctrines contained therein, all the rites, ceremonies and sacrifices appointed under the _Jewish_ law; nay, almost all the historical parts of holy scripture, suppose our being fallen in _Adam_, and either point out to us a Mediator to come, or speak of him as already come in the flesh.
Had man continued in a state of innocence, he would not have needed an outward revelation, because the law of GOD was so deeply written in the tables of his heart. But having eaten the forbidden fruit, he incurred the displeasure of GOD, and lost the divine Image, and, therefore, without an external revelation, could never tell how GOD would be reconciled unto him, or how he should be saved from the misery and darkness of his fallen nature.
That these truths are so, I need not refer you to any other book, than your own hearts.
For unless we are fallen creatures, whence those abominable corruptions which daily arise in our hearts? We could not come thus corrupt out of the hands of our Maker, because he being goodness itself could make nothing but what is like himself, holy, just, and good. And that we want to be delivered from these disorders of our nature, is evident, because we find an unwillingness within ourselves to own we are thus depraved, and are always striving to appear to others of a quite different frame and temper of mind than what we are.
I appeal to the experience of the most learned disputer against divine revelation, whether he does not find in himself, that he is naturally proud, angry, revengeful, and full of other passions contrary to the purity, holiness, and long-suffering of GOD. And is not this a demonstration that some way or other he is fallen from GOD? And I appeal also, whether at the same time that he finds these hurtful lusts in his heart, he does not strive to seem amiable, courteous, kind and affable; and is not this a manifest proof, that he is sensible he is miserable, and wants, he knows not how, to be redeemed or delivered from it?
Here then, GOD by his word steps in, and opens to his view such a scene of divine love, and infinite goodness in the holy scriptures, that none but men, of such corrupt and reprobate minds as our modern deists, would shut their eyes against it.