III. Another argument for the divine authority of the Scriptures, may be taken from the penmen and writers of them.1. Many of these were men of no education, in a low station of life; what they wrote, both as to matter and manner, were above and beyond their ordinary capacities, and could not be of themselves. 2. They lived in different times and places, and were of different interests and capacities, and in different conditions and circumstances; yet they all speak and write the same things. 3. They were holy and good men. 4. They appear to be plain, honest, and faithful men. 5. They were disinterested men. Moses, when it was offered to him, by the Lord, to make of him a great nation, and cut off the people of Israel for their sins, refused it more than once; prefering the public good of that people, to his own advantage. The apostles of Christ, sought not the wealth of men, nor honour from them; but on the contrary, exposed themselves to reproach, poverty, vexation, and trouble; yea, to persecution, and death itself. In short, the writers of the Scriptures seem to be men that neither could be imposed upon themselves, nor sought to impose on others.

IV. Another argument may be drawn from the many wonderful effects the sacred writings, attended with a divine power and influence, have had upon the hearts and lives of men. Every good man has a testimony within himself of its divine authority, see 1 John v. 9, 10.

God;

v. The testimony bore to the Scriptures by miracles, abun. dantly confirm the genuineness of them, and that they are of such as were done by Moses and the prophets of the Old Testament, and by the apostles of the New; these God would never do to establish the character of impostors, or to confirm a lie.

VI. The hatred and opposition of men and the enmity of devils, to them, afford no inconsiderable argument in favour of the divinity of them: by these are to be known the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error; what is of the world, and merely human, is approved by the men of the world; but what is of God, is rejected, 1 John iv. 5, 6.

VII. The awful judgment of God on such as have despised them, and have endeavoured to destroy them, are no mean evidence that they are of God; the instance of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, and of Dioclesian, the Roman emperor : the one shewed a despite to the books of the old Testament, the other more especially to the books of the New Testament; and both were highly resented by the divine Being, who hereby shewed himself the author of both.

VIII. The antiquity and continuance of these writings may be improved into an argument in favour of them: Tertullian` says, "That which is most ancient, is most true." The most early of heathen writings extant, are the poems of Homer and Hesiod, who flourished about the times of Isaiah; the divine writings have been preserved notwithstanding the malice of men and devils, some of them some thousand of other writings are lost and perished.

years, when

To which may be added, that the Scriptures receive no small evidence of the authority of them, from the testimonies of many heathen writers agreeing with them, with respect to the chronology, geography, and history of them. I go on to consider.

II. The perfection of the Scriptures. They relate all things necessary to salvation, every thing that ought to be believed and done; and are a complete, perfect standard of faith and practice which may be proved.

1. From the author of them who is God? God is a perfect Being in whom is no darkness of ignorance, error, and imperfection; they coming from him, must be free from every thing

of that kind.

A man's tes

11. From the name they go by, a Testament. tament, or will, contains the whole of his will and pleasure, concerning the disposition of his estate.

III. From the epithet of perfect, being expressly given unto them; 7he law of the Lord is perfect, Psal. xix. 7.

iv. From the essential parts of them, the Law and Gospel; to which two heads the substance of them may be reduced. the Law is a perfect rule of duty; it contains what is the good,

The Gospel

acceptable, and perfect will of God, Rom. xii. 2 is the perfect law, or doctrine of liberty, the apostle James speaks of, chap. i. 25. which proclaims the glorious liberty of the children of God by Christ; and it is perfect.

v. From the integral parts of them: the Scriptures, containing all the books that were written by divine inspiration. Whatever mistakes may be made, through the carelessness of transcribers of copies, they are to be corrected by other copies, which God, in his providence, has preserved; and, as it seems, for such purposes: so that we have a perfect canon, or rule of faith and practice.

VI. This may be further evinced from the charge that is. given, "not to add unto, nor diminish from, any part of the sacred writings, law, or gospel:" Deut. iv. 2. and xii. 32. Rev. xxii. 18, 19. Now if there is nothing superfluous in the Scriptures, to be taken from them; and nothing defective in them, which rqeuires any addition to them: then they must be perfect.

VII. This may be argued from the sufficiency of them to answer the ends and purposes for which they are written. As, for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, 2 Tim. iii. 16. There is no spiritual truth, nor evangelical doctrine, but what they contain. There is not a sin that can be named, but what the Scriptures inveigh against, forbid, and correct. They instruct in every thing of amoral or positive nature, and direct to observe all that is commanded of God and Christ; and now writings by which such ends are answered, must needs be perfect and compleat, The Scriptures are able to make a man wise unto salvation, 2 Tim. iii. 15. In short, the Scriptures contain all things in them necessary to be believed, unto salvation; and, indeed, they are written for this end, that men might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and b it believing, they might have life through his name, John xx. 31. I pro

VIII.

ceed,

III. To prove the perspicuity of the Scriptures; not that they are all equally clear and plain; some parts of them,

E

and some things in them, are dark and obscure; but then by comparing spiritual things with spiritual, or those more dark pa-sages with those that are clearer, they may be plainly understood. They are like a full and deep river, in which the lamb may walk, and the elephant swim, in different places.

The perspicuity of the Scriptures may be urged-1. From the author of them, the Father of lights.-2. From the several parts of them, and what they are compared unto. The law, or legal part of them, is represented by things which are light, Prov. vi. 23. The evangelical part of the Scriptures, or the gospel, is compared to a glass, in which may be clearly beheld, the glory of the Lord.-3. From other testimonies of Scrip. ture, particularly from Deut. xxx. 11. 14. Rom. x. 6—8. The whole of Scripture is a light that shineth in a dark place.-4. From exhortations to all sorts of people to read them and who are commended for so doing, Deut. xvii. 19. John v. 39. Acts xvii. 11. Rev. i. 3.-5. From all sorts of persons being capable of reading them, and hearing them read, so as to understand them. Believers, and regenerate persons of every rank and degree, have knowledge of them, whether fathers, young men, or little children, 1 John ii. 12-14. Nor is the public preaching of the word, and the necessity of it, to be objected to all this; since that is, as for conversion, so for greater edification and comfort, and for establishment in the truth, even though it is known; and besides, it serves to lead into a larger knowledge of it, and is the ordinary means of guiding into it, and of arriving to a more perfect acquaintance with it, 1 Cor. xiv. 3. 2 Pet: 1. 12. Acts viii. 30, 31. Eph. iv. 11-13. So that it may be concluded, upon the whole, that the Scriptures are a sure, certain, and infallible rule to go by, with respect to things both to be believed and done. The only certain and infallible rule of faith and practice. And,

IV. There seems to be a real necessity of such a rule in the present state of things. Nothing else was, and nothing less than the Scriptures are, a sufficient rule and guide in matters of religion; even not the light of nature and reason, so much

OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURES.

35

talked of, and so highly exalted. Let one of the most exalted genius be pitched upon, one of the wisest and sagest philosophers of the Gentiles, that has studied nature most, and arrived to the highest pitch of reason and good sense; for instance, let Socrates be the man, who is sometimes magnified as divine, and in whom the light of nature and reason may be thought to be sublimated and raised to its highest pitch, and yet it must be a very deficient rule of faith and practice; for he himself bewails the weakness and darkness of human reason, and confessed the want of a guide. The light of nature and reason considered in large bodies of men, in whole nations, will appear not to be the same in all. The insufficiency thereof, as a rule and guide in religion, will further appear by considering the following particulars.

I. That there is a God may be known by the light of nature; but who and what he is, men, destitute of a divine re. velation, have been at a loss about. Multitudes have gone into polytheism, and have embraced for gods almost every thing in and under the heavens; not only the sun, moon, and stars, and mortal men have they deified; but various sorts of beasts, fishes, fowl, creeping things, and even forms of such that never existed.

II. Though the light of nature may teach men that God, their Creator and Benefactor, is to be worshipped by them, yet a perfect plan of worship, acceptable to God, could never have been formed according to that; hence the Gentiles, left to that, and without a divine revelation, have introduced modes of worship the most absurd and ridiculous, as well as

cruel and bloody.

III. By the light of nature men may know that they are not in the same condition and circumstances they originally but in what state they were made, and how they fell

were ;

from that estate, and came into the present depraved one, they know not; and still less how to get out of it, and to be cured of their irregularities.

IV. Though, as the apostle savs, the Gentiles without the law,