CHAP. IV.

Innate arguments in the Scripture, of its divine original and authority. These the formal reason of our believing. Its self-evidencing efficacy, All light manifests itself. The Scripture, light. What kind of light it Spiritual light evidential. The ground of men's not discerning this light. Consectaries from the premises laid down. What the self-evidencing light of the Scripture peculiarly is. The proposition of the Scripture as and ject of faith is from and by this light. Power, self-evidencing. Th Scripture the power of God. And powerful. How this power exerts itself. The whole question resolved.

HAVING given some few instances of those many testimo nies, which the Scripture in express terms bears to itself, and the spring, rise, and fountain of all that authority, which it claims among and over the sons of men, which all those who pretend on any account whatever to own and acknowledge its divinity, are bound to stand to, and are obliged by; the second thing proposed, or the innate arguments that the word of God is furnished withal for its own manifestation, and whereby the authority of God is revealed for faith to repose itself upon, comes in the next place into consideration. Now these arguments contain the full and formal grounds of our answer to that inquiry before laid down; namely, why and wherefore we do receive and believe the Scripture to be the word of God. It being the formal reason of our faith, that whereon it is built, and whereunto it is resolved, that is inquired after, we answer as we said before; we do so receive, embrace, believe, and submit unto it, because of the authority of God who speaks it, or gave it forth as his mind and will, evidencing itself by the Spirit in and with that word unto our minds and consciences; or because that the Scripture being brought unto us by the good providence of God, in ways of his appointment and preservation, it doth evidence itself infallibly unto our consciences to be the word of the living God.

The self-evidencing efficacy of the Scripture, and the grounds of it, which consist in common mediums, that have an extent and latitude answerable to the reasons of men, whether as yet they acknowledge it to be the word of God or no,

is that then which in the remainder of this discourse I shall endeavour to clear and vindicate. This only I shall desire to premise, that whereas some grounds of this efficacy seem to be placed in the things themselves contained in the Scripture, I shall not consider them abstractedly as such, but under the formality of their being the Scripture or written word of God; without which consideration and resolution, the things mentioned would be left naked and utterly divested of their authority and efficacy pleaded for; and be of no other nature and importance, than the same things found in other books. It is the writing itself that now supplies the place and room of the persons, in and by whom God originally spake to men. As were the persons speaking of old, so are the writings now: it was the word spoken that was to be believed, yet as spoken by them from God; and it is now the word written that is to be believed, yet as written by the command and appointment of God.

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; now these are, 1. Light. 2. 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; wãv yào τὸ φανερούμενον, φῶς ἐστι Eph. v. 13. Light requires neither proof nor testimony for its evidence. Let the sun arise in the firmament, 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 substantial witnesses, 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 light.

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 evidence itself, as well as to give

light unto others, cannot in any tolerable correspondency 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. pūs ådýdivov paive true light shineth.' & Jeos puç orì 1 John i. 5. God himself is light; and he inhabiteth pws aπpóσrov, 1 Tim. vi. 16. not a shining glistering brightness, as some "grossly imagine, but the glorious unsearchable majesty of his own being, which is inaccessible to our understandings. So Isa. lvii. 15. inhabiteth eternity.' So Dу saith the Psalmist, 'thou clothest thyself with light :' and Dan. ii. 22. * my xin the 'light remaineth with him;' God, he is light essentially, and is therefore known by the beaming of his eternal properties, 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 proper ties 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 lights rebels,' men resisting the authority which they cannot but be convinced of. Psal. xix. 9. 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 never 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 shewed; an illuminating light; compared to, and preferred above, the light of the sun; Psal. xix. 5—7. Rom. I.

a Biddle Catech.

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. 19.

Now as the Scripture is thus a light, we grant it to be the duty of the church, of any church, of every church, to hold it up, whereby it may become the more conspicuous. It is a ground, and pillar to set this light upon. 1 Tim. iii. 15. στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα τῆς ἀληθειας, 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 is 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 authoritatively. A church may bear up the light, it is not the light. It bears witness to it, but kindles not one divine beam to farther its discovery. All the preaching that is in any church, its administration of ordinances, all its walking in the truth, hold up this light.

Nor doth it in the least impair this self-evidencing efficacy of the Scripture, that it is a moral and spiritual, not a natural light. The proposition is universal to all kinds of light; yea, more fully applicable to the former, than the latter. Light, I confess, of itself, will not remove the defect of the visive faculty. It is not given for that end; light is not eyes. It suffices that there is nothing wanting on its own part, for its discovery and revelation. To argue that the sun, cannot be known to be the sun, or the great means of communicating external light unto the world, because blind men cannot see it, nor do know any more of it, than they are told, will scarce be admitted; nor doth it in the least impeach the efficacy of the light pleaded for, that men stupidly blind, cannot comprehend it; John i. 5.

I do not assert from hence, that wherever the Scripture is brought, by what means soever (which indeed is all one), all that read it, or to whom it is read, must instantly, of necessity, assent unto its divine original. Many men (who are not stark blind), may have yet so abused their eyes, that when a light is brought into a dark place, they may not be able to discern it. Men may be so prepossessed with innu

merable prejudices, principles received by strong traditions, corrupt affections, making them hate the light, that they may not behold the glory of the word, when it is brought to them. But it is nothing to our present discourse, whether any man living be able by, and of himself, to discern this light, whilst the defect may be justly cast on their own blindness. 2 Cor. iv. 2-4. By the manifestation of the truth we commend ourselves to every one's conscience in the sight of God; but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.' There is in the dispensation of the word an evidence of truth, commending itself to the consciences of men; some receive not this evidence; is it for want of light in the truth itself? No! that is a glorious light that shines into the hearts of men. Is it for want of testimony to assert this light? No! but merely because the god of this world hath blinded the eyes of men, that they should not behold it.

From what then hath been laid down, these two things may be inferred:

1. That as the authority of God, the first and only absolute truth, in the Scripture, is that alone which divine faith rests upon, and is the formal object of it, so wherever the word comes, by what means soever, it hath in itself a sufficiency of light to evidence to all (and will do it eventually to all that are not blinded by the god of this world), that authority of God its author; and the only reason why it is not received by many in the world to whom it is come, is the advantage that Satan hath to keep them in ignorance and blindness, by the lusts, corruptions, prejudices, and hardness, of their own hearts.

The word then makes a sufficient proposition of itself, wherever it is. And he to whom it shall come, who refuses it because it comes not so or so testified, will give an account of his atheism and infidelity. He that hath the witness of God, need not stay for the witness of men, for the witness of God is greater.

Wherever the word is received indeed, as it requireth itself to be received, and is really assented unto as the word of God; it is so received upon the evidence of that light