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Could we hear a voice from heaven, accompanied with such a divine power, as to evidence itself to be from God, should we not rest in it as such? I suppose men think they would; can we think that any man should withdraw his assent, and say, yea, but I must have some testimony that this is from God; all such evasions are precluded in the supposition, wherein a self-evidencing power is granted. What greater miracles did the apostles of Christ ever behold, or hear, than that voice that came "from the most excellent glory, This is my beloved Son" yet Peter, who heard that voice, tells us, that, comparatively, we have greater security from the written word, than they had in and by that miraculous voice: "We heard," saith he, "that voice indeed; but we have a more sure word of prophecy" to attend to. More sure, not in itself, but in its giving out its evidence to us. And how doth it appear so to be? The reason he alleges for it, was before insisted on: 2 Pet. i. 18.-20.

Yea, suppose that God should speak to us from heaven, as he spake to Moses or Christ,-how should we be able to know it to be the voice of God? Cannot Satan cause a voice to be heard in the air, and so deceive us? Or, may not there be some way found out, by which men might impose upon us with their delusions. Pope Celestine thought he heard a voice from heaven, when it was but the cheat of his successor. Must we not rest at last in that divine power, which accompanies the true voice of God, evidencing itself beyond all possibility of mistake. Now, did not this evidence accompany the written word, at its first giving forth? If it did not, how

could any man be obliged to discern it from all delusions? if it did, how came it to loose it? Did God

appoint his word to be written, that he might destroy its authority? If the question be, whether the doctrines, proposed to be believed, are truths of God, or "cunningly-devised fables," we are sent to the Scripture itself alone, to give the determination.

CHAPTER IV.

The Self-Evidencing efficacy of the Scriptures.

HAVING given some few instances of those many testimonies, which the Scripture in express terms bears to itself, and the rise and fountain of all that authority which it claims over the sons of men, which all those who pretend to acknowledge its divinity are bound and obliged by; the second thing proposed, or the innate arguments that the word of God is furnished with for its own manifestation, and whereby the authority of God is revealed for faith to repose itself upon, comes next into consideration. Now, these arguments contain the full and formal grounds of our answer to that inquiry, why we receive and believe the Scripture to be the word of God. It being the formal reason of our faith that is inquired after, we answer-we believe, and submit to 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 that word, to our minds and consciences.

The self-evidencing efficacy of the Scripture, and the grounds of it, is that, then, which I shall endeavour to clear and vindicate. This only I shall 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 merely their being the Scripture or written word of God; without which consideration, 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 of the persons, 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, because spoken by them from God; and it is now the word written that is to be believed, because written by the appointment of God.

There are two things, that are accompanied with a self-evidencing excellency; and every other thing doth so, so far as it is a partaker of their nature, and no otherwise; now these are, 1. Light. 2. Power 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. Whatever manifests itself is light. 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 to a seeing man that it is day. A small candle will do so. Let the least child bring

a candle into a room that before was dark, and it would be a madness 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, is revealed by its being so. That which evidenceth not itself, is not light.

That the Scripture is a light, or can be called so, unless it hath this nature and property of light to evidence itself, as well as to give light to others, cannot in any tolerable correctness of speech be allowed. Whether light, spiritual and intellectual, regarding the mind, or natural, with respect to the body, 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 : "true light shineth," 1 John i. 5. God himself is light; and he inhabiteth, 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 saith the Psalmist," thou clothest thyself with light:" and Dan. ii. 22. "light remaineth with him." God 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. 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 "light's rebels," men resisting the authority which they cannot but be convinced of. Psal. xix. 9. xliii. 3. exix. 105, 130. Prov. vi. 23. Isa. ix. 2. Hos. vi. 5. Matt. iv. 16. v. 14. John iii. 20, 21. with the majesty of its author, as that it manifests itself to be his. "A light shining in a dark place," with an eminent advantage for its own discovery, as well as to the benefit of others.

It is a light, so shining

Let a light be ever so mean and contemptible, yet if it shines, casts out 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; an illuminating light; compared to, and preferred above, the light of the sun, Psal. xix. 57. Rom. x. 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 every church, to hold it up, by which it may become the more conspicuous. It is a ground, and pillar to set this light upon. In 1 Tim. iii. 15. "the pillar and ground of the truth," may refer to the mystery of godliness, in the 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 by the church. is the duty of every church, almost the whole of its

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