deny; but are very willing to be tried by them, as hath been above declared: But the Question is, Whether they be the Only and Principal Rule? Which this is so far from proving, that it proveth the contrary; Search the Scripture, &c.for Christ checks them here for too high an Esteem of the Scriptures, and neglecting of him that was to be preferred before them, and to whom they bore Witness, as the following Words declare; For in them ye think ye have eternal Life, and they are they which testify of me: and ye will not come unto me, that ye might have Life. This shews, that while they thought they had Eternal Life in the Scriptures, they neglected to come unto Christ to have Life, of which the Scriptures bore witness. This answers well to our Purpose, since our Adversaries now do also exalt the Scriptures, and think to have Life in them; which is no more than to look upon them as the only principal Rule and Way to Life, and yet refuse to come unto the Spirit of which they testify, even the inward spiritual Law, which could give them Life: So that the Cause of this People’s Ignorance and Unbelief was not their Want of Respect to the Scriptures, which though they knew, and had an high Esteem of, yet Christ testifies in the former Verses, that they had neither seen the Father, nor heard his Voice at any Time; neither had his Word abiding in them; which had they then had, then they had believed in the Son. Answ. 2.Moreover, that Place may be taken in the Indicative Mood, Ye search the Scriptures; which Interpretation the Greek Word will bear, and so Pasor translateth it: Which by the Reproof following, seemeth also to be the more genuine Interpretation, as Cyrillus long ago hath observed.
§. VIII.
Obj. 3.Their third Objection is from these Words, Acts xvii. 11. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all Readiness of Mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those Things were so.
Answ. 1.Here, say they, the Bereans are commended for searching the Scriptures, and making them the Rule.
I answer; That the Scriptures either are the principal or only Rule, will not at all follow from this; neither will their searching the Scriptures, or being commended for it, infer any such Thing: For we recommend and approve the Use of them in that Respect as much as any; yet will it not follow, that we affirm them to be the principal and only Rule.
Answ. 2.Secondly, It is to be observed that these were the Jews of Berea, to whom these Scriptures, which were the Law and the Prophets, were more particularly a Rule; The Bereans searching the Scriptures, makes them not the only Rule to try Doctrines.and the Thing under Examination was, whether the Birth, Life, Works, and Sufferings of Christ, did answer to the Prophecies concerning him; so that it was most proper for them, being Jews, to examine the Apostle’s Doctrine by the Scriptures; seeing he pleaded it to be a fulfilling of them. It is said nevertheless, in the first Place, That they received the Word with Chearfulness; and in the second Place, They searched the Scriptures: Not that they searched the Scriptures, and then received the Word; for then could they not have prevailed to convert them, had they not first minded the Word abiding in them, which opened their Understandings; no more than the Scribes and Pharisees, who (as in the former Objection we observed) searched the Scriptures, and exalted them, and yet remained in their Unbelief, because they had not the Word abiding in them.
Answ. 3.But Lastly, If this Commendation of the Jewish Bereans might infer that the Scriptures were the only and principal Rule to try the Apostle’s Doctrine by, what should have become of the Gentiles? How should they ever have come to have received the Faith of Christ, who neither knew the Scriptures, nor believed them? The Athenians instanced.We see in the End of the same Chapter, how the Apostle, preaching to the Athenians, took another Method, and directed them to somewhat of God within themselves, that they might feel after him. He did not go about to proselyte them to the Jewish Religion, and to the Belief of the Law and the Prophets, and from thence to prove the coming of Christ; nay, he took a nearer Way. Now certainly the principal and only Rule is not different; one to the Jews, and another to the Gentiles; but is Universal, reaching both: Though secondary and subordinate Rules and Means may be various, and diversly suited, according as the People they are used to are stated and circumstanced: Even so we see that the Apostle to the Athenians used a Testimony of one of their own Poets, which he judged would have Credit with them; and no doubt such Testimonies, whose Authors they esteemed, had more Weight with them than all the Sayings of Moses and the Prophets, whom they neither knew nor would have cared for. Now because the Apostle used the Testimony of a Poet to the Athenians, will it therefore follow, he made that the principal or only Rule to try his Doctrine by? So neither will it follow, that though he made use of the Scriptures to the Jews, as being a Principle already believed by them, to try his Doctrine, that from thence the Scriptures may be accounted the principal or only Rule.
§. IX.
The last, and that which at first View seems to be the greatest Objection, is this:
Obj. 4.If the Scripture be not the adequate, principal, and only Rule, then it would follow that the Scripture is not complete, nor the Canon filled; that if Men be now immediately led and ruled by the Spirit, they may add new Scriptures of equal Authority with the Old; whereas every one that adds is cursed: Yea, what Assurance have we, but at this Rate every one may bring in a new Gospel according to his Fancy?
Answ.The dangerous Consequences insinuated in this Objection were fully answered in the latter Part of the last Proposition, in what was said a little before, offering freely to disclaim all pretended Revelations contrary to the Scriptures.
Obj. 1.But if it be urged, That it is not enough to deny these Consequences, if they naturally follow from your Doctrine of Immediate Revelation, and denying the Scripture to be the only Rule:
Answ. 1.I answer; We have proved both these Doctrines to be true and necessary, according to the Scriptures themselves; and therefore to fasten evil Consequences upon them, which we make appear do not follow, is not to accuse us, but Christ and his Apostles, who preached them.
Answ. 2.But Secondly, We have shut the Door upon all such Doctrine in this very Position; affirming, That the Scriptures give a full and ample Testimony to all the principal Doctrines of the Christian Faith. For we do firmly believe that there is no other Gospel or Doctrine to be preached, but that which was delivered by the Apostles; and do freely subscribe to that Saying, [48]Let him that preacheth any other Gospel, than that which hath been already preached by the Apostles, and according to the Scriptures, be accursed.
[48] Gal. i. 8.
A new Revelation is not a new Gospel.So we distinguish betwixt a Revelation of a new Gospel, and new Doctrines, and a new Revelation of the good old Gospel and Doctrines; the last we plead for, but the first we utterly deny. For we firmly believe, That no other Foundation can any Man lay, than that which is laid already. But that this Revelation is necessary we have already proved; and this Distinction doth sufficiently guard us against the Hazard insinuated in the Objection.
Books Canonical.As to the Scriptures being a filled Canon, I see no Necessity of believing it. And if these Men, that believe the Scriptures to be the only Rule, will be consistent with their own Doctrine, they must needs be of my Judgment; seeing it is simply impossible to prove the Canon by the Scriptures. For it cannot be found in any Book of the Scriptures, that these Books, and just these, and no other, are Canonical, as all are forced to acknowledge; how can they then evite this Argument?
That which cannot be proved by Scripture is no necessary Article of Faith.
But