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Quest. SEeing Scripture is the only Publick Record of True, Pure, Natural Religion, and more eminently of Revealed; it is most necessary to be fully informed in all Points concerning it: And first, What Care God hath been pleased to take, that his Word, and purely that, should be committed to Writing?
Answ. God held the Hands and Pens of Holy Men, by
an efficacious overshadowing their Minds, and conducting all their Motions, that they could not erre: In some things he so fully possessed their Understandings and Affections with a full Knowledge and Sense of what they were to reveal, that they could not so much as muse any thing Strange or Diverse from what they were so carried and born by the Divine Spirit in, even as Elijah in his Body.
In other things, wherein they could not look round about them, nor fully comprehend what the Spirit in them did signifie, though they convey'd it to After-times, yet they were by Almighty Impressions upon all their Fa∣culties necessary to that Service, held in stronger than Adamantine Consinements, that they could not extrava∣gate from Divine Truths. Even Balaam, thus overpower'd against his will, could not go beyond the Word of the Lord, to speak either Good or Evil, upon the greatest Reward; much less Holy Men, whose Wills were perfectly resigned to the Divine Will.
Quest. But was not there a Possibility, those Holy Men, Writers of Scripture, might at other times, when the Spirit was not so immediately present to them, alter, or add of ano∣ther Alloy, to what themselves had been the Instruments of conveying from God to the World? Or might not Pretenders arise, and give out False Scripture to the World, that had none of that True Spirit?
Answ. When once any Part of Divine Testimony was committed to Writing, it became a Boundary to those very Penmen (much more to all others) that they were always concluded by it: So that besides the Dread and Awe of God, and of the great Sin of Falsification of his Truth or Name, they could not alter any thing, so as to disagree with what they had before spoken by the Divine Spirit, whose Righteous Judgments endure for ever: nor could they so much as imitate themselves, when unassisted by the Holy Spirit.
When therefore they did not understand by immediate Assistance, the utmost End and Reach of what themselves were enabled to speak and write, they did (and they could do no more) search, and pronounce by all the best ordinary Helps God afforded them, but could change nothing, could add nothing; they searched what, or what manner of Time the Spirit of Christ in them did signifie; they could not pronounce of the Time, when not revealed to them: They knew the dreadful Anathema ready to fall, even up∣on an Angel from Heaven, that should preach another Go∣spel. The least Iota, once established by Unchangeable Wisdom and Goodness, was less movable than Heaven and Earth, and would bear no Addition, but of the same Au∣thority by which it self was given.
And even the very Manner, Method, Words, as they meet to carry such a Sense, have their Majesty and Divine∣ness; so that whatever was by Inspiration from God, bri∣dled that which was not; and they that were inspir'd, knew in what they were inspir'd, and what they spoke as so inspired, and in what they were not; but were as Sam∣son with his Locks cut, no more than like other Men; and most cautiously distinguish'd betwixt the one and the other. Nothing therefore hath assayed to joyn it self to Scripture; if any hath dar'd to do it, it hath been reje∣cted by it, when not of the High and Publick Spirit of it.
Quest. But did not the Writers of the New Testament reverse the Writings and Commands of the Old; which thing so scandalised the Jews against our Lord, his Disciples, and Gospel?
Answ. No otherwise than as the Sun commands the Shadow to fly away, and the lesser Lights to retire, when it self appears; or the things typ'd out being come, make useless the Types, so that they necessarily give place, or, as Pictures vail when the Life is present: Else there was such a Respect to the Scriptures of the Old Testament in
those of the New, as to avow them of God before them, and Elder Scripture than themselves: so that they vouch'd them for all they said and taught, and staid the time of themselves being tried, proved, and sufficiently confirmed, and Canonized into Scripture, by the Scriptures that were undoubtedly so before them, and in the very same Me∣thods that they came into the Honour of being Scripture.
Upon which account, the Apostle calls them the more sure Word of Prophesie; more sure, because of greater An∣tiquity, and Elder Reception into Scripture, than that Hi∣storical Relation and Doctrine, which yet was immediate∣ly to pass into Scripture of the same Authority and Value with former Scripture, and of greater Evidence and Di∣vine Clearness, and recommended by Higher Appearances of Divinity.
And on this same account the New Testament derives it self from the Old, sometimes by Proofs out of it, drawn according to the most regular Trains and Consequences; sometimes by more immediate and autho••••tative Interpre∣tation, but of the same Publick and Divine Inspiration with the Prophecy of Old Time it self, as shall be present∣ly more fully discours'd under the Head of Interpretation.
Quest. How far, and to what things does the Rule of the Word of God extend?
Answ. To all things, most assuredly, that are necessary to Salvation and Eternal Life, or to the true perfecting the Conscience in Purity and Peace; whether they are things to be believed, as the Springs of Heavenly Action; or Things to be observed in the Worship of God, or to guid•• the Practice, and order the Conversation aright to tha•• Salvation; or that are prescribed according to the Will of God, for Discipline and Government of the Church: Al•• these are plainly written, or by just Consequences to b•• derived from the Word of God, so far as they are necessary to shew Men the way to please God, or to assure them
they do please God, that so they may attain the Promise of Eternal Life.
Quest. Is there no other Rule of Religion then, but the Scriptures, embracing the Law of Nature?
Answ. There can be none, except either Religion were not derived wholly from God, and therefore not so Ca∣tholick as we have asserted it, or except any other Record of Religion can shew its Descent as High and Publick as Scripture does: Of which Proof which Scripture gives of it self, and what it is, Inquiry is in the next place to be made.