III. Necessary that we first distinguish
CHAP. III
SECT. I. And here it is necessary that we first distinguish betwixt, 1.
The subject matter of Scripture, or the doctrine which it contains: 2.
And the words or writings containing or expressing this doctrine.
The one is as the blood, the other as the veins in which it runs.
Secondly, we must distinguish betwixt, 1. The substantial and fundamental part of scripture doctrine, without which there is no salvation: and, 2. The circumstantial and the less necessary part, as genealogies, successions, chronology, &c.
Thirdly: Of the substantial, fundamental parts, 1. Some may be known and proved, even without Scripture, as being written in nature itself. 2. Some can be known only by the assent of faith to divine revelation.
Fourthly: Of this last sort, 1. Some things are above reason, as it is without divine revelation, both in respect of their probability, existence, and futurity; 2. Others may be known by mere reason, without divine testimony, in regard of their possibility and probability, but not in regard of their existence and futurity.
Fifthly: Again, matter of doctrine must be distinguished from matter of fact.
Sixthly: Matter of fact is either, 1. Such as God produceth in an ordinary, or, 2. Extraordinary and miraculous way.
Seventhly: History and prophecy must be distinguished.
Eighthly: We must distinguish also the books and writings themselves: 1. Between the main scope, and those parts which express the chief contents; and, 2. Particular words and phrases not expressing any substantials.
Ninthly: Also it is one question, 1. Whether there be a certain number of books which are canonical, or of divine authority? And, 2.
Another question, what number there is of these, and which particular books they are?
Tenthly: The direct express sense must be distinguished from that which is only implied or consequential.
Eleventhly: We must distinguish revelation unwritten, from that which is written.
Twelfthly and lastly: We must distinguish that scripture which was spoken or written by God immediately, from that which was spoken or written immediately by man, and but mediately by God. And of this last sort, 1. Some of the instruments or penmen are known; 2.
Some not known. Of those known, 1. Some that spoke much in Scripture were bad men; 2. Others were godly: and of these, some were, 1. More eminent and extraordinary, as prophets and apostles;
2. Others were persons more inferior and ordinary.
Again; As we must distinguish of scripture and divine testimony, so must we also distinguish the apprehension of faith by which we do receive it.
1. There is a divine faith, when we take the testimony to be God's own, and so believe the thing testified as upon God's words.
Secondly, there is a human faith, when we believe it merely upon the credit of man.
2. Faith is either, first, implicit, when we believe the thing is true, though we understand not what it is; or, secondly, explicit, when we believe, and understand what we believe. Both these are, again, divine or human.
3. It is one thing to believe it as probable, another thing to believe it as certain.
4. It is one thing to believe it to be true conditionally, another to believe it absolutely.
5. We must distinguish betwixt the bare assent of the understanding, to the truth of an axiom, when it is only silenced by force of argument, which will be stronger or weaker as the argument seemeth more or less demonstrative. And, secondly, that deep apprehension and firm assent which proceedeth from a well-established, confirmed faith backed by experience.
6. It is one thing to assent to the truth of the axiom, another to taste and choose the good contained in it, which is the work of the will.
Sect. II. The use I shall make of these distinctions, is to open the way to these following positions, which will resolve the great questions on foot, how far the belief of the written word is of necessity to salvation, and whether it be the foundation of our faith, and whether this foundation hath been always the same?
Pos. 1. The object of belief, is the will of God revealed, or a divine testimony, where two things are absolutely necessary: first, the matter; secondly, the revelation.
2. All this revealed will is necessary to the completing of our faith;g and it is our duty to believe it. But it is only the substance and tenor of the covenants, and the things necessarily supposed to the knowing and keeping of the covenant of grace, which are of absolute necessity to the being of faith, and to salvation. A man may be saved, though he should not believe many things, which yet he is bound by God to believe. 3. Yet this must be only through ignorance of the matter, or of the divineness of the testimony. For a flat unbelief of the smallest truth, when we know the testimony to be of God, will not stand with the being of true faith, nor with salvation. For reason lays down this ground, That God can speak nothing but truth; and faith proceeds upon that supposition. 4. This doctrine, so absolutely necessary, hath not been ever from the beginning the same, but hath differed
according to the different covenants and administrations. That doctrine which is now so necessary, was not so before the fall; and that which is so necessary since the coming of Christ, was not so before his coming. Then they might be saved in believing in the Messiah to come of the seed of David: but now it is of necessity to believe, that this Jesus, the son of Mary, is He, and that we look not for another. I prove it thus: That which is not revealed, can be no object of our faith; much less so necessary: but Christ was not revealed before the fall; nor this Jesus revealed to be He, before his coming; therefore these were not of necessity to be believed, or, as some metaphorically speak, they were then no fundamental doctrines. Perhaps, also, some things will be found of absolute necessity to us, which are not so to Indians and Turks. 5. God hath made this substance of scripture doctrine to be thus necessary, primarily, and for itself. 6. That it be revealed, is also of absolute necessity: but,i secondarily, and for the doctrine's sake, as a means without which believing is neither possible, nor a duty. And though where there is no revelation, faith is not necessary as a duty; yet it may be necessary, I think, as a means, that is, our natural misery may be such as can no other way be cured; but this concerns not us that have heard of Christ. 7. Nature, creatures, and Providence, are no sufficient revelation of this tenor of the covenants. 8. It is necessary not only that this doctrine be revealed, but also that it be revealed with grounds and arguments rationally sufficient to evince the verity of the doctrine, or the divineness of the testimony, that from it we may conclude the former. 9. The revelation of truth is to be considered in respect of the first immediate delivery from God: or, secondly, in respect of the way of its coming down to us, it is delivered by God immediately either by writing, as the two tables, or by informing angels, who may be his messengers, or by inspiring some choice, particular men; so that few in the world have received it from God at the first hand. 10. The only ways of revelations that, for aught I know, are now left, are Scripture and tradition. For though
God hath not tied himself from revelations by the Spirit, yet he hath ceased them, and perfected his scripture revelations; so that the Spirit only reveals what is revealed already in the word, by
illuminating us to understand it. 11. The more immediate the revelation, cæteris paribus, the more sure; and the more succession of hands it passeth through, the more uncertain, especially in matter of doctrine. 12. When we receive from men, by tradition, the doctrine of God, as in the words of God, there is less danger of corruption, than when they deliver us that doctrine in their own words; because here taking liberty to vary the expressions, it will represent the truth more uncertainly, and in more various shapes. 13. Therefore hath
God been pleased, when he ceased immediate revelation, to leave his will written in a form of words which should be his standing law and rule to try all other men's expressions by. 14. In all the forementioned respects, therefore, the written word doth excel the unwritten tradition of the same doctrine. 15. Yet unwritten tradition, or any sure way of revealing this doctrine, may suffice to save him who thereby is brought to believe; as if there be any among the Abassines of Ethiopia, the Coptics of Egypt, or elsewhere, that have the substance of the covenants delivered them by unwritten tradition, or by other writings, if hereby they come to believe, they shall be saved. For so the promise of the Gospel runs, giving salvation to all that believe, by what means soever they were brought to it. The like may be said of true believers in those parts of the church of Rome, where the Scripture is wholly hid from the vulgar, if there be any such parts. 16. Yet where the written word is wanting, salvation must needs be more difficult and more rare, and faith more feeble, and men's conversations worse ordered, because they want that clearer revelation, that surer rule of faith and life, which might make the way of salvation more easy. 17. When tradition ariseth no higher, or cometh originally but from this written word, and not from the verbal testimonies of the apostles before the word was written, there that tradition is but the preaching of the word, and not a distinct way of revealing. 18. Such is most of the tradition, for aught
I can learn, that is now on foot in the world, for matter of doctrine, but not for matter of fact. 19. Therefore the Scriptures are not only necessary to the well-being of the church, and to the strength of faith, but, ordinarily, to the very being of faith and churches. 20. Not that the present possession of Scripture is of absolute necessity to the
present being of a church; nor that it is so absolutely necessary to every man's salvation, that he read or know this Scripture himself; but that it either be at present, or have been formerly in the church: that some knowing it, may teach it to others, is of absolute necessity to most persons and churches, and necessary to the well-being of all.
21. Though negative unbelief of the authority of Scripture may stand with salvation, yet positive and universal, I think, cannot: or, though tradition may save where Scripture is not known, yet he that reads, or hears the Scripture, and will not believe it to be the testimony of God, I think, cannot be saved, because this is now the clearest and surest revelation; and he that will not believe it, will much less believe a revelation more uncertain and obscure. 22. Though all
Scripture be of divine authority, yet he that believeth but some one book, which containeth the substance of the doctrine of salvation, may be saved; much more they that have doubted but of some particular books. 23. They that take the Scripture to be but the writings of godly, honest men, and so to be only a means of making known Christ, having a gradual precedency to the writings of other godly men, and do believe in Christ upon those strong grounds which are drawn from his doctrine, miracles, &c., rather than upon the testimony of the writing, as being purely infallible and divine, may yet have a divine and saving faith. 24. Much more, those that believe the whole writing to be of divine inspiration where it handleth the substance, but doubt whether God infallibly guide them in every circumstance. 25. And yet more, those that believe that the Spirit did guide the writers to truth, both in substance and circumstance, but doubt whether he guided them in orthography; or whether their pens were as perfectly guided as their minds. 26. And yet more, may those have saving faith, who only doubt whether Providence infallibly guided any transcribers, or printers, as to retain any copy that perfectly agrees with the autograph: yea, whether the most perfect copy now extant, may not have some inconsiderable literal or verbal errors, through the transcribers' or printers' oversight, is of no great moment, as long as it is certain, that the Scriptures are not de industria corrupted, nor any material doctrine, history, or prophecy thereby obscured or depraved. God hath not engaged himself to
direct every printer to the world's end, to do his work without any error. Yet it is unlikely that this should deprave all copies, or leave us uncertain wholly of the right reading, especially since copies were multiplied, because it is unlikely that all transcribers, or printers, will commit the very same error. We know the true copies of our statute books, though the printer be not guided by an unerring spirit. See
Usher's 'Epistle to Lud. Capell.' 27. Yet do all, or most of these, in my judgment, cast away a singular prop to their faith, and lay it open to dangerous assaults, and doubt of that which is a certain truth. 28. As the translations are no further Scripture, than they agree with the copies in the original tongues; so neither are those copies further than they agree with the autographs, or original copies, or with some copies perused and approved by the apostles. 29. Yet is there not the like necessity of having the autographs to try the transcripts by, as there is of having the original transcripts to try the translations by.
For there is an impossibility that any translation should perfectly express the sense of the original. But there is a possibility, probability, and facility, of true transcribing, and grounds to prove it true, de facto, as we shall touch anon. 30. That part which was written by the finger of God, as also the substance of doctrine through the whole Scriptures, are so purely divine, that they have not in them any thing human. 31. The next to these, are the words that were spoken by the mouth of Christ, and then those that were spoken by angels. 32. The circumstantials are many of them so divine, as yet they have in them something human, as the bringing of Paul's cloak and parchments, and, as it seems, his counsel about marriage, &c.
33. Much more is there something human, in the method and phrase, which is not so immediately divine as the doctrine. 34. Yet is there nothing sinfully human, and therefore nothing false in all. 35.
But an innocent imperfection there is in the method and phrase, which if we deny, we must renounce most of our logic and rhetoric.
36. Yet was this imperfect way, at that time, all things considered, the fittest way to divulge the Gospel. That is the best language which is best suited to the hearers, and not that which is best simply in itself, and supposeth that understanding in the hearers which they have not. Therefore it was wisdom and mercy to fit the Scriptures to
the capacity of all. Yet will it not, therefore, follow, that all preachers at all times, should as much neglect definition, distinction, syllogism,
&c., as Scripture doth. 37. Some doctrinal passages in Scripture are only historically related, and therefore the relating them is not asserting them for truth; and therefore those sentences may be false, and yet not the Scriptures false: yea, some falsehoods are written by way of reproving them, as Gehazi's lie, Saul's excuse, &c. 38. Every doctrine that is thus related only historically, is therefore of doubtful credit, because it is not a divine assertion, except Christ himself were the speaker, and therefore it is to be tried by the rest of the Scripture.
39. Where ordinary men were the speakers, the credit of such doctrine is the more doubtful, and yet much more, when the speakers were wicked; of the former sort are the speeches of Job's friends, and divers others; of the latter sort are the speeches of the Pharisees, &c., and perhaps Gamaliel's counsels. (Acts 5:34.) 40. Yet where God doth testify his inspiration, or approbation, the doctrine is of divine authority, though the speaker be wicked, as in Balaam's prophecy. 41. The like may be said of matter of fact; for it is not either necessary or lawful, to speak such words or do such actions, merely because men in Scripture did so speak or do; no, not though they were the best saints; for their own speeches or actions are to be judged by the law, and therefore are no part of the law themselves.
And as they are evil where they cross the law, as Joseph's swearing, the ancients' polygamy, &c., so are they doubtful where their congruence with the law is doubtful. 42. But here is one most observable exception, conducing much to resolve that great doubt, whether examples bind; where men are designed by God to such an office, and act by commission, and with a promise of direction, their doctrines are of divine authority, though we find not where God did dictate; and their actions done by that commission are current and exemplary, so far as they are intended or performed for example; and so example may be equivalent to a law, and the argument, à facto ad jus, may hold. So Moses being appointed to the forming of the old church and commonwealth of the Jews, to the building of the tabernacle, &c. His precepts and examples in these works, though we could not find his particular direction, are to be taken as divine. So
also the apostles, having commission to form and order the gospelchurches, their doctrine and examples therein, are by their general commission warranted; and their practices in establishing the Lord's day, in settling the offices and orders of churches, are to us as laws, still binding with those limitations as positives only, which give way to greater. 43. The ground of this position is, because it is inconsistent with the wisdom and faithfulness of God; to send men to a work, and promise to be with them, and yet to forsake them, and suffer them to err in the building of that house, which must endure till the end of the world. 44. Yet if any of the commissioners do err in their own particular conversations, or in matters without the extent of their commission, this may consist with the faithfulness of God;
God hath not promised them infallibility and perfection; the disgrace is their own: but if they should miscarry in that wherein they are sent to be a rule to others, the church would then have an imperfect rule, and the dishonour would redound to God. 45. Yet I find not that ever
God authorized any mere man to be a lawgiver to the church in substantials, but only to deliver the laws which he had given to interpret them, and to determine circumstantials not by him determined. 46. Where God owneth men's doctrines and examples by miracles, they are to be taken as infallibly divine; much more, when commission, promises, and miracles, do concur, which confirmeth the apostles' examples for current. 47. So that if any of the kings or prophets had given laws, and formed the church, as Moses, they had not been binding, because without the said commission; or if any other minister of the Gospel shall by word or action arrogate an apostolical privilege. 48. There is no verity about God, or the chief happiness of man written in nature, but it is to be found written in Scriptures,m 49. So that the same thing may, in these several respects, be the object both of knowledge and of faith.
50. The Scripture being so perfect a transcript of the law of nature or reason, is much more to be credited in its supernatural revelations.
51. The probability of most things, and the possibility of all things contained in the Scriptures, may well be discerned by reason itself, which makes their existence or futurity the more easy to be believed.
52. Yet before this existence or futurity of any thing beyond the reach