4.

Of the divine

works of

God.

The uses of knowing God by his

works.

USES OF KNOWING GOD BY HIS WORKS.

The divine works whereby God hath shewed himself, are the creation, and preservation of the world, and all things therein: So the apostle to the Romans saith, that all men are without excuse, because that which may be known of God, is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and godhead. (Rom. i. 19, 20.) Also preaching amongst the idolatrous Lystrians, (Acts xiv. 17,) he saith, that God hath not left himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. And preaching among the learned, and yet no less superstitious Athenians, he citeth and canonizeth the testimony of the poets, to shew that God is not far from every one of us, for in him we live, and move, and have our being. (Acts xvii. 27, 28.) For whosoever among the heathen poets and philosophers, which professed wisdom, hath not been wilfully blind, hath learned by contemplation of the creatures of the world, that God is the maker and preserver of the same.

There is a double use of the knowledge obtained by the works of God; the one to make all men void of excuse, as the apostle teacheth, (Rom. i. 20.) and so it is sufficient unto condemnation. The other is to further unto salvation; and that by preparing and inciting men to seek God, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, (as the apostle sheweth, Acts xvii. 27.) whereby they are made more apt to acknowledge him when he is perfectly revealed in his word. Or after they have known God out of his word, by contemplation of his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, most gloriously shining in his works, to stir them up continually to reverence his majesty, to honour and obey him, to repose their trust and confidence in him. And so the children of God do use this knowledge of God gathered out of his divine works, as appeareth in many places of the scriptures, and especially out of the Psalms, which are appointed for the use of the whole church. (Psalms viii, xix, xcv, civ, cxxxvi, &c.) But though the works of God are so far sufficient to give knowledge of the only true God, and the way unto everlasting happiness, as to leave us to be without excuse, and so are sufficient unto condemnation, they are nevertheless unable to make us

OF GOD'S HOLY WORD, THE SCRIPTURES.

wise unto salvation. Because of things which are necessary unto salvation, some they teach but imperfectly, others not at all; as the distinction of the persons in the godhead, the fall of man from God, and the way to repair the same.

holy word,

The saving knowledge of God is therefore to be had perfectly of God's in his holy word. For God, according to the riches of his grace, the Scriphath abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence, having tures. made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himself, as the apostle teacheth, (Eph. i. 7-9.)

were deli

vered.

In the beginning of the world he delivered his word by Reve- How the lation, and continued the knowledge thereof by Tradition, while Scriptures the number of his true worshippers was small; but after he had chosen a great and populous nation, in which he would be honoured and served, he caused the same to be committed to writing for all ages to the end of the world. For about the space of two thousand five hundred years from the creation, the people of God had no written word to direct them; thence for the space of three thousand three hundred years, unto this present time, the word of God was committed unto them in writing; yet so that in half that time God's will was also revealed without writing, extraordinarily; and the holy books indited one after another, according to the necessity of the times; but in this last half, the whole canon of the Scriptures being fully finished, we and all men, unto the world's end, are left to have our full instruction from the same without expecting extraordinary revelations, as in times past, wherein, (as the apostle noteth, Heb. i. 1.) at sundry times, and in divers manners God spake unto the Fathers by the prophets. The divers kinds are set down in Numb. xii. 6. and in 1 Sam. xxviii. 6. and may be reduced to these two general heads, oracles and visions; by the first of which we understand those revelations that God, as it were, by his own mouth delivered to his servants, and that ordinarily by Urim and Thummim, or by prophets extraordinarily called. By visions are meant those revelations whereby God signified his will by certain images and representations of things offered unto men; as may be seen in the visions of Daniel, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, &c. and which were presented sometimes to men waking, sometimes to men sleeping; sometimes to the

5

6

Scripture the only rule in our days.

HOW THE SCRIPTURES WERE DELIVERED.

mind, sometimes to the eyes. To the imagination of men sleeping were offered divine dreams; in expounding whereof we read, that Joseph and Daniel excelled. But now they, together with all other extraordinary revelations are ceased, and the word of God is now certainly to be learned, only out of the Book of God, contained in the holy Scriptures; which are the only certain testimonies unto the church of the word of God. (John v. 39. 2 Tim. iii. 15.) And men cannot do without the Scriptures now as they did at first, from the creation until the time of Moses, for the space of two thousand five hundred and thirteen years, for the following reasons

I. Because then God immediately by his voice and prophets sent from him, taught the church his truth; which now are ceased. (Heb. i. 1.)

II. Traditions might then be of sufficient certainty by reason of the long life of God's faithful witnesses. For Methuselah lived with Adam, the first man, two hundred and forty three years, and continued unto the flood. Shem lived at once with Methuselah ninety-eight years, and flourished above five hundred years after the flood. Isaac lived fifty years with Shem, and died about ten years before the descent of Israel into Egypt. So that from Adam's death unto that time, three men might by tradition preserve the purity of religion. But after the coming of Israel out of Egypt, man's age was so shortened, that in the days of Moses (the first penman of the Scriptures) it was brought to seventy or eighty years, as appeareth by Psalm xc. 10.

III. God saw his true religion greatly forgotten in Egypt, (Israel then falling unto idolatry, Ezekiel xx. 8.) and having brought Israel his people from thence, did not only restore, but also increased the same, adding thereunto many more particulars concerning his service, which were needful for men's memories to be written.

IV. God having gathered his church to a more solemn company than before, it was his pleasure then to begin the writing of his will. And therefore first with his own finger he wrote the ten Commandments in two tables of stone, and then commanded Moses to write the other words which he had heard from him in the Mount. (Exod. xxxiv. 27, 28.)

V. Thus God provided that the churches of all ages and times

DEFINITION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.

might have a certain rule, to know whether they embraced sound doctrine or no; and that none should be so bold as to coin any new religion to serve him with, but that which he had delivered

in writing.

Scripture then may be defined to be the word of God written What the by men inspired by the Holy Ghost for the perfect building and Scripture is. salvation of the church: or holy books written by the inspiration of God to make us wise unto salvation, (2 Tim. iii. 15, 16. 2 Pet. i. 21. John xx. 31.) and though the Scripture be written by men which are subject unto infirmities, it must nevertheless be accounted the word of God, because it proceeds not from the wit or mind of men, but holy men set apart by God for the work of God spake and writ as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. Therefore God alone is to be accounted the author thereof, who inspired the hearts of those holy men whom he chose to be his secretaries, who are to be held only the instrumental causes thereof.

And it appeareth that this Book which we call the Book of God, and the Holy Scriptures, is the word of God indeed, and not men's policy, both by the consonant testimony of men in all ages, from them that first knew these penmen of the Holy Ghost, with their writings, until our time; and also by reasons taken out of the works themselves, agreeable to the quality of the writers. Both which kind of arguments the Holy Scriptures have as much and far more than any other writings. Wherefore as it were extreme impudence to deny the works of Homer, Plato, Virgil, Tully, Livy, Galen, and such like, which the consent of all ages hath received and delivered unto us; which also by the tongue, phrase, matter, and all other circumstances agreeable, are confirmed to be the works of the same authors whose they are testified to be; so it were more than brutish madness to doubt of the certain truth and authority of the holy Scriptures, which no less, but much more than any other writings, for their authors, are testified and confirmed to be the sacred word of the ever-living God. Not only testified (we say) by the uniform witness of men in all ages, but also confirmed by such reasons taken out of the writings themselves, as do sufficiently argue the Spirit of God to be the author of them. For we may learn out of the testimonies themselves, as David did, (Psalm exix. 152.) that God had established them for ever.

8

Reasons to prove God to be the

PROOFS THAT GOD IS THE AUTHOR OF THE SCRIPTURES.

Among those reasons which prove that God is the author of the holy Scriptures, are-

author of the holy I. The true godliness and holiness wherewith the writers of Scriptures. the Scriptures shined as lamps in their times, and far surpassed 1. The godliness of the all men of other religions; which showeth the work of God's Spirit in them; and how unlikely it is that such men should obtrude into the church their own inventions instead of God's word.

writers.

2. The simplicity and sincerity of the writers.

3. The qua

lity and condition of the

penmen of the holy Scriptures.

II. The simplicity, integrity, and sincerity of these writers, in matters that concern themselves and those that belong unto them, doing nothing by partiality, (1 Tim. v. 21.) neither sparing their friends nor themselves. So Moses, for example, in his writings spareth not to report the reproach of his own tribe, (Gen. xxxiv. 30; xlix. 5, 7.) nor the incest of his parents of which he himself was conceived, (Exod. vi. 20.) nor the idolatry of his brother Aaron, (Exod. xxxii.) nor the wicked murmuring of his sister Miriam, (Numb. xii.) nor his own declining of his vocation by God to deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt, (Exod. iv. 13, 14.) nor his murmuring against God in his impatience, (Numb. xi. 11-14.) nor his want of faith, after so many wonderful confirmations, (Numb. xx. 12; xxvii. 14. Deut. xxxii. 51.) And though he were in highest authority, and had a promise of the people to believe whatsoever he said, (Exod. xix. 8; xx. 19; xxiv. 3.) he assigneth no place for his own sons to aspire either to the kingdom, or to the high priesthood; but leaveth them in the mean degree of common Levites. All which things declare most manifestly that he was void of all earthly and carnal affections in his writings, as was meet for the penman and scribe of God. Whereunto also may be added that he writeth of himself, (Numb. xii. 3.) that he was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth, which no wise man would in such sort report of himself, if he were left to his own discretion.

III. The quality and condition of the penmen of these holy writings; some of whom were never trained up in the school of man, and yet in their writings show that depth of wisdom that

* This is doubtful. The Sept. reads θυγατέρα τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ τοῦ παρὸς αὐτοῦ. And the word 7 which we render his father's sister, may also signify his cousin german. At all events, the marriage of an aunt was not forbidden till afterwards. (Lev. xviii. 12, 14.)