Meditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many years sinceMeditations on the holy sacrament of the Lords last Supper Written many yeares since

First touching the means whereby a believer comes to know that the testimony, and authority within the promises, ⟨p. 203⟩and truths of Scripture he relieth upon, are certainly, and infallibly Gods own Authority. Which question is all one with that how a Christian man may infallibly be assured (ita ut non possit subesse falsum) that the holy Scriptures are the very dictates of Almighty God.

First touching the meanes whereby a beleever comes to know that the testimony, and authority within the promises, ⟨p. 203⟩and truths of Scripture hee relieth upon, are certainly, and infallibly Gods owne Authority. Which question is all one with that how a Christian man may infallibly be assured (ita ut non possit subesse falsum) that the holy Scriptures are the very dictates of Almighty God.

For the resolution whereof in a very few words we must first agree, that as no created understanding could ever have invented the mystery of the Gospel, (it being the counsel of Gods own bosom,¹ and containing such manifold wisdoms as the Angels are astonished at) So, it being dictated, and revealed by Almighty God, such is the deepness, excellency, and holiness of it, that the natural man, whose faculties are vitiated by original, and contracted corruption cannot by the strength of his own naked principles be able to understand it. For notwithstanding the grammatical sense of the words, and the logical coherence,² and connection of consequences, may be discerned by the common light of ordinary reason, yet our Saviours [Greek or Hebrew], conviction, and the Apostles [Greek or Hebrew], and [Greek or Hebrew], demonstration, and manifestation of the spirit, is a thing surpassing the discovery,³