1We will begin with the first, The foundation of our faith, or divine assent in matters of Religion. What is that which every man must build his faith upon? What is the foundation he must lay there? And that is the Word of God, declared and written for our instruction in those Canonical Books of the Scripture. When we come to believe the matters of our salvation; the ultimate motive into which all is to be resolved, is, Thus saith the Lord, [Greek or Hebrew], The word of God hath spoken it. It's not antiquity, universality, or the laws of the Land, or the tradition of our fathers, that is the warrantable foundation, but the Scripture only. Thus Timothy is commended for attending to the Scriptures, which are able to make him wise to salvation through faith, 2 Tim. 3.17, 18. So that although other things be required by way of helps and means, as prayer, interpretation of the Scripture, Gods assistance, the guidance of the Ministry; yet by way of a Foundation, or a Rule, that is the Scripture only. As God at first put all the light into the Sun, and the Stars shine by a borrowed light from it: So God hath now put all supernatural light into the Scripture; and all guides are to shine by that. Hence it is so often compared to a light, and a lamp unto our feet; So that the Ministers of the Word do then lay a good foundation, when in matters of Doctrine, and truths to be believed, they build them on the Scripture, make them a Scripture-auditory, a people that dare not, that will not take any matter of faith, but upon Scripture-grounds. Thus those Bereans are commended for a noble and ingenuous people, that compared what Paul preached with the Scriptures, they then had, whether it was consonant to them or no, Act. 17 11. So that that people, who know nothing of the Scripture, are not instructed by the Word, have not their faith, their Religion from it; all they offer to God is a Sacrifice without eyes, they do believe they know not what.
1We will begin with the first, The foundation of our faith, or divine assent in matters of Religion. What is that which every man must build his faith upon? What is the foundation he must lay there? And that is the Word of God, declared and written for our instruction in those Canonical Books of the Scripture. When we come to believe the matters of our salvation; the ultimate motive into which all is to be resolved, is, Thus saith the Lord, 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, The word of God hath spoken it. It's not antiquity, universality, or the laws of the Land, or the tradition of our fathers, that is the warrantable foundation, but the Scripture only. Thus Timothy is commended for attending to the Scriptures, which are able to make him wise to salvation through faith, 2 Tim. 3.17, 18. So that although other things be required by way of helps and means, as prayer, interpretation of the Scripture, Gods assistance, the guidance of the Ministry; yet by way of a Foundation, or a Rule, that is the Scripture only. As God at first put all the light into the Sunne, and the Starres shine by a borrowed light from it: So God hath now put all supernatural light into the Scripture; and all guides are to shine by that. Hence it is so often compared to a light, and a lamp unto our feet; So that the Ministers of the Word do then lay a good foundation, when in matters of Doctrine, and truths to be believed, they build them on the Scripture, make them a Scripture-auditory, a people that dare not, that will not take any matter of faith, but upon Scripture-grounds. Thus those Bereans are commended for a noble and ingenuous people, that compared what Paul preached with the Scriptures, they then had, whether it was consonant to them or no, Act. 17 11. So that that people, who know nothing of the Scripture, are not instructed by the Word, have not their faith, their Religion from it; all they offer to God is a Sacrifice without eyes, they do believe they know not what.
- 1The Scripture is the only foundation of our faith.
