One great Experiment of Faith is touching the Truths of God, a Believer in his holy Progress comes [Greek or Hebrew], unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, as the Apostle speaks, Call. 2.2. At the first he hath a Stock of Divine Knowledge, but after Experience Riches, and all Riches of it; at the first he hath a true persuasion of the things of God, but after Experience a Plerophory or full persuasion thereof. Here I shall Instance in that one Fundamental Comprehensive Truth, which is pregnant with all other, viz. that the holy Scriptures are the very Word of God, and so to be embraced by all Christians: The Papists say, That the Authority of the Scriptures depends, at least quoad nos, on the Definition of the Church, and that upon that account chiefly it is to be beloved by us. By the Church they mean the ⟨p. 328⟩Church of Pastors, and those gathered in a Council to define the Canon of Scripture. Saint Paul speaks of a Church which is The Pillar and Ground of the Truth, 1 Tim. 3.15. But, as our learned Whitaker hath observed, That is not the Church of Pastors but of Believers; and in truth the Word of Life is more purely held forth in the Lives and Experiences of Believers, than in the Gifts of Pastors. This Thesis some of their Grandees have prosecuted even to Blasphemy, saying, That without the Judgment of the Church they would give no more credit to Matthew than to Livy, and value the Scriptures much as they do Aesop's Fables. That this Opinion is false is as clear as the Light: true Faith is a pure infusion, which hangs on the irradiating Spirit as a Beam on the Sun, and in Scripture sees, with the credenda, the reason of believing in the Divine Authority stamped thereon. The Ministry used about it may be Mans, but the Authority on which it leans must be Gods,1 Tota causa, tota radix, totum fundamentum credendi verbis Dei debet esse, quia ipse dicit, saith Raimundus De Sabunde. Unless we believe God for himself our Faith is not Divine; if the Fulciment of it be humane, it is such it self. Saint Paul would not have Our Faith stand in the wisdom of men, 21 Cor. 2.5. Saint Jerome saith, In homine spes vana, vera in Deo est; and a little after, Nolite credere in ducibus, non in Episcopo, non in Presbytero, non in Diacono, non in quâlibet hominum dignitate.
One great Experiment of Faith is touching the Truths of God, a Believer in his holy Progress comes 〈non-Latin alphabet〉, unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, as the Apostle speaks, Cal. 2.2. At the first he hath a Stock of Divine Knowledg, but after Experience Riches, and all Riches of it; at the first he hath a true perswasion of the things of God, but after Experience a Plerophory or full perswasion thereof. Here I shall Instance in that one Fundamental Comprehensive Truth, which is pregnant with all other, viz. that the holy Scriptures are the very Word of God, and so to be embraced by all Christians: The Papists say, That the Authority of the Scriptures depends, at least quoad nos, on the Definition of the Church, and that upon that account chiefly it is to be beloved by us. By the Church they mean the ⟨p. 328⟩Church of Pastors, and those gathered in a Council to desine the Canon of Scripture. Saint Paul speaks of a Church which is The Pillar and Ground of the Truth, 1 Tim. 3.15. But, as our learned Whitaker hath observed, That is not the Church of Pastors but of Believers; and in truth the Word of Life is more purely held forth in the Lives and Experiences of Believers, than in the Gifts of Pastors. This Thesis some of their Grandees have prosecuted even to Blasphemy, saying, That without the Judgment of the Church they would give no more credit to Matthew than to Livy, and value the Scriptures much as they do Esops Fables. That this Opinion is false is as clear as the Light: true Faith is a pure infusion, which hangs on the irradiating Spirit as a Beam on the Sun, and in Scripture sees, with the credenda, the reason of believing in the Divine Authority stamped thercon. The Ministery used about it may be Mans, but the Authority on which it leans must be Gods,1 Tota causa, tota radix, totum fundamentum credendi verbis Dei debet esse, quia ipse dicit, saith Raimundus De Sabunde. Unless we believe God for himself our Faith is not Divine; if the Fulciment of it be humane, it is such it self. Saint Paul would not have Our Faith stand in the wisdom of men, 21 Cor. 2.5. Saint Jerom saith, In homine spes vana, vera in Deo est; and a little after, Nolite credere in ducibus, non in Episcopo, non in Presbytero, non in Diacono, non in quâlibet hominum dignitate.
- 1Theol. Nat. Tit. 209.
- 2Comment. in Mich. 7.
