A Body of Practical Divinity

1. By its Antiquity: It is of ancient standing. The grey Hairs of Scripture make it Venerable. No Humane Histories extant reach further then since Noah's Flood; but the Holy Scripture relates Matters of Fact that have been from the beginning of the World; it writes of things before Time. Now that is a sure Rule of Tertullian, That which is of the greatest Antiquity^*, is to be received as most Sacred and Authentic.

1. By its Antiquity: It is of ancient standing. The gray Hairs of Scripture make it Venerable. No Humane Histories extant reach further then since Noah's Flood; but the Holy Scripture relates Matters of Fact that have been from the beginning of the World; it writes of things before Time. Now that is a sure Rule of Tertullian, That which is of the greatest Antiquity^*, is to be received as most Sacred and Authentick.

1. *Id verum quod primum.

2. We may know the Scripture to be the Word of God by the Miraculous Preservation of it in all Ages. The Holy Scriptures are the richest Jewel that Christ hath left; and the Church of God hath kept these Public Records of Heaven that they have not been lost. The Word of God hath never wanted Enemies to oppose, and if possible to extirpate it. They have given out a Law concerning Scripture, as Pharaoh did the Midwives concerning the Hebrew Women's Children, to strangle it in the Birth, yet God hath preserved this blessed Book inviolable to this Day. The Devil and his Agents have been blowing at Scripture-Light, but could never prevail to blow it out; a clear sign that it was lighted from Heaven^†.—Nor hath the Church of God in all Revolutions and Changes only kept the Scripture that it should not be lost, but that it should not be depraved. The Letter of Scripture hath been preserved without any Corruption in the Original Tongue. The Scriptures were not corrupted before Christ's Time, for then Christ would never have sent the Jews to the Scriptures; but he sends them to the Scriptures,