Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	know_v	scripture_n	true_a	2,779	5	5.2179	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66396	The divine authority of the scriptures a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Sept. 2. 1695 : being the sixth of the lecture for the said year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2704; ESTC R1959	15,908	41

comprehended in it all the several Books the Prophets containing not only the Books properly so called but also the Historical as written by Inspired Persons and the Psalms containing all the Poetical And they descend yet lower for of the Thirty nine Books of the Old Testament there are very few not above Seven or Eight but what are quoted in the New Testament by Name or for some remarkable Passage and as Books of the same Character So that if we can prove our Saviour to be infallible and the Evangelists and Apostles inspired as we have done before when we proved the Matter revealed by them to have been of Divine Authority at the same time we prove the Scriptures of the Old Testament to be of Divine Inspiration because they had this Testimony and Credit given to them by those that were themselves Infallible and Inspired The like Testimony have we for the Divine Authority of St. Paul 's Epistles by St. Peter who gives them the same Title of Scripture with the Books that were of the Jewish Canon Our beloved brother Paul according to the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you as also in all his Epistles Which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest as also the Other Scriptures But though this be a good and sufficient Proof where it may be had yet it is not applicable to all since the last of the Inspired Writers could have no such Evidence as Malachi among the Jews and St. John in the Primitive Church who survived all the rest of the Divine Penmen And therefore where this Proof of the Attestation given to some is wanting as to others we must have recourse to other Arguments that will supply what is deficient The Old Testament has the Testimony of the New to vouch for its Divine Authority but what can thus testify to the New when there is no other Revelation and no Inspired Persons to come after But this will be help'd by the next Evidence which is That 2. The Scriptures were written by Persons Inspired and that were Inspired in the writing of them 1. They were written by Persons Inspired Thereby is meant that whoever were the Authors known or unknown we have yet good and sufficient Evidence that the Penmen were Inspired both as to the Matter and Manner or Way of Writing But this belongs to another place Or that the Authors of those Books were the same that before taught by Inspiration That the Writers of the Old Testament were of this kind we have already proved from the Testimony of the New as far as that is of Authority to verify it And that the Evangelists and Apostles whom we have before proved to be Inspired were the Authors of the Books of the New Testament we have as good Assurance as the Jews had that the Pentateuch was written by Moses or the Psalms by David or that ever there were such Philosophers as Plato and Aristotle or such Physicians as Hippocrates and Galen or any Books writ by them Nay so much the stronger Evidence have we as it has been the Duty as they thought and the Interest of so considerable a part of mankind as the Christians are to preserve these Records safe and entire and to take care that they be such in all points as they received them and consequently according to their sense of them they are of Divine Inspiration and wrote by those Inspired Persons And for which there can be no greater Evidence than this sort of Tradition unless we would have God reveal to every particular person That the Authors of those Books were Inspired or point it out by some special Miracles which shall serve as the Star to the Wise Men to direct us to it But since this is wanting and cannot reasonably be expected we must rest satisfied with that which is the only possible Evidence and which not only the Primitive Christians did admit as sufficient but was not contested by the most violent Adversaries of their Religion Among whom the Question was not Whether the Persons reputed to be Inspired were the Authors of those Books or Whether those whose Authors are not known were of the same condition with those that were known but Whether the matters of that supposed Revelation and contained in those Books were true and that those Authors were sincere Relaters of it And whereas there were some Books of Scripture that were not so early and universally embraced as others yet they were not so much doubted of as to their Authority as the Authors such as the Epistle to the Hebrews the second and third of St. John and the Revelation unless it were by the Alogi that Epiphanius writes of who rejected the Works of St. John as not agreeable to their Opinion That Christ was a mere Man 2. The Sacred Penmen were Inspired in their Writing in the sense before spoken of p. 4. For 1. There was as much need to Write as to Teach to Write with respect to the absent and to Posterity as to Teach and Preach to the present for there is no other way to Teach in those cases than by Tradition or Writing But the Defect which those Holy Men found all their Discourses labour'd under as to their Conveyance by Tradition through the infirmity of Human Nature and an incapacity of transmitting the Matters now contained in the Scriptures to future Ages in that way without Prejudice Corruption and Abuse disposed them under the direction of the Holy Spirit to commit them to Writing So St. John 20. 31. These things are written that ye might believe So St. Peter 2 Pet. 1. 5. I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance 2. There was as much need to Write by Inspiration as to Teach by Inspiration for Writing is but another way of Teaching And if the Apostles had the Assistance of the Holy Ghost in all matters of moment when they Taught it is reasonable to suppose had we no other Evidence for it that in the same Circumstances they had the same Assistance in what they Writ Nay so much the more might it reasonably be expected that they should have the Assistance of that Divine Power operating upon their Minds and guiding as it were their Pen in what they Writ as what they Writ was to continue in the Church and to be a Standard of Faith and Rule of Life to all Ages Whereas what they Taught could continue no longer than the Memories of fallible men could retain it So that we may conclude That if they Taught and Preach'd by the special Assistance of the Holy Spirit they were also under the Conduct of it when they Writ 3. Those Divine Penmen conceived themselves to be alike Inspired in what they Writ as in what they taught Therefore we generally find the Apostles and St. Paul always unless when he writes in conjunction with others to begin their Epistles with a Declaration of their Commission

Certainty and Infallibility So that there are as few Objections if we strictly consider it made against the most Illiterate as the most Learned of the Inspired Writers against St. Matthew and John as against St. Luke against St. Peter as St. Paul But now if those Writers had wrote after man in St. Paul's Phrase and purely from themselves As it was naturally impossible that ever those Unlearned Persons should apply themselves to study at the Age of St. Peter and write of the most sublime Arguments more to the satisfaction of Mankind than the profoundest Philosophers so it was impossible but that in their Compositions they should have been guilty of manifold Mistakes when they wrote of such various Points and Points of no small difficulty to explicate But when the Unlearned of them are as free from Error as the Learned and as little liable to exception in what they writ 't is evident they writ from the same Spirit with and had the same Assistance as the Learned And therefore the supposed Errors in any of them could not proceed from Inadvertency or Unskilfulness or want of right Information but are rather Errors supposed and imaginary than real the Mistakes of the Reader or Transcriber rather than of the Penmen as I have already shewed Serm. IV. For if the Errors had proceeded immediately from the Writer they would have appeared more in the Composures of the Unlearned than the Learned But when the Unlearned are as free from them as the Learned 't is an unquestionable sign that the Unlearned wrote from the same Spirit as the Learned and both from a Spirit that is Divine 2. The Scriptures will appear to be worthy of such Authors as are Inspired if we consider the way in which they are written which though not with excellency of speech or of wisdom that is human yet have such a Majesty and Authority shining through the whole as gives them a Lustre as much beyond other Books as the Bodies of Angels which they assumed for some special service excelled those of Mortals and that were of a Natural Composition and of which we may say in the like Phrase as Nicodemus of our Saviour That none could write after this manner except God were with them I freely acknowledge that they are not written according to the ordinary Rules of Art and Method which Almighty God is no more obliged to observe than he is to govern the World by the Methods and Rules that are ordinarily observed among Mankind For as in the Government of the World where there are different Ends to pursue and divers Means to be made use of God confines not himself to act as we would in such cases but acts above all Rule known to us and sometimes punishes where we would spare and spares where we would punish sometimes gives to those that we would deprive of such Favours and deprives those of them to whom we should think fit to give So it is in the Divine Composures in which he makes use of different Hands and Instruments as there are different Tempers in Mankind He makes use of the Poetical Vein in David the Oratory of an Isaiah the Rusticity of an Amos the Elegancy of a Luke the Plainness of a Peter the Profoundness of a Paul to serve the common Design of instructing Mankind in the knowledge of God and their Duty to him without that Artificial Method which the Learned Part of the World expect to find and think fit to observe The Heavens and the Earth have upon them the Signatures of an Almighty Power and Wisdom and which we may with David employ our most serious Hours in the Contemplation of with Pleasure and Advantage But yet there is no strict Order visible to us nor can be observed by us in the Situation of the Constellations nor can we give a reason why Orion and the Pleiades or Arcturus are placed in that Quarter of the Heavens which is assigned them And the Earth is not like a Garden laid out in order but rather there seems to us a rude Variety in the disposition of it and yet notwithstanding who is there that doth not under all these seeming Disadvantages find out the Traces of a Divine Original and enough to entitle God to the Creation of all And so it is in the Holy Scriptures where there often seems wanting the Accomplishments of Human Eloquence the enticing words of man's wisdom and that Decorum and Artifice which the Books of Human Contrivance and Invention are embellished with But as the Apostle saith when he declined the words which man's wisdom whether of Philosophers or Orators teacheth it was that their Faith might stand not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God So we may see under the Veil of a seeming Irregularity so much Beauty shining forth and experiment so much Virtue proceeding from it that it will evidently appear that the less there is of Man in the Composure the more there is of God and that it can have none for its Author and Inditer but him and which Irregularity can no more detract from the Authority and Divine Inspiration of the Scripture than it can be questioned whether the Sun be the Fountain of Light because of what we that are at a vast distance from it call Spots For we are at a great distance from the Apostolical Age and much more from the latest times of the Inspired Writers of the Old Testament and so must needs be under some difficulties from our unacquaintedness with the Style and Way of Writing as well as the Customs of those Ages And there will be therefore some Spots and Dark Places in them as there are in the Sun not for want of Light and Elegance originally in them no more than for want of Light in the Sun but because of some Deficiency in our selves that are at a Distance and under such Circumstances as intercept our Sight and hinder us from making true and exact Observations But if we could but stand as we are to judge of Pictures in the same Light in which they were drawn and had lived in the same Ages in which those Books were written we should be able to make a much truer Judgment and penetrate much farther into the meaning of them than we now can do But now though all the Parts of Scripture are not equally alike but like the Inspired Writers themselves of whom some were bred up in the Nurseries of Learning and others fetch'd from the Fishery and the Sheepfold yet are they all plain in the same essential Doctrine and in which the Salvation of Mankind is concerned And not only so but the Style and Order of Words if thoroughly understood as to their Propriety Elegance and Use would be very surprizing if we may judge of what we do not know by what we do which has not been unobserved even by some of the Heathens It was Dionysius Longinus the Rhetorician that admired the Majesty and Sublimity