Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	law_n	new_a	testament_n	2,758	5	8.1711	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

which they wrought Therefore while the Authors were in being there needed no Miracles to prove these Writings to be theirs when they themselves asserted them so to be And after their decease we have as much reason to believe the Scriptures which they wrote to have been of Divine Inspiration as what they taught to be a Revelation both now depending upon the like Evidence that is Testimony as to which we have no more proof of the Matter than we have of the Books 3. From hence it follows That not to believe the Scripture to have been of Divine Inspiration is in effect to reject and deny the Revelation therein contained The Scripture being the best and in the present circumstances of Mankind the only means left for the conveyance of it I say in the present circumstances it is the only means for when the circumstances were other than they are now or have been for Sixteen hundred Years and upwards there was then no such absolute need of a written Word When the Instructors of Mankind had their Lives protracted to a vast extent as it was with the Patriarch's of Old or when there were Inspired Persons alive to teach and rectify any mistakes that might arise and disturb the Peace of the Church as it was in the times of the Apostles But when things fell into an ordinary course and that fallible Persons as all afterwards were might mistake in their reports of Doctrine c. and the weak memories of others not retain what they had been taught and that the insincere would wrest what was taught to serve their perverse designs the case being thus alter'd from extraordinary to ordinary so was the means of conveyance And God that committed the Divine Oracles to be taught by Persons whom he thought fit to inspire employed the same Persons to commit that Revelation to writing for the future Preservation of it and the conveying it down safe and intire to Posterity Without which Mankind in these circumstances neither could themselves have been certain of what they were to believe nor could they have sufficiently proved to others what it was they were obliged to receive and to believe as wanting Authentick Monuments and Records for it So that we have sufficient reason to believe that the same Divine Goodness that did make known his Will to Mankind would take the best means and did take the best means for the continuing and preserving it And Scripture being the only means of that kind becomes a Rule of Faith and so is of Authority sufficient to oblige us to receive and obey it If the Matter of Scripture be true and of Divine Inspiration we are obliged by it though the Writing or Book containing it should be only of Human Composition because it is the Doctrine and not the way of delivery that passes the immediate Obligation upon us But when the Book containing that Matter as well as the Matter it self is of Divine Authority and composed by Divine Appointment Direction or Inspiration it obligeth us by vertue of the Composition as well as the Matter and both are to be jointly received as proceeding from one and the same Original and Authority But having asserted this That the Scripture is the only means of conveyance of the Will of God to Mankind and what becomes a Rule of Faith to us it is fit to return to the Question proposed viz. How we can prove the Scripture to have been of Divine Revelation or that those Books so called were wrote by the Direction and Command of God or by Inspiration from him A. 1. I Answer in the same way as before That as there is no Revelation if the Scriptural Revelation be not that Revelation so there is no written Revelation if the Scripture be not that Book and be not Inspired And then we should want the only certain means of conveyance which is Writing or should have been wholly left to the doubtful and uncertain hand of Tradition for the knowledge and preservation of Revelation Now I think this to be an Argument of considerable force for the Divine Authority of Scripture that without this means we should after a Revelation be in effect without a Revelation For so it will be if the Scripture contain not that Revelation and that we have no sufficient Record if that be not the Authentick Record of it But to come nearer the point 2. I Answer That there is as much proof for the Inspiration of the Scripture as the matter is well capable of and as much as is sufficient and if that be so then 't is unreasonable to reject it for they who do so can do it upon no less pretence than that they would have such a proof as the matter is not capable of and more than is sufficient for the proof of it But that there is such a proof for the Divine Authority of Scripture as is sufficient I think will be evident if we shew 1. That the Scriptures have for proof of their Inspiration the Testimony of such as were Inspired 2. That they were written by Persons Inspired and that were Inspired when they writ them 3. That they are worthy of such Authors and have upon them the Characters of such Inspiration 1. The Scriptures have for proof of their Inspiration the Testimony of such as were Inspired The Testimony of Persons Inspired is as much a Proof of Inspiration as if it had been a matter they themselves were Inspired with and therefore the Evidence that we have for the Inspiration of such Persons is a sufficient Evidence for the Inspiration they give Testimony to As for instance suppose that we have not as good evidence for the Inspiration of the Old Testament as we have for the New yet if the New doth justify the Inspiration of the Old quotes it as such and bestows that Character upon it then by vertue of such a Testimony we have as good Evidence for the Old as we have for the New The meer Quotation of a Book by an Inspired Person whether as to the Author Words or Matter doth not give the like Authority to that with what he himself doth write by Divine Inspiration for then Aratus and Menander Epimenides and Callimachus who were Heathens and are Quoted by St. Paul would become Inspired Writers But the Scriptures of the Old Testament are cited by our Saviour and the Apostles as the Oracles of God and as Books of Divine Authority and which they produce and appeal to upon all occasions in justification of the Doctrine which they taught So we are told that all Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the whole Scripture as Dionysius Carthus expounds it is given by Inspiration of God And what is meant by the Scripture is no other than what was generally received by the Jewish Church as such and which our Saviour distributes after their manner into the Three known parts viz. The Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Which division