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A61275
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The perfection of Scripture stated, and its sufficiency argued in a sermon preached at the publick commencement at Cambridge, Sunday July iv, 1697 / by George Stanhope ...
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Stanhope, George, 1660-1728.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing S5226; ESTC R16475
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18,590
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36
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THE Perfection of Scripture STATED And Its SUFFICIENCY ARGUED IN A SERMON PREACHED at the Publick Commencement AT CAMBRIDGE SUNDAY July iv 1697. By GEORGE STANHOPE D.D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty and late Fellow of King's College Publish'd at the Desire of the Reverend the Vice-Chancellour the Divinity-Professors and Other Heads of Colleges LONDON Printed for R. Sare at Gray's-Inn-Gate in Holborn and Matt. Wotton at the Three Daggers in Fleet-street 1697. II. TIMOTH iii 16 17. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works THE Apostle having had occasion in the fifteenth Verse to mention the Holy Scriptures under that general Character of being able to make Timothy wise unto Salvation thought fit to enlarge somewhat more upon so glorious a Subject and to give this particular and very magnificent Commendation of them which is contained in the Words now read to you For the better understanding whereof and setting the Argument comprehended under them in its true Light permit me briefly to premise a few Observations with regard to the Expressions themselves I. The First of these relates to the Subject-Matter of the Assertion All Scripture where I need not tell you That St. Paul by Scripture meant those Writings which were generally received and reverenced in the Church of God as authentick Significations of his good Pleasure Such were the Books of the Old Testament acknowledged to come from Heaven by the Mouth and Ministry of the Prophets and these seem to have been the Scriptures which Timothy is said to have known from a child v. 15. And such likewise were those of the New Testament then extant which if we attend to the * Ann. Chr. LXVII Neron XIII vide Pearson Cestr in Annal Paulin. Time of sending this Epistle many indeed most except the Writings of St. John seem to have been And therefore †So Scultetus in locum Chemnitius Exam. Conc Trident. P. I. cap. 1. Gerhard Loc. Commun de Sacr. Script cap. XVIII p. 147. Learned Persons have taken These into the account and thought St. Paul very properly to intimate that They also were equally worthy of Timothy's study of the same mighty Benefit and Use and such as carried the same stamp of a Divine Authority with those of the Old Testament to which Men paid so profound and entire Respect But then ‖ Nomen Graecum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interdum Universalitatem significat interdum Integritatem Ita hic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 idem est quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adeóque rectè vertitur Tota Scriptura Scultet Qui nostram Interpretationem respuunt obtendunt non dici 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sed nec si sequaris Interpretationem nostram opus crit Articulo Vox enim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nonnunquam etiam sine Articulo sine Adjectivo sumitur Antonomasticè ut Rom. 1.2 2 Pet. 1.20 Jac. Cappell Si 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sumas vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vocem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vertas omnis in casses indues te ex quibus vix te possis expedire Quasi vel minimus Scripturae Sacrae versus habeat omnes hos usus quos hic describit Apostolus Jac. Cappell Vide quae Scultetus ad locum Gerhard è Bellarmino depromptis respondent Loc. Comm. Part. I. Cap. 18. de Sacr. Script p. 146 147. All Scripture is to be understood as the Schools speak not in a Distributive but a Collective Sense that is We must interpret it of the whole Body of Scripture taken together and in the gross and not of each particular Passage to be met with there The first Clause of the Text indeed is true even in this more rigid Construction and an equal necessity of the Writers being led into all Truth and secured from all Errour seems to lie upon every part of a Book intended for the Guide of Souls But most assuredly it is neither True nor Necessary nor so much as Possible that each particular Passage should be of that general Profit and Perfection and serve the several Purposes specified in my Text. And This I take to be so plain and obvious that nothing could excuse the mention of it had not some Writers of great and very boasted Name been content to stoop to so poor a shift as That of alledging against the Protestant Opinion concerning the Perfection of Scripture That this Text to Timothy either proves nothing at all in favour of it or it proves a great deal too much as making every Book and every Period a perfect Rule of Faith and Life by saying that All Scripture is thus inspired and thus exceeding profitable To these Scriptures thus considered our Apostle gives two Noble Commendations First That of their Divine Original All Scripture is given by inspiration of God Secondly That of their general Usefulness And This again is farther illustrated by instancing First in the several Particulars to which that Usefulness extends The Scripture is profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness Secondly By declaring the degree of this Usefulness and the Efficacy of the Scriptures in those respects for that by their means the man of God is capable of becoming perfect and throughly furnished unto all good works By the Man of God the matter is not great whether we understand with * Cajetan Chemnitius Hemingius Vatablus Castalio some Interpreters Every good Christian whose Heart and Life is devoted to the Service and Obedience of God Or whether with †Scultetus Grotius Gerhard c. Others the Bishops and Pastors of the Church such as Timothy himself was and who being dedicated and retaining to God in a more peculiar manner have a Title to this Character distinct from the rest of Mankind For in both senses the Argument comes all to One. Since what the Pastors are bound to teach the same their Flocks are bound to know and believe and do So that this is but One thing considered under different respects And therefore what is sufficient or defective for a Rule to Men in One of these Capacities must consequently be in proportion so to Men in the Other Once more That the Scripture is a sufficient Supply for all the Necessities of this kind the Apostle declares by saying That the man of God may be perfected by it and throughly furnished to every good work For That cannot be perfect which wants any of its substantial Parts nor is He throughly furnished who is still under a necessity of seeking Supplies elsewhere The Text in all this Latitude ministers much more Matter of Discourse than either the Time or Your Patience can allow to be handled distinctly And therefore omitting wholly that first Part which concerns the Divine Original of Scripture as less suitable and
Marks of Excellency as might distinguish them plainly and convince the World they were His by being worthy of Him And He whose Goodness and Mercy are the Eminent shining Attributes of the Divinity might reasonably be presumed to exercise that Power and Wisdom when an occasion so important as the Salvation of a whole World call'd for it His own mere Bounty put him upon the mysterious Work of our Redemption and can we suppose that the very Terms upon which the Success and Efficacy of that Work depends are not sufficiently stated and made known We are told indeed no Writing can be a sufficient Rule because capable of different Coustructions and that some Living Interpreter is necessary upon whose Sense we may securely rely But what Understanding is so short as not to see the Weakness of this Argument For is any thing spoken which might not be written and would not the same words when written continue to be as full as clear as plain and distinct as when spoken only Is not any Man's discourse from his Tongue as liable to be wrested and perverted as that from his Pen If then that living Interpreter whoever he be might have his Sense committed to writing and if that Sense when not written lies open to the same danger of being misunderstood as when it is written then a written Word may be as plain and sufficient a Rule as an Oral one And if Almighty God could express himself as plainly and clearly as Man which to deny were most absurd and impious then nothing hinders why the Dictates of the Holy Ghost written in the Bible might not be as safe as full as intelligible a Direction as any Interpretations or Decrees composed by any living Persons or Society of Persons whatsoever They might be so I say which proves a Written Rule capable of equal Perfection with an Oral one And as the Nature of the thing shews it capable so the Goodness of God gives just Presumption of its actually being so We are able indeed to give some Account why Humane Laws should be obscure Men may not be always happy in their Expressions or they may leave them intricate and dark and studiously contrive some profitable Ambiguities But God hath neither Frailty nor Interest to dispose him thus He speaks on purpose to be understood and what is spoken so as not to be understood is so far forth as if not spoke at all To leave Men in darkness and distress unfurnished with Helps the want of which must be their Eternal Ruine this is what we think but ill agrees with the kind Inclinations he hath otherwise express'd for our Happiness And this will appear yet more improbable if we consider Secondly What the particular Matter is of which the Scriptures chiefly consist and are intended to instruct us in This I have already said is The Second Covenant with fallen Man and that what other things are added there are with Subservience to this Great design And can we suppose that these Great Charters and Indentures are drawn imperfectly In other Sciences there may be many Common Principles and Helps deriv'd from abroad and these are such as shine in some measure by each other 's Light But the Doctrines and Mysteries of Christianity are not in the power of Nature or Art to define we have no further insight here than what the Light from Heaven directs us to and whatever of this kind God hath not made known to us we are condemned to Doubts and Difficulties invincible and can never bring our selves to know it at all Thirdly The Sufficiency and Plainness of Scripture are both of them strongly implied in Faith and Obedience being made the Conditions of Everlasting Salvation and Unbelief and Disobedience threatned with Hell and Damnation to as many as live under the Knowledge and Light of the Gospel For if Belief and Practice must bring us to Heaven then sure God hath left a Complete System of all things necessary to be believed or done And if Men shall be damned for not believing and not practising then sure those Directions are sufficiently plain Especially too if we remember that these Conditions are not calculated for the Wise or the Learned or the Great only but imposed indifferently upon all Degrees and Capacities of Men of what size soever their Understandings or their Attainments be For in regard no Man is capable of Believing or Doing what he is not capable of knowing the Sense and Meaning of it must needs follow that in the Terms of Salvation God hath descended to the Weak and the Common Man and made that which is necessary to All easie and plain to All. The Extremity of marking what is done amiss who says the Psalmist may abide But would not the marking and punishing what could not but be done amiss be a much more insupportable Extremity And yet admitting that Men are condemned to Everlasting Torments for failure in that Duty of which God never gave them sufficient Means of Information I cannot apprehend but that this is the Case with them The Force of which Argument in general That God must needs have made sufficient Discoveries of his Will is so confessedly evident that the only Fault our Adversaries find with us for alledging it is the confining these Discoveries to Scripture only to justifie which Inference I add in the Fourth place That we have no equal Evidence for any other Supplementary Declaration of God's Will and therefore we have Reason to look upon the Scriptures as a full and Sufficient one In his quae apertè in scripturâ posiâ—a sunt inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent Fidem moresque vivendi spem scilicet atque Charitatem Augustin de Doctrin Christian Lib. II. Cap. 9. Now that such Evidence was absolutely needful appears from hence That whatsoever mends and fills up the Measure of any other Law and to which we must have our last Recourse and Appeal does by that Means acquire not only equal but in some sort a superiour Authority to what went before and therefore to be sure it ought to have it 's own Authority at least as well confirm'd as That which it pretends to perfect Now the Scriptures command our Assent and Obedience as coming from God That they came from Him we are assured by their Author 's giving Proper and Authentick Testimonies of a Commission and Inspiration truly Divine That the Miracles in which that Testimony consisted were really performed we have the Report of Enemies as well as Friends to their Doctrine The Proof of Infinite Converts won over by them contrary to all the Interest and Inclinations of Flesh and Blood and Lastly The concurring Consent of the Church Universal in all Ages which alone all Circumstances consider'd is an Evidence even Credible in it self 'Till therefore the Advancers of Traditions and an Infallible Guide on the one Hand and till the Pretenders to private Illuminations on the other can bring equal Evidence for themselves but especially