therefore the Perfection of Scripture we must ever attend to the Design it serves and its Sufficiency to compass that Design For Example In the Historical Part we are not to expect a full and just Relation of all that happened in the World at that Time no nor of all that happened to that People of whose Affairs it more professedly treats a Competent Quantity of the main and most significant Passages will serve the turn such as draw down a just Account of our Blessed Saviour and wherein the Law and Polity of the Jews were Types of Him or of the Christian Church So again The Prophecies do not foretell all that should happen under the Gospel nor every Thing to be done by our Lord himself but are contented with drawing the Principal Lines and giving Representations and Characters so like and lively as when the Son of God should appear in Flesh and Events came to be compared with Predictions might render Men exceedingly to blame if they did not accept and regard That Person as the promised Messias in whom those Descriptions so exactly center'd Nay even in the Gospel it self St. John makes no Difficulty to own that a World of remarkable and wonderful Things done by Christ are not however left upon Record but that Enough are left to build Men's Faith upon Now it cannot be deny'd but the All-wise God could under each of those Periods have inspired the Holy Pen-Men with all that are omitted or that he could if he had pleased have made but One Period and revealed all together But when he did not so we have Reason to conclude that the Measure of his Revelations is directed by the End of them that he intended not the Scripture for a Repository of all Truths in the simple and most comprehensive Sense of the Word But of all which were needful to make Men wise unto Salvation such as their present Circumstances required and what he intended they should be accountable for And as he would not be Niggardly in these Communications so neither was he Profuse Nay from hence I argue 4. Fourthly That even all Truths which may have any Tendency to direct Men in their Duty are not particularly and expresly to be found there nor is it all necessary or indeed Humanly speaking possible that they should And This directly meets with an Opinion unhappy in it's Consequences but entertained it is to be hoped out of an honest Zeal and well-meant Reverence for these Blessed Writings That I mean of Mens not being allowed to do any thing for which some express Command or Warrant or at least Example may not be produced out of Scripture I cannot now stand to shew the Danger and Uncertainty of governing our Lives by the Examples even of Good Men but shall endeavour to prove the unreasonableness of this Rule in general and to disengage Men from the many sad Suspenses and Snares which it is apt to bring unwary Consciences under by these following Particulars First Let it be remembred that our Obligation to obey the Scriptures does not arise from their being Written but from their being the Discoveries of God's Will and our Duty Consequently Whatever comes to my Knowledge as his Pleasure concerning me hath the same binding Power upon my Conscience be the Method of making it so known to me what it will The Authority of the Law-Giver and the sufficient Promulging of the Law These are the Things that induce the Obligation to Obedience And therefore if God who is the absolute and only Master of my Conscience have several ways of signifying his Pleasure the particular Manner of doing it is accidental and foreign to this Binding Power and makes not the least Difference in my Engagement to Submission and Obedience Now Secondly We may be satisfy'd that God not only did formerly but that he does still use other Methods of manifesting his Will besides that of the written Word There have been Times and Persons that knew no other Law but Reason And when God added a brighter Candle he did not put out the old one or forbid us to walk by it's Light so far as that is able to direct us The very Divine Authority of Scripture and the Being of the God from whence that Authority is derived are Principles arising from Common Reason And how absurd would it be to allow no Standard of Truth in Religion no Rule of Behaviour but Scripture when the Two Fundamental Truths of all Religion must be made out to us from other Principles and cannot with any Propriety of arguing be fetched from Scripture it self Thirdly The very Temper and Composition of Scripture is such as necessarily refers us to some other Rule For This is a System of mixed and very different Duties Some of Eternal and Universal Obligation Others Occasional and particular Limited to Times and Circumstances and when Those Occasions and Circumstances ceased the Matter of the Command was lost and the whole Reason and Force of it sunk of course This is observable more especially in the Jewish Dispensation but it is likewise true in sundry other Cases Now these Things being oftentimes delivered promiscuously and in general Terms Men must of necessity have Recourse to some other Rule to distinguish and guide them in making the just Differences between the one and the other Sort. And This is what Equity and the Reason of the Thing must do where the Word of God it self hath made no express Difference at all Fourthly The Scriptures as a Rule of Faith and Life do not concern us just as the Words and Syllables are set down there but according to the true Sense and Rational Meaning of the Text. And in Order to just Resolutions of this kind many Qualifications are requisite A Mind truly Honest and resign'd to the Will of God sincere and unprejudiced the being not only Content but Desirous to learn and ready to retract Errours and reform Vices when upon a Fair Examination they shall appear to be such To This we must add Diligence and Care and Skill such as may enable Men to compare and reconcile and form a Judgment out of the Scriptures to consider the Contexts the Occasions the Expressions the Genius of the Countries and Proprieties of Languages and to fix upon such Commodious Interpretations from hence as may never set one Scripture at Variance with another And where these Qualifications are not to be had there a meek and quiet Spirit an orderly Submission to honest and better Judgments and enduring to be Ignorant in Matters above one's Reach Now all this is the Work of a Man 's own understanding and Will assisted by God's Grace and all so necessary that without such Application and Appeals to fair unbyass'd Reason the very Word of God it self may misguide and prove a Snare to us Fifthly The Nature of Humane Actions puts it out of dispute that the Scriptures alone can never be a full and perfect Direction in Point of Duty For the Circumstances
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
great They are the necessary Points in which we maintain the Sufficiency of Scripture and I hope it hath been proved that what is not full and plain cannot be necessary If Men would read the Bible with Honesty and Diligence with Meekness and Modesty the World would quickly come to a good Agreement in Things requisite to Salvation and for the rest we may entertain different Notions and yet all sides be safe and quiet And would Men but preserve all that Charity and Good Temper which becomes Disputes of small Importance it would signifie but little whether such Controversies were ever agreed or not When Mens Eternal State is brought into hazard when the Peace of the Publick or the Order of the Church is broken when private Friendships cease and Misunderstandings and Bickerings arise These are not the Effects of Difference in Opinion but of the Vanity and Indiscretion the Intemperate Heats and bitter Zeal of those who differ and not content to differ only mismanage and misunderstand Matters In short Holding the Faith in Vnity of Spirit and in the Bond of Peace both is best promoted by Righteousness of Life And whoever shall examine the Rise and Growth of Heresies and Schisms will find that Craft and not Ignorance hath generally been at the Bottom Pride and Avarice and Ambition Envy and Licentiousness Unreasonable Pertinaciousness and a Desire of Popularity and in one Word not so much the Want as the Abuse of Wit These are the rank Weeds that choak the Good Seed that make the Word Unfruitful and sometimes even ensnaring And to clear the Soil of these Nuisances must be every Man 's own Care In short God hath done as much for us as it became him to do he hath left Necessary Truth plain and obvious he will be gracious to innocent and unaffected Ignorance and Mistakes and therefore tho' All may be deceived in unnecessary Points yet None shall be deceived to his own Hurt and Ruine Except those who wilfully deceive themselves or make it their Business to pervert and disturb others 3. Thirdly the next Instance of the Scripture's Profitableness is in Correction that is according to the common Acceptation of the Word Reforming of Manners And in this indeed consists the peculiar Glory of Christianity that it makes the World better sweetens Mens Tempers purifies their Hearts and Affections tames their wild Passions and checks those Exorbitancies which render them Odious to God Uneasie to themselves and Troublesome to one another That no Man therefore might have Ignorance to pretend this Doctrine like a Light hung out from Heaven descries the Rocks and Shelves that threaten us with Shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience And if it happen as God knows it does and often will even to the Best of Men that we be driven upon these Rocks we are then instructed exhorted entreated conjured to recover our selves by speedy and serious Repentance to call up all the Powers of Reason and Religion and to quicken us the more we are told the Dangers of Delay the sad Doom of Obstinacy and Impenitence We are kept in Awe even from our secret Sins by the constant Presence and strict Observation of an All-seeing Judge One from whose Thunder no Covert can shelter and from whose Eye no Darkness can hide us One that does not only pursue us to our Closets and Beds but unlocks our very Hearts and Reins and sees all the Monsters all the deformed Race of evil Thoughts and Actions even in their Embryo and crude Conception Here we have Vice unmask'd and shewn in it's Native Devilishness as the Blackest and basest Thing in it self the most Deceitful in its Appearances the most Destructive in its Effects The Mother of Sorrow and Shame and Death that cheats us with Imaginary Pleasures of a Moment and Satisfactions that flee from us in the very Instant of snatching them but leaves real and lasting Pains behind abandons us to all the Horrours of Guilt and Confusion Amazement and Despair sowes all the Seeds of Discord and Disorder breaks all Faith cuts the Bands of Society in sunder and after all the Agonies of Mind Pains of Body private and publick Miseries on Earth plunges Men at last into the Bottomless Pit a Place of Vengeance and fruitless Remorses the Gnawings of a Worm that never dies and the Burnings of a Flame never to be quenched These are the Terrors of the Lord to perswade Men to be Wiser and stupid sure are They whom these will not perswade Once more Fourthly The Scripture is said to be Profitable for Instruction in Righteousness that is The directing us how we may please and become like unto God To this Purpose it prescribes pure and holy Hearts clean Hands well-govern'd Passions a strict and watchful Guard against Temptation a Mind easie and resign'd to Providence raised above the present World and therefore Moderate in its Desires and reserv'd in its Enjoyments It consults the Benefit of all Conditions and prescribes Virtues proper for every Relation and Capacity of Human Life It invites to the Practice of These by their own Loveliness and Beauty By the Satisfactions they bring to our Selves and the Benefit they are of to Others For if a Gracefulness of Behaviour and perpetual Consistency with a Man's self if the Ease and Transport of one's own Mind and the Commendation of other People If Health and Peace and mutual Happiness If the Blessings which a Good Life hath a natural Tendency to produce and those which it gives a Title to by recommending Men to the more Especial Favour and Protection of God if the aspiring to be like Him here and the Assurance of being Eternally Happy with him hereafter If These I say have any Charms and surely Charms they have to all but lost and stupified Souls then it must be acknowledged that Men want no sufficient Instruction in Righteousness while they enjoy the Scripture These are the Four Topicks resulting from the most usual Sense of the Text but if we interpret 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some do of strengthning that which is Weak and instead of Correction understand Support to feeble and dejected Minds then St. Paul's Observation to the Romans will be included here also where he says that these things were written for our Learning that We through Patience and Comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. XV. 4. And here Blessed God! What Consolations does the Scripture what rather does it not supply us with on these Occasions What firm Grounds of a stedfast Confidence in an Almighty and Compassionate Father a Father always able and always ready to help a Father that chastises because he loves and only grieves with a Design to profit What Patterns of distrest and injured and of rewarded and successful Virtue does It set before our Eyes and bids us arm our Minds by Their Examples The Patriarchs the Prophets the Apostles but above all the Meek and Suffering Jesus And here how Glorious a Scene does it draw what Triumph what Crowns does it propose how ravishing a Prospect does it open by those Assurances that all who suffer for and with him shall also live and reign with him for ever The sweet Transports of a Good Conscience the Supporting Sense of a reconciled God but especially the Experience of his Favour and the Earnests and Expectation of a Bless'd Eternity These break in upon Good Men like Light through a Cloud and are able if well and warmly applied to charm all our Griefs and all our Fears to calm and smooth our very roughest Passage thro' this Valley of Tears and to take out the Sting of that last greatest Terrour to poor feeble Men by softning nay even recommending Temporal Death it self to us O Welcome therefore Holy Religion to us dark wretched Mortals Welcome thou Blest thou Powerful Book Pure and Clear as the Place from whence thou comest and Wise and Good like Him whose Spirit form'd thee And may my Christian Brethren This be ever First and Best in our Esteem most in our Thoughts our Studies and Desires may This be writ entire and fairly copied not in our Memories only but our Hearts and thence shine Bright in all our Conversations And Reason good there is why This Divine Volume should have the Choice of all our Labours for This will sanctifie our other Studies enlarge our Understandings refine and exalt our Souls and teach us not only to excell Others but Daily to excell our Selves This is the only Exception to the Preacher's Character In much of all other knowledge there is much sorrow but this makes us wise with Pleasure and Safety not only wiser for this World than the rest of our Learning can but which is best of all and a Prerogative peculiar to its self alone This makes us wise for Heaven and to Salvation All Thanks therefore and due Praise be rendred to our Gracious God for these his Revelations Praise for their General Benefit and Influence but double Praise for those Advantages by which we have not only Leisure but Obligations and Indispensible Engagements to employ our selves in those Holy and Heavenly Studies Praise for the Bounty of those venerable Saints whose Beneficence hath Dedicated so many Souls to God and made Provision for winning over others by their Holy Labours so long as Time shall last Praise lastly for the Shine of Their good Examples who in their several Stations and Proportions have contributed to the Advancement of Learning and Religion whose Names as well to testifie our Gratitude as to provoke our selves and others to Good Works and the like Labour of Love it is now my Duty to rehearse and may the Recital at this and at all other Times answer the Ends of so Pious an Institution Here followed the Commemoration of BENEFACTORS To God the Father Son and Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS