THE Divine Autority AND USEFULNESS OF THE Holy Scripture ASSERTED IN A SERMON On the 2 Timothy 3. 15. By R. ALLESTREE D. D. and Chaplain in Ordinary to his Majesty OXFORD At the THEATER 1673. 2. Tim. 3. 15. And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation throughx faith which is in Christ Iesus THE words are part of St. Pauls reasoning by which he presseth Timothy to hold fast the truth he had receiv'd and not let evil men seducers work him out of what he had bin taught urging to this end both the authority of the Teacher himself who had secur'd the truth of his doctrine by infallible evidence and beyond that as if that were a more effectual enforcement pressing him with his own education in the Scriptures how he had bin nurst up in that faith suckt the Religion with his milk that it was grown the very habit of his mind that which would strengthen him into a perfect man in Christ and make him wise unto salvation if he did continue in the faith and practise of it which he proves in the remaining verses of the Chapter In the words read there are three things observable 1. Here is a state suppos'd Salvation and put too as of such concernment that attaining it is lookt upon as wisdom wise unto salvation Now since true wisdom must express it self both in the end that it proposeth and the means it chooseth for that end to be pursued with and attain'd by and take care both these have all conditions that can justify the undertaking and secure the prudence of it and this wisdom to salvation therefore must suppose both these in order to them both we have here 2. That which with all divine advantage does propose this end and alsox does prescribe most perfect means for the attaining it and that is Holy Scripture through faith which is in Christ Iesus Thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus Holy Scripture probably of the Old Testament for there was hardly any other Timothy could know from a child scarce any other being written then The faith of that then through the faith which is in Christ Iesus that is together with the faith of all things necessary to be known concerning Christ is meant Now since St. Iohn after the view of all that the other three Evangelists had wrote concerning Christ adding his story also says that Christ did and spoke more then what is written yet affirms most positively that those things were written that we might believe that Iesus is the Christ the Son of God and believing might have life through his name and so enough is written for that faith which is in Jesus that is necessary to eternal life therefore the Holy Scripture of the Old Testament together with the faith of what is written in the New is that which St. Paul affirms is able to make us wise unto salvation 3. Here is the advantage Timothy had above others as to Faith in these and consequently the far greater obligation to continue in it He had known them from a child And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scripture c. The first thing that does offer it self to our consideration is the state suppos'd Salvation But because my Text supposes it I shall do so too nor shall think it needful to prove here that there is such a state nor consequently that all those are stupid who propose not to themselves this everlasting safety for their main end and by strict care in the duties of Religion and Gods service aime at it for if that state be granted nay if it be but possible it must be granted that there can be no security but in doing so nor consequently any wisdom without being wise thus unto salvation But then if this were granted that the wisest thing man could propose to himself were by strict care in all the duties of Religion to design Gods honor and his own salvation still as to the other part of prudence which consists in the choice of means we are to seek for that Religion we are to pursue this end by and attain it since there are so many and so opposite Religions in the word that 't is not easier to reconcile them then to make peace betwixt enemies and contradictions And it alwaies was so for excepting that mankind agree'd still in the notion of the necessity of Religion that all had apprehensions of invisible powers above us and differ'd not much in the rules of Justice and Morality in other things there was no nearness Almost from the beginning there was more variety of Gods then Nations I had almost said then Worshippers Beasts were their Sacrifices and their Deities and therefore the votaries were certainly no better Vices also were their worships things which their Cities and their Camps would not endure found Sanctuary in their Temples and the actions which were whipt in the Judgment-hall were their piety in the holy places And tho some wise men among them found good reason to decry this yet they knew not what to take up in the stead I need not add the present differences of the world even that call'd Christian too great part of which as heretofore they seal'd their faith with their own blood now seal it in the blood of all that differ from them and by their persecutions hope to merit Heaven more then those did hope to gain it by their Martyrdoms But these I need not add to make up this into a demonstration that it is impossible for lapsed men so far as they are left to themselves and have no other guide to follow but their reason to find out what they are to believe of God and how to serve him and save themselves The Fathers and Philosophers too conclude that we can learn from none but God what we must understandx of God who must be known only as he himself is pleas'd to revele himself His worship also how he will be serv'd and what observances he does require or will admit since it depends on his own good plesure therefore without his directions 't is in vain to hope to please him with our Religious service whatever it be and by consequence impossible without his guidance and assistance to acquire the end of all our Service and Religion the salvation of our souls So that how wise soever he be who does propose this blessed end to himself if yet withall he be not some way from the Lord instructed by what means he must pursue that end and do not make choice of and use those means it is impossible he can be wise unto salvation Now for this St. Paul assures us most expresly here we may be furnished For he saies The Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus And he
liv'd till near that time who rose up with him at his resurrection when these books writ by the will of God to be the pillar and foundation of mens faith in after ages as saith Irenaeus in that age were also read in the assemblies weekly when not only those that did assemble were by Hadrian martyr'd but they put men to their oaths to find out whether they were Christians that they might massacre them And in the 3 d it was the like when Miracles they say were not yet ceast yet sure the greatest was the constancy of Christians in adhering to this book patience in suffering for it For they report the sands on the sea shore almost as easy to be numbred as the Martyrs of that age what by Valerian Decius Maximinus and Severus but especially by Dioclesian who put so many men to death for not delivering up their Bibles to be burnt and refusing to Sacrifice to his Gods as if he meant to have depopulated the whole earth And this is as notorious as that men do now profess that they are Christians and that these are holy Scriptures Therefore I shall need to go no further Now among so many myriads who on the account of all these Miracles whate're they were suffer'd themselves to be converted to the faith of Christ and then as if they car'd for nothing but Religion and their Bibles for them bore the loss of goods and life it self and engag'd their posterity to do so also that not one of these should know whether indeed any such miracles were wrought if any were restor'd to life or no for if they knew then they were true and that among so numberless a crow'd of teachers who by assuming to speak languages raise the dead work signs drew in those Myriads to Religion and the stake and went before them gave them an example both in faith and death that not one of all those should believe either the Miracles or himself that did them for if any one that did them did believe them since he knew who did them they must needs be certain but not one of them to know it sure is such a thing as neither could be don nor be imagin'd He therefore that requires strict evidence in things of faith which cannot bear it he that calls for Mathematical demonstration nor will believe on easier terms yet is so credulous and so unwary that he can believe so many things which by the nature and the disposition of mankind I have demonstrated not possible which yet must be true unless these scriptures be from God 't is plain he does not seek for certainty but for a pretence of not believing would fain have his Infidelity and Atheism look more excusable and is not fit to be disputed with but to be exploded But if these scriptures be from God then whatsoever they affirm with modesty I may conclude is true And therfore when St Luke Acts. 1. 1. declares his former treatise contain'd all that Iesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up since Christ before he did ascend taught every thing that was requir'd to be believ'd and don in order to salvation and more too therfore if his Gospel did contain all that he taught and did since it did not contain all absolutly it must needs mean it contained all that was necessary or it must mean nothing And since the same St Luke in the beginning of that Gospel does affirm he wrot it that Theophilus might know the certainty of those things wherein he had bin instructed T is plain he avers that the certain knowledg of all those things wherein the having bin instructed made Theophilus a Christian might be had out of that Gospel and when St Paul says here that the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus and St John in his 20 chap. v. 31. that tho he had not wrot all the things that Iesus did yet those that he had wrot were written that we might believe that Iesus was the Christ the son of God and that believing we might have life through his name T is evident the Scriptures say that what was written was sufficient to work that belief which was sufficient to life and salvation as far as the credendâ— do concur to it And when St Paul in that verse that succeeds my text in most express particular words sets down the usefullness of Scripture in each several duty of a man of God or preacher of the Gospel both for Doctrine of faith for reproof or correction of manners and instruction unto righteousness and tells you Gods express end in inspiring it and consequently its ability when so inspir'd was that the man of God might be made perfect throughly furnisht unto every good work that belongs to his whole office t is most certain that what is sufficient for that office to instruct reprove correct and teach in must needs be sufficient to believe and practise in for all men i. e. what my text affirms they are able to make us wise unto salvation I might call in Tradition universal to bear witness to this truth for holy Scriptures if having once demonstrated that they are Gods word when that does affirm it and bears witness to it there were need of any other And this I dare boldly say that if the Scripture did say as expresly that the Pope had a supremacy or soveragnity over the whole Church or that he or the Roman Church were infallible their definition or the living voice of their present Church a most sure rule of Faith as it does say Scripture is able to make us wise unto salvation those Articles would suffer no dispute it would be blasphemy or sacriledg to limit or explain them by distinctions when those sayings of the perfectness of Scriptures are forc't to bear many Then we should have no complaints of the obscurity of those books if those articles were either in the Greek or Hebrew they would never say the Bible were not fit to be a Rule of Faith because the Language were unknown to the unlearned and they could not be infallibly secure of the Translation were they there they would account them sure enough who think them plain enough already there and that we must believe them because Thou art Peter Feed my sheep and Tell the Church are there And for him that shall affirm all necessaries that must make us wise unto falvation are not in the Scripture 't is impossible to give a rational account how it should come to pass that some are there the rest are not It must be either on design or else by chance Now 1. That God should design when very many things that were not necessary were to be written that the main and fundamental ones should be omitted and when of the necessaries most he did design for Scripture then He should not suffer
profession of our faith in distinction to that of others or at least espouse the scandal of the owning it Then one would think they must account that there is nothing in our worship don that is unlawful nor omitted that is necessary nor any thing Heretical profest at least that there 's no scandal in the owning that profession For if there were they did allow them only to profess and act gross sin which certainly they would not do So that poor Protestants when they are pleas'd to give leave may be no Heretics and therfore there is nothing of it self in that profession faulty But yet on the other side since we see they call us Heretics and when they have no power over us damn us to Hell fires and when they have had power damn'd us to the fire and fagot also sure they think the differences to be in things necessary But yet the account is easy how not the obscurity of Scripture but a Principle or prejudice does cause this For We are bound in conscience to grant they believe their own Principles Now 't is a Principle with them that their Church cannot erre and therfore that their present faith and consequent depending practise was their faith and practise alwaies That it may appear so they must seek for countenance from Scripture and if any thing there seem to thwart their faith or practise they must smooth and disguise it that it may look friendly And 't is most certain if the Scripture should be never so express against them whilst they think it is not possible that they can err they cannot think it possible Scripture can mean what it pretends to speak T were easy to make instances As first for invocation of the Saints departed which with them is a point of faith Bellar. and Cochleus produce that of the Psalms I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help Psalm 121. 1. and altho the text directs that looking up expressly to the Lord that made heaven and earth v. 2. and tho it be a Principle with them that on those everlasting hills there were no Saints in Davids time that could be invocated they were all in limbo then they say yet as I said they would have countenance from Scripture and for want of better they are therefore forc'd to interpret those words I will lift up mine eys unto the Hills thus I will invocate the Saints Now will any say 't is the obscurity of this Scripture that does hinder Protestants from seeing the bright evidence of this argument and not rather that it is the weak foundation of this practice that does make the Romanists seek to build it on those mountains So among those several texts which in the 2d Nicen general Council are produc't for adoration of the images of Christ and of the Saints and are expounded to evince it none is plainer then that which I produced now from Bellarmin I shall give one or two examples from the Psalms Thy face Lord will I seek and Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us and again the rich among the people shall entreat thy face therefore David thought the picture of Christ was to be ador'd It is their own conclusion from these texts And they have no better for it Yet they saw the doctrine in these so apparently as that with great opposition to great Councils and more blood shed I think then yet ever any doctrine hath bin setled with it was impos'd Yea more the first experiment of the Popes power over Soveraign Princes was on the account of this same doctrine when for opposing Image-worship Gregory the 2d excommunicated the Greek Emperour Pope Constantine for the same cause indeed had 14 years before don so to Philippicus but he did not go much further whereas Gregory absolv'd the Emperors subjects in the Roman Dutchy from their Allegiance commanded them not to pay him any tribute nor in any wise obey him whereupon they kill'd their Governors and swore obedience to the Pope And this was the beginning of St Peters patrimony and it was thus gotten by this doctrine which they saw so cleerly in these Scriptures when they cannot see the contrary in those plain words Thou shalt not make to thy self any whether Graven image or idol it matters not since it follows nor the likeness of any thing which is in heaven above c. nor in those where God takes care expresly that himself be not worship't by an image Deut. 4. 15. and then judg if 't is obscurity or plainness that makes them see or not see doctrines in the Scripture rather if it be not meerly the necessity of prejudice So again we differ in the meaning of the 14th chap. of the 1. Cor. where we think St Paul asserts and argues yea and chides against all service in an unknown tongue in the public assemblies saying all must be don there so as it may be understood and to edification But that which is perform'd there in an unknown tongue does not edify says he there yet to justify this practice they must make it have a different meaning which no Fathers countenance but which several expound as we do yea and diverse of their own do so too and particularly their Pope Iohn 8th in his 247th Epistle writing expresly on that Subject Once more so their half communion that it may be reconcil'd with that express command Drink yee all of it and this do obliges them to find another meaning drink ye all must be directed to them only as Apostles and do this must signify consecrate the Elements altho St Paul apply it most directly to the drinking and the drinking to his lay Corinthians Nor dare they say in truth it means the other for St Paul when he does say do this did not intend to make his Lay Corinthians male and female all priests and give them power to consecrate The words are plain ther 's nothing in the text obscure that makes us differ but the practise had by little little grown upon them till it became Universal and so grew into their faith and then since they believe they cannot erre they must expound Christ's words so as they may not contradict their practise because that would overthrow their Principle But the Church that builds upon no Principle but Gods word can have no temtation to pervert or strain it since what ever does appear to be the meaning of it that their Principle must needs engage them to believe And therfore if it say This is my body we believe it if it saies too after consecration it is bread we believe that also and because it therfore says 't is both we so believe it one that it may be the other which since both say it is impossible that it can be substantially neither hath God in express words told us which it is substantially therfore seeing
does assert this on the very ground we mention'd for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inspir'd by God they come from him All which must be made out in the next place That those Holy Scriptures which St. Paul first mentions those of the Old Testament were so and did contain sufficient revelation both of God and of the way of worship of the Jews that Nation did so perfectly believe that neither Sufferings nor Miracles could perswade the contrary neither the Roman persecuters that destroy'd their worship nor the Son of God that chang'd it could yet take them off from Moses and his Scriptures Now that this Moses led that Nation out of Egypt with an high hand and made himself their Prince and Law-giver multitudes of forreign Histories of the first times and the best account assure us whose relations we cannot question as deriv'd from themselves because they hated Jews beyond all possibility of such compliance But the Scriptures also tell us how in Egypt by strange wonders such as their Magicians could not imitate nor bear who tho they had permission to do some it was that so they might appear to be outdon the more miraculously themselves confessing Gods hand in those prodigies Moses wrought on the Egyptians to give leave the people should depart and how when yet notwithstanding that leave given they were pursu'd he made way for them through the Sea by Miracles which was a rampart and defence to them a ruine to their enemies How they were fed for forty years with Manna raining down from Heaven in the wilderness and that they might depend on Providence for their daily provision when he forbad them to take care or gather for the morrow whatsoe're their greediness or want of faith provided strait bred worms and stank except that on the Sabbath eve to keep off such cares from the day of their Religion they gather'd double which corrupted not How when they mutined for flesh would have variety Paradise in the desert such great plenty of Quailes flew to them as fed the whole Nation till their very lust was surfetted and they had no more will then hunger to them How Moses Rod did strike a living stream a River that suffic'd that people and their cattle out of a Rock How in the midst of lightning and thunder God himself promulgated his Law to the whole Nation audibly at once How his glorious presence shew'd it self in all necessities upon the Ark in which the Tables of the Law were laid up How the waters of the river Iordan fled from that Ark both waies flow'd upwards to give passage to the people into Canaan How the walls of Ierichó without any other battery any other force but that the Ark was there fell down before it But to name no more If these be true that power by which these were wrought was great enough to give that Law require obedience to it and reward it and to punish all transgression according to the tenor of these Scriptures that is it was God and he that wrote those Scriptures must have had communication with and bin inspir'd from God to write them But 2. Whether they were true or no according as they are recorded in those Scriptures that whole people from the greatest almost to the least must know because they are recorded as all don not only in the presence of them all but as the objects and the entertainments of their senses every one so that if they were forg'd not one of the whole Nation could be ignorant of it And then 3. If they knew them forg'd all that 600000 men besides their wives and families should endure this Moses having brought them forth only into a wilderness there to lay such a heavy Law and so severe a yoke upon them with such penalties annext to every least transgression and adjure them to observe it on the account of all those prodigies that had bin wrought among them and upbraid them with stiffneckedness rebellion and appeal to their own senses for the truth of all this and record all to posterity in this Scripture cause all to be read before them and that they should bear all this from him they knew so impudent a deceiver and conveigh that Scripture and the faith of it to their posterity ground their so strict so chargeable Religion on that book which they were certain had no word of truth in it this sure transcends belief and possibility 'T is certain therefore since the Jews of that age did perform the services requir'd and in performing them according as that book directs did teach their children the great works that God had don in their sight therefore they believ'd those Miracles and Scriptures And since it was impossible that they should be deceiv'd if they believ'd them they were true and their posterity receiv'd from them the faith of this and so deriv'd it on that neither Gods dread judgments nor mans cruelty can yet shake it Now had they not bin don and on that account conveigh'd when ever they were broacht and that book first appear'd the men of that age must needs know their Fathers never had perform'd such services had such a book read to them constantly nor told them of such Miracles that had bin wrought and therefore 't was impossible that they could have believ'd it had bin so from Moses if it had bin true that it had first begun to be taught in their own time or in theirs with whom they liv'd And this discourse must be of force concerning every age if we ascend until we come to that of Moses wherein all was effected Yet besides this they had also that perpetual Miracle in the High Priest's Pectoral the Oracle of Vrim and Thummim that did keep alive their faith and strengthen it and they had Prophets constantly foretelling as from God things that were somtimes suddenly to come to pass and somtimes not till many ages after the event of which depended often on the will of those that would not of some hundred years be born others on Gods own immediat will and hand and therefore none but God could look into foretel and bring to pass all those events Now such were Ieremies predictions of the taking of Ierusalem and the captivity of the people and the express number of years it would continue Esays naming Cyrus who was to release it near two hundred years e're he was born All Daniels prophecies particularly that most eminent one of the Messiah this Christ Iesus of whose Scriptures we are next to speak That that Iesus whom Cornelius Tacitus the heathen historian in the fifteenth book of his Annals calls Christiani dogmatis autorem the Author of the Christian Doctrine did work Miracles and prophesy both Jews and learned Heathens do confess But these Books tell us when he first began to preach he publicly cast out a Devil in the Synagogue on
when he calls it body he is instituting his Sacrament there 's all reason in the world he should mean Sacramentally since 't is the most proper meaning and by consequence 't is bread substantially as all waies of judging in the world assure us Here 's no stress on Scripture as there is no Principle to serve when as the other makes us differ not in Scripture only even where 't is plainest but tradition too For the most express and evident sayings of the primitive Fathers are on every head of difference as much the matter of contention as the texts of Scripture are as it were easy to demonstrate if that were my business So that it is meer deceit to lay our quarrels to defects in Gods word and particularly to its obscurity which a man would think were evident enough from this that Children knew it The last thing I am to speak to And that from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus I cannot pass this that it is St Chrysostomes observation that Timothy was nurst up in the Scriptures from his childhood Yea and since his Father was an Heathen he must have bin taught them by his Grandmother Loïs and his Mother Eunice whose faith St Paul speaks of 2 Tim. 1. 5. Children therfore then and Women and they sure are Laics read the Bible Yea and since they knew it they must read it in a language which they understood and we know where that is unlawful now If we consider the first prohibition that appear'd in that Church with Synodical autority against such mens having any Bibles in their own tongue we shall find it was immediately upon the preaching of the Waldenses one of whose doctrines it was that the Scripture was the rule to judg of faith by so that whatsoever was not consonant to that must be refus'd This they preach't in France and over Europe in the latter end of the 12 Century and that Council which forbad their having of the Bible we find lately put forth by the frier D. Achery as held at Tholouse in the beginning of the 13th Century It seems they apprehended then their doctrines hardly would abide that touchstone And they therfore had no surer more compendious way for its security then to prevent such trial taking care men should not know what was or what was not in Scripture And it is not possible for me to give account why in their catechising they leave out all that part of the commandments Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven image c. but this only that they dare not let the laity compare their doctrine and their practice with that Scripture But tho it is possible they might conceive some danger if the whole Scripture should be expos'd yet in those portions which the Church it self chose out for her own offices the little lessons and Epistles and Gospels those sure one would think were safe no not their Psalter Breviary nor their Hours of the Blessed Virgin must they have translated in their own tongue as that Council did determin And truly when the Roman Missal was turn'd lately into French and had bin allow'd to be so by the general Assembly of the Clergy in the year 1650. and when it was don it had the usual approbation of the Doctors and some Bishops and then was printed at Paris with the license of the Vicars general of their Archbishop Yet another general assembly of the Clergy the year 1660 whereat there were 36 Bishops upon pain of excommunication forbid any one to read it and condemn not only that present traduction but the thing in general as poysonous in an Encyclical Epistle to all the Prelates of the Kingdom and in another they say of him that did translate it and the vicars general that did defend him in it that by doing so they did take armes against the Church attaquing their own Mother namely by that version at the Altar in that sanctuary that closet of her spouses mysteries to prostitute them and in another Epistle they beseech his Holiness Pope Alexander 7th to damn it not in France alone but the whole Church which he then did by his Bull for ever inter dicting that or any other version of that book forbidding all to read or keep it on severest paines commanding any one that had it to deliver it immediately to the Inquisitor or Ordinary that it might be burnt forthwith Now thus whatever it be otherwise the mass is certainly a sacrifice when 't is made a burnt offering to appease his holiness's indignation when that very Memorial of Christs passion again suffers and their sacred offices are martyr'd To see the difference of times 't was heretofore a Pagan Dioclesian a strange prodigy of cruelty who by his edict did command all Christians to deliver up their Bibles or their bodies to be burnt 'T was here his Holiness Christs Vicar who by his Bull orders all to give up theirs that is all of it that they will allow them and their praiers also that they may be forthwith burnt or themselves to be excommunicated that is their souls to be devoted to eternal flames And whereas then those only that did give theirs up were excommunicate all Christians shun'd them as they would the plague and multitudes whole regions rather gave themselves up to the fire to preserve their Bibles now those only that have none or that deliver up theirs are the true obedient sons of that Church and the thorough Catholics I know men plead great danger in that book it is represented as the source of monstrous doctrines and rebellions I will not say these men are bold that take upon them to be wiser then Allmighty God and to see dangers he foresaw not and to prevent them by such methods as thwart his appointments but I will say that those who talk thus certainly despise their hearers as if we knew not Heresies were hatcht by those that understood the Bible untranslated and as if we never heard there were rebellions among them that were forbid to read the Bible For if there were a Covenant among them that had it in their own tongue so there was an Holy League amongst those men that were deni'd it While those that had the guidance of the subjects conscience were themselves subject to a forreign power as all Priests of that communion are How many Kings and Emperors have there bin that did keep the Scriptures from their people but yet could not keep their people from sedition nor themselves from ruine by it In fine when God himself for his own people caus'd his Scripture to be written in their own tongue to be weekly read in public to and day and night in private by the people and when the Apostles by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost indited Scripture for the world they