while they continue the darkest Controversies in all Religion we are not to be blamed for not admitting them into Competition and shall do better to suspect these Pretences of Vanity and Enthusiasm and Project than by admitting them to draw such a meaning upon the Words of this Text as might easily be shewed to introduce an inspired Apostle talking neither good Argument nor so much as Coherent and common Sense The Summ then of my Second Head is This That according to all we can reasonably conceive of God he must needs have made some Competent Provision for Men's understanding their Duty They cannot escape eternal Ruine without the Knowledge of it This Knowledge in the Points peculiarly Christian could come to them by Divine Revelation only It does not appear that God hath signaliz'd and distinguish'd any Method or Rule of this kind in so eminent a manner as he hath done the Scriptures and therefore we have reason to believe and to respect the Scriptures as that competent Provision And now having gone thro' such general Arguments as seem most necessary I come to the Third and last Thing which is III. To shew in particular as briefly as I can How the Scriptures answer this Character with Regard to the several Instances of their Usefulness mention'd in the Text. 1. First St. Paul says The Scripture is profitable for Doctrine by which is commonly understood a Declaration of such Truths as are necessary to be believed The Summ of what is requisite in this Point consistts of a right Information concerning God and our selves What He is and what we are and hope to be What he hath done for our Sakes and How we may reap the Benefit of it in our own Persons and become acceptable in his Sight And of this the Scripture gives a large and clear Account It traces us up to our first Head points to the Rock whence we were hewn describes our Happy and our Healthful State tells when and how our Innocence was lost and sets forth both the Sickness and the Cure It presents us with the leisurely Advances towards it the Personal Revelations to the Patriarchs The Rites and Figures of Moses's Law The clearer Predictions and more refined Precepts of the Prophets and These accommodated to the several Stages of the World and tempered all in such Proportion as the Body diseased gathered Strength to digest them At last when the fulness of Time was come and Matters ripe for the last and most perfect Revelation it shews us the Saviour of the World the Son of God and in Him all those Shadows and rough imperfect Strokes finished and filled up all those Prophecies centring together with marvellous Harmony and Consent To These I might add the significant Providences of God to his People the Jews whereby St. Paul says they became 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Patterns and Images of the Christian Age no less than in their Law and Way of Worship I might observe the mighty Care and Art of filling every Book with Significations of the Messiah his Character and his Approach sometimes by Prophecies aiming directly at him sometimes by mix'd and more obscure Intimations and those breakings out of the Spirit from other Subjects and Persons into Expressions too Lofty and Magnificent to be literally and strictly true of any but of Him But which comes nearer Home here we have our Souls raised to higher and juster Notions of God and Goodness we are taught to worship him in Spirit and in Truth a Service most suitable to the Majesty of His Nature and the Dignity of our own We see the Adorable Mystery of the Son of God in Flesh and a Human Body exalted to the Right-Hand of the Majesty on high a Person truly Divine conversing with Men courting them to their Happinesses pressing importuning nay which is most of all Dying for Them that They may live for ever And whatever mysterious and intricate Passages the Scripture may contain for the Exercise shall I say or for the Humiliation of Men Wise in their own Conceits yet These Matters which make the Historical Account of our Redemption are related in Circumstances so natural and yet so moving in Language so easie and so expressive too that the most Scrupulous if a fair and honest Reader may be settled and convinced and the plainest and grossest Understanding may be enlightned and edified by them For whatever Darkness and Mists may now obscure these saving Truths it is not from themselves or their original Ambiguities so much as from the studied Niceties of Subtil and Designing Men Who under Pretence of distinguishing and explaining have rather confounded and rendred them Unintelligible and many times distinguished away even Truth and Piety it self But blessed be God we are not utterly at these Mens Mercies for to our Comfort the Apostle observes 2. Secondly That the Scripture is likewise Profitable for Reproof by which is commonly understood the Confuting of Errors and corrupt Opinions which oppose or impair the Truth * Isai viii 20. Matt. xxii 29. Mar. xii 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seu ut alii legunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Johan Hom. XL. Thus among the Jews the Law and the Testimony was the Touch and Tryal to which all new Pretenders were to be brought Thus our Saviour expresly attributes the Sadduces Error concerning the Resurrection and a Future State to their not knowing the Scriptures And to the same Purpose the Apostle here sends Timothy to the Scriptures as a Defence against those Corrupt and Perillous times foretold in the Beginning of this Chapter The earnest Exhortations of all the Primitive Fathers to be much conversant in these Holy Books Their placing all the Mischief of their Divisions to the Account of neglecting so to do the setting the Two Testaments in the midst of the Ancient and purest Councils as a common Umpire between all contending Parties and infinite Testimonies and Commendations to this purpose shew most evidently that the Written Word was always look'd upon as the Standard of Doctrine and Faith That to which all ought to have recourse to submit to and be finally concluded by Traditionary Articles and Infalible Interpreters had then no place nor was it requisite they ever should For though St. Peter says some Scriptures were wrested to mens own destruction yet he acquaints us withal how they came to be so They were he says the unlearned and unstable that did it Men not well principled and of a restless Temper And if People will come to this Rule with perverse unquiet Minds with a Spirit of Frowardness and Cavil and Contention they may no doubt confound the clearest Things Besides which makes the Objection much less formidable St. Peter says the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Passages hard to be understood were principally concerned in this racking of the Sense And so long as Captious Wits exercise upon These only the Consequence is not so very
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
I hope the less needful for this Mixt Audience I beg Leave to confine my self to the Latter which the Church of England our Wise and Holy Mother hath thus exprest in her Sixth Article of Religion The Holy Scripture containeth all Things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation If this be once acknowledged for Truth I do not see how any Man so persuaded can deny the Scripture's Ability of making us Wise unto Salvation and being a Compleat Guide in Points of Faith and Manners And such I shall endeavour to prove it by shewing I. First What manner of Perfection that is which Men ought to attribute to Scripture and are warranted to expect from it II. Secondly What general Arguments we have to ground this Opinion upon and III. Thirdly How the Scripture answers this Character in those particular Instances mention'd by my Text. I. First I am to consider What manner or sort of Perfection that is which we are allowed to attribute to and to expect from the Scriptures And This deserves to be the more heedfully attended to because the Liberty Some have taken of imposing other Guides and Rules besides the Scripture and the imprudent Zeal of Others who profess to follow this in every Thing and hang upon the Word and Letter of Scripture have given Birth to many extravagant Opinions and greatly disturb'd Christianity and good Order Now Scripture being in the Nature of a Medium or Instrument directed to a certain End the best and most regular Way of coming to a right Understanding in this Matter will be to take a short View of the Design of Scripture and what Degree of Perfection is necessary to answer that Design Or to keep close to St. Paul's Expression v. 15. To examine what is meant by Salvation and what is requisite to qualifie us for and make us Wise unto Salvation 1. First Salvation is but another Word for that Eternal Happiness which God hath appointed to be the Ultimate and Chief Good of Humane Nature This Happiness is proposed not as our Fate but as our Reward and since every Reward supposes some Works in Consideration whereof the Recompence is bestowed it implyes that Men must contribute something to their own Happiness and cannot reasonably hope to obtain it without attending to those Conditions upon the performance of which the Reward is suspended It implies farther that the Notices of these Conditions and the Right of appointing them must come from and are Originally lodged in Him who proposes and promises that Recompence And if our Expectations and Desires of this Happy State be Natural and Universal it will follow from hence too that Nature furnishes Mankind with some sort of Means and Abilities as well as Inclinations to aspire after it For the Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator is most eminently seen in This that he deludes none of his Creatures with vain Expectations nor infuses any such Desires into them as must of Necessity be disappointed These Abilities I take to have been given in those general Notions of Good and Evil imprest upon the Mind of Man at his First Creation Rom. II. 13 14 15. With regard to which St. Paul mentions a Law written in the Hearts of Those to whom the written Law was not imparted He observes the same pleasing Transports the same melancholy Misgivings to rise in their Breasts according as Their Consciences accuse or excuse them He declares that in the Last Great Day of Account They shall be judged upon this Issue Since then there was a Time when Man enjoyed no written Word at all since after some Parts of the World were blest with such Revelation yet Others were unfortunate in the Want of it Since even Those who had it not were yet Accountable for their Actions The Consequence is Plain and Necessary that the Holy Scriptures are not the Only Method whereby God hath been pleased to inform Men of their Duty They were not the First they were not the Universal and consequently not the sole and perpetual Instrument of all our Privileges and all our Obedience 2. But Secondly Whatever hopes Men could by Nature have these had no other Foundation than a just and punctual Performance and therefore Sin quite altered the Case and made a farther Revelation necessary What St. Paul says elsewhere of the Jewish Law may with great Truth and in a very good Sense be affirmed of All Scripture that it was added because of Transgression To Persons thus concluded under Forfeiture no Expectation justly could be cherished no Succour or solid Comfort could arise otherwise than from God's express Declaration that he would condescend to fresh Conditions and admit us to another and better Covenant such as our laps'd and guilty State would bear Hence sure it is that the present Methods of Salvation are term'd The Secret of the Lord The Mystery of our Redemption and the like because These are some of the the unsearchable Dephts of infinite Wisdom and Goodness such as no Humane Discourse could penetrate into no natural Conclusions could infer And because God was perfectly Free in this whole Matter he let Men into the Knowledge of it by such gradual Discoveries as himself saw fit and such as darkned and degenerate Minds were capable of This is the shining Ray then darted from above to give our Souls once more the chearing Prospect of Bliss Divine and Love Incomprehensible 'T is thus we are supported and assured that our Judge is not Irreconcileable that our Sicknesses are not yet unto Death provided We will lend a helping Hand and not obstruct our own Recovery But still all this was not a new Creation but a Cure and therefore like Other Remedies applyed only so far as the Disease required In other Respects it left Men as it found them and the Benefits of it will be still more distinctly understood if we be Diligent to observe 3. Thirdly That God in all his Dealings with Mandkind does not act so much in Proportion to his Own Fulness as to Our Wants And therefore we have Reason to look upon those Discoveries of his Will to be Perfect which revealed not all that could be revealed but all that Men had Occasion for In this Sense the more sparing Revelations heretofore were perfect in their Kind though in Degree and Measure short of Ours The Impressions of Reason at Man's First Creation were so in some Sense because that State needed no more So were the Private and Personal Discoveries after the Fall the Jewish Law and Predictions of the Prophets afterwards Each of which had their Day and proper Season as the Manifestations of the Gospel have Theirs Now which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the last concluding Dispensation that which completes confirms and close up all the rest In judging
of Human Life are infinite and depend upon a multitude of Accidents not to be foreseen and consequently not to be provided against Hence Laws must run in general Terms and sometimes the Intent of the Law is best fulfilled by going counter to the Letter of it In all such Cases therefore Reason and Honesty must guide us to the fitness of the thing and great Scope is necessarily left to Equity and Discretion I allow indeed that God who hath contented himself with general Rules could have described all the Accidents and Circumstances which he cannot but foresee and know exactly But there is no Reason why he should and a great deal why he should not 'T is much better that he hath left us to draw general Rules into particular Practice and put us upon the Tryal of doing this fairly of discharging a Good Conscience in positive Obedience where he hath determined things to Moral Good or Evil and of following the Measures of Integrity and Expediency where he hath left them indifferent and at large The Summ then of this First Head may be easily drawn together within the Compass of these few short Conclusions 1. First As to the Mysteries and Doctrines peculiar to the Christian Faith such as The Incarnation and Satisfaction of our Blessed Saviour the Justification of Sinners by Faith the Assistances of the Holy Spirit the Trinity of Persons in the Divine Essence which I make no Scruple to call a necessary and distinguishing Doctrine of the Christian Religion In these the Scriptures are our absolute and only Rule For They are Branches of a New Covenant Revelations of Stupendous and Important Concern setting forth Free Acts of Mercy such as depended upon no necessary Causes in Nature such as concern'd not Man in his primitive State and therefore not within the Ken of Reason These could come only from God and upon Him we are therefore to depend entirely for them So that when there is sufficient Evidence of His having delivered any Matters of this kind All the rest is to be taken upon content and his Truth and Infinite Wisdom are a just Foundation of our Belief how far soever the Matter revealed may exceed our Comprehension 2. Secondly In Matters of Practice the Scripture is our Supreme though not our only Rule Those things which Reason and Nature teach This enlarges and refines upon and oftentimes confirms with a fresh Sanction It exalts our Vertues and directs us to proceed upon nobler Principles teaches some Duties not to be known without it gives clearer Convictions of such as were known imperfectly leads us to Ends above nature furnishes Means above the Powers of Nature proposes Rewards Heavenly and Divine and helps us to do more than mere Men by their own discourse could ever have done So that Revelation does not quench the Light of Nature but adds fresh oil and makes it burn the brighter And by being more perfect helping our dimness and dark sight and taking place above all other Authorities it is properly styled by David A candle to our feet and a lantern to our paths Psal cxix 105. So that whatever this Word teaches which we might otherwise have known has a double tye upon us and That which either Want of Understanding or corruption of Mind would have kept us in ignorance of when found here is to be received with Submission and Reverence as an inviolable Law whatever Flesh and Sense and Worldly Wisdom may suggest or object to the contrary 3. Thirdly The Perfection of Scripture does not confine it self to such Matters of Faith and Practice as are absolutely necessary to Salvation but it is liberal and well fraught with excellent Rules both for improving our Knowledge and adorning our Profession It consults the Beauty and Gracefulness as well as the Life and Being of Christianity It directs the shining of our Light and the winning over others by our Prudence and Good Example and leaves us general Hints the Efficacy of which will depend upon the Honesty and Discretion of particular Applications to our own personal Exigencies and Conditions 4. But Fourthly There are many Cases where Scripture can have nothing at all to do except by very remote Consequences and so far only as is implied in the foregoing Particular Ten thousand Actions of Humane Life there are so trivial as scarde to deserve the deliberation of a single Thought And to expect Laws and Decisions from Almighty God in things of no Importance or moral Good or Evil were to bring his Majesty into Contempt and therefore here Discretion is our only Guide In short and to conclude this Argument The Written Word of God is to be esteemed Sufficient and Perfect but This is to be understood of having the Sufficiency of Means to the End and what may serve the Purposes to which it was ordained The Perfection is that of an Instrument but then This like all other Instruments requires an honest skilful and diligent Hand to manage and apply it Successfully And it is no Disparagement to the Scripture's Character that Some by neglecting and Others by abusing it still want that Saving Wisdom it might give Nor does it at all take off from the Perfection of this Rule that some Cases are so plain and obvious as not to need its particular Directions and that Others are of so little moment as not to deserve them II. Secondly The Way being thus made plain by rightly Stating the Perfection of Scripture let us now proceed to the Second Part of our Business which is To instance in some general Arguments which the Protestant Opinion of the Scripture's Sufficiency may very reasonably alledge for its self Now in order to make Scripture a Competent Guide in the Cases that properly concern it Two things only are neeessary That it be Sufficiently particular and express and that it be plain and intelligible That as much be delivered there as the occasion requires and That it be delivered in such a manner as that Men may improve by it and attain to the Knowledge of it Both which to any Man who considers the Uses of Scripture appear to be so necessarily required and so greatly related to that the same General Arguments will prove both and these that follow if I mistake not may contribute something toward it First A Consideration of the Author Every Imperfection in the Effect is owing to some Failure in the Cause a want of Power if it be a Necessary Cause or a Want of Will if it be a Sufficient and Free Cause There was therefore excellent Reason why St. Paul should begin his Character of the Scripture's Perfection with an Account of its being given by inspiration of God This Introduction carrying in it a very Significant Argument to enforce what follows For where indeed should we expect Perfection if not from Him who is the Source and Summ of all Perfection He whose Power and Wisdom are infinite was most likely to impress upon his own Ordinances such